So, it's been awhile...

I haven't been so diligent lately. Sorry, work's been crazy, my break was crazy, everything is just crazy right now. I finally got to bust out the new camera and take some photos of Doha properly... Me and Russ went down and just took pictures of cool buildings and other random stuff...

Here's a taste...

The Doha Skyline. From the park in front of the Emir's palace.


I have yet to find the Jawas that left their Sandcrawler in the middle of Doha


One of my favorite buildings


My favorite building


I have a lot more that I'll put into more posts. Like I said this gives you an idea of some of the neat buildings around.

23 days is too long...

I wish I was on my way home... of course I also hosed myself by taking my leave a week later than I should have. So in case you hadn't guessed things are still very crazy around here, and getting crazier all the time. The amount of responsibilities they're asking me to take on is growing. That's a good thing(usually), but it means I don't get a lot of time to do much but work and sleep(the reason I haven't been putting much in here).

I miss you all lots... Just 23 more days...

Another day another dollar...

Made it through another wild and crazy week out here. Deadlines and random questions and training classes... Just when I thought I was getting a handle on things it bumped up another notch out here. Oh and it just keeps getting hotter. The humidity stays up and the heat just keeps climbing. I don't know what I have planned for tomorrow(obviously not much). That's ok I need a break from the craziness anyway.

Miss you guys lots.

Is it the 26th of August yet?

....How about now?

It's getting to be the ugly time of year. Today hit 115, but the humidity was down. Of course so was the wind. Now I'm wondering how this compares to the Air Base. We're right on the coast here, but the base is a little further inland.

I still can't get over the different types of food here. You can't even say "arabic" food. The spices are all different, the cuts of meat are different(especially the asian fare and their idea of "chicken".... I think they grow a mutant species of chicken that have extra bones... or maybe they just take frozen chicken and cut them up with a band saw... It drives me crazy). I'm also trying to figure out the mechanics of "beef bacon" I mean it tastes a lot like real bacon, similar texture, looks the same... How does that work?? I also need to figure out how to make Naan bread. It's a flat bread and often filled with cheese or topped with sesame seeds(or both)... There are bakeries everywhere here. They make all kinds of bread too. Everything you'd expect to see... lots of fancy coffee shop type places...

I don't know, not much else is happening(I'll say this though Kel, In a couple of weeks I may have something to share that won't make you real happy, hehe).

I almost shouldn't have booked my flight... now I'm constantly thinking about it.

Miss you all lots.

Mmmmm breakfast...

I had my first real breakfast here today. We went down to Doha and ate at a place called Ric's kountry kitchen. Despite the interesting spelling the food was probably the most American I've had since I've been been here. Biscuits and gravy, breakfast steak, bacon(beef, but still tasted like bacon...), potatoes, scrambled eggs. Of course it just makes me miss home more. I dunno. I think the last couple of days have probably been the toughest so far. Knowing I'm coming home in a month... and then coming back for another round of this craziness. It's nice to know that there are people back home who care how I'm doing.

Have I ever mentioned I miss you guys?

Heat...

It was a balmy 110 yesterday and the humidity finally dropped back below 50%. It's good thing we're mostly working inside right now so we can at least escape the humidity(until the window shaker craps out). You know it's hot outside when you step outside and your glasses fog up instantly. It's not like they just get a little cloudy either. You can't see until they warm back up. I'm not looking for to loop checks...

Oh and to go with the heat shopping gets to be somewhat miserable. Lots of little shops are crammed with people(most of whom don't wear deodorant or bathe regularly). There's a definite funk in the air in those places. Not pleasant.

The malls are pretty cool though. Huge beyond belief. I'll do a picture update with some of the stuff I've seen in the malls. Seriously though, space-wise the malls are immense. You could easily get three or four floors into some of these places and could land large airplanes in some of the halls. The sad part is that most of these places don't have many shops. Imagine Park Meadows with a quarter of the number of shops. And an eighth of the parking. You can just tell that most of this stuff was designed for show and not function. Of course I've also never been to a mall where your "food court" consisted of a series of really fancy restaurants(TGI Fridays and Macaroni Grill being the lower end of the spectrum there). It's just nuts...

Still miss you guys.

JR

The joys of driving...

So I haven't talked much about driving. I've made brief mentions of it, but haven't really elaborated anything. The truth of the matter is that driving here sucks. If you are not aware of everything going on around you something bad will probably happen. That's pretty much common sense when you're driving here, but here you have to be on a different level. You also have to be able to keep your emotions in check at all times. People will cut you off. People will crawl right up your tailpipe in order to remove you from their way.

There are 3 types of drivers here:

The Indians and Pakistanis(one groups), the big shots, and everyone else.

If you've ever seen scenes of driving in India you can imagine how the Indians drive here. If you haven't here's the easiest way to explain it: they have little regard for lanes, signs, or other cars. They go where they want, when they want, and if you get in their way you will get an earful of horn(or as the custom here is an eyeful of high beam... because you can get ticketed for using your horn without discretion). Oh yeah, they also like to cut across empty fields and lots just because the road is inconvenient and will park in any spot that they can get into and still crawl out their window from.

The next category are the big shots. They are always in a hurry and they will always flash you from a half mile off expecting you to get out of their way or to not get in their way. They drive what you'd expect: big SUVs, luxury sedans, and sports cars. The worst offenders are of course the sports cars... Of course the one group of people you don't mess with are the ones with 2, 3, or 4 digit license plate numbers. The fewer the numbers the closer to the Emir(ruler here) by blood they are. If you see them behind you, it's best to get out of their way.

The last category is the rest of us. These folks include less aggressive westerners and native Qataris. Mostly they all just go with the flow and it works out alright.

One of the biggest problems you have around here is the store to parking ratio. They designed this place to be like Europe... it's the only explanation I can come up with for why the roads are so narrow with so many buildings packed together and so few parking spaces... Of course there's no mass transit system here so it's pretty ugly around here, especially with 1.4 million people packed into 1 city that's smaller(spacewise) than Aurora. So the parking makes the traffic worse around the major shopping areas... and then trying to get an actual parking spot can turn into a game of chicken or who has a smaller vehicle. That's ok though because even though you may spend 30-45 minutes looking for a spot the gas is only about 75 cents a gallon here so it's not as painful as it could be.

Oh yeah... the roundabouts... Have you ever seen a roundabout with traffic lights before? Well they exist. There are only a few but they are the most assinine setup I've ever seen. You basically have a light at the entrance to the roundabout and then a stoplight before each exit. They might as well just pave through it and put in regular old traffic lights. In general they aren't too bad though(especially if you're driving in something large). It's pretty easy to pick up the flow of traffic. Again though, you absolutely have to be in full surrounding awareness mode...

So, yeah. It's crazy. Russell and Richard make me drive everywhere because I don't mind driving and neither of them is big on it.

Oh well I should probably get back to work.

Miss you all lots.