Dull Days

I have had a lot of time on my hands this weekend (I will explain in a moment) so I have been cruising the internet.  I accept full responsibility this time, because I didn't establish any rules before I left the States, but next time I will not be so understanding.  When something like this happens, I want you to drop everything and notify me via email, Skype, and/or smoke signals. 
 

I'm not fancy enough to link the video, so just hit he replay video under the countdown.

http://countdown.justintimberlake.com/

Summary:  I will be busting a move to new JT soon.  Joy, pure joy.
 

This weekend hasn't been as adventurous as usual.  I took my duty of making a dent in the couch very serious.  Let me start from the beginning.
 

The razors here are just different than in the States.  The quality is just lower, so my fuzzy legs and I were ecstatic when I found Nair at the store.  For those that doesn't know, Nair is a cream that you put on your skin which then proceeds to burn away hair.  (At this point you should be questioning why I wanted to use this product.)  This Nair was different than anything I've used before.  This Nair was in an aerosol can and the directions were all in Arabic, but Nair is Nair right?  I stuck my legs into the bathtub and started spraying them with Nair, but the aerosol can was crazy and foam was flying everywhere.  The next thing I know, I slipped on slimy Nair and hit my knee hard on the bottom of the tub.  I spent the rest of the weekend icing my knee and watching Breaking Bad with Jonathon.  Hence the boring post.
 

During the white elephant gift exchange at the Christmas celebration, I won some tabloid magazines that you find in the grocery store checkout line.  I continued my quest to do nothing productive this weekend by looking through the magazines.  I was extremely thankful to see that they had already been censored with black Sharpe.  I wonder if guys line up to be hired to look through all the magazines and censor them.
 

I wanted to celebrate national pizza week, but wanted it to be healthy to attempted to balance my lack of movement.  I found a recipe for pizza with cauliflower crush.  Surprisingly to nobody, Jonathon decided to make his pizza on a pita instead of the cauliflower crust.  I found it rather tasty.

Cauliflower Crust

 My knee is getting better, which is great news because I need to start practicing my dance moves for the new Justin Timberlake music.

Playing in the Sand

Happy early birthday Mandy!  You are amazing and I hope you never forget it.  Thank you for making me a better person.

 

This week I had a meeting in another company's office building.  These camel bones were in someone's office there.  They were pretty massive.  The bone owner offered to take my photo without me asking.  I think I have a new blogger friend! 

 

 

And yes, this is what I wear to the office.  I don't like to show too much shape, so I no longer tuck in my shirts.  I call it sloppy chic.  It is pretty amazing because I haven't worn a belt in months. 

 

Last night I went with a friend to see Les Miserables while Jonathon played cards with the men.  I spent two and a half hours wanting to punch Russell Crowe and extremely jealous of Amanda Seyfried's angel voice.  I still don't understand how Anne Hathaway can look so beautiful with a buzzed head and covered in dirt.  Wow, that was a really random paragraph, but I am too tired to do anything about it.

 

This morning we piled into the car to head to the Inland Sea.  We drove an hour south (to point B on the map) and then another hour of off-roading.

 

 

We finally found sand dunes.  Although, the sand got the better of us and we spend an hour digging one of the vehicles out of the sand.  Don't worry, we were smart and had two vehicles, shovels, and a tow strap.   

After all that digging we gave up on getting to the Inland Sea and just headed to the beach (point C on the map).

 

In the background of this photo you can see a hill in Saudi Arabia.

 

We did some shell collecting at the beach.  Engineers collect their shells in baggies and then document it.  I couldn't risk taking my treasures out of the bag even for the picture. 

 

Wishing You Health and Happiness in 2013

Happy New Year!  I hope you are having a wonderful beginning to 2013.  We must be playing nicely with others, because we are making lots of new friends.  (No need to worry long term friends reading, none of these new friends are better than any of you guys.)  This past week we were Mr. and Mrs. Popular.

Trans Europa Board Game

Thursday night some friends in the compound had us over for game night.  We played two new-to-us games, Wits & Wages and Trans Europa, and we played the beloved Cribbage.  I hope game night will be a reoccurring event.  I'm a nerd and have no shame in admitting that game night was a blast.

Friday morning (holy day in Qatar) we went to church for the first time since we got here.  The church was nondenominational and very low key.  A villa has been turned into a sanctuary and there is not an official pastor, so members of the congregation lead the service.  It feels more like a bible study, but the fact that services are held is impressive to me.  There are many countries that are primarily Muslim where other religions are not allowed to meet for worship.

On Friday evening the men played cards while the ladies gathered in another villa and chatted the night away. Then on Saturday we went boating with a co-worker and actually swam in the gulf in December.  It was definitely chilly, but we are enjoying the sunshine and lack of snow.

