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Published: January 4th 2013
Watch for Camels!
I didn't see any :(I know you are probably sick of me saying "there is nothing to do here" in Qatar - but it is fairly true. Fortunately, I just LOVE the work I'm doing. Like, seriously love it. The geology is interesting, the projects are unique, and we have a good crew working here that I get along with quite well. It is just sad that it is located where it is. I would love to blog about my actual work experiences day to day, but a) you probably won't find them as interesting as I do and b) they are mostly confidential anyway.
One thing is that I have dived head first into the project. There are no engineers here and the whole of the middle east fugro offices are short on engineers as it is. Add on top of that, the busy holiday season, where half the company goes on leave (and here, that means 2-4 weeks) and you have yourself a potential panic mode! Thankfully, I thrive on procrastination and panic. I feel nothing has been accomplished until I have a day where I'm close to tears, but that winds up working out.
For instance, I haven't worked on
Autocad since my very first company. Our office in ventura had a person designated for all your autocad needs and I never had to use it again. That has been 8 years and in the 21st century, 8 years in technological advances basically means you are starting fresh. I knew the basic concepts behind autocad (layers, grids, command lines, etc), but beyond that, it looked so much prettier than the one I'd used in college with my hard disk. On one of my projects, all drawings are in autocad AND the former project manager liked to deliver the cross-sections with autocad. He helped get me started, and eventually helped me on some of the key ingredients. I played with the sections for a while and the first go around it was sad - the pictures looked amazing but when I tried to print them, they were blurry and just didn't look right. Bummer. But this week, I've figured it out and I am so proud of myself! 😊 There are a few other programs that I have had exposure to, but not tons of practice with, but here, I HAVE to use them and figure them out on my own
Car Graveyard
out past Al Wakrih - there is no one to teach me and no one else to do it, but they are necessary. Basically, I just relearned three key programs in about 10 days. Crazy, but exciting.
On top of all that, our office is getting busy. I was asked to do TWO weekly site visits for this one company now for two different projects; I guess they liked me. Plus my weekly meeting for the big project with the management nightmare, plus the other big project I'm working and finishing, plus the little ones starting up AND plus mentoring the young geologists. YIKES! Really, what have I got myself into?? Strangely, it makes me smile.
While I do have little time for anything else, it does get quite lonely. So, I made a post on the expat forum here, expecting it to be like the one in Dubai. In Dubai, they were so useful - you make a post asking for advice about getting your license or buying a car or whatever, and people provide useful tips. It is social if you want it to be, but also a guide for moving to Dubai. I loved it when I first arrived.
Sadly, Doha's is NOTHING like it. I posted asking for information on women's soccer or volleyball teams, and what expats do for fun. What I got were lots of private and public messages asking me anywhere from being their friend to going all out to ask me on a date. Sigh... I did get a message from an american woman from dubai who seemed normal and was one of the first to respond (I just started ignoring the messages after the 10th date request). So, she and I met at the mall on Saturday and she was very nice. She has two young kids and just moved from Dubai when her husband got a job here; she is muslim but was raised in the US, so we were both thankful to have someone to talk with. She'll be fun to have a cup of tea with or go to a movie.
New Years Eve I worked at the office til 5, got home, worked until 8 or so and started to relax since we had the next day off. I was not sad to not go out - I was tired and don't have any friends anyway! I didn't
hear fireworks, which would be near my hotel if they were to happen, so I imagine New Year's is not that big a deal here and that I didn't miss much.
Today, Friday, is the Islamic holy day. It seems some people don't realize that Friday/Saturday are our weekends here. It is very strange, because with the time change, it basically means we are two days ahead of california, which sometimes makes coordinating work in California difficult. But it is also nice. The people here typically do not get out and about until noonish. So, this is the time when I like to drive around - Friday mornings with no traffic.
Today, I decided to go see some sand dunes. I really wanted to see "The Singing Dune" south of Doha. Apparently, it "sings" when it is bone dry - I figured I wouldn't hear much because it has rained a lot in the last month, but it would still be cool to visit. I hopped in my car, got some drinks, and headed south. It was a pleasant drive and not long after passing the airport, I arrived in a little town called Al Wakra. It is
actually a super cute town, with two nice main streets that remind me of the US, but with Arabic architecture and stores... It looks like a nice place to grow up. Passing through town to the west I saw the Al Wakra Hospital and it is THE most beautiful hospital I've ever seen!!! I almost want to get sick or break a leg just so I can stay a night there!
After passing through little town, Al Wakhir, you are driving in barren desert that looks like what you imagine on Mars or something - hard desert with big rocks and no trees. I was looking for a road veering to the left, but there were only dirt roads and my road veered to the right towards the major highway through here. I needed that highway, and was able to head south (left) on a long straight road full of big construction trucks - the road was two lane, with opposing traffic. It looked like they were expanding to four lanes and it was under construction (my map indicated it was already four lanes). I was pretty sure that after a couple of kilometers I was supposed to turn
Throw your trash away!!
Clearly, not understood right, and I saw dunes in the distance, but there was absolutely no where to go but straight and pray that the cars who were passing trucks coming my direction would not hit me! I made it as far as Mesaieed before I decided to turn back. I could have take the route through Mesaieed, the industrial city near Doha, and gone back home that way, but I figured I came to see dunes and I wasn't leaving until I did, by golly!
So, I turned around and turned left at the roundabout and found myself on a completely isolated, long stretch of road heading west. Wow. It was amazing and a bit frightening at the same time! Of course, there is trash everywhere (reminding me of Panama), even though you're in the middle of complete nowhere. The "dunes" were a disappointment. I mean, it was pretty cool to see these obviously sandy dunes rising above the Mars-scape in the distance, but they were pretty small and isolated - you could see the Mars-scape between them. Oh well. I tried. It was still pretty cool, but next time, I'll have to have a 4WD and do some real exporing!
The ride back was peaceful and I made it just as the midday call to prayer started. Remember, this is the holy day and this is the time when the mosques are filled. I had to navigate between cars and people flooding the streets, but traffic itself was light. It reminded me of Sunday mornings in Mississippi! Except, I have no idea where the women pray. I ony ever see men going into the mosques for prayer. I know some mosques have women's areas, which are significantly smaller. And women are not to be visible to men in the midst of prayer. So, I beg the question: where and how are women supposed to pray?
Sorry for the super long post - I guess there was more to tell than I thought! I'll try to be more up to date from now on. 😊
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Amber
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Happy New Year!!
I stayed in on New Year's Eve too! Didn't feel like a big fuss, was quite nice to be home with the dogs! I'm loving the Qatar landscapes, very otherworldly! Super happy you're enjoying your work so much!!