I know I keep promising to write more, text more, call more, FaceTime more, etc, etc, etc. From the bottom of my heart I apologize to those of you I’ve been unable to keep in touch with. Life is chaotic in general. But throw in a new job; combine it with a new city; add 9 hours of time difference; multiply all that by an extreme case of travel obsession; and you’ll know what’s happening over here.

Now on to the fun stuff… OMAN!

Dubai has been an absolutely unreal experience; but to be fair, I’m always on the go and rarely ever alone. As an extremely social and outgoing person, I’ve enjoyed every second of it. In fact, I actually tend to thrive in social situations that others find overwhelming or stressful.

With that being said, however, I often fail to realize in the moment how exhausting and draining it is to be out-and-about all the time. Last week’s trip to Oman was therefore incredibly needed. For the first time in the last month (can you believe it’s officially been a month?), I felt completely calm and completely at peace. I kept my phone on airplane mode ALL day (which never voluntarily happens) and took a break from any and every thing that is technology. You know when someone tells you to find your zen? Well, Oman is my zen. And for the first time in my life, I saw WILD camels roaming around in the desert (how many people can say that? It’s definitely on the list of coolest things I’ve ever seen).

The food was cheap and super tasty. I’m not kidding, literally everything was fresh and delicious. Interestingly, the style of cooking and the taste seemed more similar to Indian food rather than Middle Eastern.

Snorkelling was somewhat disappointing because the visibility was really poor that day – I’ll let you know how it really is after my next trip, lol. The water was much much saltier than I imagined it would be. I thought it would destroy my skin but surprisingly it didn’t. It did, however, destroy my dream of keeping my hair dark. Every single one of us who jumped in would exit the water with lighter hair. It’s not a bad look if you’re into the blonde-brown I’m currently rocking.

As for the fishing… The girls and I obviously preferred to keep tanning; but the guys in the group caught catfish, a barracuda, some other random fish, and a crew member caught a water snake. If you know me well,  you know how I feel about snakes. And this water snake was allegedly the most deadly bread of snake (on water OR land) in the entire region. That would likely be my one and only moment of ‘zen-interruption’ for the day. For 5 minutes, I operated in panic mode and devised my escape route should anyone decide to bring it near me.

My options were essentially:

1. throw myself into the ocean and swim to shore (and hopefully not run into another snake) or
2. put myself in a trancelike state and hope for survival.

Needless to say, the guys had to toss the entire line into the water because it was too vicious (and too poisonous) to even unhook it. On second thought, maybe I won’t be snorkelling in Oman again any time soon.

This week has been all work (which is fantastic by the way) and very little play; but Thursday (the start of our weekend because Sunday’s are our Monday’s) is almost here and that means another adventure!

Till next time! Xo