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.