Last night we rung in the new year at a friend's party.  Doha doesn't celebrate New Year's Eve like the United States.  There weren't any fireworks, countdowns, or disco balls being dropped.  Most companies did not give their employees the day off today, but it was a holiday for us.  Today we enjoyed our vacation by sleeping in, cleaning (yes, I'm expecting you to be impressed because I cleaned 5 toilets), and then watching some matches at the Qatar Tennis Open.

   

We are looking forward to even more adventures in 2013.  We hope 2013 finds you in good health and is filled with happiness.  Happy belated birthday Jay.  Thanks for letting me watch 100+ hours of Sopranos with you so I can be paranoid for life.

Boxing Day Fun

Happy Boxing Day!  American’s don’t observe Boxing Day and I still don’t fully understand this holiday, but Jonathon and I celebrated our own version.  We were surrounded by boxes from our sea shipment!  It is nice to have familiar items to make our place feel more like home.  Now we just have to find closet space for all our comforting treasures.   

 

 

Christmas Eve we went and saw The Hobbit at the IMAX.  I can’t believe that I’m actually admitting that I enjoyed a three hour movie where I wore snorkel goggles, but it was a great film and now I want to read the book again.  This photo is proof that we might be related to Urkel.    

 

We don’t have a fireplace, so instead our stockings were hung on the staircase with care.   
 

 

Christmas morning we had a special breakfast including some bacon.  Then we opened some awesome presents.  My family thinks that I deprive Jonathon of that gross yellow stuff, so they sent him a lifetime supply.

 

 

The Holmes family knows me too well and sent me some much needed running shoes.  See how worn out my old shoe is on the left compared to the beautiful new shoe on the right.  I refused to take off my new shoes, so taking this picture was interesting.  I would have added a picture of me running, but I’m so fast that I show up as a blur in photos.  (As if.)

 

 

 After presents we got busy cooking for our Christmas feast.  Jonathon cooked the turkey and gravy and I covered the mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, and apple crisp.  The vegetables were not invited to our carb fest.  Okay maybe someone else brought the greens.  Anyway, you have to trust me that it was a lovely dinner, because I was too busy shoveling food down my throat to take any pictures.  We had 10 people around the table and I made mashed potatoes for at least 40 people.  I wish I was joking.  I am going to be sick for the next week from eating too many potatoes trying to save my pride.  There is no way any of those fluffy friends are going in the trash, that would give Jonathon the right to tease me until next Christmas.  Again, I have a fear of running out of food.  The Stockton gang understands.

 

It was fun to have a house full on Christmas and to celebrate with others.  We felt very loved by all the cards and emails from everyone back in the States.  We are glad to have each of you in our lives.  

Christmas Eating

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!  We are getting ready to host a Christmas feast complete with a cutthroat white elephant gift exchange tomorrow.  We purchased some $2.80 Christmas CDs in Target’s Middle Eastern Cousin, so this past week has been fuelled with cheesy Christmas beats and various tasty meals.  It turns out that this blog is really about all the food that I eat.  This week I was very passionate about food, with good reason.

 

Monday night we had a co-worker from the Houston office in town and discovered a nice hibachi grill. 

 

Tuesday we celebrated Qatar National Day.  It is similar to America’s Fourth of July.  There was a parade in the morning and a huge fireworks show at night.  It was the best fireworks show I have ever seen.  It looked like a finale for 10 straight minutes.  The Qatari employees hosted lunch at work on Monday (we got Tuesday off of work) and there was so much yummy food.  The women and men ate in separate rooms which is customary.  The main dish was lamb and rice. 

For lunch on Wednesday a couple co-workers took me to The Chicken Place aka TCP.  My mouth is watering again looking at this picture.



 

We got a rental car and are now cruisin’ the roads (read as Jonathon drives and I ride in the passenger seat so happy that my husband is such a great driver and I'm not the one behind the wheel).  So Thursday was the last day with Nasar, our driver.  We went to dinner with him and some friends at an amazing restaurant serving food from Kerala, India.  We got to eat with our hands which was surprising fun.

 

Our Christmas festivities include going to see the Hobbit tonight and having company over tomorrow.  The menu includes the Thompson’s famous stuffing and an apple crumble close to Thompson apple pie.  Apparently I have a phobia of running out of food, because I bought enough food to serve 20 people and there will only be 10 of us.  This week we also got our license to the Qatar Distribution Center, which means we can purchase adult beverages and products from Babe/Wilbur.  We hope you have a wonderful Christmas filled with love and cheer.

 

Dubai and Driving

This past weekend we hopped on a quick one hour flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) to explore a new city. 

