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.

I'm looking to get f*cked

So i know i have been M.I.A. for quite some time. I wish i could say i have been jet setting here and there. but honestly i am a homebody. I feel like i need to take my time adjusting to this place because i am going to be here for quite a while so no sens in rushing to do everything at once. If i do that, I'll get bored easily and then there will be nothing left for me to do in Doha.

I don't have many friends here just my coworkers..but i try to keep that mainly professional, and one good friend I've known for 7 years who also moved here from Egypt. She's awesome but i never get to see her as she is a newlywed and we all know when our friends get married or paired off...we will see less of them.

It's also hard being a single woman here...i mean I've been to a number of cities in the U.S and Middle east and am use to hearing cat calls and stuff but there is an aggressiveness here that i haven't quite experienced anywhere else. A scary thing happened at the Villagio Mall. I was buying a patio set for my balcony and the Bhai (porter) was carrying my cart for me. I noticed a car stopped and this creepy guy looked at me. Well he then started following me in his car and went into the parking lot and parked his car. then he just sat there. the bhai put the box in my trunk and i went back into the mall to continue my shopping. This creep came out of his car, kept whistling at me and continued to follow me back into the mall. I was a little creeped out, and went to the nearest ATM to pretend like i was getting some money, he was there in eye sight. walked some more all around the mall and i still noticed him. once in a while he might make a cat call. I was freaking out my heart racing, you know that feeling of danger...but even though you feel like something is really wrong it's like your body's reaction is to freeze rather than scream for help or something. so i took a deep breathe and went into a little kiosk counter and asked the sales lady if there was a guy wearing a navy blazer and blue jeans looking at me. She said yes. By now it's been almost 20 min. of this and i tell you i was starting to get angry so i turned a corner, and could see he was no more than six feet away. I stopped at the canal and looked down at the kids in the gondola passing by, took a another deep breathe and said to myself that i can't let this guy get the best of me. I walked over to him and firmly yelled, "What the F*CK is your Problem, you have been following me for almost a half hour. I saw you from outside. you are pissing me the f*ck off and if you want to get bitch slapped i would advise you to leave because I am not afraid to beat the shit out of you." He looked dumbfounded...he also didn't know much English and was like no no no. And i showed him my fist pounded it in my hand and the short ass punk ran away.

I didn't make a scene or anything but I never saw him after that and when i went back to my car, his car was gone. So I'm not sure what it is...Do guys here think that when they see a nubian woman, who is not in an Abaya, as a prostitute? Or since i am a foreigner I'm an easy lay?

Another time i was in the supermarket/walmart like store called Carrefour and was smelling some fresh dill minding my own business and this Lebanese guy starts smelling the herbs too. He is introducing himself, asking me where i work, what i do, and he has two other friends nearby. His friend also walks over and is telling me how to make mint salad and starts talking off the recipe. Then the first guy says, "My name is Sami, what's your number?" I lie and tell him i don't have a cell phone so he insists on giving me his. At this point I'm looking for my friend to come back but i can't find her anywhere. He scribbles his number and does that whole call me gesture. Waves good-bye and walks back to his friends and they are sooo like teenage guys doing the whole, so what did she say thing. All he could report back is that i got his number i crumbled it up and left it in the pile of herbs. It just frustrates me how I am seen like an object here. And i try not to be hyper critical of the culture here and say the women here are objectified and that's why they wear these long robes and cover their faces and stuff...but i still feel no matter what i wear whether it is an abaya or a miniskirt, i will still have to deal with this kind of behavior just less so when i am wearing more clothes.

And I know this pent up sexual frustration is because women are so inaccessible, they don't get to see their own women as their equal. They aren't interacting with them at work on a daily basis. They work with women of other nationalities, but not the Qatari women. If they did, I'm sure they will realize that Qatari women are respectable women outside the home as well. Of the almost 200 staff and faculty who work for Texas A&M University, there is only ONE Qatari woman.. ONE!!! And she is a Sheika (a woman of the royal family) so that gives you a sense of how far this country has to go in terms of gender equality. 40% of students at the engineering school are women, but more women are graduating than men..this is great! But i sure hope these women do go out and work and this degree isn't seen as just a way for them to be more marketable in terms of finding a husband. It would be sad to see that they get married, and stay at home and order around the housemaids and nannies while they go out shopping for luxury items.

I'll stop here. I'm sure this is a topic i will have much to say about in the future.

Death by Fabric Softner

At my old job, i use to have many discussions with exchange students about hygiene and would explain to them how Americans have sensitive noses and stuff and how it was important to use deodorant and bathe everyday. Well here i am, an American with an ultra sensitive nose, and man oh man the smells here can be deadly. And I'm not just talking about rank odors.

I seem to be allergic to the Downy simple pleasures fabric softener. I did my laundry in my economic front load washer (which by the way takes 1hour and 32 minutes to do a load of maximum 10 items) and when i took the clothes out to dry, there was this flowery smell that was so strong my nasal passages started to flare up and i swear a knife was being shoved up my nose. I ended up having a migraine after that and was wiped out the rest of the day.

