EID Holiday

This coming Monday marks the second EID holiday in Qatar, which means four days off of work!  I find it interesting the striking differences between the expat rituals and the local Qatari traditions around the EID holidays.  For expats, we vacate the country to either make a trip back home or to go exotic locations such as Dubai, India, Bali, Maldives, KL, Egypt or Greece.  As for the locals, the EID holiday is a time to pray, gather with family, buy new clothes, and celebrate. 

The last EID holiday, I visited Turkey and back home.  This EID, my parents are coming. We have a lot of fun activities scheduled, such as going to the Souk and a safari adventure.  I looking forward to spending my EID holiday with my family and having a sneak peak into the local customs of the Muslim culture.

Stay tuned....sure there is lots to come in my pink pumps!

Expat Lifestyle

The expat lifestyle is often sought after by non-expats and revered by many expats themselves.  This experience has opened my eyes to the pros and cons of an expat life.  There are many pros, such as the opportunity to see unique parts of the world, chance to make friends from all different cultures, and the financial compensation of working outside your home country. Of course with any situation, the pros do not exist without cons.  The less glamorous aspects of living and working outside your home country-you are NOT inside the country where you have roots, can be difficult to maintain relationships with friends and family back home, often long-work hours, everything is foreign, and not in one place for more than a few years. 

Given all of the above, there are many things that I have done here that I would never do at home, such as high tea or a evening garden party.  Last Friday, I went for high tea at the Ritz Carlton. The menu was an expansive choice of teas from across the globe.

The tea came with little finger sandwich's, scones, and tiny desserts. Combine the food and tea with light soft music and you have a wonderful atmosphere to waste a Friday afternoon.

Last night, I was invited to an evening garden party at a VP's villa.  There were red lights highlighting the treas, black cocktail tables, and a serving staff offering you wine or juice (its a Middle East thing-they drink TONS of juice).  The food was catered by the W Hotel. It was nice to see everyone out of their nomex (fire-retardant) jumpsuits that are required at the work site.  As a I was told by one of the other guests, this is a normal occurrence in an expat lifestyle.

So do I aspire to be a career expat?  Time will tell, but can see some of pros (pictured above)....

Jerk!

Have you ever had a situation, where your only reaction is "I am such a jerk!"?  Well here is my most recent- I live in a "transit" apartment (the fact that I am here up to a year does not feel like transit to me, but....) . The good thing about being permanent transit, is that a maid service comes every Sunday to clean my apartment when I am work (remember, we work Sunday-Thursday).  She unloads my dishwasher, changes my towels, and puts down a clean sheet (there is no top sheet here. its on my list to figure out along with the topless employees at the Turkish bath).  This week, I came home on Sunday.  Did a quick check. Unknown to me, they put down a fitted sheet that looked just like the box spring. So what did I do....I marched downstairs to the reception area, demanded they call the cleaning company, insist they drive all the way back to put a sheet on my bed.

20 Min later, my doorbell rings. The cleaning ladies come in and walk right into the bedroom.  "Mam, Mam, there is a sheet on the bed. Come look".  Well shit, there was a sheet!  I am such a JERK!

Womens Tennis

Doha is not the most exciting place, but this weekend it was full of movie stars and world class athletes.  It was the Tribecca Film Festival and the Sony Ericcson Womens Tennis tournament which showcased the top 8 in the world. I am not a tennis fan nor do I really know or understand the rules of the game.  BUT, the one thing I have learned here, if it is happening in Doha, you go.  I saw the #1 in the world (don't ask me her name-she was blonde, I do know that) who is from Denmark.  I saw several other players, many who yelled EVERY time they hit the ball.

 

So while I did not learn anything new about the game of tennis, I did learn about the difference between Americans (and thier need for personal space) vs. other cultures. Sevearl times this evening, my personal space was impeded by someone trying to reach over  me to buy food, trying to pay for said food, and waiting in line to get into the areana.  I know I am short and sometimes easy to miss by people who are vertically advantaged (like my husband-he is a beacon in a crowd), but that is why I have a booming voice.At one point in time, I had to yell, "excuse me!!!".   It not that they were close, we were practically touching. Look everyone-its hot, we had all been at work ALL day, and no one needs to be that close unless you are behind closed doors with your spouse.  SO....back up!

