“What did you do over the summer?” is an infamous question that haunts every student returning to the public school system in August. The pressure is high to provide an amazing story in just a few short sentences while simultaneously making all of your classmates jealous. Typical answers include: “I traveled to Europe,” “I visited family back East,” or the classic “I spent my summer in California.”

But this year I’m proud to say that I have a unique answer. I lived in the Middle East for six weeks, learning Arabic in Muscat, Oman. I know what you’re thinking, but I was never in any danger during my time abroad.  Oman has less of a terrorism threat than Washington DC.

I was afforded this once-in-a-lifetime experience because in October of 2014 I applied for a scholarship through NSLI-Y Program,* part of the State Department. NSLI-Y stands for National Security Language Initiative for Youth.  It is a program designed for high school students to learn high security languages such as Mandarin, Korean, Russian, and of course, Arabic. Through this program, nine girls transformed from total strangers with similar interests to nine of my closest friends.

I studied Arabic through a program called Amideast. Most days consisted of four hours in a classroom focusing on Modern Standard Arabic. Then a few more hours informally learning Omani culture and then learning Omani colloquial Arabic from five Omani college girls. I would have about an hour of homework and spend the rest of the night out with my family.

But the classroom was not where I spent all of my time; I was also given the opportunity to experience the country and the culture. I traveled to the desert, where I drove over dunes 75 miles per hour at golden hour, rode a camel, slept under the stars, and watched the sunset over the limitless expanse of the desert. The silence and beauty of the desert is like nothing else I have ever experienced.

I traveled to the seaside where I was able to visit a turtle beach and go hiking inside a canyon that lead to an Oasis. The water in the Indian Ocean is some of the bluest I’ve ever seen. I toured the highest point in Oman, Jebel Shams. On Jebel Shams I saw five shooting stars, fed goats cookies and banana peels, bargained in the market, hiked a mountain, and explored a 500 year old fort.

But Oman offers more than just breathtaking scenery: the country has so much beautiful culture to experience. I was lucky enough to live in Oman during the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, which is the holiest month of the Islamic calendar and during the day Muslims will abstain from eating, drinking, or doing anything forbidden in the Quran. The idea of Ramadan is to learn to appreciate what you have and put yourself in the place of the less fortunate. Fasting may sound daunting, but once you’ve tried it for a day you really do learn to appreciate what you have much more.  

After Ramadan, Eid begins. Eid is an Islamic holiday that an equivalent to Christmas or Hannukkah. Everyone wears new clothes and visits their families for large family dinners. In my Eid experience I was dressed in traditional Omani clothes and tried goat meat for the first time. Eating goat might sound strange, but it is a time honored tradition during major holidays on the Arabian Peninsula. Also during Eid it is tradition for adults to give the children small amounts of money or “Eidia”. It’s safe to say the Eidia funded much of my excessive shopping at all of the markets. But Eid is an experience like nothing else, and it was incredible to experience a major holiday that I had never heard about.

At the end of my program I gave a presentation in Arabic to demonstrate what I had learned. Standing up in front of 50 people, including employees from the United States Embassy, was terrifying at first, but it showed me how much I had learned and how far I had come. I arrived in Oman not knowing how to say a single word in Arabic, I left able to fluently give a five minute presentation. I highly recommend the NSLI-Y scholarship for any student interested in learning languages that are not always offered.

Now, when I’m asked, “What did you do over the summer?” I can respond confidently.

“Oh man…”