doha daily 2/17/06

Here is the front entrance to our villa - there is a door just to the right that wouldn't fit into the picture. Tristan is walking around to the "backyard." Needs some greenery wouldn't you say? Next to that, as you enter there are three salons next to one another (this is the center salon). There is the second half of the ascending stairwell. And finally, the pool where you will also find the squash courts, fitness area and mini-market .








We are now living back in the Hotel and waiting for the phone call saying, "Your furniture has arrived!" Working on water, electricity and applying for a landline for the internet, the latter taking about 4 weeks time - once you get the landline, you then apply for a DSL. We have been thinking lately on some major events we have been missing and it is making the two of us a bit homesick: The Superbowl (we didn't get ESPN at the time), Justin's 30th, as everyone is together in Palm Desert, Clare's bachelorette party in Vega$, among many other events through Sydney's school, etc. Still waiting to hear from the nurseries as well to get Tristan enrolled - they are so cute. Of course, the minute he is accepted, I will be sure to send pictures. We do meet with some women who have kids Tristan's age, which is nice - and there is a women's club that gets together two times a month at the Ramada Hotel - I envision us all swapping recipes or a surprise appearance by Martha Stewart at the podium : ) The weather for the past two days has been cold and windy - the sand blasts across the streets like sidewinding snakes, and if you accidently leave your car windows cracked open as you run into your villa to take pictures for your blog, you return to a layer of sand everywhere in the car's interior.

This week I'm off to take care of landscaping, drapery and wardrobes/closets, so feel free to send ideas - all are welcome!

See you!

one month 2/9/06

I thought I would start including some pictures of the surroundings for you to see what's Doha's architecture and layout is like - it's been one month today since we landed. This is The Ritz-Carlton from Lusail Street - a 4-lane "highway" going North.

Driving south, returning to the city from The Ritz-Carlton, you can see all of the construction - The Gulf is to our left, stand-along villas to our right.

Here are some stand-alone villas.

Stand-alone villas in The West Bay (Location of The Ritz-Carlton) area - under construction. Most of the stand-alones we looked at were no LESS than 5/6 bedrooms.

doha daily 2/6/06

Ok! We have found a place and it's officially signed sealed and delivered - no turning back. Here is a picture of the neighborhood - this is from the inside looking out at the front gates. Our place is going to be the 5th villa down the street to the left (Just a quick jaunt from the front-24/7-guarded-gate). Here are the specs: BRAND new, 3 bdr, 4 1/2 bath, dining, 3 living rooms, maids' quarters, high ceilings (which means, high light fixtures - not sure how we're going to change those bulbs) with large archways, marble floors, large swimming pool, two tennis courts, 2 squash courts, a disco (not sure why), an indoor gym with pool table, currently building an outdoor gym area for kids (slides, etc.) and we've already mentioned the 24/7 guard at the front gates. Oh! and there's a mosque in the corner, tastefully built, but we still are not 100% sure why - I asked the compound manager and he says it was the owner's doing, but more importantly, they convinced the owner NOT to include the loud speakers like the others I've mentioned. And it's all comprised of ex-Pat's, mostly Bristish, some French, Dutch and two other American families - but a fair of amount of kids, both young and teens. (which is good for Sydney : )

