NEW YEAR, NEW??

As much as i enjoy my life here in Qatar, it's always difficult leaving NYC behind. I had a great holiday! It went by too quickly and was filled with doctors and dentist appointments. I happen to be feeling the effects of my many dental visit back in Doha. I HATE the denstist. I really do and i am so scared of going to a dentist here but I guess I will have to find one soon. I need root canals, tooth extractions, crowns and fillings...god help my mouth! Feeling your roots twitch every moment of the day is by far the worse pain ever.

I don't know if it is all my fault or if i can partly blame Doha for it but my health sure ain't what it use to be. SO my New Year's Resolution is to take better care of my health Physical, mental and of course DENTAL health! I will continue going to bootcamp and hope to use my work gym more. Hopefully i can lose another 10 kilos. My doctor says a lot of my GI issues is because i need a high fiber diet. So I will cook for myself more and limit eating out to once or twice a week. Its easy to get lazy here and collect menus for take away. I just call, order and they either deliver if it is over 50 riyals or i go and pick it up honk my horn and voila! But now that traffic is getting worse in some areas, the 10 minute drive to Marmara Istanbul is now 30-40 minutes to pick up and another 20-30 minutes before i get home. I want to avoid keeping menus in my car so i don't end up calling and putting in an order while i am stuck in traffic, timing it just right that by the time i arrive i have to wait a few minutes for my order. I will be here another 2 years and i really should make more of an effort to work on my Arabic. I will try to find a conversational partner and see how that goes.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

2009 was a great year and i was sad to see it end. I'm a bit nervous for 2010 but I think if i focus and stick with it, it will go by quickly and be just as rewarding.

Update- I know i'm long overdue....

So its been a long time. Too long. Let's see where do I begin? Well in summary, the last few months truly has been a whirlwind for me. I went to England in September. reconnected with my nephews, Aunts and Cousins etc. and managed to see friends and mohos as well. I had a business trip to Oman (Can we say AMAZING!) for a week. Had a blast snorkelling and dancing with Omani's and meeting new people and making friends with staff from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. November i had another business trip to Dubai. Yes, I finally made it to Dubai. I can't believe it took me so long to make it out there but it did. I had a great time at brunch at the Burj-Al-Arab. It's the hotel shaped like a sailboat. Then I hosted P here in Doha and had a great time showing Phil and Shannon around Doha when they came for a visit. This month I will be travelling to New York and should be in the greatest city in the world from De. 18th - January 1st. I can't believe I've done this much travelling. I never realized how behind i was until i got back from Dubai. Instead of traveling to some exotic tropical paradise like my supervisor, I was left behind and forced to come into work every day of the EID holiday. I did manage to have a good time despite the fact i had to work.

I can't believe that it has been close to a year since i arrived. I really am emjoying myself. I have really great co-workers. I'm feeling much more comfortable around them that I've even become more relaxed and silly with them. They all use to say how they thought i was nice but thought i would be hard to connect with. I somehow give off a really different vibe when people first meet me. I'm not sure why.

Qatar is a curious place...it really is. I finally went Dune bashing. Can we say hella fun! The best part was that our tour guides were Qatari. I was expecting some Indian or Palestinian driver but instead had Hassan my Qatari tour guide. He was hilarious. Imagine this 40 something Qatari guy wearing a Thobe and rapping to Tupac and Akon. I didn't realize it until this trip, but Akon lyrics are really explicit! I'm so use to hearing him on the radio i guess i never realized how much is actually edited out. I think the best though was when the tour group was taking a breather at the beach and one of the Qatari tour guides started blasting and singing along to Bob Marley. Gotta love BOB!! EVERYONE LOVES BOB!! JAM ROCK REPRESENT!!

In other news, I'm making friends with Qatari's YAY!! I keep coming up with ideas on how Qatari's and non Qatari's can integrate more. So who knows..maybe i might be able to add club owner to my reprtoire! :)

Well I think this might just be my last post of the year. Thanks to everyone who supported me this past year. I couldn't have done it without your support and encouragement. 2008 sucked and i was very optimitsic about 2009 and low and behold 2009 was full of great surprises. I hope 2010 is even better!!

