Life in Qatar

Middle East » Qatar » Doha
March 4th 2015

Published: March 5th 2015

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Doha skyline at night

I have not been able to travel much in the last few months, which has been a bummer. But to keep you up to date with my life, here are some anecdotes of life in Qatar…

Octoberfest

For this ritual, I went to Abu Dhabi with Jamie, meeting up with Addi at a hotel on Yas Island. Our room was pretty awesome - a one bedroom suite with a view of our party location for the next day. Both nights, the hotel next to us had a raging party with disco balls, bright lights and techno music. Not sure what was going on there! It was actually a good weekend to chill as we were just planning for the festival with no other plans - so we slept in, got a good breakfast, and slowly got ready for the day.

We were able to walk over, tickets in hand to the large structure where the event would take place. I have to say: I think we were all a little disappointed. I think we all expected a little more German flair to the event, but the basics were there. We walked inside and all the tables

Octoberfest

Jamie, Addi and I celebrated in Abu Dhabi

were laid out cross-wise - just long benches from one end of the structure to the other. We found an open space at a table and waited for a few friends to arrive. Addi came back with three large beers - there were only two flavors to choose from, which was part of the disappointment. We were hoping for more of like a taste test or at least the option of one. Aside from the bar snacks like pretzels (yum!), you could go to the other side of the structure and order some traditional german foods; I got like a dumpling thing that was only ok. They were very expensive, and again, would have been better presented as more of a tasting of traditional German foods instead of giant plates of things we never tried before. There was a band onstage who were actually pretty good, dressed in their leiderhosen and playing the traditional instruments. We also saw a bunch of people dressed for the occasion, who were enjoying the music and knew many of the songs.

Which led to thoughts about yet another thing we were lacking - there were no activities to speak of. Just sit, drink

Octoberfest

German beer and pretzels

your beer and listen to the band (you sure couldn't hear each other speak). We thought of a bunch of activities that could have been so easy to implement: hair braiding, beer chugging, cheap outfits photo ops, prizes, strongest man contests, etc. Nothing like that was available so after a couple of hours, we apparently saw all there was to see and went back to our hotel. Kind of a let down, which was unfortunate because the setting was perfect.

Thanksgiving

Somehow I missed making a blog for Thanksgiving! My third Thanksgiving in the Middle East - crazy, I know. K and I decided to both make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We had wanted to share it with many of our friends and co-workers, but neither of our places is very large and when we tried to book the club house at her compound, they were going to charge a large amount of money plus NO ALCOHOL. Nope!!! So, we decided to just invite a select few and have it at my place again, but she would cook at her place and bring it over.

Jamie came to visit me this weekend - her first

Thanksgiving at MIA

Jamie, Joevet and Joselet visited me for the Thanksgiving holidays. So nice!

Qatar experience! She arrived Wednesday night and accompanied me on my crazy drive to work on Thursday. We left early to get started with the prep. The next morning, I put my turkey in the oven and we headed to the bicycle track on Ceremonial Road. This is the 11km bike path that I usually ride on and where I was beeped at by a Land Cruiser driving on it previously. She decided to do a run for 40 minutes while I rode. A nice pre-gluttonous-meal event.

That evening, K, Jamie, Marcos, Christoff, Fay, Flanery, Sam, came to my place to celebrate this occasion. Also the twins from Dubai came to "surprise" me - unfortunately our mutual friend had told me about it beforehand. It was kind of good, so that I could be sure to have the right number of people in my small home. The food was very yummy, of course - we all did a great job cooking. My turkey was a little better (more moist), while her veggie dish was delicious. My gravy recipe from last Christmas also went down as well (slow cooker turkey neck and giblets all day, mix with drippings and flour

Thanksgiving

Sweet potato casserole is always a hit

to simmer for half an hour before serving). It was funny how we pretty much made the exact same foods so for once we had leftovers. Leftovers!

The twins stayed at my place that night and we went to the Museum of Islamic Art the next day. It is one of my favorite places in Doha for many reasons - the building is incredible, the artwork tasteful and plentiful, and park around the Museum so pleasant. We went to get a cup of coffee / tea with great views of West Bay before touring the museum itself. Then we laid out a blanket and had a picnic of delicious leftover turkey sandwiches, soaked in gravy.

New Year's

What did I do for New Year's Eve…? Oh yeah! I fell asleep at 9pm. Woohoo!

Slow Start to the New Year

For the first time in more than 15 months, work was very slow for us. Actually, our field operations were very slow. My engineering team was busy all month trying to catch up to all the craziness of the past year. We had a few projects that were supposed to start immediately

Qatar National pride

Not much to say about this except the driver was a happy man!

after the new year that kept getting postponed; our big one actually just started this week, more than two months later. So, while the managers were freaking out a bit, my engineers were working hard to catch up on reports to close out last year's projects, the geologists were in to wrap up their paperwork and assist in reporting, and we all focused on training, annual reviews, and updating our organization to prepare for the new year. Plus, I had some major proposals to do. I had hired a new senior engineer in December and she was ready to go - she took all of my reports from me so I could focus on managing my team and improving our commercial group.

