Blogs from Qatar, Middle East - page 24

Hi again family and friends! I flew (just under an hour) from Abu Dhabi to Qatar, a tiny Arab country half the size of Wales on a peninsular of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf with a population of about 800 000 people, of which only about 200 000 are local Qataris and the rest expats. Martin met me at the airport. He is a kiwi cousin who has been working here 3 months and will be joined by his wife Mary this week. It's a shame I missed you Mary. Earlier last century Qatar had widespread poverty but has undergone a rags to riches transformation since the discovery of huge quantities of natural gas and oil. It is now a major global supplier of energy and in just decades has one of the fastest growing economies in ... read more

Actually i was kind of sad when we all left home to head for the airport. All of my other friends had to stay at home. Well at least ojo and rene were there. As usually we were too early at the airport. But ojo made new friends quickly. they wished him a good flight and lots of fish. i was very exited, becaus it was my very first flight. and i did not know how tigers like hights. and there is no way i share a air sickness bag with ojo. then rene went thru security. for some reason we we x-rayed twice. i told ojo not to make any funny faces in the x-ray machine, but he did it anyways. we ckecked out if the flight was on time, and it was. now this ... read more

A belated Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. I apologize for my tardiness, but I was anxiously waiting for some photos from one of my co-workers so you could share Valentine’s Day with me…Qatari style. Anyone know a good retail merchandiser? I’m pretty sure that this Qatari retailer could use someone with a keener eye than the one in charge of this display. Seriously! I was actually surprised to see any Valentine’s Day acknowledgements in Doha, but commercialism is commercialism, so when opportunity knocks… why not pair a teddy bear with that beebee gun that every little boy needs before moving on to the more popular machine gun? I wish I had more to write, but I don’t really have a very interesting weekend report, as I had to stay indoors for most of it. Although we ... read more

Well, although I'm living in one of the more progressive Middle Eastern countries, censorship is alive and well. First, I was banned from buying books from amazon.com and then I received this message when I tried to visit a web site. I'm willing to bet this is one of the country's biggest government departments...the Ministry of Agriculture building I parked at today--not so much. What, pray tell, can you farm in a desert!? Speaking of deserts, just for clarification for those who are "so pretty", a desert safari is quite different than the African safari I'm going on in June. The desert safari we're going on tomorrow involves a quest to find sand, sand and more sand. We're going dune buggy bashing and sandskiing, and then we're sleeping in a traditional tent with cushions and shisha ... read more

I used to complain that I missed out on the "real" University experience because I lived at home or on my own during University and never lived in a dorm. Be careful what you wish for! Fast forward almost 10 years, and I live in a dorm. It's a dorm filled with those in their mid- to late-twenties, mind you, but do not be mistaken, it's a dorm. (I also finally included some more photos of the "dorm--yeah, it's kinda blah, but I'm doing my best to spruce it up without going broke!). There are definite positive and negatives of living in this environment. The positives are that you are never lonely and there are always people to hang out with. This can also be a negative, as "me time" is hard to come by, especially ... read more