That's been the biggest news for the past two weeks. That and running out of wine for two nights - whoa! Tougher than I thought it would be - so after having "enough," or rather, NOT enough, off to the bottle shop with an acquaintance I went. This person does not really drink, so I practically bought his entire month's allotment I'm sure (determined by a certain percentage of your monthly salary). It's waaaaaayyyyyy out in a desert-y place. I will need a back-seat driver the next time I go. We arrived to a guard at a gate, who let us enter right away - I think he was making certain no one in a dishdasha (robe and head covering for Muslamic men) was attempting to buy alcohol, as no one of the Muslamic faith is supposed to DRINK alcohol. Speaking of, Thierry just received a notice from the government saying effective immediate absolutely NO alocohol can be sold in the public places of all Hotels in Qatar, meaning, no Lobby Lounge. I think Thierry mentioned it was because of abuse. No Server can ever sell alcoholic beverages to someone dressed in the dishdasha. Who's to say who's Muslim or not, though, when someone comes in wearing jeans and a shirt? The local population was savvy to that. So, back to the bottle shop - We walked in, Tristan in his stroller (great role model Mom - buying underground alcohol), and it was as if we were walking into a local wine mart in Kirkwood, Mo (little shoutout to St. Lu)!!! The only thing missing was the chocolate covered blueberries at the check-out counter. It was clean, organized, well-stocked with a decent amount of inventory - Bud, Heinekin, Corona, Stoli, Absolute...It was when started reading the price cards on display that I realized how well OVERpriced everything is...A case of Bud in the bottle costs $33, Heiny - $40. After grabbing a few cases, though, we hit the wine section - Heavy on the Australian varietals here - Hardy's series. And a decent amount of French. I passed a bottle of Fetzer Merlot for $25 and kept walking. I stocked up on some one-time bottles to see which were worth buying in bulk next visit and even bought a box of Cab/Merlot blend - actually better tasting than $2 Buck Chuck. Besides the box, the least expensive bottle of wine costs 27 QR's or $7.42, and all are like the Trader Joe's 12% alcohol.

Thierry is working all of the time, usually Saturday's off, when I drive him around like a tour-guide and get honked at wherever we go - people honk here at EVERYTHING. The light turns green and you're ....just....about....to step on the... HONK! and from 10 cars back! NO PATIENCE!!! Still smiling and nodding, though. If you like gold, you are golden : ) Haven't seen too many platinum salesmen around. Tristan and I visited the jewelry souq (sook) today to get Thierry's glasses fixed. It was 4:00p and they were just re-opening from lunch - men everywhere just talking, walking, sitting, I saw only one other woman there shopping with her husband. I asked a store owner if he gets alot of business and he told me that if he gets just one sale per day, it's worth it. Women approach me daily and ask if they can give Tristan a kiss. They usually have to do it through their abbaya as their faces are covered.
And here is a picture of his new fascination - GROSS! (He cannot keep his hands off of the bidets) See you!

doha daily 1/30/06

This juice stall (fresh squeezed juices) seem to be very common, mostly where areas are more populated and "older" (like, where our current apartment is located, for example) Also very common are gents saloons, where men go to get their haircut, feet washed and just hang out, poultry places, where you can pick out your live chicken clucking in the storefront - haven't brought myself to do that one yet, and butcheries, where there are literally skinned lambs hanging on large meathooks in the front window.


Here are some views from the road nearby where Thierry and I were looking at a compound to live...we've decided to search for some more "populated" areas...The tree-lined street you see is NOT a common occurrence as of yet, although probably will be in the next 5 years. And the top picture is a view from our apartment / hotel complex - those too, are apartments/hotels.

So, as you can guess, Tristan and I have been in the car for the last 3 days going from one end of Doha to the other end searching for a place to live once our furniture arrives. We have been through the stand-alone 5 bedrooms + maid's quarters w/private pool, to a one-story 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment and all expenses included. What we need, however, is something IN BETWEEN, and of course, there doesn't seem to be much of "in between" out there. To find your dream home, it seems to take a bit of word of mouth. Perfect example: For Thierry's day off Saturday, we headed to the Doha Golf Club to follow Ernie Els around for awhile. We entered the "family area," where there were two large bounce-houses for kids and expats EVERYWHERE sitting at teak wood tables with umbrella's drinking their foster's lager out of ice cold pints - HEAVEN! We sat down with the Dir. of F&B who immediately introduced us to everyone. I, of course, tell all, "Oh yes, we've been looking for places all week, yada yada yada," when Lulu from Scotland interjects - "Hey, one of the places in our 34-home compound just became available. We have a pool, gym, 4 bedrooms, a great common yard where we all get together and party, etc. etc, etc. It's one of the 3 compounds where the US Embassy sets up its peeps." My eyes were wide - WOW! Now THAT is word of mouth. And her husband Nick went on to say... "Oh yeah. In fact, the housing manager's husband is the golf course manager - she's actually here today, volunteering for the tournie" NO WAY! THIS JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER! So, off we went to see Ernie and meet this person who could seal my fate for the easiest "housing transition" that ever an expat experienced when moving to Doha. After seeing Ernie up close and personal and playing an "ok" couple of holes, I was actually thinking more about meeting this person who I would be getting my keys from within the next two weeks : ). As I rounded the corner in the crowd, I saw our new friend speaking to our new landlord...And although she was smiling at him (they go back a few months now), she was shaking her head disappointingly no. I arrived to the conversation when she turned to me and said, "I JUST finalized the new tenants yesterday - if only you had seen me yesterday." Crushed! And we had never even seen it...that's the story of finding a place in Doha, I guess - I think it's just like that.
We do have a plan though. And it involves a compound, well-established with landscaping, etc...3 bedrooms, 3 bath - huge pool with a cascading waterfall, tennis courts, squash court, gate guards, the whole works, and it feels right just talking about it. The only loophole is, we don't know WHEN we would get in, as it is currently...occupied : )

