Can't Escape the Aggies!

Can you believe it? We moved all the way to Doha, Qatar and we still can't get away from those Aggies! We attend a Texas A & M Boot Scoot this weekend! It was just amazing, here we are in the Middle East attending an Aggie function! It was a blast. There were lots of cowboy hats, country line dancing and two stepping, and margaritas! "Gig 'em, Aggies!"

Officially Moved In!

Our container arrived, early on Sunday! It was so exciting to see what we packed, what we forgot, and what was broken. Luckily just a few picture frames and a vase were broken, not bad for being in a sea container for 2 months! The container truck was too big to come into the compound so they had to empty our container, outside of the compound, into a pickup truck and then transport it to our villa. They even unpacked what we wanted and put everything on the floor...yes a nightmare for me. So I have been frantically cleaning, organizing and storing all of our items. I was a little concerned that we had brought too much stuff, but everything seems to fit. While these villas are very large, there is a great deal of wasted space. There is no attic or garage, just two small "garage-type" closets outside. Luckily, the people before us closed in the wasted space beneath our stairs which provides great storage. In addition, we had the maid's room furniture removed for additional storage as there is no live-in maid in our future!

So for those of you who know me, the house was pretty much done in about 2 days. (cleaning included!) Michael jokes that he had to go to work to escape my wrath...I really don't know what he is talking about as I have pretty much done it all on my own, with the exception of tools and camping gear! (I will never touch the camping gear!!!) The amazing thing about tile is that I can move all of the furniture on my own!!! It just slides! It is really amazing that our things pretty much work in this new home. I am glad that we did bring all of our decorative items as it really makes our villa feel like home. It is really strange because everyone in the compound has the same furniture! So you walk into each person's house and it feels like it could be your house! Hopefully this will help to set our villa apart!

The only oops is the glass top to our kitchen table! The base of the table is in storage in Houston and the top is in Doha! HA HA!!! Oh well!

Most of all, Macey is very excited to see and smell all that is familiar to her!

Dunes Baby!

Well, we did it...we drove into, around, on top of, and down the dunes! We went with another couple out to experience the dunes. I am not sure how to describe it...for those of you who are thrill seekers...WOW!!! You would have a blast here. For those of you who are a little on the scaredy cat side...you would have died!

First, you get as far as paved road will take you, then you let a bunch of air out of your tires. Then off you go. If you can, you follow someone else's path and hope that they knew what they were doing! You would always want to take more than one vehicle in the event that you get stuck and need to be towed out...etc (plus better to send someone down a dune before you! lol)! We drove on flat bumpy sand for a while, much like driving on dirt with lots of pot holes! Then there are patches of sand dunes where you slip and slide until you can get to hard "road" again. Driving through the sand is a lot like fish tailing in the snow. (just not too sure if you have control of the car or not!) You can just drive and drive, it is amazing, dunes emerging all around you.

Of course we had to go up a dune and come down. So you carefully climb up the dune. You get to the top and then let someone else go first! It is a lot like going on a roller coaster. You keep nudging your car over the edge of the dune until you get over and start sliding down. You do not accelerate and if you are new like us, you can brake. You just keep sliding until you reach the bottom and level off. Needless to say, I was scared to death! All Michael kept saying was "Jimmy would love this!!!" (We'd be more than happy to pass along your resume Jimmy!!!) It really was a lot of fun. We were very conservative duners. There are some people out there doing some crazy stuff!

We met up with another group of duners who were actually all teachers! I knew it, you can just tell a group of teachers...friendly, funny, considerate, did I mention friendly!!! We hung out with them for a while and then we all went back out into the dunes. It was a lot of fun, plus I made another connection at the school!

We did stop and take a break at the Inland Sea. It is here that you can look across and see Saudi Arabia! WOW!!! On the Qatar side, there are white sand dunes/beaches and just across the Inland Sea are cliffs lining the Saudi edge! (We are pretty sure that you would not want to just swim over to Saudi!!!) We actually saw dolphins swimming in the water! Amazing!


One sight we did not think we would see is grass, shrubs and flowers growing in the desert! They have had an extremely cool and wet winter here and there is actually growth in the desert. They say give it another month or two and should be all dead! lol




Enjoy the pictures. The Hummer belongs to the couple we drove out with! Aftewards, we had dinner at Chilis!!!

Our Stuff is Coming!!! Our Stuff is Coming!!!

We got word that OUR CONTAINER IS COMING ON SUNDAY!!! That is amazing! It arrived into the port less than a week ago and it has already cleared customs. This is truly a miracle. I think they opened our container and thought twice about having to unpack everything and check it all, so they just passed us through. We will find out on Sunday what they actually opened. Many people have reported that every single box had been opened!!! Can you even imagine? Oh well, we'll let you know on Sunday!

One Car Down

Well, we were finally able to purchase our first car last night. Like many other things here, buying a car is very different.

For starters, the dealership sells you your first year of insurance when you purchase your car. There are many accidents here, so we wanted to make sure we had “full coverage,” as much as we can get (given Michael’s track record…lol). So the dealer says yes, this is full coverage, and yes this covers everything. BUT, do you want additional coverage. We of course are like what do you mean, you said this is full coverage, why would we need anything extra? We go back and forth and he explains that the additional coverage is 50 Riyal for each passenger in the car. He says this will cover the people in your car and anyone that you might hit on the road. We of course go round and round about why we need this, won’t full coverage cover this?? Finally, he says this is coverage for “blood money.” I of course make a horrific expression and the dealer looks at me and I quickly explain that we don’t have that where we come from. BUT, YES WE WILL TAKE THAT COVERAGE. He explains that you either have this coverage or you don’t and in the event that you kill/disable someone this will cover the blood money that we will be expected to pay to the family ( I know many of you are wondering how much is blood money??? All we have heard is that it depends how important the person is! These are the times when you know you aren’t in Kansas anymore!!!). So we NOW have FULL COVERAGE!

