Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Candy and Crazies

This year I was comforted by seeing scary monsters, skeletons, and witches.  While I was packing up my bag to head home after work, I realized that it was Halloween and maybe Doha didn't care but I did.  I asked my driver (That's right, I don't have a driver's license yet so I have a driver.  I never said I wasn't spoiled.) to make a stop at a British market and I was reunited with my beloved chocolate.  I loaded up on goods and races home to wait for the sun to set and hoped that I might get some trick-or-treaters.  I talked to some neighbors and learned that a list was circulated of homes where trick-or-treaters could stop, and I was not on the list because I didn't sign-up.  (If I would have know about the list, then I would have obviously signed up.)  That didn't stop me though, I emptied my candy into a pasta cooking pot because I don't have any bowls, dragged a dinning room chair to the front porch, and sat in front of the house looking like a crazy lady reading my book waiting to give children cavities.

In the middle of my stakeout, my neighbor came home and stared at me for awhile.  When she got out of her car, I offered her a piece of candy and she asked what all the children were doing.  She is from the Netherlands and wasn't familiar with Halloween.  She invited me over for a cup of tea and we had a good laugh while I tried to explain Halloween and realized that I don't understand it myself.  It was a fun evening and seeing all the kids dressed up made me feel not so far away.

Yesterday I caught boat fever.  My new Doha friends (they voluntarily have been seen in public with me more than five times) and I went to the Pearl, which is a port full of beautiful yachts surrounded by a catwalk with cafes, shops, and restaurants. 

 
 
I just think that I would look really good sunbathing on this beauty.  Let a girl dream.  It's Halloween, a holiday to use your imagination.  Tomorrow I get our first shipment and am excited to start making this place our home.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Almost Back to Reality

Today is the last day of my holiday break, so tomorrow I go back to work and say goodbye to this view.  (That would be correct, the pool has a shade cover over it.)

The heat must be getting to me, because I completely forgot to tell you about my favorite part of the souq.  There was a bread maker who I really want to become a new best friend of mine.  He would take a ball of dough, roll it out, and then stick it to the ceiling of a wood fire oven where it would cook.  You bought the bread right out of the oven when it was still warm and delicious.  I have been fantasising about returning to the souq and indulging in more bread. 


I got to explore Doha during the break while the traffic was tame.  I just saw the outside of lots of buildings and started to get acclimated to the area.  Doha has a lot of original buildings.  The Emir has a palace down by the Corniche.  It is huge and I can only image what the inside look like.  I am still working on getting an invitation to dinner.  The palace is two building fused together.  Apparently one building is to live in and the other one is to work in.  It is also surrounded by green grass, something rare in Doha.


There is also a beautiful mosque located near the souq. 


The city of Doha wraps around Doha Bay.  At one end of the bay is the West Bay area and the other end has the airport and my work building.  Here are the West Bay lights from the other end of the bay.  I love seeing the reflection of the lights in the water.


I better get back to dreaming about more pita bread and being lazy.  In two days it is November and that is the month when Jonathon comes!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

The Corniche

In honor of all the people running the Houston Half Marathon today, I ran outside this morning.  The view was beautiful and the weather was hot, but the thought of Ashley running 13.1 miles kept me moving.

 I ran on the Corniche, which is a popular path along the Doha Bay.  There were many walker, joggers, and fishermen out this morning.  I was fascinated with the old style fishing boats.

Corniche on the Doha Bay
I discovered the Corniche yesterday when I went to the Museum of Islamic Art with the Doha crew.  The museum is located at one end of the Corniche on a man made peninsula.  The museum is beautiful and large, we only made it through half the exhibits.  Although, the museum is free to the public so we were able to take our time knowing we can make a trip back.

The sun rises early here, about 5:30am, and sets early, 5pm.  We were able to watch the sunset from the museum.  Later on in the evening we got to watch fireworks from an Eid holiday celebrate.  Another good day in Doha.

Friday, October 26, 2012

The Good Life

First the important issues.  Jonathon is coming in 13 days!  Meghan, no need to worry about my sugar level dropping too low.  I found this in the compound convenient store three minutes away from my door step.  Looks like yummy trouble.


I am excited to share that I didn't post this week because I had a very active social life.  Get ready for a photo overload.  On Tuesday night, I went out to dinner with two co-workers in town from Houston.  We went to JW's Steakhouse at the Marriott where the menus are the size of small children. (Maddie sized)  

 

















The Lornhorn plates that the steaks were served on made it feel as if we were back in Texas.

The following evening, one of those co-workers and I went to the souq (or souk, wikipedia said that either spelling in fine).  The souq is an old fashioned mall.  It is a collection of stores but the common areas between stores are outdoors.  The souq has tons of shops and is divided into different areas.  The areas include fabric, handcrafted goodies (wood work and rugs), spices, food, and animals.  The "pet store" section was full of children trying to convince their parents that they needed an animal to take home.  You can understand that conversation without knowing any Arabic.  There were some unusual animals though.  These chicks' eggs must have been dyed at Easter before they hatched.


 Qatar is currently celebrating the Eid al-Adha holiday, so we got the day off of work yesterday and the first half of next week off as well.  Two co-workers and I went on a little road trip to get out of Doha and explore more of Qatar.  We drove about an hour north of Doha and covered about half of the East Coast. 