That evening i made an attempt to go to the mall and do some grocery shopping and this group of guys in their long white thobes walked by me and "OH MY GOD" its the same stinking downy smell. Well i don't know what the hell, but it appeared to me that almost everyone uses fabric sofetener or a combination of fabric sofetener and overkill on perfume and cologne.

It is esspecially difficult when student workers come in wearing a cologne or perfume that irritates me because my head is constantly banging the rest of the day. I try taking antihistimines but have not had any success. So the smells that most would find nice, sweet, even erotic are actually my kryptonite.

The there are the rank smells....

Ok...i've had this issue before when i lived in Jordan, and my sidecick Marlene and I would make really crass and rude comments as we walked by people who "had the case of the funk" as we called it. One of our favorite lines was, "hey you know there's this well known invention called deodorant, you should try it sometime." Most people had no idea what we were saying but we would burst out laughing. Then one day we were so annoyed (more like stupid) and we bought ten travel size deodorants and handed out to people who would walk by us and rank their stinkiness and decide if they were worthy of deodorant, deliberate on the foul odor that just passed by us and run up to them handing them a deodorant and tell them they won a prize. I'm not kidding..we were bad.

Alas I am older, more mature and responsibile and would never dare do something like that...well in theory at least. No i don't have any intentions of doing that but sure wish someone else would

In short, i can't handle the perfumes and i can't handle the body funk. I wonder if it is possible to have my nostril "fixed" so i can't smell anything while i am here and then have it reversed when i return to the states. I actually hold my breathe or exhale when i walk past laborers, guys in white thobes and women in their abayas. At the mall i keep my hands over my nose and mouth. At work i just try my best to stay in my office as much as possible. This STINKS!

Can a girl find some SHAWARMA?

Ok, so i know that i have been a bit MIA and i wish i could say i have been doing all these cool things like camping in the desert or off-roading on the dunes and such but, nope, I have been a lazy ass bum. I've mainly been trying to settle in slowly and not get too carried away partying and stuff. Actually I have been flat out broke and waiting for my paycheck so i can actually do something.

Qatar is a very interesting place. Its a cross section of East and West. The two eventually meet but never cross over. In the East corner you have Qatari's, Arabs from neighboring countries and unskilled laborers from Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. In the West corner you have European, Australian and American Expats who try to live as lavish as possible because this is the only place where they can afford to, and the Qatari's try to be so hospitable that they have built a number of western ammenities to accomodate the Westerner's "lavish" lifestyle. That being said, there are just way too many FAST FOOD franchises here. I mean come on!, is it really necessary for me to eat Papa John's, Johnny Rocket, Subway, KFC, TGI Friday's, Chili's, Bennigans, McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Coldstone Creamery, Baskin Robbins, Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts, I mean the list goes on and on. I mean of all the fast food joints couldn't they have a Chick-fil-A or a Wendy's? Those are the only fast food places I patronize. Where the hell can a girl get a SHAWARMA around here!! For pete sake, where is the Arabic food?? Seriously though...i had to ask a co-worker where i could go to get shawarma. She laughingly replied, ma fi(not here) and i was like what? Are you for real? she said no but that there were only two places worth going too.
How is it possible that an Arab country has so few arab restaraunts?? I mean i came here to get my tobouli, and Manaesh on! Hell i haven't even had a taste of HUMMUS since i have been here. I really do miss REAL arabic food and was hoping i would be able to eat a lot more arabic food here but sadly that is not the case.

I went to one of the places my coworker suggested and it was so horrible i actually cried...all i kept saying in my car as i wept and choked on the dried up chicken was, i want Jordan...this isn't Jordan...I want Al Faris and Jabri...and i started reminiscing about all my favorite restaraunts there.

After getting lost at night for three hours, i am too chicken to venture out to find the other restaraunt she suggested and will have to wait a while for my next shawarma meal. :sigh: At least i was able to find a falafel mix box at the supermarket yesterday so hopefully i will enjoy some falafel soon.

Things to be aware of when driving in Qatar:

1. If you are an expat and you get into an accident with a Qatari even when it is their fault, you are automatically in the wrong, because you are a foreigner.

2. People only signal when they want to make a U turn, Qataris never use their signal you just have to get out of their way.

3. When a car is behind you and wants you to speed up or let them pass you, they turn OFF their lights and tailgate you until you get out of their way.

4. Drivers seem confused and don't quite know how to move out of the way when an ambulance needs to come through.

5. Driving into a roundabout is like playing chicken.

6. Most people abandon their car if they damaged it pretty bad in an accident.

7. When a guy sticks his tongue out at you, it's sexual, not mean..GROSS

8. When someone makes a talking gesture with their hand in the daylight, it means your lights are on. They still think having lights on in the day time will wear down your battery over here. Apparently that's the reason why some cars still drive with their lights OFF at night.

