Eid Mubarak!

Qatar is celebrating Eid Al Adha, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Hajj – the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The University is closed until December 6th and many UCQ staff are on vacations to wonderful places. Quite a few others, however, are staying in town, so there are plenty of people still in town with whom to explore Qatar. The holiday started Wednesday after work, with a party at the apartment of woman named Gaylene who teaches at the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar. Most of the staff members at the College are from the Maritimes and, they sure know how to have a good time - lots of great food, drink, games and laughter. Gaylene is heading back to PEI for a month, so she threw this as a Christmas party, and had her apartment decorated for Christmas. We played a few Christmas-related party games, and although I’m not often keen on party games, these were a lot of fun and generated lots of giggles!

Thursday started at the clinic where I took care of getting some immunizations in anticipation of my trip to Sri Lanka. I probably should have taken care of it before I left Canada, but it was one of those things that I overlooked in the rush. I went to the clinic with a woman named Cathy who is a nursing instructor, as she needed to get some prescriptions refilled. She was very helpful in determining which innoculations I should get. This trip to the clinic was a way better experience than last week, so perhaps I’m feeling a bit more comfortable and confident in dealing with the language gymnastics I go through here?

The rest of the day included a couple of hours at the Museum of Islamic Art. The building itself is amazing, and the exhibits I saw were so beautiful and interesting. Cathy and I only got through about three or four of the rooms and plan to go back – probably several times. After a couple of hours in the museum we went for about a long walk along the Corniche before heading home.

Museum of Islamic Arts

View from bridge to the entrance to the Museum

These are water filters that were crafted inside water jugs so when the water jugs were whole, they were not visible, but each one is a different design and they were really beautiful.

This is a leather book cover that is about 15 x 24 inches. The design was branded into the leather and then each line was painted in with gold. It was very painstaking and intricate work.

See? I really am here! That's me in front of a fountain at the Museum. In the background you can see some of the buildings in Doha.

I had an appointment with a dentist that evening – if you can believe it, the appointment was for 8:00 PM, and I wasn’t the last appointment of the day/evening. The office location was odd – I am pretty surprised I actually found it! When you turn off the main road to get to the office, it looks like you are driving through a huge empty lot to nowhere. But eventually you come across some newer looking buildings and suddenly there it is! And Curves is right next door. Interestingly, the dentist I saw was from Montreal!

A group of us went to use the pool at the Ezdan Hotel on Friday. It was a really warm day so it was great to be able to cool off in the pool. It wasn’t as nice a setting as the InterContinental Hotel we went to a few weeks ago, but it was waaay less expensive ($20 CDN vs. $80 CDN). The InterContinental as Ladies Day on Wednesday when access to the gym and fitness facilities is free, so of course, we have a group heading down there on Wednesday!

I must be starting to feel that this is my home because Saturday when I was grocery shopping at Carrefour, I saw a small patio set – table and 2 chairs that I bought for my balcony. I have the tiniest little balcony with a view of a rooftop full of satellite dishes and air conditioning units – not exactly the most attractive view, so I didn’t think at first that I would actually want to spend much time out there, especially when it was so hot. But now that it has cooled off, I think it would be nice to sit out there and read with my cup of tea on weekend mornings. So I was pleased to find the table and chairs. Now I just want to add some plants or potted flowers. The balcony is on the north side of the building so it doesn’t get direct sun and I won’t fry out there – at least not until the intense heat returns. Here's a photo of what it looks like; just needs a few plants/pots of flowers to perk it up:

Saturday night one of the English for Academic Purposes instructors (Virginia) who lives in my building hosted a potluck dinner at her apartment. One of the good things about this building is that all the apartments on each floor have different floor plans. Her apartment is larger than mine and really lends itself well to entertaining as she has two sitting areas. Virginia is now known affectionately as “Martha Stewart” because she has really thrown herself into making her apartment her “home”. She has removed all the ugly paintings that came with the apartment and put up lots of art and wall hangings, etc., added plants and decorative accessories. It is beautiful, and so comfortable. I have to remember that I’ve only been here 5 weeks so am likely not yet ready to settle in quite so completely. I realize that this is my home for the next 3 years, so I suspect I will slowly start to add things to make the apartment my own.

