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.

Travel again

We have been back about 10 weeks and it is time to go again. This time we are off to Sri Lanka. Looks like seven days of we hope sun, not the rainy season. Will be on the beach at Eden Resort, may even get to see the temple of the tooth.

This is our new housing, 2 bedroom duplex

All the roads were not Interstate highways.

This is what you will be driving in a few years, gas at $5/Gal.

Update on Travel

We have had our Spring Break and the NESA Conference in Athens Greece. The vacation part of the trip was great, saw some very pretty county, met some nice people and had a very good time. The driving was OK but I did not drive in Athens, that place was a zoo. The country side was easy except for the narrow roads and the big tour buses.

The educational conference was a good learning experience and provided me with some ideas to help our program for the next year. It is good to meet with other educators from around the Middle East/South Asia area and see what is happening.

The Education City/ Qatar Foundation has just had a golf tournament and every one's favorite hillbilly was on the winning team. I guess that it shows that lack of practice can be overcome by having good partners. That is the first time I have picked up the clubs since Christmas in the USofA.

We just had Easter, some of the schools were off, some weren't. Some people took off, some didn't so kind of a slow day on Sunday. Some of our students wanted to know if they could be off for Easter like a couple of the Universities, sorry but in most cases you don't get two sets of holidays. Watched a little of the Masters, glad I wasn't freezing my ears off. Nice place to be but it sure looked chilly.

We are now down to the rest of this week plus 2 more and then finals. This time of year gets hard to motivate students, teachers and anyone else in the school business.

The times they are a'changing, at least the weather

Scattered rain forecast for today
Web posted at: 3/15/2007 4:6:43
Source ::: The Peninsula doha • The city and its outskirts are expected to witness scattered rains, along with dusty and hot south-easterly winds today, heralding the arrival of summer.

Yes the weather is changing, the last week has seen a real warm up during the day. We are still having cool breezes at night but that will quit soon, I am afraid.

Like lots of things, not much we can do about the weather except make sure the air cond is working.

One of our friends has just bought the entire 7 seasons of "West Wing" and they are having a "West Wing" party tonight. I will probably stay in the kitchen, near the "punch". Had another go at the Pub Quiz Night, still next to last. We are going to have to find some better questions, ones we know. At least we have now avoided the last place finish, twice in a row.

There will be St Patty Day parties this weekend, Irish singers, etc at most of the hotels and clubs. If we make one, it will be Gravey's Irish Pub, they have a Canadian singer who does Irish songs, yea I know but it is as close as we can get.

Doha now has a Virgin Superstore for books and music, been needed for a while, prices are not bad. Just takes a while for the world to get to Doha.

Dunestock07

Time between trips

We made it to Dunestock 07, got the t-shirt, etc. Really got a t-shirt for the Grand daughter, she will have to grow into it but only one size for children. I did get a double XX chubby for me. Music was OK, maybe a little less than OK, some were very amateur. Kind of American Idol with adult beverages in the crowd, which means most people didn't care. I will post a couple of pictures.

The yard sale, I mentioned last time had a few leftover plants so we got a pickup truck and brought home a load. We are now up to 15 large potted plants, not counting what is in the ground. Next chore is to find a dependable gardener for the summer while we are in the USofA. Next problem will come if we have to move into the new QF housing, that is a bunch to move. Hopefully we will not be moving next year, as most of the faculty has to move to the new housing to free up the present on-campus housing for students. Since we are off campus, maybe we will be left to the second round when the new housing is ready.

We have our spring break in 10 days and we are going to Greece for vacation and an Education Conference. Will be gone about 9-10 days. Our daughter and son-in-law are meeting us from the USA so we are looking forward to the visit.

Busy time

We have had the first dust storm of the season, makes for a very hazy, hard to breathe kind of day. You get a level of dust on everything that is outside. We have some friends that are moving to Dubai, they had their Yard Sale on Friday during the dust storm. Sale was not real successful but my dear wife got a bunch of new plants, and I got an outdoor bar to go with my charcoal grill.

What is a fairly normal weekend like in Doha, the dullest city on earth, well on Thursday we went to Garvey's Irish Family Club for supper, drinks and a going away party for the above mentioned Yard Sale? Friday morning we helped at the dusty yard sale and went to a Trivial Pursuit party in the evening. A couple of weeks ago, some of us entered a Pub Quiz night at the Rugby Club and got embarrassed, came in next to last, wrong end of the lineup. The Trivial Pursuit Party was to practice; problem was we used the Brit version so some of the questions were a little off the wall.

Sat was haircut day and time to arrange the travel for home this summer (more later), then we went to dinner with a couple of new people in town, (plus 5 old friends) to introduce them to Doha fine dining (Applebee’s). If that didn't give us time to relax, tonight we are going to a B'day party and then Comedy Night at the Ramada. Hope they are funny enough to keep me awake, at my age, all this running around is tough.

Next weekend, is Dunestock 07, (http://www.dunestock.net.qa/) a 12 hour music fest at the singing dunes on Friday and then I am going to the Superbikes Moto races on Sat.

Like I say, there is nothing to do, but I get more rest during the work week than the weekends.