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!