Inti Jassim Al Malkooti

Ah...so yes.. I've been in Doha for 7 months now. Its been a good 7 months and I'm slowly broadening my circle of friends but the one nationality of people i seem to be lacking interaction with here are the ones who are native to this small nation the size of Connecticut! Yes i can honestly say that i don't have any Qatari friends...and that's sad. Its not easy for me to make friends...and even more difficult for me to meet Qatari women. I definitely don't want to meet a Qatari guy. when they see me they think of one thing...ok maybe two things.. A woman to sleep with or a future second, third or fourth wife. ;)

I haven't made Qatari friends quite yet but I'm getting closer.. I swear! :) Had a great conversation with 2 qatari female students. I don't want to use names so I'll refer to them as H and F. H and F came to my office and H asked me if she could tell me something and assured me she wasn't trying to offend. "I want your body". The way she said it was strikingly odd. Here i am looking into the eyes of a virtually covered woman telling me how she wants my body. I don't know but there seems to be something paradoxical here. :) "Wow, uh...I've never had a complement said to me quite like that" "Wulla, I'm not kidding you have the perfect body. The first time i saw you i said to my sister...you have to come see this body. Heya Jassim Al Malkooti." "My body what?" F explained, "It means you have the body of an Angel." "Really? oh my gosh wow thank you. I don't see it but thanks. I thought the big booty craze was just an American thing." H told me that the gulf men like the booty too. This so doesn't help me...I was hoping the reason i was getting so many stares from guys was because i was unveiled and it's like oh my gosh a woman not all covered up. Not oh my gosh look at the ass on that woman.. I want that ass. H even asked me what i do to get my body like that. LMAO.. hmmm well I told her i eat a lot of pineapple (FYI pineapple is a good food for a flat stomach) and try to not to eat carbs after 7 but it is a lot harder to do here since everything is rice and bread and dinner at 8:30 pm. I told her too much carbs will give you a big belly. Imagine that...most women are striving for that skeleton model body and here is a thin model framed woman asking me how she can get an ass, hips, and thicker thighs. So we talked a bit more about body image and stuff. It was so refreshing and exciting to be shooting the breeze with these two students. I try to keep in touch with them. I figure since H is a senior, if i make friends with her now, she might invite me to her wedding. I really want to go to a Qatari wedding! you know me, i LOVE ME SOME WEDDINGS.

H is an honors student. Very rooted in her Bedoin traditions and aspires to get her Ph.D and be the first Qatari female Professor at Texas A&M at Qatar. YOU GO GIRL! i exclaimed! More power to you. F wants to prove to her family that she is capable of being an engineer. She was enrolled at Cornell's Pre-med program but didn't make the cut so her family wanted her to just stop going to school and think about getting married, they seemed to doubt her and she was going to prove them wrong. It's like i have always said, change comes from within and change will only be successful if the change comes from the people. And it doesn't happen overnight. The more the people here are exposed to the outside world, the better they will be able to decide what works and doesn't work for them. But let them make that decision for themselves. Yes, looks truly can be deceiving and the more i learn from and about Qatari's, the more i realize how veiled I am from them. But I am slowly lifting my veil and seeing clearer. There is so much to be learned here and I just soak and absorb all i can.

Bronx Representin' in the D-O-H-A!!

Ok so summer is officially over in the USA but the heat is still rising here in Qatar. Worst part is that it's become uncomfortably humid and for some reason the property management decided to put fertilizer on the grass in my compound so its smelly sweatville at my place.

I know i keep saying this but i really have been quite the lazy bum this summer. I didn't want to get too involved in outside activities until i really felt i had a good grasp of my job and felt well adjusted here. I now feel like i can truly call Doha my home. Mi casa es su casa so i hope to see some visitors next year! Anyways i know i can be lengthy but i wanted to share with ya'll (notice my Texan coming out) something really cool that happened to me today.

I was leaving my conversational Arabic level 3 Berlitz class this evening and some students from the next class were taking their seats. My teacher started talking to them and mentioned to this guy AJ that i was from New York City. He told me he was from the Bronx and Queens. I got sooo excited I put my hand up and gave him a high five and said, "Boogie Down BX REPRESENT!" yes i was tryin' a lil too hard...i wanted to ask him for his number and was about to ask him if he was on facebook but thought maybe he would think i'm a stalker. Jen....this is when you say nothing :) and then he asked me what part I was from and i told him Wakefield and he told me he was from Pelham Parkway. "My mom worked in Pelham Parkway" i said emphatically. "Funny my mom worked in Wakefield" I got overly excited and realized i seemed like a dumb asked. asked him what the hell he was doing in Doha, thanked my teacher for a great first Arabic conversation class, (oh my gosh!! i know Fusha and Amiah are similar but i swear i feel like i am learnign an entirely new language) and ran out all excited about my new encounter.

I wish i could back post on here because there were definite times i wanted to post but never got around to it. My Qatari conversation is priceless so i will definitely post that soon.

Summer FUN!

So my summer has been pretty good so far. I have managed to keep myself busy going to the hotel pool, working out and an occasional visit to the pub. The summers here are HOT and there are significantly less cars on the road. it really feels like half the country has just up and left. Two of my friends included so I'm waiting idle for there return so i can go out and do more fun stuff.

