Wedding

We were invited to a wedding of a couple of our staff members this weekend. My first Arabic wedding, a lot like a US wedding reception, food, music, dancing, etc.

Thanksgiving update

We had Thanksgiving dinner at some friends from VCU, about 100+/- people. Had about 20 soldiers from the airbase as special guests and more food than we all could eat. We took a Pecan pie, a couple of Key Lime pies, ice tea and other goodies. The other white meat was on the menu as a special treat, don't get it here often plus turkey and all the trimmings. Thank goodness they have a large villa with a very large backyard.

Thanksgiving Doha style

We will be having a thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, 60 people at a friends villa, will be a lot like home except all friends and no family. Sure do miss having family around.

Turkey, and other meats, adult beverages, pecan pie, a big potluck kind of meal.

We are down to 14 days till it is home time for almost a month. Christmas will be fun as the grand baby is 3 + years old and likes the fun and excitement. The stores here are putting out the Christmas decorations and I am working on the Black Friday sales deals. Christmas is in the air as the temps have dropped to a bearable level.

Things are normal

I have just spent the weekend in Adu Dhabi playing golf and visiting some friends that have moved from Doha to the Emirate. The bird shaped building is the club house for the National course.

Had a good time, played the National course where they have the European Tour event, etc. Got to eat Mexican and Chinese, both of which are in short supply in Doha.

Things in Doha are getting close to the end of the first semester and we are getting ready for the Christmas flight home and some grandbaby time.

Just so you can get an idea of some of the fun of living in the Gulf, I am posting a link to another Blog for a lady that has been here since August with Northwestern University. Her take on the country is interesting.

Roth Blog

Football and elections

You know, being here and having to get the football news by reading about it is interesting. Not fulfilling but interesting. Looks like Phil Fulmar is toast and probably deserved based on the last few seasons and the increased level of competition. This is kind of the way I am looking at the election. Time for some new direction.

This is like the train wreck of Wall Street, I can sit here and watch but can't do anything about it. I have written all the elected representatives I can find and they seem to be drinking the Kool-Aid of taking care of their Wall Street friends, they were not worried about bailing out my small business when the hard times hit.

I will not vote for either of our Senators or Zack Wamp again, they are not any different than a Tax and Spend Democrat except they want the grandkids to pay for their spending. If these are things we should be doing, then pay for it. If you can't bring yourself to vote for the money to pay for something, then don't spend it.

The 850B bailout for Wall Street would have been better spent on my 401K, but they don't seem to care about what happens to a regular person, just the big campaign contributors. We need to teach the Republicans a lesson during this election, they forgot how to watch over spending and spent more than a Democrat would. I hope when they get their A$$'s kicked by the public, they learn the lesson they forgot when they took over in the 90's. I normally believe in a split government but this one time, I hope the Republican party gets its' tail kicked for not doing the right thing. I plan on voting out the Democrats in 4 years but the GOP has to learn a hard lesson, if you are not going to be different, who needs you. Read read the article WWJD at http://www.frankcagle.com/

Kind of the same thing for Fulmar, if he can't deliver, then replace him.

Life as usual

Back from our trip to Cyprus, overall a good trip but as usual after being in country, we would have done some things differently. First let me say, the Euro is killing any more trips for me to EU countries, the rental car and hotels were not too far out of line on cost BUT food was way over the top. We will normally eat at a chain restaurant (at least once) to compare cost, etc between countries. The hamburger that is $8 in US, is $11 in Doha, was $17 in Cyprus. Nothing was cheap on the Greek side, the Turkish side was a little more reasonable and less developed so we enjoyed that part of the trip, if we did it again, more time on the Turkish side and less in the Greek side. Looks like all future trips will have to be toward the East where the dollar $$$ still has some value. Hello Thailand or Bali.

What is happening?

Yea, I know it has been almost a year since I last posted but in some ways it is the same thing. In a lot of ways this is a boring gig, working in the Gulf. Qatar is a small place (country), it is not as big as East Tennessee and a whole lot less to do and see. Not much history, not much to do besides sand, the beaches are dirty so that is no fun.

We have been back in Doha since July 21st, 2008 and have started a new school year. The ABP has grown from 200 students to 300 for the 2008-2009 school year.

There seems to be more challenges every year with living in Doha, traffic is worst each year, requirements from the country to work here get worst, changes to rules for Expats are getting to be more of a burden, all in all, this is not as easy a place to be as 4 years ago.

That being said, we are still traveling and seeing the world.