Eat, Sleep, Repeat

Thanksgiving this year was very different, but it was a great weekend full of fun and lots of food.  We had to work on Thursday, but the Americans in the office brought in their favorite Thanksgiving desserts to share with the rest of the office.  It was fun to share some Thanksgiving facts and talk about our family traditions.

 

 

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival has been going on this past week.  Temporary theaters were set up at three different locations around town and each played multiple movies a day.  Thursday after work we enjoyed the movie Searching for Sugar Man.  The movie was about an artist from Detroit named Rodriguez who recorded a coupe albums in the 60s but never made it big in the US.  Although, he was bigger than Elvis in South Africa, but never knew it.  I highly recommend Searching for Sugar Man.  My inner diva had a little too much fun walking the red carpet before the show.

 

 

Friday morning I joined a friend for a run.  My friend is training for an Ironman, so I just tagged along for a couple laps around Aspire which was built for the 2006 Asian Games.  The Asian Games are the second largest multi sport event after the Olympics.  The facilities are really nice and open to the public.  I thought the outdoor ellipticals along the path were a nice touch.

 

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday night at the nicest people's home.  There is no arguing that they are not the nicest people.  They invited us to their Thanksgiving celebration after meeting me once and then sent us home with all the leftovers.  Our refrigerator is a beautiful site.  It was a fabulous evening filled with great company, wonderful food, and hopefully the beginning of many friendships. 

 

This evening we are playing a softball game and then eating more food!  Our friends invited us over for some leftovers from their Mexican Thanksgiving feast and we are ecstatic.  We love Mexican food and haven't had any since being in Doha.  I started drooling when I heard homemade salsa.  I started this week in a bad mood, but it ended up being a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

 



 

My First Funk

We went back to the beach this past weekend.  It was windy and a little bit chilly.  It is November though, so it is probably appropriate to be cold standing in a wet swimsuit.  The wind brought out the kite boarders and they were great entertainment.

 

 

I also went to a bazaar and purchased a lovely table runner.  I included this picture simply to show it off.  I expect lots of oohs and aahs.  And yes, the table runner has a large crease in it from being folded, but I am afraid that ironing it might ruin it.  There is also the fact that I don't even iron my clothes so why would I iron something for the table.

 

 

It is a funny week.  In the last post I said that expats seem to go a little crazy to celebrate holidays.  Now I understand why.  If you don't make an effort to celebrate holidays, then the day comes and goes just like any other day and you are left with a strange empty feeling.  In Qatar, Thursday is just another work day, only to Americans is it Thanksgiving.  In an attempt to make sure that Thanksgiving isn't forgotten, I am making dessert to share with the office on Thursday.   Then on Friday we are having a celebration with our sweet neighbors complete with watching the Cowboy/Brown football game and a feast.

 

I am just sad that I will not be joining the Holmes family for Thanksgiving this year.  Jonathon's family in Chicago has been busy the past few months welcoming new grandchildren into the world and I was looking forward to seeing lots of baby photos.  I am also very disappointed that I will not get to sit on Grandpa Lyle's porch and take in this view.

 

 

I am experiencing my first homesick spell, but there are always pluses and minuses to all experiences.  I decided that I'm allowed to feel sad for a couple days, as long as I don't let it take over.  I just can't forget how blessed I am to even be in the position that I get to experience another culture and establish new traditions.  I am just missing celebrating the way I am accustom to.  At least I get to celebrate with my hubby.  Wednesday will be the two year mark from when we got engaged. 

Getting Into the Swing of Things

We are settling into our routine quite nicely.  Jonathon was busy this weekend hooking up all our electronics and now we are able to watch as much American television as our eyeballs can handle.  Jonathon was able to watch some football (the kind with the long, brown ball, not the round black and white ball) although the time difference made it tricky.

 

We have been exploring grocery stores figuring out where to buy everything.  Doha should really be called pita heaven.  Pita bread costs pennies (seriously less than a nickel) and is amazingly delicious.  We have lots of pita bread in our future and that makes me so happy.  One grocery store has a little refrigerated room where you can buy fresh, whole fish.  If I were brave enough to enter the smelly room with fish eyes staring at me and a man holding a cleaver, then I’m sure the fish would be amazing.  So far I have only been able to hold my breath and pick up already cut fish filets on display outside Nemo’s graveyard.  The salmon filets are wonderful, so I know that the other fish will be divine.  I am going to have to enter that scary room soon.  (Read as: Jonathon will be entering that room soon while I run away.)

We went to the mall this week and I was surprised to see a department store selling Christmas decorations.  Then, I went to break a sweat at the compound clubhouse and saw this beauty.  Christmas in the desert!  We can sled down sand dunes. 

American expats in Doha make a big deal about holidays.  I think it is overcompensation for not being in the U.S.  Halloween was celebrated with two evenings of trick-or-treating, and we are having a Thanksgiving potluck in the office.  I’m not complaining, but I do think it is funny that the compound’s tree is up before a lot of people in the U.S. have their trees up.