The desert looked different than I expected.  There are sand dunes in other areas of Qatar, but where we drove was very flat.  The ground looked more like dirt than sand.  As we got closer to the ocean we started to see more natural vegetation (photo on the right below).  It looked a lot like West Texas to me, just flatter. 

If you ever had any sympathy for me because I am having to deal with culture shock and learning to live in a foreign country, this is to point where that sympathy stops.  Our road trip ended at the European Beach.  It is a coed beach for foreigner (meaning I can wear my bikini).  The sand was beautiful and the beach wasn't busy.  The water is saltier than I'm used to and it was great for floating.  I could get used to this beach being only an hour away. 

 It was a wonderful week and I look forward to many more in the future.



Sunday, October 21, 2012

This is Rubbish

I had another altercation with our home this weekend, and once again it won.  I had a very confusing email conversation with a maintenance man at our compound asking him for a trashcan.  He replied that he wasn’t familiar with a trashcan.  After a few emails it was determined that I was actually looking for a ‘rubbish bin.’  This man informed me that every unit has a ‘rubbish bin,’ including mine, but I insisted that I didn’t have one.  The nice maintenance man showed up on my door step five minutes later and I showed him our carport which did not include a ‘rubbish bin.’  He then walked me to the other side of our house and showed me the second carport with in fact included a ‘rubbish bin.’  I had no idea that we had two carports and felt like a complete idiot.  I had no clue what to say to the maintenance man, so I just smiled and repeated ‘rubbish bin.’  Well, apparently we have two carports and a very nice ‘rubbish bin,’ fancy that.

 

I did win one house battle this weekend.  I set up the cable all by myself and was rewarded by watching Glee.  We have 99 channels.  About 20 of those channels show soccer 24/7, some are in Arabic, many are British channels, but there are about 10 American channels.  We get ESPN America and History (pawn stars baby) so Jonathon should be happy.

This weekend I ventured into Landmark, one of the Doha malls.  It was very crowded and overwhelming, but I did find Target’s Middle Eastern cousin named Carrefour.  Carrefour was a beautiful sight.  The store has frozen pizza!  I don’t really like frozen pizza, but for some reason I am comforted by the fact that it is available.  It is considered rude here to take someone’s photo without asking, so I didn’t snap any shots at the mall.  I am still trying to figure out all the boundaries.

I had two main fears prior to travelling over here, and I am pleased to say that both of them were silly.
        1. No toilet paper in public restrooms.  I had heard that most bathrooms had bidets and no toilet
          paper. So far, every restroom has been equipped with toilet paper.  Thankfully this is completely false.
        2. Stray cats and dogs running wild.  I have not seen one stray animal while here.  I know that
          Jonathon was looking forward to making some new kitty friends, but it doesn't look like that will be
          the case.

Thanks for checking in.

Friday, October 19, 2012

The Adventure Continues

I am still learning about the house.  I was having a hard time understanding why the shower was only luke warm in such a hot climate.  Then, I discovered that the water heater switch needs to flip on.  I am embarrassed to admit that it took me more than one shower to figure this out.

Tricky House
Last night I went to dinner with some co-workers at The Square located in the Intercontinental Hotel in the West Bay area.  I was very impressed with the crystal chandelier and decided that you all needed to enjoy it as well.  My birthday is in July if anybody would like to get me an identical piece of art.

The Square has four different buffets with lots of options from different parts of the world, but after seeing the dessert room it was hard to concentrate on the main course.  There was an entire room dedicated to sugary treats.  They really show dessert the respect it deserves.  Since most of these desserts are new to me, I had to taste test multiple treats.  (Meghan, unfortunately frosting was not included as a dessert option.)  
Sugar Sculpture






















My work week is Sunday through Thursday, so today is the first day of my weekend.  It will take some time before a meeting planned on Sunday doesn't catch me off guard.  Happy Birthday Kaleigh!!!!!!!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Al Rayyan Village

Al Rayyan Village is a corporate housing complex for expats with about 300 homes.  There is a big gate with security guards when you enter the complex, but when you get inside it is very welcoming.  Tonight there were kids riding their bikes up and down the block and our neighbors let me know about the Halloween celebration so I could be ready for trick-or-treaters.  Kids are cute and all, but I'm really excited about the club house though.

The club house has a shaded playground for the kids, a small grocery store to pick up last minute eggs and milk, a coffee shop, a basketball court, squash court, tennis court, a game room with pool tables, aerobics room, a gym, swimming pool, and my favorite room- the library.

The library was a very pleasant surprise.  I think that the library and I will be good friends for these three years.

My other new friend is the beautiful gym.  It is hard to come up with excuses to not workout when all this equipment is a two minute walk away.  I was excited to see that the weights are in lbs (not kg) and the treadmill reports in miles (not km).  It is hard to convert and workout at the same time.


I had an interesting view while I was on the treadmill tonight and it made me think of you guys, Mom and Dad.  There is AstroTurf in the gym.  That doesn't make AstroTurf in the frontyard seem so funny.  I guess when you live in a desert you forget where grass grows.
  

Home Sweet Home

I made it to Doha!  My flight went well and Sunday night I landed in Doha.  I started bright and early Monday morning looking at two different villas that Oxy had.  I got the keys and unpacked my suitcases at our new home in Al Rayyan Village.



These two pictures are both of our home, but just at different angles.  I can't find the cord to get the pictures off the camera and onto my computer, so photos from my phone will do for now.  We have lots of guest rooms so please come visit.