Blogs from Doha, Qatar, Middle East - page 11

I went back to City Center Mall last night; taxis here are ridiculously expensive and most do not have meters. Make sure you know how much you're paying before you leave! I didn't want to drive myself because I'm still a little nervous about the traffic; judging by the traffic at the souk at night, I didn't even want to deal with it. When I arrived, it was significantly different than earlier. It was packed! I don't do well in crowds, and I could the grouch coming. I decided to check out the movies and picked Pitch Perfect; I had seen previews during the day and it looked entertaining. It was, though I really am not one for unnecessary vulgar humor. The worst part, was the people talking incessantly during the movie. It was worse than ... read more

Today started bright and early, meeting my new boss at 7 to pick up a couple of other coworkers and head to our big kickoff meeting. I won't go into the specifics about a sensitive project, but it sounds interesting and the clients are... interesting as well. I'll be busy for the next few months! The meeting took up most of the day - well, the meeting itself was over in two hours (some good fattening munchies on hand as well - perfect since i had zero for breakfast), then we headed to the office (which took about an hour) and proceeded to recap and start organizing for this huge project. By then, it was time to go back into town, pick up some info, drop my boss back at the airport and head back to ... read more

There was no one on the flight and we managed to get 12 seats for the 3 of us, meaning we each had 4 to lie on. Who needs business class lie flat beds? Unfortunately we still didn't sleep too well and were pretty exhausted when we arrived in Doha airport. Even though we had been in an equatorial climate for 3 weeks we were hit by the heat in Doha. Luckily the airport has been updated and it is air conditioned and cool, but it is very small and there is very little to do. Not much fun when you have a 9 hour transit. We could have paid to go in elounge but once again Ramadan restrictions thwarted our plans. They were only serving snacks, no alcohol and for some reason there were no ... read more

More journal from the second week of work! Monday 11/06/2012 Work is getting much better now, but my temporary pass has ran out as it has been a week already! So I am getting my fingerprints tomorrow anyway so I won’t be at work but hoping I get my permanent pass tomorrow! (How naiive I was at this point!) I cannot wait to not have to jump off the bus at security and run back on before the bus leaves me stranded in the middle of nowhere again. Anyway. Getting a long lie tomorrow because of my prints so alarm set for 6am instead of 4am! MUCHOS EXCITEMENTO on my part, hence why I am still awake at 21.47!! This is a late night for me, enjoying this immensely! Not much chat otherwise, got my new ... read more

Hey loyal readers! So this plan has kind of failed due to a lack of internet since I arrived, and I am now half way through my placement! But I have been keeping a kind of journal on my laptop so I can upload some bits from there. This was from my first day (the rest will not be so long I promise!) Monday 04/06/2012 Got picked up from the airport (to my genuine surprise and delight) and dropped at my apartment on Saturday night. Then had Sunday to settle in and had to go pick up my pass from RasGas Doha headquarters, also managed a short (but hot) walk to the City Centre in town. It is a massive mall and managed to get a Qatari sim card and some food shopping from the Carrefour. ... read more