Kris went straight to work first thing Monday morning, and I began the task of getting us unpacked and settled in. I'd say we had a pretty good first week in Qatar. We were able to find a car in record timing! From what we're told, ex-pats usually have a difficult time finding a used vehicle. And there's certainly no sense in buying a new one with the way people drive around here!!! Ken spotted a car for sale in a parking lot and approached the driver. The owner happens to be an ex-pat who was leaving the country in one week to move back to Singapore for a few weeks, then off to Papua New Guinea for her husband's job. I've been informed that it's not uncommon for people to leave their vehicle at the airport when they move out of the country if they haven't been able to sell their car. Once you hand in your residents permit you're no longer able to make a sale. So during the final week of living here people go into panic mode if they don't have any good prospects (unfortunate for them....good for us!)
We were able to get quite a good deal on the Jeep Cherokee (in the US it's called a Jeep Liberty) and it was in our possession within just a few days! Although I shouldn't make it sound that easy.... since Kris's residents permit has not been finalized, his dad had to purchase the car in his name. It took Ken four aggravating trips to the police station (where the transaction takes place) to finally complete the paperwork. You should all know that to get anything done in this country takes about 5 times the amount of time that it actually should, and for no apparent reason!
My first driving experience was one to remember! I like to compare it to a game of Frogger (I hope you all remember that game from the 80's and 90's). The only difference is that it's not a frog you're playing with, it's your LIFE in your hands and you don't get 3 lives like in the game. The other difference is that it's not little cars you're dodging in the street, it's huge Land Cruisers driven by Arabs who ALWAYS and no matter what have the right away! Now that I think about it.... it's not like a game at all. It's terrifying and I wouldn't recommend it! The Qatari intersections don't have 4-way lights that I'm familiar with. They have round-abouts, which seem to be a complete free for all. When going through a round-about you must be extremely aggressive like the Arabs, or you'll never have the courage to jump into to the many cars circling the round-about. And if you sit for too long, you better believe there's a line of cars honking behind you. You just have to close your eyes, say a little prayer, and step on the gas until you come out the other side. And let's just hope you've exited the correct way, or else you've added 2 more round-abouts to get yourself back on track. I'm sure I'll get used to the driving eventually, but for now I'm sticking to practicing during the week and avoiding any times close to rush hour!
The home that we've moved into is beautiful and very comfortable, although we've had a few "set-backs". The house is brand new construction but has been sitting for quite a few months until we moved in. Needless to say, the drainage system hasn't been functioning properly, there's been a leak here and there, and the people working on tiling the pool have disappeared. Apparently they said that they ran out of grout and haven't shown up to complete it for a week and a half. It took quite a few phone calls and one trip to the head office until we started seeing some results. You know they're taking you seriously when 6 men show up on your front door step. One man was dressed in full traditional Arab garb. We were introduced to this man and quickly found out he's one of the owners of this property and a member of the Royal Family. He was very kind and shook our hands and introduced himself. I guess he got word that the house wasn't being finished properly and he came to take charge. You better believe that today I awoke to the sounds of the pool being worked on. Apparently this is the guy who makes things happen around here. Once the pool is finished I'll be sure to post pictures. We can't wait to enjoy our outdoor space!!!!
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