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I have one more installment from our Eid vacation to see the turtles and then I will finally be done with that trip just in time to start on our next trip.

We are going to drive to dubai, have a church meeting there called stake conference, then we are going to get on a plane and fly to Barcelona, Spain...get on a cruise ship and visit Nice, France, several places in Italy and altogether have a wonderful time. If I said I was excited that would be an understatement. If my excitement was measured in pounds that I carried around with me, they wouldn't let me on the ship for fear of it capsizing. Seriously. My kids have no idea how good they've got it...

So...I wanted to blog about my crazy experience today. It deals with banking. Those from Muscat are moaning in pain right now...banking here is terrible.

David's company hasn't really helped with the banking sitch and our bank in america keeps turning off our credit/debit cards constantly even though there is a ton of money in there...and we keep having to call them have them turn them back on. Fraud protection - I should be grateful for it, but I'm not. It is too humiliating when it is turned off and the girl on the other side of the counter hands it to you and says "not enough money" and you know it is in there and you just want to scream! But you can't...because you know that your bank is just stupid. So, now I have this near panic attack every time I stand at a register and pull out my card...not sure what will happen. Will I be embarrassed again? So, now I just carry around obscene amounts of cash. The money here is shaped all funny and doesn't fit properly in a wallet. The size of the bill increases with the value of the dollar. So, I always have this overflowing wallet and have trouble keeping up, and keep having to check the difference between a 1 and a 5 rial because they look so much alike to me. sorry - tangent...anyway, back to the story. David opened up two accounts for whatever reasons, he told me at some point...but I wasn't really paying attention because that's obviously not my thing since I can't even keep money straight in my wallet (there it is - the connection for that rant earlier!) Well, it has been difficult. In order to start banking online we have to have yet another special pin number. David gave me the necessary information. I typed up a nice letter requesting that they give this information to his wife (me) and I even signed it for him! I'm the best! Then I went down to our closest branch. The man at the desk totally blew me off. I could see what the computer said and he told me he couldn't help me...that I had to go down to the big headquarters in Ruwi. He couldn't explain to me where it was. The entire time however, the phone would ring and instead of answering he would very nonchalantly pick it up and hang it up. In otherwords he was hanging up on all of the callers. He just wanted to get rid of me. So I headed down to the big one as soon as I could. That would be at 3 that afternoon. I think WOW! this was too easy...I got a parking spot with no hassles. Things were going great! I walked the short distance to the bank, past the security guard and into the bank foyer. Then there were these people on the other side of the glass doors...and the doors stayed closed. I stepped into the path of the sensor again...still the doors stayed closed. And the people on the other side just looked at me. I looked around for hours - there was no such sign. I stepped to the side since now they were staring at me and called David to find out that they had closed at 2. Great!...why would a bank close at 2? What do people who work do? Ok, I can deal with this later. So today I went back. It took me 45 minutes to find a spot...a spot that I had to squeeze into and run over dangerous things to get into. I'm telling you if I didn't have a 4 x 4 I would have killed my vehicle. There were these 2 1/2 foot blocks with poles in them that I had to nearly run over. I got in though and parked. Noting that I would have to do that in reverse later. I hiked to the bank...past the gawking and whistling men. I hate that by the way. I go into the bank and ask where I should go and I get a number 151. I go to the customer service section and sit off to the side because guess what? I'm the ONLY woman in there that doesn't work there. There were no other women. Stares....lots of stares. Shortly after sitting down I hear this yelling. Everyone hears this yelling. There is an older Omani man yelling at the bank people. This was scarey stuff. I started looking for a place to run and hide if it got violent. He went on and on. His body language was seriously dangerous. He looked like he was ready to ring someone's neck. The big section of men waiting were so engrossed in the drama that when the worker girl called 2 or 3 numbers none of them paid any attention. I was having a hard time as well. This was seriously scary. She looked at me and very nicely told me to come. So - I didn't have to wait any time at all. I was 151 and they were only in the 80's. I felt bad for a minute but then I got over it...this time I didn't mind getting helped out of order. She helped me...but ended up telling me that I had to reapply for my number because the time had elapsed on the validity of the number....yep, that's right! Yet another bank trip for NOTHING! I am convinced that the guy hanging up the phone on people totally knew but just didn't want to deal with helping me with an application. Totally stinks. So the scary guy is still yelling...now there are about 6 security guys with walkie talkies etcetera. The workers have been speaking arabic to each other and smiling from time to time, but obviously uncomfortable as well. So, I asked her what he was yelling about. She told me he was just an old man...that he does this all of the time...and that they are used to it. She said that old men just don't understand and won't listen, then they get upset and start yelling and all they can do is just let him. I never want to go back...never never. I seriously could picture him going postal. I know guns aren't allowed in this country but it was insane.

Then I had to go back to my car. But before I made the trek I at least wanted to get a little cash out of the ATM machine...the most they allow at the machine in the actual bank is only 50 rial. Almost not even worth the time to withdraw it. I have already entered all of my numbers, etc. and I am waiting to request my chosen denomination when this weirdo guy with red hair comes and stands directly behind me. I mean, if I even flexed my muscles I would have touched him - he was THAT close. I spun around bumping into him as I did so and gave him the dirtiest look I could muster and then pointed a few feet away. He was shocked and immediately moved. I think I might have also growled a little bit. Personal space people! Please! That was ridiculous. We were the only two people in that corridor. And now my friends and family are having a caniption fit -- but people here just have space issues.

I walked back to my car, got in and had to back up over those block thingys. There was a guy in a truck waiting and his eyes were the size of saucers. I had a bit of trouble getting out in reverse in such a tight space and actually had to rock it a bit...but I knew what I was doing. When I finally got out of the spot unscathed, his jaw was dropped.

I smiled and saluted. He laughed.

I love having a powerful car.