Qatar - Horns, Arabic, and Gifts

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I was attempting to start uploading videos to document the daily obstacle course that plays like Running Man or Death Race- my daily fight for my life as I drive around this city. However, travelblog has "temporarily" disabled video uploads... Sigh... I will have to figure out another way to get this message across. I think it is one worth sharing for those in the western world who have never experienced this daily struggle for survival. Yes, I am being slightly overly dramatic. Usually I laugh it off, but every once in a while, I get truly frightened and upset by the complete disregard for my life and the lives of others just so people can get to a place a few seconds faster!

I've become more aggressive and have learned to love my horn as much as everyone else here. In the US, I won't go so far to say it is offensive, but the only time people use their horns (besides a light tap if you see someone backing out of their driveway in front of you) is to basically instigate a fight. If someone beeps at you, they are well and truly p*ssed off, which in turn angers the other driver (unless they knowingly did something quite wrong).

So, it took me a while to get into the mindset here where the horn is used about 10 times more often than turn signals. Instead, people pull into your lanes to cut you off and the cutoff person lays on the horn. People pull into a busy roundabout and cut off one section of exit, trapping others in the roundabout and thereby creating an even larger traffic jam, and leaving those trapped to lay on their horns (often me). On major exits from the few freeways, people speed all the way to the exact possible last place to access the exit, sometimes racing down the left lane, cutting all other lanes to their right and squeezing in to the merge, leaving countless cars to lay on their horns for various reason. Pedestrians find a place to cross the street in between cars trapped in a traffic jam, when a car in front of you moves forward 5 feet and makes the person behind you lay on their horn, even though there is a person walking in front of your car. Traffic is backed up too much, so cars speed along the shoulder or the dirt along the road, racing to cut off the front of the line and keep the traffic from improving - most idiots allow these jerks to cut in but I rather lay on my horn. Countless other examples, as documented in my videos, demonstrate the extreme difference of driving here than from my home. I worry about when I return, what will my driving have come to? I've started to embrace give back what I get given. It is not "aggressive" driving or even "defensive" driving - I have no idea what to call it, but it is definitely an experience. I just hope I get to live through it.



In other news... Today I attended my first arabic class, held at the Maryam center near my home. I am attending it every Saturday morning through May with my coworker's wife. It is held at an Islamic center, so abayas are compulsory. However, I am a little bit concerned about the amount of religious doctrine that may be introduced to me. Most of you know, I'm not a religious person in the best of times. However, the teacher is very nice, and as she said (basically) we chose to attend this particular class, and they must assume we want it to better help us understand the Quran. Me.... not so much. I just want to learn arabic. But, I am open to learning about their culture as well, so as long as no one attempts to convert me, I'll continue the course. There were many women attending and a couple of them were western white women who had converted within the past 7 or 8 years, so I was the only non-muslim woman there. The teacher must have known that I am not, but she didn't ask me like she did these other girls - and I think she plans to call me Maria (my middle name), probably since it is easier than my first! I hope the class is good. I enjoyed the class I was able to take for two hours last year - it was a bit more advanced and I learned a lot on my first day, unlike here where it was a struggle to keep up because most women already knew some of the basic words. We'll see...



And finally, this was one of my longest weeks ever at work, but I got a lot accomplished and I am hoping that my workload will decrease just a little bit, especially with my new engineers and geologists coming in. The best part of the whole week was getting a large wood carved picture and frame from the project manager client on our big project from the past year. It was beautiful!! And made me so happy!

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Photos

My beautiful gift..
...from a favorite client.

Comments

[Amber]

Maria huh
Yeah, that probably translates better. Since parts of the world Alexis is a male name. I love learning about other cultures. I think it would be fun to learn more about Islam, especially in Arabic, since that's the language of the Quran. If they try to convert you, you can always stop, but by acting a little interested, you'll probably learn so much more about the culture! Sounds awesome to me!! Can't wait to hear about it from you. Enjoy!

[Romsa]

I\'ve always been intrigued by that language. You will have to let me know how the class goes. I hope this finds you safe, healthy and happy, Pookie.