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 . . .