The rest of the week off of work stretches ahead of me with plans to do either a desert trip or go see the camel jockeys train the camels at the camel race track, or perhaps attend the camel races. Some have said watching the training is more interesting than the races. I hope to get to the Gold Souk as well. What I find interesting here is that the same sort of businesses will group in an area. For example, there a whole area of auto supply and repair places, or whole streets of just phone stores. I was looking at glasses and in one block there were four optical shops. Sure saves on running around to compare! So at the Gold Souk you find tons of shops just selling gold jewelry and I can’t yet even imagine what other gold items I will find. Historically, Qatar was a trade and pearling center due to its proximity to huge oyster banks, so pearls here are reknown. I will be looking for those too!

Rites of Passage

At last . . . . I think I have now completed all of what we call 'the rites of passage' to be set to live the life of an expat in Doha. Tuesday CJ and I both had appointments for installation of our cable, internet and phone. Since Qtel is the only game in town, they can really hold you hostage. They let you know what day they are coming and will phone you about an hour before they arrive . . . or at least that's what is supposed to happen. So you stay home from work all day to wait. I got a call at 10:45 saying he would be here in a half an hour. He arrived at about 12:30. When he had finished at 1:30, CJ and I decided that it was hardly worth it to go to the office of an hour and a half, so we decided we would head out to get our liquor permits, the last 'set up' item on our lists.

The one and only liquor store in Doha (and perhaps in all of Qatar) is way out in the hinterland and it is not the sort of location you can simply stumble across. We filled out our applications, had the required letter from our employer and the cash for the deposit (1000 QR - Qatari Riyals - ~$330 CDN). The letter from the employer must spell out your salary and if accommodation is provided for you. The amount of liquor you are permitted to buy is based on your salary . . . . so there's no fear that I'll end up drinking too much (i.e., not getting paid that much!). Fortunately, there were not many people there so we were processed fairly quickly - about 20 minutes. We now have yet another photo ID card (I've not had so many photos taken of me as I have since I arrived here - and pretty gross photos they are. CJ says she looks pretty wasted in her photo)! We immediately went into the liquor store and stocked up! There is a huge assortment of brands - lots of scotches I've never heard of, and it will be fun to experiment with those. The wine selection is very good with wines from all over the world, most of which I'm familiar with so I can get wines I already know I like.

A group of us went to The Pearl the other night. The Pearl is a man-made island that has lots of upscale apartments and stores, a marina with amazing yachts moored there. There are also lots of restaurants and cafes overlooking the water . . . . including a Second Cup (a Canadian coffee shop for my American readers) where we stopped for a coffee and dessert. Ah, a little taste of home! There were performers all along the water - musicians, juggler, artists, etc. The weather has been so pleasant (i.e., not too hot) that it was a very enjoyable evening.

Thursday night after work I went to the home of a woman in my office (Sondra) for an end-of-the-work-week drink . . . a great way to start the weekend. Sondra is a New Zealander, married to an Aussie, and are a really fun couple. When I got home, a group of the other UCQ people who live in my building were up on the roof having after work drinks (for a dry country, we manage to drink a fair bit). The roof is a great party room! Everyone brings their drink, a chair and some snacks and we have a great time. A group of us then went out to dinner to a restaurant that, if you didn't know it was there, you'd never find. The sign in front says "Traditional Thai Massage" but it's a Thai restaurant. Great food - and very reasonable - cheap actually! After dinner we went to see the movie "2012" which we laughed through - so predictable and silly, but great escape.

Although the date on this is Wednesday, it is now Friday. I was to go to a hotel to spend the day at the pool/beach with a group, I was not feeling too well. I've had some tummy problems for the past 4-5 days, and needed to go to the clinic to see if there's something going on. The doctor and I had some communication challenges, but managed to figure out I have 'traveler's stomach' and she gave me a prescription for an antibiotic. Interesting how prescriptions work here. When I took it to the pharmacy, they just handed me the medication. I then went to the grocery store, and when I was loading my groceries into the car, I managed to forget to put the bag with the medication into my car. When I got home I realized I didn't have that bag with me . . . . AUGGHHH! I went back to the store in hopes that I had left it at the cashier counter, but no, it was not there. I checked with Customer Service and they sent me to Security who said they had a bag with some medication in it, but it was not mine. As a last resort, I went to check if it might possibly have been left in the cart which I had left in the parking lot. Well, believe it or not, the bag was still in a cart in the parking lot!!! I couldn't believe it, but was very grateful it was there because I really wanted to get started on the medication so hopefully I will start to feel better soon.