 

Friday we went to the Dubai Mall which according to Wikipedia is the world’s largest mall based on area.  The mall is huge.  It has an aquarium, underwater zoo, ice skating rink, movie theaters, waterfall, and hundreds of shops.  I was excited about the giant chocolate tower.

 

 

Waterfall in Dubai Mall

Attached to the Dubai Mall is also the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.  Of course we had to travel to the top in an elevator that went 8 meters per second.

 



View of the Dubai Mall from the top

 

 

 

We also enjoyed a water show in the fountains outside of the mall.  Think the Bellagio in Vegas. 

View from the roof of the hotel.  The body of water is the Dubai Creek.  Notice the dhows on the water covered in lights. 



 

On Saturday it seems like we stepped back in time when we traveled to the gold souq in the Dubai Creek district.  There were men pulling carts and wooden ships getting loaded with goodies to travel to Iran.  

 

 

There are many places in Dubai to see, so we will have to come back and explore some more.

 

Thursday morning I woke-up bright and early to take my driving exam to get a Qatari license.  The test started at 5am, because that is definitely the time when people are the most alert.  Thursday is the female testing day, since men and women take the test separately.  The test began in a large room with 150 plastic patio chairs in rows (yes, the patio chairs were inside and I counted the chairs because I was that bored).  All the chairs filled up and women started standing around the perimeter of the room.  I am guessing that 200 women took the test with me.  All of the announcements and instructions throughout the day were spoken and written in Arabic, so this is simply my interpretation of the test.  I might have done everything incorrectly.  All day I just followed people around and listen for my name to be called.  Listening for your name is actually a difficult task.  My named was morphed into many different forms depending on who is reading it.  Generally my name resembled Elly Lee.  (Jonathon was Joseph Phillip.  Bible names are known.)

To start the day, all the women stood in a line to enter a tiny room where our paperwork was spread out on top of multiple tables.  The front page of our packet of paperwork was our photo so we could be identified.  After getting our packets, we went and stood in another line to take the signal portion of the test.  The signal test is conducted by an officer pointing to signs on a laminated poster and then you regurgitating the meaning of the sign.  This sounds simple, by I had to study for this test because British English is spoken here.  So instead of saying yield, they say giveway and passing is called overtaking.  There are also slight differences in the wording of the signs; our "Do not enter" sign here means “No entry for all vehicles."  After the signs test everyone went and sat down in the patio chairs again to wait to hear if they passed or failed.  Now everyone started chatting with their neighbor.  With all the 200 women talking in various languages at the same time, the room sounded like it was full of barking dogs.  Such a delightful sound.

After more waiting, the test administrators came out and called the names of those who had passed and could continue on to the parking section of the test.  My name was called, but I was told that I didn’t have to park because I had an American driver’s license.  I simply said thank you and reunited with my plastic chair.  Around 8am the road test began.  To conduct the road test, a bus filled with 20 ladies followed around a car.  A police man sat in the passenger seat of the car and the ladies rotated from the bus to the driver’s seat of the car for her test.  When a lady had driver her 90 seconds, she pulled over and changed places with someone else on the bus.  The final driver took us back to our patio chairs to hear our fate. 

Around 10am, a police officer stood at the front of the room and read everyone’s name followed by saying pass or fail.  If you passed then you were given a number and waited until your number was called to pay your fee and collect your license.  If you failed, then you were told to go home.  Everyone only has four chances to pass the test.  I took the test with 200 ladies and about 50 of them passed the test.  Most of the women taking the test were older than me.  About half were from Qatar and the other half were workers from various countries trying to earn some money to send back to their families.  To some ladies driving means freedom or the ability to have a better job.  I was humbled watching the ladies celebrate passing the test by dancing or some with tears of joy.  I have taken my past 10 years of driving for granted. 

I passed my driving exam on Thursday and Jonathon passed his test this morning.  I am looking forward to the gained independence.  Our driver is wonderful, but it will be nice being able to drive on our own.  We are slowly starting to feel like we belong.

Glittery and Grungy

Jonathon and I both started driving lessons on Sunday.  Every day we drive around for 45 minutes with somebody sitting in the passenger seat saying left, right, or straight.  It isn't very exciting but we did learned how to drive through roundabouts.  I will take my driving exam on Thursday and Jonathon will take his test next week.  We still need to get a vehicle before we can cruise Qatar on our own.  

 

Thursday night we kept it classy at the company holiday party.  Before dinner we went to the Corniche to get some pictures of us looking so fly.

We traded in our fancy clothes for the remainder of the weekend and did some beach camping.   The weather was beautiful and only required a sweatshirt at night.

 

This morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and
clouds in the sky!  A cloudy sky is a rare sight.