A Red Carpet Evening

What a wonderful evening! I went directly from work to the other apartment building that houses UC-Q staff with Jackie, another staff member. From there we joined several members of the staff of College of the North Atlantic-Qatar in cars that took us down to the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) where the opening night of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival was being held. The Middle East premiere of "Amelia" was the feature event, and it was being shown on a huge outdoor screen on the amazingly beautiful grounds of the museum. We arrived quite early - before 5:00 - and the movie was not to start until 8:00. We walked around the grounds a bit before we found seats. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous with rows of palm trees and these amazing, enormous pots with lighted up, very colourful, sculptured (fake) flowers that moved in the wind - they were easily 20 feet high. There were 3,000 folding festival height sling chairs set up - they were so comfortable and spaced far apart so you could walk between the rows very easily and without stepping on people's toes. The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra performed, and it was so beautiful to listen to the music on this lovely warm evening with a gentle breeze coming off the Gulf. A theatre group did a performance depicting the history of Qatar with traditional music and dancing. On the big screens on either side of the stage we were treated to watching the arrival of the stars and the film directors and producers on the red carpet which as at the entrance to the museum. There must have been some event inside for the VIPs. The movie was pretty good, directed by a Middle Eastern woman. After the movie there were fireworks - and Doha does it big time! They lasted about 20 minutes and each one was better than the last.

Sleep tight!

Settling in

Saturday was a better and interesting day. I guess you could call it "coffee day". In the morning, I went to Starbucks for coffee with a couple of women from my apartment building. The concept of time here seems so different to me. We must have sat in Starbucks for 2 hours, and I wasn't even antsy to leave! At noon, another woman from work who lives in the other apartment building which is about a 15-20 minute walk from my building, came to pick me up and we walked to another coffee shop where we meet two other women for coffee. We had a great time chatting away, and I thought surely it must be about dinner time when I looked at my watch and found it was only 2:00! Because it was still so early some of us went upstairs to a great home store to look for more stuff for setting up our homes. Truly, this shopping goes on forever! Every time I go to do something in the kitchen, I find I'm lacking something. The other night I realized I didn't have a can opener. I called my neighbour, Marianne, to ask if she had one I could borrow. When she gave it to me I went to open the can and return it to her right away, and found the can was one of those with a peel back lid. I felt a little silly, but we had a good laugh. I still need a can opener, tho!

I'm starting to feel a little better each day at work. Not much is going on that is pressing right now, so I'm spending a lot of time reading the calendar, student files, and learning the new systems that are used here. The photocopier is the fanciest machine I've ever seen - it takes me about 5 minutes to make one copy, what with all the codes and preference selections you have to make.

The upcoming weekend will be pretty busy. The Doha Tribeca Film Festival is in town starting Thursday. A group of us are going to see the opening night film - Amelia, which has probably already opened in Calgary. It's being shown outdoors on the grounds of the Museum of Islamic Arts which is a stunning structure. I hope to catch a couple of the other films as well. Apparently Martin Scorcese, Hilary Swank and some other big names are scheduled to be here.

On Sunday I will be going to the finals of a big women's tennis tournament. I hope I'll get to see Venus and/or Serena Williams play.

Not missing the cold and snow, and am slowly getting acclimated to the heat and humidity. Did a load of laundry last night and since there is no dryer in my apartment I have to hang things to dry. (Everyone here has a drying rack in their spare bedroom.) The clothes are almost dry after 24 hours! I may think about getting a dryer. I asked someone else who has one how she vents it. She has it in her second bedroom and merely opens the window and closes the door to the bedroom to vent the dryer outside!

More later!

Has is really been a whole week?

Isn’t amazing how you look forward to something for so long and then how quickly it passes? The anticipation of arriving and experiencing all the newness of Qatar consumed me for a while, and now I am here and finding all the strange and interesting things to be a part of my everyday existence.

Made it through the first week (albeit a short one – 4 days) in my new job. In addition to feeling very much like the village idiot in so far as what I’m supposed to be doing in my day-to-day tasks, I am struggling not only with remembering the names of my new UC-Q colleagues (well not the 3 other women in Student Services – my memory isn’t that bad), but then there are the students’ names and those are completely foreign (no kidding!) to me! I hope I will catch on to the Arabic names eventually! The women students mostly wear the abaya (sp?), the black head-to-toe robe-like garment. Most of these are trimmed with beading or braiding. Often all you can see of the face is their lovely eyes. Others expose their entire face – lovely warm faces, indeed. I understand that under the abayas these women are wearing beautiful designer label clothing. There are a few men students and they wear the white robes and head things, the name of which escapes me right now; and they are very handsome.

