1:04 pm. There was a pink and purple iPhone in the road and I knew it before I ran it over. Whenever I passed lost or discarded items on the freeway, flapping umbrellas, one dirty shoe, the occasion book, its pages flapping with ever pass of a car, or a stuffed animal, one second whipped around in the back seat of the car by a toddler, and the next still on the asphalt, I was always overcome with a tight feeling of loss and sadness. But this was an iPhone and someone probably wanted it back. And I was in my neighborhood going 15 mph.
After a confused series of missed calls and voicemails (the phone was locked, and only slightly malfunctioning) I reached the neighbor and she came half an hour later in her white Lexus. An elderly woman, she thanked me profusely before insisting quite adamantly that I take the two 20's she offered. Which I did. And thought that my day was off to a really great start!
2:15pm. CISabroad called and said they were profusely sorry. That they had decided to cancel their Oman program. I remember after hearing about their country contact being fired and course changes and that the "safety and security" of students could not be guaranteed that I said, "Thank you. I understand" and had not felt at all different from the when I picked up the phone 11 minutes earlier.
But within a week it felt like the end of the world to me. To have written all the scholarship essays, booked a plane ticket, told all my family and friends, made Omani contacts on the ground, and then to have it all thrown away NOT because Oman was unsafe or any different from when I first decided to go, was frustrating, stressful, heartbreaking, and disappointing.
I threw scissors at my wall and screamed in a fit, scaring my new dog Charlie, whom I had just brought home that week, all because I wanted to blame someone and I thought my world was ending. I am someone who plans so far in advance for things that most others haven't even begun to think about those same things yet. Oman was planned in 2015 before I went home for winter break. I chose Oman because it was different, that even in the small world of Middle Eastern studies study abroad students it was a choice outside of the box of the more common Jordan, Morocco, and Israel programs.
3:06pm. After talking to my study abroad advisor, I had a feeling that Oman would not work out in the end. UMass was wary of the site in Muscat after CISabroad's cancellation and their decision superseded all else. But I fought hard for other options with an amazing and awesome sidekick and Boren scholar from Virginia. I emailed professors, my dean, site contacts in Oman, Omani friends, the Boren committee (and even the president, although he never returned my message). UMass said no, but I think (and hope) that they really did do the best they could. My friend will go to Oman and surely meet Omanis, have many adventures, bring back stories to tell, and hit the highest scores on all the OPI/ACTFL tests. I feel like I have lost a friend, in the case of the other Boren scholar and a country I had come to love even though I had never seen it. But my friend and I will meet again and I know I will visit Oman in the future. !يالا