9. People here intentionally drive with their lights off at night.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way from the Tent....

So my sense of direction sucks! I don't know how foreigners esspecially westerners can navigate their way through these streets. I mean everything is messed up. The traffic signals only allow cars to pass one directon at a time and the light stays green for 5 minutes. Yes that is 5 minutes. So if i miss the green light I have to wait another 15 minutes before i can pass. And when I am stuck in traffic a kilometer before the signal I could wait 20 minutes or more. That's how i got stuck in traffic on my way back from the mall. It took me less than five minutes to get there when i had the green light on my side and 50 minutes to get back home when i was only 4 roundabouts away...see my point?

So I hadn't had much luck at finding my way back directly from work to home. I got lost the first day but recovered soon after realizing i forgot to go to the next roundabout (RB) and turn. I got back on to the right street and horay!, was home in no time. My second day at work...i got so lost and ended up on the highway to Al Khor - The Gas and oil manufacturing/distributing area outside the city of Doha. This happened AFTER i stopped at a traditional bedouin tent to get directions.

After two hours of roaming around aimlessly not knowing where i was going, taking roads that looked like roads but then stopped and boom your in the middle of the desert...nothing in sight. I keep doing this until finally i see a tent. I drive by the tent and alas...there are people in it! sitting chatting and drinking tea! I stop the car pull over and walk over to the tent. A very nice Qatari man in his white Thobe welcomed me. I took off my shoes as i saw everyone elses's shoes located outside the tent and asked how do i get to Decoration circle (the nearest landmark by my home) everyone looks at me like. "OH MY GOD YOU ARE REALLY FAR!" Yes i am far, i know. "How did you get to be so far, you know that is far from here." "Yes, Yes I know, i replied, I have only been here 4 days." The nice gentleman says, "Come sit i will tell you." He walks over to his car, grabs a piece of paper and comes back and tells the butler to make me some tea. He draws for me a map and tells me about 8 times how to get there. He then asks me to repeat it to him and i repeat it back at least 5 times. He tells me i must stay have some more tea and have dinner with them. I start talking to his friends who are all foreigners. One from Columbia, Venezuela and France. We start talking about Chavez and all the stuff going on in Venezuela etc. I'm really hungry but i don't want to stay because all of a sudden the thought of eating camel popped in my head as i remembered my last meal in a bedouin tent in Joran...I quickly and graciously got up and asked if i could leave because i was tired and it was pitch black and i needed to go home. The kind Qatari asked me again to repeat the directions, i obliged and was feeling confident about going home. Apparently i can't count.

I guess there are lil roundabouts and big roundabaouts and somehow i only seem to notice the big roundabouts so my count was off and i ended up on the highway. I had to drive out 27 Km before i could turn around to go back in the opposite direction. So after stoppipng for directions spending a half hour drinking tea and mingling with strangers i still managed to lose my way.

Tmrw my boss is taking me for a navigation driving lesson.

Nubian Arrives in Oil Rich Desert

So i decided to start the blog earlier than i planned because my friend Susie (who i owe a great deal to for planting it in my head that i could work in the gulf earlier than i had planned and hooked me up with the right person to talk to which later lead me to find this job and apply for it.) encouraged me to start it now after telling her a little story and gave me the title for said blog. I liked the title so much despite the fact i am on 4 hours of sleep/11 hours in the last 48 hours that i was inspired to start it this evening.

Thursday, February 12th 7:30 pm - I walk through the gates of Doha International airport looking for my name and alas the driver i had last time on my interview visit greets me at the door and we drive for an hour in a thick grainy fog where he drops me off at the door and hands me an envelope with the keys to my car. His friend points to the tan Nissan Altima and jumps into the SUV waves good bye and i head back upstairs to the second floor. As soon as i open the door, I see 13 boxes sitting in a corner with my name and a listing of contents on each box. I can't believe my stuff really arrived before i did. This door to door service is incredible! I'm exhauted from my direct flight from JFK but I'm so excited i start ripping open boxes and it feels like christmas with recycled gifts.

I walk around my new home, wow, it hits me..this is MY home. I will be living here for at least a year and possibly up to three years if i choose to stay in this apartment. I open the back door and look out onto the American School Doha classrooms and pool and squeal with excitement how HUGE the patio is. Sangria Party at apt. 226! HEY!!!!

I go to bed around 11:00pm and set my alarm for 8am. I decided to tackle my biggest fear of living here: Driving in the crazy Doha madness. Driving around Doha is INSANE!! i mean absolutely insane but i am really proud that i managed to get my ass up early in the am and drive with the aid of what i would soon discover is a crappy map. I got lost tons of times trying to find where my job is but managed to get home with ease once i decided to give up and follow my instincts. That was the only time i later would find out that my navigational instincts would ever work in this strange roundabout, 2 kilometer long street with a mosque on every corner and palace every five blocks city. Oh boy do i have a story about getting lost...i'll save that for my next post.