Blog 90 - And on to Qatar!

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Just a quick blog to update you all.

The last few days have been a bit hectic as it became more official that, not only am I going to work in Qatar, I am going for a month straight. I'm excited, nervous, disappointed, happy... The projects that I will be working on will be very interesting, plus the office is short staff members, so I feel good about helping out. I'm nervous working in another country, one that is even more conservative than here. It should not be too bad except that the laws are actually enforced from what I hear, unlike Dubai. I hear there is not much to do - the alcohol is severely limited and Doha is just a big city in the desert. From what I understand, the touristy stuff will take me a day to see at most. There are no other real towns to explore in Qatar, but I probably will plan to drive around the country just to say I did. The Eid holiday is also coming up this weekend, which could be very fun, celebrating in a much more predominantly Muslim country, or boring and make me wish I spent the long weekend at home (Dubai). Either way, I plan to catch up on some much needed sleep! I also plan to take my Arabic book with me to practice; I guess I should learn more while in a more Arabic society.

I am also happy to get away from Dubai for a while. I do love it here, very much, but there are things that are already driving me crazy. For one, the driving - unbelieveable (though I hear Qatar is even worse!). Secondly, the non-organization here. It has taken me forever to get what should seemingly be a simple task accomplished; I've probably spent 20 hours on this one task when it should take no more than 2. I get six different answers to the same question, so I have no idea how to proceed and people are very reluctant to go out of their way to help. I actually drove all the way to the government building, as per the request of the woman on the "customer care" line. When I finally found my way around the gianormous (and very nice building), and found the guy I was supposed to talk to, he told me to a) redo my entire submission and b) do it all online. I was sooooo mad that I had wasted almost 2 hours driving around this crazy town and accomplished nothing! Oh yes, I am ready to do something different...

I leave bright and early as my flight is at 8:45. Upon arrival, an old coworker is coming to get me and take me directly to a site meeting. So, I guess tomorrow will be nice and long. When I get to my home for the next month (or so), I will upload pictures and update you on the new phase of my life...

Until then..

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Comments

[Candice]

Good luck!
Keep us updated! Thanks.