#1 in the world (at least that is what the anouncer said)





Doha Tribecca Film Festival

 Or DTFF for those of us who visited the festivities.  Opening night was earlier this week on Tuesday at the Doha's brand new cultural village. It was packed full of red carpet celebs such as Salma Hayak, Kevin Spacey, and the festival's biggest supporter, Robert Di Nero. The opening film (Above the Law) was showcased in an outdoor theater with the gulf on two sides.  It was my first French film. Good thing there were subtitles in English (and Arabic). 

The film festival took place over several days. Thursday night was capped off at the Four Seasons beach theatre. This is probably the coolest thing I have done since I arrived several months ago.  The film was "The Two Escobars".  A little disappointed because my husband saw the same film on ESPN in the US. Here I was feeling so special when I could have viewed it in the comfort of my own home for free.  However, if I had watched it at home, I could not have watched the entire movie with my feet in the sand. What a romantic setting, with lounge beach chairs, a warm breeze, the screen several yards out into the Gulf, AND goodie bags! 

Friday night was the not an exciting location, just at one of Doha's 8 malls, but the film was spectacular. I saw "Waiting for Superman", the documentary about the US public school system. Great film, very well done, and a must see!

Same, Same, but DIFFERENT

I am now back in the balmy weather of Doha.  I had a wonderful two weeks in the US visiting family, friends, running a marathon...the usual.  The number one question I got was "What is it like over there?"  There is a simple answer...same, same, but DIFFERENT (which is a favorite saying for this part of the world when describing things that are similar, but very different-ex. whole and skim milk).  What do I experience in every day life....
Food-Humus, breads, LOTS of dates, gorgeous desserts (personal opinion-look better than they taste), camel meat (no, I have not had any yet), juice stalls-AMAZING!
Driving-Few rules of the road, even fewer rules enforced, round-a-bouts with stop lights, heavy congestion during rush hour
Clothes-Abaya's and Thobe's for the Qataris. All others are conservatively covered from shoulders to knees. High-end runway fashion, beautiful handbags and a Rolls are nice accessories.
Families-Very familiar society, which is different than the US. Families in Qatar are considerably larger than you might find Stateside.
Water-Everyone drinks bottled or filtrated water.  Not sure why....
Nightlife-Expats and locals tend to find themselves at either one of the 5 star hotel's restaurants/clubs or at the Souk smoking shisha.  Alcohol can be found at a select few establishments, but most spend their nights sober.
Environment-One word-Beige. Very sandy with mostly neutral colored housing structures.  However, Doha is an architects dream. There are some amazing structures here.

That is all I can think of for now.  Let me know if you want more....

Really? Really!

Sorry I have been absent for a while, but I have been back in the US for the past week. Last Thursday I took the 15 hour and 45 min flight from Doha, Qatar to Houston, Texas.The flight left at 9am Doha time (1am Houston). I tried to stay-up all night to help with the jet lag. My plans were to arrive in Houston on Thursday evening and leave for Chicago on Friday morning. I needed to be well rested because my husband and I were running the Chicago Marathon.  All of that aside, I was looking forward to (AND needed) a nice relazing flight to the States. 

Picture this:  I am sitting in seat 14C, as isle seat.  I was all worried about who might sit next to me. I should have been worried who was sitting in 11A, 11E,  and 19E.  Lucky for me and all the other adults on the plane, those seats were occupied with screaming, whaling children.  It was like a choir of crying, one would start and then others would join like a nicely organzied round of tears. 

You may be asking where were the parents? Sitting right next to them. I understand tough love or the Focker method, but a 15 hour plane ride is not the time to try it out on your children. Really! If you just let you children wail and scream at home, fine. The rest of us on the plane (who were making faces that you could not see) suggest another parenting method for plane rides. Really!  If you are going to let your children cry at ear piercing tunes, then at least provide the rest of us with noice reducing headphones, Really!

Really? Really!