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.
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.
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.
It was a wonderful week and I look forward to many more in the future.
So glad you are getting out and having fun! I will be praying for safe travels for Jonathan.
ReplyDeletebeautiful pictures - especially the one with you!
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