So, up until February, we were continually busy, just not in the field. Starting the first week in February was when people started to come to me asking for work - then you know there may be a problem. But still there was plenty to do if we were smart about it. We had been so busy over the past 15 months and just threw everything at the projects to get them completed that there was never

Blowing off some steam

a bunch of geologists/drilllers/site supers venting after a long week of work

any time for proper quality control. So, we learned from the mistakes we'd made over this period and focused on improving for future works. The geologists have vastly improved over this time period and are keen to work on more interesting tasks than being glorified technicians.

Weekend Life

So, while I was starting to work normal days (you know, 8 hours a day, five days a week), it was still exhausting. Every now and then, I get to go out and have a drink with some colleagues to blow off steam. Maybe twice a month. I never would have thought I could survive without a beer, but usually I just don't even think about it anymore. I still don't even have my liquor license and I am ok with that - the occasional beer at the hotels suit me fine.

In addition, I started riding my bike weekly now. Every Friday morning I head to the bike path to ride at least one loop. K and I used to try to do this, but now I've enlisted some Croatian guys to ride with me. They do not have road bikes like mine, so it feels

Beautiful moon

Saw this driving one night - the most beautiful moon I've seen in ages. Sadly, I didn't quite capture it fully.

good to kick their butts. The first time I went with G, we hit a major sandstorm - my bike was blowing sideways and we had to turn around after a total of 12km. The cool thing was on the way back, we saw a desert viper (at least, that's what he said it was). I saw a snake slithering down an embankment into a hole and showed him - very cool! The next time he and I went back, he saw the snake at the same spot so now we know its home. Last week, I went with G and his roommate Z. The wind was completely brutal. I practiced my "climbing hills" by putting my bike into low gear and pushing into the wind - the guys were way slower with their bikes. G had to stop while Z and I went on for another couple of km. I got to the top of the "hill" after pushing through (it felt good!) and when I turned to look back I saw him waving at me - done! We rode for more than 35 minutes and we maybe made it halfway to the end point - so like 6km

Doha Golf Club

beautiful weather this time of year

- but the way back took us less than 10 minutes. For about 4 straight kilometers, I never even pedaled.

I also have been trying to play soccer with these guys every Sunday night. They are so good and fast, I am happy to just join for the first half hour. Plus my knee has not been the same since Jordan last year, so I'm taking it easy.

Speaking of which, I finally found the perfect masseuse. It was a total fluke. My friend, Lizzie, and I met with our colleague S one night for a Women's Professional group meeting, which they do monthly at random locations in Doha. This meeting was at The Gate Mall in West Bay - a fancy mall I never even bothered to stop in. Because I expected high traffic, I left early and made it in about half an hour from my office (whaaa??). So, I decided to wander about and found a spa called "The Diva Lounge". I had a nice lady (not giving her name so no one steals my girl) who did a manicure for me and talked me into booking a massage for the weekend. The group meeting

Jellyfish at The Gate Mall

high end mall that is my new favorite place (best masseuse and free parking on weekends, with our new lunch place: Eatopia)

was ok, but not really geared for women in the construction industry. It is a nice idea though. Anyway, I kept my massage appointment, Saturday mornings when the parking is free and open. My masseuse is awesome. Awesome. She digs right in, but it feels so good. The second time I went back she started to twist my body parts into like a pretzel or something. And since I started going, my knee and joints in general feel pretty good.

Home Life

My apartment lease was up at the end of January. Unfortunately, I could not find a place in town, so I renewed my lease for three more months. I don't dislike my apartment, but I have been here for more than two years and need a change. Something bigger, nicer, with a gym/pool and in a better neighborhood. However, there is a major housing shortage here and the prices of the good places are steep. I am not paying 11,000 riyals for a two bedroom apartment in Doha.

Life in General

As usual, the driving here is always an adventure. The traffic seems to have improved overall everywhere except the

New slogan

It's a little creepy "We are watching you…" but I like the effort

industrial area. I pretty much have started to cry on the way to work and on the way home everyday. The comical aspect of the traffic has ceased to exist for me. I just still get astounded at the way people drive here - I already have the title in mind of the book I plan to write on it. So many traffic jams are easily avoidable if people just followed the rules instead of the "ME FIRST!" mentality and there is no one to enforce it. Just gets very frustrating.

I am trying to take the opportunity with the pressure mostly off of me at work to focus on other endeavors. One is writing a book (or two!), also developing my cooking skills, and another is astronomy. I've purchased some star maps and binoculars and plan to get myself situated with the sky before investing in a telescope. But my goal is start getting proficient by summer time.

I also am purchasing a car, a Toyota Fortuner, from my engineer who is leaving me to go back to his home with his pregnant wife. So, no more tiny little car - now I can be the jerk

Anti-smoking ads on the box

Always love this - US should really do it more

on the road and I look forward to it! HA!

Other than that, I'm always looking for my next adventure. I will be going home for a few weeks in April/May and may make a weekend trip in this region before I go (Musandam Peninsula, Liwa Oasis, Banana Island, Muscat, or Bahrain). Then, keeping my eyes open for Eid breaks and the rest of the year.

Additional photos below

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