Gone are…• the days of closed coffee shops and restaurants from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan
• being surrounded by 7 white Landcruisers at every traffic light and/or roundabout
• the continuous influx of sand/dust into the house
Hello...soy lattes, carne asada, recycling, hot and cold taps and garbage disposals...not to mention the trees, the grass, etc…it’s amazing what we’ve missed!!!
When Thierry accepted the position with the Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach, we were at the tail end of our vacation in France, so going back to Doha wasn’t as hard as it had been in the past after a significant amount of time off. After that, it was a matter of getting things ready for the move. You can imagine I made SEVERAL lists. But if you ever live in Doha and get yourself in a MUST SELL situation, www.qatarliving.com is the way to go! We had just about one page of items to sell, so with almost 3 weeks to go, I posted the list online. WHOA! I clicked the ‘send’ button at 930a and by the time I got down the street (935a) the phone calls started rolling in. There must be people watching that site 24/7. I received approx 70 calls over the course of the day and could only speak with/return 30 of them. Strangers were coming into the house to see what other goodies we had available besides what was outlined on the list – as if they didn’t quite trust what was mentioned. They would point to an item NOT for sale and ask if they could buy it. It was exhausting! The final mentionable about that day was the family who showed up at 800p to look at what was left for sale – the man loaded his car with what they wanted and realized he didn’t have any money, so he left his wife and 11-month old to wait at our place while he went to find an ATM with his brother. I insisted on them all going together and that it wasn’t necessary, but it didn’t matter. You can imagine Thierry walking through the door at 830p with a woman in her abbaya and her baby sitting in the living room on the sofa…NOT an everyday occurrence. (Although I had WISHED we had more interaction with the local people) And had I known the day was going to be so chaotic, I would have had all of the items for sale boxed and in the middle of the room with price tags on them, so that buyers could just come in and get out. I would have also probably asked everyone in the hood if they had any items for sale and added them to the mix. I think I probably could have sold sand…THAT is how successful that sale was.
Afterwards, everything else just fell into place…Ramadan kind of put a damper on my being able to say goodbye to friends over a cup of Starbuck’s, but Patti fixed that by hosting a happy hour a few days before we left. Almost every friend that I hung with while in Doha was there - it was the best! Thanks Patti! She was also gracious enough to take bags of miscellaneous items from our place that we would never and/or could never bring back to the States, ie…bottles of alcohol, plug adapters – plug adapters seem so expensive in the US, whereas there, they are sold by the dozens at every grocery store / market. Of course, the expat business is so much more vast there. But all it takes is a little thing like power voltage to make me realize how different the US is compared to the rest of the world. Everyone else is running on 220V, whereas we run on 110V. The thing is I am not exactly sure why – I would like to think it is that we are saving LOADS of electricity per capita? And the whole metric thing...Although we’ve been in Newport Beach now since Oct 4, and Thierry back to work since the 8th, we are still in shock – cars 'occasionally' allowing the right away, the beautiful scenery and palm trees everywhere you look, the familiarity of the Pacific Coast Highway. Besides getting reacquainted with all of the available and overindulgent shopping, it truly is as if we never left. The last month in Doha seemed to crawl the first 29 days and then BAM, we were on the Qatar Airways flight bound for Washington DC. New cell phones, check. Cars, check. All we need is the new home, Physicians and school - wasn't I in this situation just 2 years ago?
Our new contact information is:
Thierry cell 949 375 1937
TGrandsire@pelicanhill.com
Kelcey cell 949 375 1964
It’s GREAT to be back, but sad to bring the Doha Daily to a close after almost 2 full years. Thank you for reading and following our adventure. Who knows what's next? "The Newport Nightly Nouvelle?” or maybe “The SoCal Semi-Weekly?” Suggestions are welcome! I’m quite certain there is a plethora of quirky goings-on here that we could find interesting...
Stay tuned and see you!
Kelcey