Tonight I went to dinner and a play called "The Eight" put on by the Doha Players, an amateur theatre group made up of expats - mostly Brits and Aussies. The play was a dark comedy Christmas play about the 8 reindeer dealing with a charge of sexual assault perpetrated by Santa - disturbing concept, but it was well done and funny most of the time.

Now it's time for sleep!

Maria Andretti

Got the car on Monday and have survived a couple of scary situations already. The drive to and from work is pretty easy - only a couple of small roundabouts. I thought I had it all figured out that driving here is 99% attitude, and if you just drive like the street belongs to you, you will be ok. Yesterday on my lunch hour I drove over to pick up a theatre ticket; the route involved a very scary roundabout and traffic was very heavy. I very nearly got side-swiped getting off the roundabout, and later when I was merging into traffic off another street, I had to brake quickly to avoid hitting a car. The horns behind me were honking like mad! Today is Friday, expat driving practice day. CJ and I drove around some and I was able to find the place I have to go on Monday to get my hair cut (I'm getting desperate for that), we found a book store we have been wanting to go to (doesn't open until 4:00 on Friday), and we made it out the the compound where UCQ family housing is. We have to go to a barbeque there on Monday, so we thought we had better try to find out where we were going. After a couple of wrong turns we found it . . . it's way out in the boonies of Doha. I drove for the first little bit and than CJ took the wheel. She is feeling more confident now and ended up doing the driving for the rest of the day. There are lots of places that you can't figure out how to turn around if you make a wrong turn, so it's been an adventure!

We have decided to book the trip to Sri Lanka for Christmas time. The itinerary is wonderful - we will spend six days touring seeing an elephant orphanage, the Temple of the Tooth (Lord Buddha's upper left canine tooth), the Royal Botanical Gardens, a tea plantation, and a jeep safari in Yala National Park, among other things. The last 6 days are going to be spent at a beach resort resting from the rigors of our tour. I am very excited about this vacation!

I haven't talked much about my job - probably because all the issues around day-to-day living have consumed so much of my attention. I work in Student Services which deals with everything from recruiting students to come to our program, to admitting students to the program, registering students in their courses, advising on which courses to take, helping students with various problems and issues that arise, reviewing their academic progress, preparing students to graduate, and anything else that comes up that is student-related. My main responsibility is for the post-diploma students - those who already have a nursing diploma and are upgrading to a bachelor's degree. Most students do not meet our English language proficiency requirements so are taking English for Academic Purposes courses. Depending on their level of English proficiency, they are permitted to take one or two credit courses as well. My group of students is doing very well and we will likely be graduating about 20 of them in June. Because I arrived here after the beginning of the term, students are not in need of a lot of assistance now and I don't have a lot to do. I spend much of my time reading and familiarizing myself with the program, the processes we are using here at UCQ for tracking our students, reviewing student files, etc., etc. I work with 5 other women. Maha is our administrative assistant, who started just this week (I'm no longer the newest staff member in my office). She is Palestinian and is very nice. We also have a student counsellor, Mona Moussa, who has an interesting background. She is Lebanese, carries a German passport, did her graduate work in Australia and now lives in Doha! She looks western, and speaks Arabic. When students first came in and we introduced them to Mona, telling them she spoke Arabic, the students would look somewhat doubtful . . . until Mona started speaking very fluent Arabic . . . the looks on the students' faces were of sheer surprise. The other Student Services Officers (my title) are: Candace Jesson who handles most of the student life activities, Brier Albano who is responsible for the regular-track students (those are the students with no previous diploma who do the regular 4-year program - we call them the BNRTs - pronounced 'B-nerts'), and she is responsible for recruitment and student orientation; and Sondra Hutton who does so many things it's ridiculous. She's the previous admin assistant, so presently she is training and handing some things off to Maha. Once that is done, Sondra will be the advisor to the BNRTs and some other things I can't remember right now. Fred, my boss, must feel he's died and gone to Heaven to finally have a full staff. The past couple of years there have only been one or two staff dealing with everything. Since the program is still in start-up mode, there are many things that are being tried out so we are pioneering a lot of the things we do; and sometimes we feel like we are making it up as we go along. Am looking forward to learning more and getting to know the students better. The ones I have met are very nice. In a country where no one really has to work, I have to admire them for wanting to get an education in the first place, and to want to work in a helping profession. I hope I can help them to make a difference.

