Yeah, so pretty much since my geologists friends have arrived, my wonderful diet has gone out the window! I'm not too bad, but I was really enjoying that downward progress on my scale. Oh well. It was worth it. Beer, food and much need company. There is not much to tell (shocking, I know), but we went to the souk a few times, to The Pearl, hotels, and just around where ever. There is a decent variety of food if you can take yourself to it. Most places are concentrated in certain areas which always seem to have trouble with enough parking spaces. The souk definitely has the most multi-cultural cuisines and the prices are not too bad. The Pearl is limited and expensive. The food at the Villaggio is basically crap - there are a ... read more

Friday morning, I got up early to prepare for a Qatari road trip! Jeff and I made plans to head north and drive around to see what Qatar has to offer. Granted, it's not much, but it was a fun day. We made it to the northern tip, Rawais, and drove as fast as we could, or stopped for random sites - like a giant fatty lizard that I almost ran over! We drove from Doha, to Al Khor, to Al Thakirah, to Ruwais and near there, then southwest towards Dukkan. We never made it to Dukkan, instead detouring to Zekreet, where I'd heard there were some cool geological formations. We wound up stumbling upon a convoy, and joined before trying to decide if we wanted to continue. We at first felt that what we could ... read more

I woke up fairly early this morning and convinced myself to go driving before the crazies got on the road. So I headed west. I took Salwa towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, then veered right towards Umm Bab (Love the name, though the town was nothing). It was mostly just me on lonely stretches of two-lane road, which somewhat worried me since I forgot my phone. Ooops! I passed ... well... desert. I saw occasional groups of sheep and goats with their shepherds, which was pretty cool. The closer you get to the western coast, the more it becomes industrial. Qatar Petroleum owns much of this area for their support facilities. This means NO PHOTOGRAPHY! There were signs against photography and "warning" signs all over the place which was a little frightening. It's also unfortunate ... read more

Another blog of my daily life... Sorry - Qatar is not nearly as exciting as Dubai. I have no friends, no public transportation, no delivery, no gym... nothing. It is a bit of an adjustment. Fortunately, it has been a good week because I still love my job and I am so happy in my new apartment. I've been able to cook and relax. No more driving all the way to West Bay everyday - a 15 minute commute as opposed to an hour each way is so much better! So, since there is nothing specifically interesting to report, here are some general observations. I live next to about 4 mosques, no exaggeration. The call to prayer goes off sometime around just before 5am. It usually wakes me up, but it is fairly easy to go ... read more

Saturday I set up an appointment and looked at two apartments, and I was good with either. They were set up nice and included everything. Everything. All utilities, furniture, appliances... even a full set of kitchen knives! They said with a one year contract, they would even replace my bed if I didn't like it. The second apartment's layout was a bit more homey so that was the one I went with. They sent me my contract and now it is up to my company to get this to move forward. I truly hope to get out of this crap hotel by the end of the week! Keep your fingers crossed for me! I came back to my hotel, took a nap and had some crazy dreams.... Then I headed out with my coworkers who'd just ... read more