Sunday was Jonathon’s first day of work.  (We work Sunday through Thursday.)  He will be traveling some in his new role, so hopefully he will blog about his trips.  Get excited for an increase in photo quality.  He is a great photographer.  Today he made a trip to the field and he was so excited to have me take the following photo, so I know he will be pleased that I shared it with all of you.  Just look at that smile.

 

Not as exciting as Jonathon, but look at my new mug.  We work with a lot of Englishmen and Scots, so afternoon tea time has been added to my daily routine.  The office has a wonderful spread of tea, but I was getting tired of my styrofoam cup while waiting for our sea shipment.  My tea tastes so much better now.

 

Tonight I meet the ladies of the compound for a friendly game of Bunko.  The ladies, employees and spouses, get together once a month to play some Bunko.  Tonight my neighbor hosted and it was southern comfort themed with chill and cornbread as the main meal.  Quite tasty and fun to meet more neighbors.  I also won last! (I got last place.)

Tomorrow is the Islamic New Year which fits nicely with the beginning of our new adventure.

Reunited

Jonathon made it to Doha!  He landed safely last night and we were busy today trying to help him forget his intense desire to climb into the nearest bed for a nice long nap. 

 















We went with some friends to explore the northern coast.  It took an off-roading vehicle and an emergency stop for gas, but we found a nice, quiet beach area.

Many Qataris were camping along the beach, but it wasn't your average Jones family campout.  People built little temporary cities on the beaches with generators to power the light polls and whatever that satellite dish is connected to.  There were also water tank trucks coming around to refill water supplies.  (Sorry Dad for giving Mom any ideas about next year's camping trip.)  Camping on the beach just got added to the Qatar bucket list. 

Qatari Camping on the Beach

 

Tomorrow Makes Two

Happy birthday to two wonderful rays of sunshine, Haley Rose and Grandma Jones.  I love you both very much.

I went to the Villaggio Mall this evening and had to remind myself a couple times that I wasn't at Caesar's palace in Las Vegas.  Enjoy these photos, because they took me five minutes to take.  I looked like a huge dork standing in the same spot waiting until the crowd thinned out to snap my camera.  Many people here don't like their picture taken.  It is considered extremely disrespectful to take somebody's photo without permission and the police often get involved.  I didn't feel like getting my camera confiscated.

Unfortunately I wasn't shopping for a hookah this evening, because I found this section in Carrefour (Target's Middle Eastern cousin).  I laughed when I saw the warning sign above the hookahs.  The Surgeon General even made it to Qatar.

I just had the best time vacuuming and cleaning the bathrooms.  Nothing can wipe this huge smile off my face.  Jonathon gets on a plane in a couple hours and will land in Doha in less than 24 hours!  Words cannot describe how excited I am to start sharing this adventure with him.

Getting Settled

I hope you all enjoyed your extra hour of sleep.  Qatar doesn’t observe daylight savings time, so no time change for me.  Shout-out to Lindsey for reading the blog from Italy.  Now when I sign-in my audience includes Europe.  It makes me feel pretty awesome.

When we sorted all our stuff in Houston, it was divided into three piles: storage, sea shipment, and air shipment.  Our air shipment was small but fast and the sea shipment is large and slow.  The sea shipment should arrive in the middle of December.  For the time being, work provided me with some kitchen supplies and linens to get by. 

Our air shipment arrived Thursday after work.  Jonathon packed the shipment after I left and added some surprises to the boxes.  He got me Just Dance 4 for the Kinect to make the neighbors regret spying through the windows and Ashley sent along the nicest drill bit in the world.  (If only I had requested the diamond studded bit.)   

I have never been so thrilled to see my tomato knife and Tupperware.  It is so hard to cut tomatoes with a regular knife (thanks Gma Fran for the awesome knife) and I love making one large meal and saving the leftovers for the next night.  I was busy unpacking the boxes and making our place a little homier before Jonathon comes on Thursday!

On Friday, my Doha friends and I went kayaking in the mangroves.  Mangroves are trees/bushes that grow in salt water.  The roots grow up and poke through the water to collect oxygen.  It was a fun excursion, but a little too short.  Next time we want to kayak out a little further and try to see flamingos.  

I had my first softball game on Saturday.  There are a lot of expats that are very good at softball and my team got pounded.  We mainly focused on having fun instead of winning.  I enjoyed meeting people outside of work and the weather was very enjoyable.  The sun is still very intense during the day, but after the sun goes down at 5pm, the evenings are delightful.

I got some groceries after work today and I must really like Jonathon, because I bought him something yellow and gross, mustard.  Eggs here look a little different.  They remind me of the eggs that Baugh Doctor Doc brought home from the Biology lab and then tried to hatch chicks out of with a desk lamp. (I still don't believe that chickens could have lived in our only shower shared by five girls.  You can have chickens in Quinter.)  Every time I crack open an egg I hope that it is just a yolk that comes out.  At the store today they only had containers of 6 or 30 eggs, so I will be eating a lot of eggs for awhile.

Now, I’m just busy working, reading (finished Atonement last night and started the new book club book What Alice Forgot), getting buff, and trying to keep my excited in check until Jonathon gets here.  I am constantly fighting the desire to jump for joy at the thought of showing him our new home and introducing him to Doha.  This week is already dragging on.  Thursday night please come quickly.