Our first two weeks

The first weekend in Qatar, on Saturday night, I played golf under the lights. Not bad. Some things are almost normal. We have moved into a new 2 bedroom apartment, so there have been a couple of minor problems, the most major was the morning we got up for school and no water. We survived and no one commented on our lack of daily hygiene. The "no water" has happened again, it is fixed in about 4 hours but that does not help getting ready for school.

We have been able to call the US, with the biggest problem being the time difference. Because we don’t yet have a high speed connection at home, all Internet and Skype calling has been from school which means we are leaving work about the time everyone in the US is getting up. This problem will go away when we get our “Resident Permit” and have a DSL connection from the apartment. We can call in the evening before bedtime and reach people as they are getting home from work.

We didn’t believe people when they said most everything is available here and we brought/shipped some things we could have purchased in country. We both wish we had brought more causal clothes, because things aren’t as strict, dress code wise as we thought. Walking though the malls, you have dress from completely covered to western spaghetti tops.

As I mentioned, one of the major pastimes in Doha is eating. At this point, we have eaten at 10 different ethnic restaurants, and for this country boy that has been an experience. Another Qatar pastime, at least at the beginning, has been paperwork. We have had blood typing, blood tests and an X-ray, eye exams, fingerprinting and standing in line. The interesting thing is that our experience has been fairly well greased by our employer. All the other new people who have had other overseas experiences, say this is an easy start. Guess everything is relative.

Final 1st week

We are slowly getting our things for the apartment, from a shower curtain to a toilet brush, dish towels to hangers. The first night, I got a cell phone and some minutes and called home to check in, good to hear our daughter and know how well she is doing. The next day (Wednesday) I spent most of the day at school getting organized and checking out the lay of the land, so to speak. Because of the 7 hour time difference, and the fact we were only at school from 10:00 till 2:00 (Qatar time), 3:00AM till 7:00AM EDT, phone calls to most people would have gotten them out of bed. I did call my mother at 7:00 AM (EDT) to check in using my Skype connection over the computer. Cost me $0.15 for the 5 minutes, not bad considering the cost from the cell phone is about $0.90/minute.

One thing is already apparent, most of the entertainment in Doha seems to be around eating and shopping. We have now been to the three large malls and if there ever was a culture clash, this is it. There are Qatari women and men in very traditional dress, including the women in black with veils, walking through the mall with very western clothes and ads in the windows (just like an American mall). People have been normal to us, not a lot different than walking through an American mall except for the dress.

We have now met another person from the school who is also a new teacher and who is now the second person to move into our building. He is from Indiana and will be working in the “University Success” (study skills) area. He has spent some time in Saudi so he has some knowledge of language and customs, etc. Nice guy and he has been to dinner and shopping with us. I finally rented a car, cabin fever was setting in, and we wanted to explore. Rented a Camry for a month till we can buy a car, can’t do too many things till we get our resident permit and that can take 3 to 4 weeks. I couldn’t wait that long to get around, plus this way I am practicing my driving the round-abouts in a rental car. The drivers are crazy, no other way to say it; I will probably have no problem fitting in.

The next difference is their weekend is Friday and Saturday, Friday being the day of worship and most everything is closed till the afternoon. We were invited out to visit and swim, etc at one of the couple’s villa on Friday afternoon. It was very pleasant and the heat was not a problem, it is hot but things kind of work around the hottest time of day.

Did I mention the golf clubs, seems one of the school administrators is a golf person, so I get to go play golf Saturday, therefore the excess baggage may be worth the expense. The other thing, it is night golf, during this time of year because of the heat. Hope the lights cover a wide area, my golf balls do at times.

In-country continued

We get loaded, everything leaves on time, and we meet our next flight to London. This was where I had to pay for the extra bag, hoped it would slip through, but no luck. I needed the “Golf Clubs” so that was part of it. Flight to London was pleasant, meals were ok, service was good and we landed on time. Heathrow airport takes a lot of walking to get from gate to gate. We landed in terminal 4 and departed from terminal 4 but we walked a long way, stood in lines, went through screening again but got to our gate with plenty of time. This part of the trip began at 7:00 EDT in Philly and landed in London at 7:00AM the next morning (Monday).

We left London at 10:00 AM on Monday and got to Doha at 9:00PM, Monday night. We traveled a little over 23 hours but with the 7 hour time difference, we were dragging. On arrival in Doha, Qatar, we got through customs, passports and visas, fairly easily. No worst than any other county we have stood in line to enter, and better than some. Luggage went through x-ray but nothing was found, I left all the “pork, porn, and liquor” at home, even left a small brandy on the British Air flight.

We were picked up at the airport by a nice person from the school, traffic was everything we had heard, and we got to our apartment in one piece. Brand new apartment, we are the first people in the building and it was only 92 degrees when we landed. We both slept till 11:00 am the next morning (Tuesday) so our first day started slow. Once we started moving, I fixed breakfast from the toast, juice, fruit and milk that the school had left for us. I then called the school and they came and got us for our first visit. Because we were one of the first new teachers to arrive, they were still getting everything ready for the start of school but the reception could not have been nicer. The Director stopped what he was doing to greet us and show us around, he got me into my office and got the network and internet connections started so I could check e-mail, etc. After we left the Director, we met another couple who work in the administration and they offered to take us to dinner and shopping and a little intro to Doha.

In-country

This is the update from in-county, we have arrived. I will start at the week before departure. Our packing went very well; we shipped 2 large boxes (140lbs) by FedEx on the Friday before our Sunday departure. Our shipping allowance of $800.00 covered this cost (we hope). We had a Friday night dinner with 4 of our friends; it was very special that they went to the trouble for us. It was greatly appreciated.

On Saturday morning, we went down our check list of items and most everything was taken care of. I did go by the Bank of Athens ( they have been great) for Travelers Checks and cash for the trip. We finished our packing, which included 2 large suitcases each, a carry-on bag and a computer bag, which doubled as a carry-on for some things which wouldn’t fit anywhere else. We weighted the large bags as we were limited to 70 lbs per bag. All were about 65 lbs so that was a go.

Sunday morning our daughter and son-in-law arrived to take us to the plane for an afternoon departure. Getting everything loaded even in their SUV was a little tight. Oh, did I mention the golf clubs, we decided to take them as extra baggage, if the airlines would let allow it. If not they would go back home, but it was cheaper to take them as extra baggage than ship them earlier.

We got to the flight about 2 hours before departure which was good because we had “prepaid tickets” which they only process a couple of times per year, so it took reading a manual for the USAir staff to make it happen. The first scare was when I placed the bags on the scale, the lady told me they were 15 lbs overweight, no way, I had weighted them at home and they were only 65 lbs and we were allowed 70lbs per bag. After I finished panicking because I had no clue what to do with the extra stuff at this stage, we figured out that on International flights, the limit is 70 lbs and we were OK (50 on domestic). The next incident was almost as much fun; we got the full TSA inspection experience because we had one way tickets purchased in the Middle East. Think about it, makes sense, but why me? This adventure starts at 2:45 EDT when we leave our home airport. (Remember that time)