I use to be really introverted until i went to college and then became a social butterfly. Now that i am in Qatar, it seems like my introverted self has reappeared and I'm much quieter and less active, which is a huge change for me given that i am a NYC girl. It is difficult to meet other people here. Sure there are more expats here than the population of Qatari's but it seems very cliquish and older married folks with kids. Qatar seems like a great place to raise kids but ugh...extremely difficult for the single woman. I've heard talk of a single's group forming soon so hopefully they can get their act together and host events and stuff.



I wish i could update you guys every week but my life is really not that interesting. My internet at home is always breaking down and it takes a week before they come and fix it only to have it happen a few weeks later. My AC was out for almost 2 weeks...NOT COOL! but yay its fixed and i can now watch TV and not break a sweat. :) Oprah has become my new best friend...its so sad i watch her every Saturday - Wednesday. I rarely watched Oprah when i lived in NYC now i swear i refuse to go out and do anything until 9:00 when the show is over. :)

I am looking forward to Ramadan. We only have to work 6 hours a day!! makes me feel like i have another month of Summer! :) woohoo! When i get my internet running I'll be sure to make sure i try and get my own pictures in the slide show. Some weirdos in Qatar made their wedding photos public and it now my Qatar slideshow has wedding pics on it. I have no clue how these people are and I don't like it.

Doha is growing on me :)

I know I'm really behind on the updates!

So sorry to keep you all waiting. I wish i could say my life has been super exciting but it really hasn't. I was in India for three days. Had a blast but came back with a nasty GI infection. I did lose weight though. Albeit not in the healthiest way. I could not keep anything down or in... I actually thought i was going to die. I'll spear you the gross details but i will say that it left me super weak and I am only now regaining my strength.

Doha really is beginning to grow on me. I'm starting to feel more settled. I'm making friends and doing more social stuff. I decided to do one fun thing a week and one event a month. My event for this month was a techno beach party at the Intercontinental hotel. I had a blast. Got drunk off my ass for the first time here in Doha...and was a dancing maniac! I danced so hard my ankles were swollen the next morning. :) Actually i spent the whole weekend recuperating.

I'll be heading to NYC in a lil less than a month and I am really excited to see my friends, family and eat pumpernickel bagels! YES i found bagels here and they taste pretty good but they only make plain and sesame. I'm hoping to buy a dozen pumpernickel bagels and bring them back to Qatar. :)

I'm really scared of the intense heat the summer brings...it's may and it goes up to 108 degrees around noon. I attempted one day to take a 10 minute walk to the cafeteria...the sun is so intense my arms and face started turning red. Now i understand why the Qatari women wear the black abayas and cover their faces with the Shayla. The sun can freaking melt your skin off if your out their long enough...I learned my lesson and now drive to the cafeteria. :) you really do end up driving everywhere esspecially for things that are a short distance/ walk away.

I'm trying to get the slideshow up so i can have pictures but i can't seem to get it working. :( I will hopefully get the pics working soon.

Birthdays Improve with Age

As a kid i hated my birthday because it meant i was getting older. When i turned 6 i cried because being 6 meant i would have to start doing chores and i really didn't want to wash the dinner dishes every night. When i turned 13 I cried because i was afraid i would start menstruating and god knows i wanted to just stay a kid. My 16th birthday was also a really sad birthday because it appeared that my mom completely forgot. She went off to work first thing in the morning, so i didn't see her. There was no card or present waiting for me when i got home. And she decided to work a double shift so i spent my birthday all alone sobbing in bed.

My 21st birthday was the last of the bad birthdays. I had a serious tonsil infection that was only getting worse and spent the day on 1000mg of antibiotics for 5 days. I was so groggy and tired i don't think i even realized it was my birthday. 22 was a great birthday and since then my birthdays just keep getting better every year.

April has been a great month so far because it's my b-day month! woohoo! and i had a fabulous birthday/post birthday. Most of the staff were out of the office the week of my birthday so they told me they would celebrate it the week after. My co-workers are soooo sweet! I couldn't believe it! They actually got me gifts!! really nice gifts. I got 3 costume jewelry necklaces and my supervisor bought me these gorgeous mikasa tea lights holders. How nice is that!! I'll be sure to get him a nice birthday gift when i come back to the states. (June 11-19)

My present to myself was a weekend trip to New Delhi. Living in Doha does have its advantages as i am much more centrally located to visit Asia, Africa and Europe. New Delhi was awesome! I didn't get to see my moho's but i did get to see my love and long distance relationships are very difficult but can be especially rewarding when you do get to see each other unexpectedly. P and i had a fabulous three days.

I'm doing well in Doha and feeling more settled here. I'm going out a little more and meeting new people. I have been good at avoiding the malls. :) So no creepy guys have been following me lately. I discovered the root to the smells that have been making me sick is actually an incense called Bukhara. Apparently the men burn it in the morning and put their robes over it to take in the scent before they get dressed in the morning.