On Thursday, I went for the medical ‘stuff’ that is required in order to obtain my Resident Permit (RP). This included a chest x-ray, blood test and blood typing. One of our HR staff (Priya – a lovely young woman from India) took me to the government medical facility where we met the newly arrived Director of Admin, Paul Corcoran, and his wife Kerrie. Of course, Kerrie and I had to go to the Female section, and Paul to the Male section. Mr. Saju, the driver, led Paul through the paces on that side, and Priya greased the wheels on the Female side for Kerrie and me. The line-ups were fairly long, but Priya had phoned ahead to one of her connections so it ended up taking us only about an hour to complete everything. I still have the fingerprinting piece to complete, and I’m not sure when that will happen. Then I wait for my RP, which will likely take a couple of weeks.

I can drive on my International license for a week and can then get a temporary driver’s license until the RP comes through at which time I can get the permanent license. It means more $$ to pay for the temporary license and then the permanent, but it may be worth it to have the freedom of driving. Then there will be the challenge of learning to drive like a Qatari! The driving is a little nuts to say the least. The round-abouts are a free-for-all; in fact, most of the roads are a free-for-all. It is a little scary, but I understand that you get used to it.

After work on Thursday, four of us (CJ, Jenny and her husband, Aaron) went up to the roof of our building for an end-of-the-week happy hour. I don’t yet have a permit to purchase liquor, but I do have generous colleagues who have shopped for me and have shared their wine. Anyway, the sun was going down, there was a beautiful breeze, and the call to prayer was just starting. It was the first time I heard a call to prayer – which is pretty amazing for having been here almost a week by that time. It’s a rather mesmerizing sound and I found it quite relaxing – and that was before I had started on my glass of wine! What a lovely way to end the work week. I think we need to make it a tradition!

Friday was a bit of a bummer day for me – and it is expected that there will be more of these downer days; that’s just normal. I hadn’t slept well – again, but I was determined that I was going out to explore my new neighborhood. At 9:30 I headed out – it was very quiet since Friday is the holy day here. I did not remember to wear a hat and didn’t take any water with me – and it was hot, by my standards. I got about 6 blocks from home and realized that I wouldn’t make it back if I went much farther. So, feeling a failure, I turned around and headed for home. I realized later that I was probably walking at my too-fast-for-the-heat Canadian pace, too. You need to do more of a stroll here.

Now, I must describe the neighborhood for you. There is an incredible amount of construction going on so there are cranes and hoarding all over the place. The streets look more like alleys than streets - they are so narrow. Drivers would just as soon hit you as not, so you are on your own to get out of their way! This is sort of how I envisioned India, but I’m betting India is worse. The population here is about 80% male – mostly expat construction workers who are called “the bachelors”. The bachelors are everywhere and it is kind of creepy to be out walking and see no other women. There is really no danger from what the other female UC-Q staff members tell me, and they go walking alone at night without problems. Crime is very low here. I have heard of people leaving their vehicles running when they have a quick stop at a store – just to keep the air conditioning running to keep the car cool. Sort of the reverse of a Canadian winter and keeping the car warm, only you’d not have a car when you came out of the store in Canada!

Back to my Friday . . . when I got back home, I read a bit, did some emailing (my little Mac is becoming my lifeline) and took a long nap. Naps tend to make me feel drowsy-lousy when I wake up, so I prefer not to nap, but I couldn’t keep awake. When I woke, I forced myself to get moving around the apartment to do a little organizing and making it more like home. That’s an ongoing process and the shopping never seems to end as I remember things that I need to make this my home! At 4:00 I decided to give walking another try. I figure I have to get acclimatized by taking baby steps . . . a few short walks to get used to the heat and humidity (although I don’t find the humidity to be as oppressive as it can be in Chicago). I found a hat and a water bottle among the UC-Q swag that I accumulated on my first day at the office so I was better prepared. I headed off in a different direction and was successful in finding my way around a bit more.

Friday night I went out for dinner with Fred (my boss), his wife Michelle, and two other UC-Q folks – Marianne from HR and Gail from External Relations. It was amazing - the type of place I NEVER imagined I would find myself. We ate at a restaurant where we had a table on the roof. It was a riot because there was no lighting and we were all reading the menus by the light of our cell phones! I had a traditional Qatari chicken dish, the name of which I can't remember right now; and it was hard to see so I can't say that it looked good or not. It was a sort of stewed chicken with carrots, potatoes and squash in a tomato sauce. After dinner we wandered through the souks and looked at all the various jewelry, textiles, watches, bedding, clothing, etc, etc. Fascinating!