The Car Saga Continues and a weekend of fun!

Well, on Wednesday night the car was to be delivered to us at 5:00. I called at 4:15 to remind them that we would need two keys (this can often be a problem). Razwun asked if I was available then for the car to be delivered. He said he'd get in touch with the driver and call me back. He phoned at 5:30 (a half hour after the time the car was to be delivered) to say the driver would be there at 6:00 "exactly". At 6:15 I called to see if the driver was on his way and was assured that he was on his way and would be here any moment. The office is at most a 10 minute drive away from my apartment - and that's if the traffic is really bad). I went downstairs to meet him. To make a long story short, he showed up at 6:45 and the car he brought was quite a mess. It was the same type of car, but was filthy inside and out. I called Razwun to let him know the car was unacceptable. He said we should take the car and he would replace it in a day or two "without any problem". CJ was smart enough to know that there would probably be "a problem" in a couple of days, so we refused to accept the car. Razwun told me to call him in the morning to remind him to find a new car for us. (Can you believe it?!?!)

The next morning I phoned to tell Razwun that we needed a car by noon. He said he'd phone me back (the standard line). During the morning I was talking to Keltie (another staff member) who told me she was with another company and was trading her car for a different model. Lights went on in my head that we might be able to take over her car. She phoned her guy and he said that plan would be fine. Sooooo, we now expect to get our car on Sunday or Monday (and knowing this place, it will most likely be Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday). So what at first seemed like a simple process turned out to be an exercise in frustration! Oh, and Razwun never did phone me. I phoned him to tell him to cancel our order.

What did the rest of the weekend hold? Well, Thursday night I attended what is called a Wanasa Night at the College of the North Atlantic. I don't know quite how to describe it, but it is a Girls Gone Wild kind of party. The girls who are normally covered with their abayas, come to this party dressed to the nines (and they looked incredibly beautiful). Purses were searched and you had to check your camera or phone with a camera function - no photos allowed. The reason for no photos is that the women are not to be seen w/o their coverings by any man who is not a father, husband, brother, etc. The possibility of a photo being shown to someone else is great, so no photo are allowed! The room the party was held in was decorated beautifully and each attendee received a favour - mine was a beautifully decorated little box with a chocolate inside. We had a wonderful meal - the buffet table was laden with wonderful middle eastern food, and there was tons of it. After dinner the Qatari All-Women Band (all dressed in abayas) played and sang in the wailing sort of style. Girls from the audience got up and danced on the stage/runway (there was to be a fashion show) and it was some of the most provocative movement I've ever seen! The fashion show consisted of two parts - the first part was all abayas. I didn't know you could do so many different things to a black robe-like garment, but they were really quite lovely. The next part of the fashion show was all very sparkly, blingy formal wear; each dress was more beautiful than the last, and I've never seen a bigger collection of beads, chiffon and tulle. Following the fashion show was a talent show. It was quite an event!

On Friday, five of us went out to breakfast at Ric's Kountry Kitchen (cute name, eh?). It is a North American-style diner right here in the Middle East! The food is typical diner stuff - eggs and (fake) sausage, burgers, club sandwiches, etc. The nice thing is that there is a Canadian flag and an Alberta flag hanging in the restaurant, as well as Stampede posters! (See photos on Flickr - see last post for link.)

After breakfast we went to the Intercontinental Hotel and spent the day at their pool/beach. It was so nice to spend a lazy day at the pool - complete with a swim-up bar! We decided we would spoil ourselves this way at least once a month, trying a different hotel pool each time. Since a woman can't wear a swimsuit on the public beaches, going to the hotel pools/beaches is the only way you can really take advantage of being in this hot, sunny climate. Oh, life is tough in Doha!

