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.