See you soon.

doha daily 1/26/06

Phase two. The apartment. I realize now that the "load" to moving to an entirely new country, new culture, new way of life is lightened when immediately moving into a room at The Ritz-Carlton, where for two weeks, you are on vacation - room service, laundry, unlimited amount of fruit and chocolate chip cookies with milk everyday; not to mention the outstanding staff all wanting to take care of you AND Tristan for that matter. BUT now, we are in phase two - REALITY - We loaded up two cars of our stuff yesterday am and Tristan and I followed the housing Manager to our new "home." A 3-bedroom, 3-bath furnished place where all of the furniture looks as though it were made out of church pews. And with the hundreds of satellite channels listed, 3 of them accessible are English-speaking - all others like CNN and the Disney Channel all stare at me in the face with a big $ next to them - needless to say, we are working on getting a decoder ASAP! Another thing we realized at 5am this morning was the praying that is "loud-speakered" to the neighborhood from mosques, ALL at the same time. - 4 to 5 times per day. You cannot hear it at The Ritz-Carlton though. I imagine as it gets more populated near the hotel, mosques will follow. The radio stations as well, take a music break to broadcast prayer, usually at 11:45a.

With the help of a Qatari Representative who works at the Hotel between 3-5p roughly, I had my paperwork prepared to obtain my temporary driver's license. (You may drive on a national license legally for 7 days) The DMV here looks a bit like an old abandoned warehouse, dust everywhere, window panes cracked and rusty doors standing permanently open, old airplane seats sitting outside on a side walk as a "waiting area." And then you turn the corner to enter the registration area and there are digital signs hanging down from the ceiling signalling which number is next. There is a nice marbletop counter amid all this dust, etc...Males (or Gents as they call them here) go the left, Ladies : ) go to the right. There are several instances here I've heard where women get to enter crowded establishments ahead of men, no matter how many people are in line.

I had my car washed today for 10 riyals. That's $2.75 (divide $ by 3.64). Although rent seems to be rising here in price - we are looking at places listed for $4000+/mos, and other than Starbucks and Cheerios' products, all else seem to be lower in price than the US. A grande iced white chocolate mocha costs $4.67 - I think that's actually MORE than in the US. And Starbucks cards do not work here unfortunately.

We went "villa shopping" again today. I'll have an update on that hopefully after this weekend. See you soon...