So we pay for the car, get full insurance coverage and now we are ready to take the car. The dealership pulls the car up, puts the license plates on, and asks whether or not we want the plastic removed from the seats. We found it strange after arriving that a very large number of cars still have the plastic on the seats of their cars. Now I know you are thinking, they probably leave the plastic on to keep the seats clean from sand. Nope, they just want to give the appearance that they are driving a new car. Can you even imagine in the summer when it is 150 degrees, driving around while sitting on sweating plastic…no thank you! I know you are wondering, doesn’t the plastic rip off? Of course it does, there are actually places where they will replace the plastic on the seats! Regardless, we do NOT have the plastic on our seats though they asked us about 5 times to make sure they didn’t make a mistake!

One car down, one more to go. I am waiting on a shipment of Jeep Wranglers to see what I am going to be driving!

I See a Camel!

Sorry these first couple of posts may be out of order...

Last weekend, we set out in search of the dunes! Please keep in mind, that we currently have a rental car...CAR. It is of great necessity that you purchase 4WD cars.

1. The traffic/driving is HORRIBLE. Evidently this may be somewhat standard for foreign countries, but it is a long way from driving in the States. You want to make sure you are in a large vehicle!
2. The city is ALWAYS under construction. You never know when the road you have driving each day will suddenly be under construction and you need to do a little off-roading to get to your destination.
3. DUNES BABY!

But, like I said, we were in a rental CAR and we did venture out to find the dunes. So, the pictures that are included don't look like much and that is because we really couldn't get that close because we would have needed to do a little off-roading.

It is amazing, you are driving and then all of a sudden there they are, huge mountains of sand! Along the road there a many places to stop and rent 4 wheelers. They have 4 wheelers for adults all the way down to 4 wheelers for a 4 year old. You just pay some money, jump on and off you go! There are just tons of kids and adults just zooming around, you really need to be careful!

So we got to a point where we could not drive any further and there before us were 2 camels just waiting for us to take a ride. What would any other tourist clearly do... jump on! One of the camels was REALLY ornery, that is the one I made Michael ride! ;-)) In many ways it is like riding a horse, except for getting on and off. The camel sits down so that you can get on and then stands up with you on it...Scary...and then the same to get off. All I can say is WE DID IT! We went for a very short ride and yes, all of the Qataris laughed at us, or at least at me for screaming so loudly when the camel stood up. All this excitement for 10 Riyals ($3.64)!!!!

Camels!!!

We are settling in!

Doha, Qatar!

We're here!

Michael finally received his residence permit and now they will apply for my permit. This allows us to buy a car, get our home phone and DSL Internet and most importantly our liquor license! Our first car will be a Dodge Durango (5.7L HEMI, 345hp, "YEAH BABY!" exclaimed Michael). We are still waiting for our shipment, and there are no estimations as to when that will clear customs.

Michael is enjoying the challenges of his new job. The biggest challenge is communicating with individuals from other countries. While there is an English only policy, it is often difficult to understand under the heaviness of various dialects.

I am occupying my time by cleaning the floors, which for those of you who know me is a great enjoyment of mine. In addition to cleaning, I have been playing cards, working out (though this was delayed as I broke my toe after jamming it into the tile stairs), and really just taking time to meet new people and find all of the best shops! It is a full time job here to 'find the American products.' Women will go great distances in search of familiar products and brands! I am coming very close to going up to the American school, but I am holding myself back and trying to enjoy some time of work-less relaxation!

Macey handled the flight like a brave little kitty! She is still checking the villa out. She is not too sure what to think. Our villa does back up to a busy street and the noise is very unfamiliar to her. Another complaint that Macey has is that there is no space under the bed! So she cannot hide! So, I have created a fort for her in her room, and yes she chose the bigger bedroom. She spends a great deal of time hiding out! Her final complaint is the tile stairs, they are very slippery for her soft little feet. She takes great care as she slowly slides all the way down! She is very happy to have a lot of large windows to sun in! Mostly she is just happy to be with us!

The weather has been very unseasonable. It has rained more days than I would have imagined that we would have seen in a year! (no cracks on us bringing bad weather please!) The temperature has been mild, highs in the low 70s and lows in the high 50s. Though, when we first arrived, we actually bought 2 space heaters! It was in the 40s and that is very could in a cement house and the houses do not have heaters.

Our villa is very nice. We are in one of the smaller villas offered, it is 3 bedrooms and about 3600 sq. ft. Our compound is extremely safe. The entrance is home to a well staffed guard shack which includes a Qatari Police Officer at all times! (Rumor has it there are US Army families in our compound which may be the reason for added security.) We have an absolutely beautiful resort style pool, restaurant, tennis and basketball courts, gym, small dance studio, dry cleaners, theater room, and indoor and outdoor bar/club area that can be reserved for parties.
Hope this blog keeps all of you posted, at your own convenience, of our many Doha, Qatar experiences! Please feel free to post messages to us, just remember this is a family site ;-))!

Love,

Gina, Michael and Macey