On Saturday I was pretty lazy all morning, with the exception of throwing a couple of laundry loads into the washer. In the afternoon CJ and I then decided to walk over to Qtel to arrange for our internet, cable and phone service. From all reports from other staff, this too is a real ordeal. When we got there it wasn't terribly busy, which was lucky. When we were served, the young man told us we could not get the package we ordered. We asked why and were told it was not available in our building, which we knew was a crock since most people in our building have the same package. He insisted that it had to do with the distance from the network centre, blah, blah, blah, blah; but then said we could order it, but it may take a couple of months. By the time we left, we were told we could phone a number at the end of the week to see if we can get it. They are so screwed up and so incompetent, it's only because they are the only game in town that they remain in business!

After that little ordeal we met another girl, Lisa, at the travel agency to talk with the man there about a trip to Sri Lanka at Christmas. We told him the things we would like to see and do and he is working on putting a package together for us. A couple other women from work, Jackie and Joanne, did a trip there in 2007 and they had a fabulous time. Will have to wait to see what he comes up with for us in the way of itinerary and price before I make a definite decision, but it does seem promising.

That evening we went to a really wonderful Indian restaurant for dinner. Seems like all I do here it eat! I've heard of "the Doha 20" - that's the 20 pounds you gain from all the good food and the lack of exercise because it's too hot to do anything - and I think I'm on my way to achieving that!

Photos

KATHY'S APARTMENT IN DOHA

Here's what the building looks like from the outside:

This is the street where I live. You can't see the potholes and craters in the road too well, but it's a minefield!

This is what you see when you walk in the front door of my apartment. Note the lovely chandeliers and the pictures hung at eye-level . . . for a giant!

This is another view from the front door, but looking further to the right where you can see the ginormous hutch - I'll never fill that thing!

The kitchen is tiny and is lacking in cupboard space. The washing machine is to the right of the sink and there is a missing piece of counter top that is supposed to go over the washer. More pride of workmanship!

My bedroom - bed is quite comfortable - in fact, it's probably the most comfortable piece of furniture in the whole place.

No closets in the apartment. Each bedroom has a huge (and I mean HUGE) wardrobe.

The sliding doors behind curtains lead to my balcony which overlooks:

Great view, eh? At least I'm high enough to get light!

Your room when you come to visit me. I promise I'll get bedding by then, but in the meantime it's a great storage room for my vacuum and a good place to dry my clothes. Apartment comes with a washer but no dryer. Thus the yellow drying rack in the lower right hand corner.

The main bathroom . . . .

. . . . notice the quality craftmanship below:

Great job on the bathtub tap

and how about this tiling work?

Here is the half bath. Notice the convenient location right next to the kitchen. This is the view from the living room. Lovely, eh? I usually keep the door closed.

The Saga of the Driver's License and the Car

What fun I have had getting my driver's license and car! Yesterday morning Mr. Saju, a man at work whose job I really don't know how to describe except to say that he brings everyone coffee and drives people around and is generally very helpful, drove me over to the transportation department to get my driver's license. My instructions were to bring my Alberta driver's license, copies of my passport, resident permit, eye test documentation [yes, you have to go to an optician to have an eye test - 30 QR (Qatari Riyals) = $10], a letter of no objection from my employer, 3 passport photos and 250 QR (about $80). I arrived, and pulled a ticket (they used Q-matics for those of you in Enrolment Services) and when my ticket was called it directed me to Window 5. The woman there pointed me to window 2 . . . . . oh, well, ok, I'll go to window 2. The woman there took my documentation and then asked for the computer card. "The what?" I asked. I had no idea what a computer card was. Well, thank goodness Mr. Saju was with me because he knew what it was (apparently it's something that verifies that UC-Q is a legitimate business) and said he'd go to the car to get it. I waited at the window thinking he'd be back in about 3 minutes since the car was parked right outside the building. Well, I waited and waited and finally the woman handed me all my documents and told me to go upstairs and see "the captain". I headed upstairs, found "the captain" who asked me to take a seat. He punched some numbers into the computer, looked at the screen (I couldn't tell what he was looking at since it was all in Arabic) and after 3 or 4 minutes handed my documents back to me and told me to go back downstairs. I went back to the same woman I had been talking with before, and she said a bunch of stuff (she was very hard to understand) that led me to believe that Mr. Saju had come back and given her the computer card she needed. After I stood there for a couple of minutes she pointed to the chairs behind me and said "Wait". I took a seat and a few minutes later Mr. Saju came in with the "computer card" which was really just a letter from someone attesting to the legitimacy of the University of Calgary-Qater. It was apparent to me then that he had driven back to the University campus to get the computer card. She took the letter and after another 5 minutes took my payment and handed me my driver's license! I have no idea what she said in our exchanges, and if it hadn't been for Mr. Saju, I don't think I would have gotten my license.