On to the next adventure . . .

What day is it?

Although the date on this says, Monday, Oct. 19, I'm really writing this on Wednesday, Oct. 21st.

Ok, when we last left our heroine, she was just about to move into her new apartment!

My driver picked me up at the Four Seasons Hotel at noon on Sunday and as we drove further away from the water front and closer to the apartment building, I realized that my days of being spoiled were over. The city is, as most of you have heard, under construction and it looks a bit like a war-zone in some areas, only you have to remind yourself that it is CONstruction, not DEstruction! We arrived at the apartment building, which is a brand new building and not completely finished. The street looks more like a wide alley - dirt street with a huge crater right in front of the building. The front is so unfinished that we have to climb a make-shift stairway made of a pile of bricks. However, once you get past that, the building is quite nice. My apartment is on the 7th floor, #701, with a view of rooftop air conditioning units and satellite dishes! The elevators are a kick - about 4x4 feet (and that may be a stretch) with mirrored walls with scrolly etching on the mirrors. I will try to add some photos later of the outside of the building and my apartment, but I have no internet at home, so am doing this from work (lunch hour and after hours).

My apartment has two huge bedrooms and 1 full and 1 half bath, a large living and dining room - the table is round and can seat 8 easily. The living room furniture is what we call "Arabic Chic" and not terribly comfy, but it works well enough. The half bath is situated so that you look from the dining and living rooms right into the bathroom, so I keep that door closed most of the time. The kitchen is basic and could use more cupboards (a woman's usual lament about her kitchen), but is serviceable. I am actually quite happy with the space despite the obvious drawbacks in workmanship. The tiling looks like it was done by a grade 7 shop class - really pathetic. There is a huge gouge out of the flooring in my bedroom, and the kitchen sink/counter is metal with no bracing, so when you open the cupboard under the sink you scrape the cupboard door on the underside of the sink. The air conditioning has controls that indicate 3 fan speeds, but there is really only one speed - fast and loud (for those who work in Enrolment Services, think the Conference Room at 9:00 a.m.)! I have tried different ways of running it through the night so I won't wake up gasping for air; the best seems to be to run the unit in the living area only and to wear earplugs!

The first day I moved in, my assigned "buddy", Marianne, took me to a shopping centre called Villagio where there is a store called Carrefour - the French equivalent of Walmart. I got some basic stuff, but hadn't made a list (typical Kathy), so ended up with no pillow, duvet or towels. Can't remember at this point exactly what I DID get, but it must have been some pretty useless stuff. Marianne had to get back to the office, but CJ met me with our driver and got me home with my useless stuff. We then walked to an Arabian restaurant near our building for dinner; had a good meal, and then went to another store where I picked up some bedding so I could at least go to bed that night. Slept ok until about 3:30 and then could not get back to sleep . . . . all in preparation for my first day at the office!

It was great to see Fred and some of the others I knew from UofC, met my new colleagues and had a tour of campus. By 2:00 I was completely bagged but managed to make it to the end of the day. When I got home, I lay down for a while but felt so lousy - I can't remember feeling quite so awful before. I couldn't even get up or even think what to do re: dinner, although I knew I needed to eat something. Well, CJ came to the rescue again. She called to see if I wanted to go to dinner and I explained my situation. She brought up some food and sat and listened to me talk. It's at about this time that I was questioning my sanity for coming to Doha! It's normal and I'm sure I'll experience the feelings again, but the food and sympathetic ear helped me immensely, as did an early bed night and the realization that I was in need of completing the furnishing of my new home. It's really hard to do the "urban camping" thing. I did get a very good night's sleep and left the next morning for work feeling more rested, but wondering what my job will entail.

My assigned office also has some interesting quirks. It is freezing cold (thank God for the fleece wrap Nina made for me, which also kept me cozy on the flight from Calgary to London - brrrr that was cold, too); and has four of the these floor thingies for electical wiring that I have to roll over all the time. At the end of my 2nd day, I asked Fred if I could move into the office next door which is a bit warmer (but not much) and w/o the floor problem. My new office was originally to be for the admin assistant since it is right by the entrance to the Student Services area. That may be a draw back, but I think this location will help me to become acquainted with the students much more quickly.