doha daily 1/18/06

Up until this point, I had spent 37 years of living in the USA. One week after living in Doha, Qatar, clear across the other side of the globe, Tristan and I are exiting the hotel, he proudly wearing his USC Trojan's teeshirt we bought him for the BIG GAME, when President Bush Sr. walks by. He stops at me and asks me if I am American, to which I replied, "Very." He then turns to Tristan and apologized for the loss to the Longhorns. Now THAT was timing...Thierry was standing behind us in the lobby laughing. Tristan and I were actually on our way out the door making our way for the Doha zoo, and although the brochure reads 8am opening, the gates were closed upon arrival at 8:30am (opens at 9a in the winter) I felt like Chevy Chase approaching Wally World, "First ones here, first ones here!" To kill time, we continued on the 3-lane freeway hitting roundabout after roundabout, getting more acquainted with the drivers here - the middle lane seems to be the safest and if you drive just a few kph's slower than everyone else, people seem to get out of your way. And for all of the "road-ragers" who honk and kick and scream on my bumper, I've taken the "smile and nod" approach, sorry. Driving is really going to take some time getting used to - for instance, let's say there is a building you would like to visit on your lefthand side - unfortunately, there is no break in the road on this lefthand side when you need it. Therefore, you must continue driving AWAY from the building you so desire to visit until the next roundabout, which may have TONS of cars waiting to enter this 'bout due to the fact everyone is driving so crazily. After jockeying for position, you breath a sigh of relief when you have completed the 365 degree turn. Without a bunch of turnsignals in the roads, I figure I'll be in the car for 50% more time than I really need too, looking at the buildings as I pass them, yearning to be on the other side of the street and driving an additional 500 feet to get where I need to go. And there is one radio station that I have found that shares french and english speaking segments - they played Xanadu today. Oh yes, and a remake of Barry Manilow's "Mandy." (I belted that one out). The zoo the zoo the zoo...to me, the cages seem WAY too small for the lions, tigers, cheetah, etc, and there seems to be more land dedicated to the men who were relaxing for a lovely morning on the park benches. And lots of cigarette butts on the ground - something else to get used to again - smoking inside. There are bars dedicated to smoking the shisha pipe - looks like a large elaborate "I dream of Genie-type" pipe (the Hotel has a bar like this), but there is no nicotine involved and one can order different flavors, apple, strawberry, anise, etc...Due to the fact the hotel is an atrium above the lobby, you can smell the frangrances all the way on our floor - lucky 15 : ).

doha daily 1/16/06

Ok, so it's been a few more days and we are getting more acclimated - We have rented a car for the month, and today was my first driving experience. Although the city is not large and is approx 30 minutes from end to end, there are tons of roundabouts and no one really cares which lane they are in, NOR do the majority utilize the turn signals - I must stick out like a sore thumb for that. Tristan is in his carseat, thank goodness and our first destination was the US embassy to register. It turns out you can do everything online, so after seeing the teeny-tiny waiting room filled with US citizens trying to get passports renewed, etc...we turned around and went to the Mall to get some more familiar food products for Tristan as he is being quite picky in the food department. Cheerio products are VERY expensive here actually; a box of regular cheerios cost close to $8. All other food products seem to be less expensive - bottled water is dirt cheap. There are 3 malls that we've been to so far and each one has a playland for kids - bumper cars, small rides, like a carousel or airplanes, video games, skeeball, etc... Thierry's day off was Saturday, which is strange, because in the States, it was Sunday. The weekends here are actually Fridays and Saturdays. Sunday is like Monday, so today (Monday) is like your Tuesday - talk about taking some getting used too : ) Tristan and I took him to the Mall of course to show him around - only families were allowed in, due to it being the last day of the Eid Festival - there were several Men hanging out outside because they were not allowed to enter - very family oriented here. We visited the Harley-Davidson Dealership where there were FOUR motorcycles on display. I doubt I'll be pursuing a Sales position there anytime soon. For the most part, the buildings' signs are in Arabic, but occassionally you pass a "Gold's Gym," "McDonald's," LOTS of Dairy Queen's and Chili's Restaurants. We also visited a town next door called "Al Wakra," where there is a great beach - there was a kite surfer (very popular here) and a few surfboarders out - we passed a very old Mosque (there is a picture) and a cricket match in progress. I've attached a photo of the dhow boats used here for fishing, the mosque and some homes found in Al Wakra.

doha daily 1/12/06

So, today, (Thursday), being that the "winter" here is a breezy, sunny, 75ish degrees, Tristan and I headed to the pool at 9:30am. Wow! What a pool - here are a few pictures from the day. Tristan seems to be over the jetlag as he slept until 7am, so he took his usual 2 hr nap today. Thierry and I then went with the Director of HR to a few places to look for potential living villas as well as visited the apartment - we looked at a HUGE place today, called, "The Beverly Hills 2," with a private pool and fitness facility - it had 4 bedrooms, four bath, maids' quarters with a private bath and a huge kitchen - the only problem was it was a bit far from the hotel and there was absolutely NO grass anywhere - all white concrete - sterile, to say the least. The second place we looked at was so much cooler - again, another "compound-like" place (private entrance and enclosed by a large "wall of doha,") with a shared pool, restaurant and fitness area, but the type of place that both Thierry and I agree upon, as it is much more "community-like." The apartment, although, NOT like the Ritz-Carlton accommodations I am becoming accustomed to : ), is relatively close to the hotel and near lots o' shopping. (which should be fun : ). We will move in next week. There are no "baby seat" laws here and we experienced some pretty crazy drivers today. And the Dir of HR told us today that there are 7000 buildings currently under construction. We will rent a car when we move into the apartment and buy a car when we move into our permanent accomodations - apparently, they are quite inexpensive and a gallon of gas costs less than $.60! Today is the last day of Eid and tomorrow (Friday), begins the weekend. So Sunday here is like Monday everywhere else.