The next step was to arrange for a car. I had recommendations from some of the other people here and contacted 3 companies. Some of them will just bring a car to your apartment or the University. The one that CJ and I decided to go with required us to go to their office which is not too far from our apartment building. It ended up the CJ had to work late on a project so she asked me to look after the car acquisition. The fellow at the car place said he could send a driver to pick me up, but he wasn't sure where my apartment building was. Since the building is just off a main road with a bank on the corner, I said I'd go wait in the parking lot of the bank. On my way down the elevator I thought to my self, "What the heck am I doing? I'm in a completely foreign country, going to get into a car with someone I don't know, going I don't know where!" Anyway, the young man who picked me up was very pleasant and I had the first complete conversation with a person here that I could understand nearly everything said! When I got to the car rental office, I went in to meet Mr. Rezwan who I expected to be in his 40's but who appeared to be about 18! He had a Nissan Sunny to show me - it's about the size of a Honda Civic. The car was fine and then we got into the paper work which consisted of a form on which I provided my name, email address and phone number. He took a Visa number to put a pre-authorization on in the event at the end of the rental there is any damage to the vehicle. He then said I could take the car, but he would exchange it the next night for another car that was the same. I said in that case, I'd just have the driver take me back to the apartment and they could just bring the correct car the next night. I asked when we needed to pay for the car. Well, we pay for it at the end of each month, so we didn't need to make any payment until the end of November! Renting a car has never been so easy!!! So off I went back to the apartment.

All day long, CJ and I were anticipating getting our car. We had been warned that we should not drive after dark for our first driving experience. Apparently, drivers here seem to get even more crazy after dark! The car was to be delivered at 5:00. I called Mr. Rezwan at about 4:15 to remind him we needed 2 keys for the car. He asked if I was available then for them to come and said he would get in touch with the driver and call me back. An hour and a half later he called to say the car would be here at 6:00 on the dot. To make a long story short, the driver and car arrived at 6:50 and the car was nothing like what he had shown me the night before; it was filthy and the wrong colour (we definitely do not want a white car - EVERY car in Doha is white, it seems). I called him and told him the car was not acceptable. He tried to get me to take the car saying he would exchange it in a day or two, "without any problem". CJ was together enough to say that, no we would not take this car as it is likely there would be a problem in a day or two. So the driver took the crummy car back and we will phone Mr. Rezwan tomorrow to apply a little pressure to get the car that was promised. Ah, the joys of doing business in Qatar! Wish us luck - we hope to have a car by tomorrow night so we can start our practice driving on Friday morning!

Today I became a permanent resident of Qatar!

My Resident Permit came through today, and it feels so good! Now I can get a driver's license and a liquor permit - two things that you wouldn't expect to go hand-in-hand, but that's the way it is in Qatar. In any case , it feels like FREEDOM! In order to complete the process to obtain my driver's license, I will first need to do an eye test (oh, dear) and then obtain a letter from my employer. I take those items, along with copies of my resident permit, passport, visa, Alberta driver's license and the employer letter to the Transportation department where, hopefully, it will be just a matter of issuing the license (no test, please). The liquor permit will likely require the same ridiculous amount of paper work. There is only one liquor store in town and it is at the outskirts of town, I'm told. I will also only be permitted to buy liquor up to a certain percentage of my income - so I obviously won't be drinking much.

CJ and I are starting the process to rent a car. We have talked to several of our co-workers to see what companies they went with and how it works. One of them accepts only cash for the monthly payments and comes to campus to pick up the payment, and it's not a set date so you never know exactly when to have your money for them. I asked what happens if you don't have the cash on the day they come to collect (do they break your kneecaps?), and was told they will just come on another day. Sound business practice, don't you think? CJ and I are both looking forward to having the independence that a car at our disposal will bring to us, but also are a little apprehensive of our first driving in the chaos that is Doha-driving.