At the end of my second day of work (day 4 in Doha) I was feeling pretty good, and Marianne took me to do a bit more shopping for things like a rug for the bathroom, a shower curtain (since I'd been hunkering down in the tub to shower for the past 2 days, a couple of lamps for the bedside tables, some more kitcheny stuff and cleaning supplies. When we got home, I seemed to be missing a bag. Marianne and I looked in her car, her apartment (which was tricky because her power was out so we were using the flashlight in her cell phone) and then Marianne realized that I hadn't retrieved the bag from the store where I had to check it when we went into it. I was relieved that she remembered it. I can get my driver (Arshad) to take me there at lunchtime tomorrow the pick it up. I had dinner (some version of Kraft Dinner and raw veggies) and set to work getting the shower curtain up, washing the dusty floors, taking out garbage (there's no such thing as recycling here) and I had tons of wrappers, boxes, bags, etc. that had to go out. I opened the boxes of the two bedside lamps only to find they were completely smashed. Returned those today (Wednesday) when I picked up the wayward bag I'd left behind.

So far, I'm happy I made the move. I know I have huge challenges ahead, both in personal and professional terms. I'm still dealing with jet lag in a big way and understand it can take a couple of weeks before I will feel "normal" again. (But maybe the flu shot I had yesterday is contributing to my tired, achy feeling today.) The need to depend on a driver to get around is proving to be a real challenge to me, as is the fact that I don't know where the hell I am most of the time. I hope on the weekend to go out and do some walking around on my own to learn my way around the immediate neighbourhood anyway. I can't get my driver's license until I get my Resident Permit, and that usually takes 3-4 weeks, so I will be using Arshad (my driver) for a while. There are cool discoveries all the time, tho, which makes everyday so interesting. One thing I think is so cool is the ramps they have instead of escalators. They are like flat escalators (no stairs - just ramps) and you can push your basket or stroller onto the ramp and they don't roll down the ramp! It is sooo cool and makes so much sense!

My work day is coming to an end (Wednesday). I am again extraordinarily tired. Tomorrow I go for my medical "stuff" - blood work, x-ray and blood type. Another day I will have to be finger-printed . . . . all part of the process of getting my resident permit. Hopefully, I will get over the jet lag soon and be able to feel like I can make it through the day without a nap! More later!

Seat G34 and the first couple of days

When I did my flight check-in on-line I saw I was assigned seat G34. I noticed this was on the aisle, and immediately behind a wall. “Perfect” I thought, “I’ll have a lot of leg room!” For my first trans-Atlantic flight I was looking forward to being as comfortable as possible, expecting that a long flight would be less than enjoyable. Once on the plane I discovered my “perfect” seat was right behind the toilets! The wall I had seen on the floor plan was the wall of the toilets!!! (You seasoned travelers are having a good laugh now, aren’t you?)

After getting settled in the row of 4 seats, with only one other person, and she at the other end, a couple seated behind us decided they wanted more leg room and moved up to the two empty seats next to me. They were very friendly and I enjoyed a great conversation with them throughout dinner. As the lights went down and everyone settled into watching movies, reading or sleeping, the folly of my choice of seat became more evident. Everybody on the flight had to use the loo – repeatedly - and the parade went on for the entire flight. Trying to sleep was nearly impossible, as every time someone opened the door to the loo, the bright light shone right in my eyes, and the SSSSSTHHHWAP sound of every flush was heard continuously. Fortunately, the odor wasn’t noticeable – thank God for small favours. I had expected to be unable to sleep on the plane – I’ve never slept well on planes, trains and automobiles - and this flight was certainly no exception!

Met a very nice man seated behind me on the flight who was also connecting to the same flight to Doha that I was on. He kindly led me through the maze of Terminal 3 at Heathrow to connecting flights. Terminal 3 is a real trip – you can shop ‘til you drop. Too bad I didn’t have any room in my carry-on to fit anything else. The people-watching is amazing, simply because there are sooooo many people! It isn’t different than other airports, really – just way more people.

Then on to Doha aboard Qatar Airways – a 5-star airline. Flight attendants were dressed in formal uniforms including the kinds of hats you would have seen in about the ‘60’s. The service was very friendly and efficient. Contrary to my expectation of an airline from a Muslim country, there was liquor service! Dinner was – well, let me provide you with the menu:

Penne Pasta Salad

Choice of Entrée:

Lamb Kofta with tomato and pine nut salsa

Roasted potato cubes

Creole style crab cakes

Tex mex rice with corn and beans

Tofu masala with spinach and pine seeds

Yellow rice

Baby okra with onions and tomato

Dessert

Apple and cinnamon sultana cake

Bread roll, cheese and crackers

Tea or coffee

Chocolate

I chose the lamb and it was quite good.

