Qatar - Making Friends

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As usual, not much to report outside of work stuff. I've been getting along pretty well with my coworkers lately and working on a bunch of smaller projects which have kept me busy! And I'm reading the book I've been waiting for for 15 years! Basically, I'll be shut up in my room all weekend.

Except for tonight. My american co-worker, Kay, invited me to dinner with her running club. We went to a place in Najma, which is an older part of town with very ethnic stores and restaurants. We had dinner at this Indian place and can I just say YuuuuummmMY! Oh, it was so delicious and super cheap. I got a full chicken masala, rice, naan, two diet cokes and split an appetizer (we all had generally the same meal) and all for a whopping 35 riyals (less than 10 bucks). The restaurant was in a very busy, tight place in the city. It was hard to park (we parked in an alley) and there were just people walking everywhere - a very common occurance at night in the Middle East in the laborer neighborhoods. The restaurant was super busy downstairs, but upstairs is nicer and a bit more private, though it started to fill up around 8pm. This too is pretty common of these restaurants (I was told our favorite charcoal chicken lunch place has a karaoke bar upstairs).

It was really nice to hang out with westerners outside of work and this group seemed very cool. So... looks like I'm joining a running club! Yikes!!! I also enjoyed getting to know my coworker - as the only other American (besides Melvin who is in an entirely different department and managerial level), people have been trying to get us to hang out and we really would have but work rules our lives here.

The only other thing of interest... well two actually. First I have some american coworkers coming tomorrow for a project. It'll be nice to see some of my favorite familiar faces again. Second, I am supposed to be be looking at apartments on Saturday. Woohoo! I'm so looking forward to moving out of my hotel room! Wish me luck...

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