A new (way of) life in Muscat

Flighing high
On January 3rd we left for the airport fully packed with 10 suitcases! For the children it was the first time on a plane. Flight BRU-ZUR/ZUR-DUB/DUB-MSK and to their relief they could experience multiple take-offs and landings. I won't brag about the seats in the plane, let's just say that I hope the kids enjoyed it as much as we did :-).
Touching ground
Landing in Muscat, local time was 11p.m.. First Wim went to arrange his working permit, as I stood behind him (as a real Omani should ;-)) then we settled the visa's for the children and me. Then we were picked up by a company driver in a 'pimped up, chromed out' minivan with royal curtains and a mirror on the ceiling! Most cars here have heavy motors as gas prices are hilariously cheap (try 0,4 euro/l). It was about 20° Celcius, a great contrast to Belgian winter weather... He drove us to our guesthouse where we will be staying until the container arrives with all our furniture. At the door two Indians (not to be confused with the feathered type :-)) welcomed us. They will be taking care of us during our stay (cleaning, cooking, washing, etc.) => very handy!
First family outing in Muscat
Leaving the guesthouse was not easy as roads don't really have names (nearly every road is called Way and the numbers aren't always logic). The GPS didn't really help us out either... We did manage to find the beach, where you can find millions of shells. In Oman the Sultan Qaboos doesn't approve of tall buildings, which makes the city with the white houses 'cozier' than a city like Dubai. 
Wim's first day at the office & my trip with the kids
In the morning Wim was picked up to go to the office. His superior is still in Belgium, so he was left to visit the premises and meet all the colleagues.
Meanwhile I took the car out for a drive. Driving is like in Belgium, and you can do everything except for three things, which have huge consequenses: driving past a red light, crossing full yellow lines or slipping (leaving tyre marks on the road). The punishment for either one of these actions: 48 hours imprisonment...
I went to search for our house. It was beautiful - even better than in the pictures we saw. Our house is the most right one with the empty terrace (In my enthusiasm of finding it, I took a picture of the wrong one... Maybe blog 'blondes in Muscat' would have been a more appropriate title ;-))

Afterwards we visited the local playground.

Visiting the school and the mall
The school is a very big and well organised. Max will need a uniform. Both children will be in classes of approximately 20 students and will have two teachers. Max is lucky as he is not the only child in his class starting on 14th of January. A girl from Holland (not speaking any English) will be joining his class too. And the cherry on top of the cake is that they will have extra class with Mrs Nancy (a Belgian too!) who will help the children with English. How great is that?
There is one more week of school holiday left, so each morning I give some private tutoring to Max so he attains some basic knowledge.
The mall was a small adventure. There are several Malls in Muscat, but I visited the largest and most European one. I needed an Oman cellnumber. I was wearing a blouse and linnen pants, trying to cover up as much as possible as to not offend any Omani man or woman. I'm still not very certain of the dress code, so tried to be as careful as possible. Walking back to the car, I noticed most of the buttons of my blouse stood open and a clear viewing of my red bra was to be seen. How embarassing! There goes my discretion ;-)