The flight was slightly less than 7 hours – shorter than the flight from Calgary to London, but probably due to building exhaustion, it seemed longer. Arrived about 15 minutes earlier than the scheduled midnight landing. In Doha many flights seem to arrive late at night because the airport was buzzing with activity. When you de-plane, buses shuttle you to the terminal. I was met at the bottom of the stairs of the plane by a young woman with a sign saying “Mrs. Kathleen Brownlee” – I’ve never experienced that before. She got me on the bus and then met me at the arrivals area of the terminal where I was taken to a beautiful lounge to wait while she took my passport and cleared me through immigration (which took all of about 5 minutes) and arranged for my bags to be picked up from the baggage carousel. After confirming that those two black behemoths were indeed mine, she led me out to a black BMW from the Four Seasons and I was driven through Doha to the hotel. What a beautiful city and a glorious evening it was. It was Friday night, the end of the holy day and people were out enjoying the night. We passed a playground that was crawling with kids on the playground equipment – and this was after midnight! People were out walking along the Corniche – the walkway along the Arabian Gulf. The new and very impressive buildings were lit up and looking amazing. The new Museum of Islamic Art is a stunning building, and we also passed by the offices of the Emir. In spite of being so tired, I found myself looking around in amazement. I can’t believe I’m really here!

Saturday night

Woke up @ about 8:30 feeling amazingly rested. I showered, dressed and went down to breakfast, but didn’t realize until after I ate that I could have sat outside – will certainly do that tomorrow. After breakfast I went for a walk on the beach along the Gulf – water was very warm; and checked out the hotel’s pool and beach area. Then I asked the concierge about walking in the area of the hotel. She gave me a map and directed me out to the Corniche, where I headed for a bit of a walk only to find it was already waaay to hot for this unacclimatized Canuck! So I headed back to the hotel. I went through the welcome box (a beautiful white box embossed with UC-Q in gold and wrapped in a gold ribbon) that contained a welcome letter, my itinerary for the next 3-4 days, keys to my apartment, a cell phone, and other reference materials. I called my ‘buddy’, Marianne, who recommended that I just enjoy the day of rest and being spoiled at the Four Seasons Hotel. I also spoke to CJ who was out for a great day at the beach, but we planned to have dinner together. I felt a little tired and thought I’d lie down for a half hour. After waking up 4 hours later, I realized I must have been more tired than I felt. CJ phoned and we made arrangements for her driver to pick her up and then come to get me and head out somewhere for dinner. Jackie Dumont recommended the Asian Traditional restaurant that has Chinese, Filipino and Taiwanese food. We opted for all Chinese and it was excellent! CJ and I had a good time sharing our travel to Doha experiences and CJ offered me some advice for settling in. After dinner we walked a bit up the street. I have learned that you are fair game for drivers, so unlike Calgary, as a pedestrian, you have no assurance that you will make it across the street unscathed. Continue to enjoy watching the people. Back to the hotel and hopefully will get some sleep to be ready to check out of the hotel and move into my new digs tomorrow. Will have to do a little shopping and try to start thinking in riyals instead of CDN dollars.

Crazy Week!

The past week has been ridiculous with the amount of meetings (lawyer, tax consultant, insurance company, pre-relocation session, bank, doctor, etc., etc)! My head is spinning with information overload, and I'm at the point at which I simply want to get on the plane and GO!!! Of course, the lunches, dinners, and coffees with friends I won't see for a long time have been the best part. I've been so busy that I haven't missed going to work . . . yet. But that will be resolved soon as I face learning a new job, in a new country.

The most fun thing that happened this week was receiving an email from newest UC-Q employee in which she included a video of her apartment in Doha. I will be in the same apartment building, so suspect that my apartment will be similar, if not identical.

Oh, no! Snow! . . . . . I'm ready to go! (almost)

Woke up today to snow on the ground and still coming down in Calgary, and to my visa and airline ticket to Doha having arrived in my in-box. All set for my adventure to begin on October 15th - leaving at 7:20 pm. It seems very real now that I have the documents. Do you think it means anything that my visa shows my proffession (sic) as "teacher", and that my airline ticket has me returning to Calgary on October 21st? Sure hope I last longer over there than 5 days!