Adjusting To Our New Surroundings

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!!!!

 

The Joys of Travel

Greetings from Qatar... and welcome to our blog!!! Grab a cup of coffee and have a seat. We hope you enjoy these first few (lengthy) posts!

Our journey started off with a bit of a rough start, but we didn't let it get us down! We got to the airport expecting to check two suitcases each at no cost and to pay for one  each. Unbeknownst to us, British Airways changed their policy (and according to the gentleman at the counter it's been changed for quite some time...woops). BA International flights only allow one checked bag at no cost which I find completely absurd for an international flight. We were also informed that 4 of our 6 suitcases were overweight (please take note that those luggage scales that you can buy may not be completely accurate!). So we proceeded to move to the side where we rearranged our bags while the whole line was able to gaze at our personals. We attempted to distribute the weight of our bags more evenly. We also added as much of our stuff as possible to the carry-ons and ran a bag of things out to Mick who was waiting patiently to see if we were able to get through with our massive load of belongings. Six checked bags later (including one 6ft carpet and one golf bag stuffed to the brim with loads of other items) and $400 out of pocket... we were proceeding through security to our gate.

We had a brief stopover at London Heathrow airport this time which consisted mostly of long lines in security. It didn't help that Kris left liquids in his bag, which we found out is a big no no and extended our waiting time by another half hour. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time for Kris to get a long awaited British bacon sandwich before we arrived at our final destination in the land of no pork! Thank goodness he was able to snag some of his British creature comforts - Ribena, a black-current drink, a handful of British sweeties (which I've also become quite fond of), and an old fashioned British newspaper - or else the stop in London would have been a total waste! 

As I previously mentioned we weren't able to get the direct flight from DC because we booked our flights a bit late. So for all those coming to visit (and I'm hoping that's A LOT of you) make a valiant effort to get on the direct flight. It makes a huge difference. Although no matter which flight you end up on, there are a few things to remember:

1) There are ear plugs and an eye mask in the little pack that Qatar Airways provides...

2) You may need the ear plugs because there tend to be a handful of children on the plane that don't seem to have ever been disciplined.

3) If your unfortunate enough to have children sitting behind you....you'll have to turn around and give the whole family the evil eye so the child stops kicking the back of your seat! And don't worry, if they don't speak English I'm pretty sure the Evil Eye is recognizable to all nationalities.

4) AND MOST IMPORTANTLY....Don't get on the plane without a heavy dose of sedatives in your pocket, in which case #1, 2 & 3 won't matter =)

There are definitely a few positive notes about the flight as well...

1) Your flight starts off with a selection of hard candy and nice hot towel to clean your hands and face!

2) Ben and Jerry's ice cream is at your disposal during the entire flight

3) There's an endless selection of movies and TV shows to watch if the sedatives haven't kicked in yet (on your personal TV screen located on the back of the seat in front of you)

4) You also have video games to stimulate your mind

5) And coming soon, online shopping and the internet will be available for all (the in-flight advances are really quite amazing)

We eventually landed down safely in Qatar on Sunday night around 7pm (12pm EST).

The last time I landed in Qatar Kris was kind enough to have a greeter meet me directly off of the airplane and escort me to a lounge where they handled the details of my visa.  This time with my husband at my side, we did not have the same luxury experience. After a lengthy bus ride to get from the plane into the airport, we realized there must have been multiple planes that landed from India within minutes of ours touching down. Usually when we land from the Washington flight there is not a soul to be seen when we go through immigration. This time was quite a different experience. The lines were bumper to bumper (Literally! The men were lined up so close to one another that the hair on their heads had to be tickling the noses of the men standing behind them. There is absolutely no concept of "your personal space" or "your bubble".) After we got our visa's we were greeted by Kate and Ken, who filled both cars and proceeded off to the new Taylor palace in the desert.