we're here! when are you going to visit?

Hey everyone. Thought I'd let you know we made it safe and sound and perhaps you wanted to know the details of how the "transition" went for the start of our new adventure. All in all we were travelling about 25 hours from the time we left Huntington Sunday at 12:30ish. The KLM service at the airport was quite slow, so after checking all 11 bags (paid an "above the board" limit on a few of them : ), getting through security, buying a last USA starbucks...we walked right onto the plane. Tristan immediately began watching Nemo on the DVD. Aside from an occassional whine from not wanting to wear his seatbelt, he was a gem. After a delayed start due to some passengers trying to get through customs, we were off - We all slept most of the time - Thierry reluctantly watched Wallace and Gromit and the Were Rabbit as well as The Good Woman with Scarlet Johanson (I thought I would read, write in my journal, listen to my iPod - NOTHING) Tristan laid across our seats and I awkwardly slept half in the aisle, half on the edge of the seat. The layover in Amsterdam was only about 45 minutes and we were back on the plane - not full at all, so people spread out. After 5 1/2 hours, we landed in Damman for a "quick" 45 minute touchdown, but couldn't deplane. A few people came on board and 35 minutes later, we arrived in Doha - 11:00pm. They seem to serve dried dates everywhere as an amenity here - delicious. There were people walking outside while we were on our way to the hotel - it was about 70 degrees and more humid than LA for sure. They say the month of August is unbearable here outside, which is less time than I expected really, to be out in the middle of the desert. Our driver pointed out many sites, including the Shiekh's palace.

This morning, Tristan was up at 4:30a, so Thierry and I only got about 3 hours of sleep. We had breakfast and Thierry has been meeting the employees ever since. Tristan and I took a walk and I'm waiting for him to go down for a nap so that later on this afternoon we can tour the corniche where the city is celebrating Eid, a follow-up holiday to Ramadan. The hotel is beautiful, marble everywhere, huge huge atrium tower - 23 floors. Everything is massive here - reminds me actually a bit of the Vegas grand style - high ceilings, ornate fixtures, etc...but with a much more accelerated style : ) And purple, red and seagreen blue seem to be the popular colors throughout the hotel.

There is construction EVERYWHERE and the workers work 24/7 around the clock - They want everything to be ready in time for the Asian Games Dec 1-Dec 15. Everyone tells me the shopping here is incredible - alot of the stores close from 12-3:30, but stay open later at night to accommodate. I am looking out at the tide that is low for the moment but comes in later. The hotel is beautiful, the people are so nice, the weather seems to be perfect - slightly breezy 75 degrees.

That's it. Our arrival in a nutshell - Thierry is keeping his same email and his cell number is (011) 974 - 587 - 4308. I'll be getting one too soon, I hope. As far as the electronics, anything American that shows an input of 100-240V can be used here no problem, which is nice.

We'll be here in the hotel for approx one week and then into an apartment. The Dir of HR will be taking us around Thursday to see some villas for potential rental down the road. As soon as Thierry gets approved for residency, we can begin paying rent. Also, we get an alcohol license to purchase up to a certain amount of alocohol per month : ) Stand-alone restaurants outside of the hotel do not serve wine, alcohol. People tell me that Dubai is much more open regarding alcohol and that Doha will most likely be following in their footsteps. What I've heard is, Doha under all of this construction, has learned what works and what doesn't from Dubai's development and is taking the best of the best lessons learned.

...oh, and no public displays of affection between men and women...There is so much to learn - can't wait!