Since my last post, on Friday I took part in the Doha Walk for Breast Cancer. It was a 5K walk along Al Corniche which is the lovely walkway downtown along the gulf. It was very hot and humid - so humid that it was more hazy than usual. Although we arrived at about 3:45, the walk didn't start until nearly 5:00 - after the sun was mostly down and it was a bit cooler. It was still plenty hot, tho. I registered on-site and so had to put my pink t-shirt on over the shirt I had worn. That made me even hotter and by about half-way through the walk I decided to get the shirt I had worn off. The contortions I went through to pull my arms out from both shirts and then put then through only the pink shirt, and then pull the other shirt off over my head was completely comical . . . . but I was much cooler! It only took us about an hour to do the 5K and it felt really good to walk the distance as it had been a long time since I had moved my body much.

A couple of impressions of the day stick in my mind. First, on the way down to the start of the walk we passed an area which is apparently a gathering spot for "the bachelors". They are not permitted to congregate in 'family' areas so are very restricted as to where they can go. Thus, they end up gathered in one or two areas of the city in huge groups. I found it really sad to think that they did not have the freedom to go wherever they wanted, and that they had essentially nothing to do except mill around. I know it's a cultural thing, but it seemed so discriminatory. These men come from mostly SE Asian countries and are working to send money back to their families. I couldn't help but think how lonely they must be and that their living situations are abysmal. Seeing them all gathered like a herd just made me very sad and somber.

The other impression from the day was how little support there was from Qataris for the breast cancer walk, in stark contrast to the incredible support our culture provides for such things. Although some of our students were involved in getting the UC-Q on board with the walk, it was truly only a handful of students - likely only six. I'm not even sure they did the walk - I saw a few of them (and some sisters and brothers) at the starting line, and then I saw some at a table UC-Q had set up about halfway down the route. I don't recall seeing any other women in abayas walking the route - it was all the expat community that took part in the walk. I don't think Qataris get the whole fund-raising thing, even though this money was being raised to help in the fight against breast cancer in Qatar.

Saturday was a fairly quiet day - although I did some. . . . . are you ready for it . . . . . more shopping! I still can't believe how much stuff I need, and I'm truly not being extravagant in acquiring things. Saturday is very busy at the malls and it took me nearly two hours to complete some basic shopping at Carrefour (the French Walmart). Later in the afternoon I walked to a nearby store to get some more sheets. I brought one set with me and they needed washing - desperately. With no dryer, it takes a day to dry the sheets, so I had to have something to put on the bed in the meantime. The sheets and beds in this country are the oddest sizes and there seems to be no standardization. I took the measurements of my mattress with me and I had my choice of several sizes - none that were very close to the measurements of my bed and, after choosing the ones that were closest in measurement (at least from what was written on the package) got them home to find they were quite a bit too large (tuck, tuck, tuck). I suppose it is better than having them too small!

Sunday it was back to work and I was actually able to help a student in distress! It was a great feeling to actually know what to do for her and to get her on the right path to resolving her problem. There is still so much to learn and it is very different here at UCQ than on main campus.

Sunday night a group of us went to the finals of the Sony Ericsson Women's Tennis Championships, the last tournament of the women's tour for this year. The singles final was between Venus and Serena Williams. I have never seen tennis of this calibre live and in person. Although we were seated way up on the nose-bleed section it was still quite an experience. Sondra, one of my Student Services colleagues, won a contest in which one of the prizes was box seats for the match. She was so close she could see the sweat dripping down Serena and Venus' faces! Serena won and after the presentation ceremony there was a show a la Cirque du Qatar in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Qatar Tennis Federation. There were drummers on steel oil drums, and acrobats dressed as tennis players who were lowered from great heights and mimed a tennis match in the sky, coming down to the ground to claim the prize. Other acrobats were then raised up to do some aerial work; and fire twirlers (I guess you would call them) were twirling fire thing-ies all around the stage, while huge gold confetti rained down. All the time this woman with bright blue hair and long white robe sang some Enya-Arabic thing. It was quite the extravaganza . . . and then it all had to be cleaned up for the final doubles match!