LONG overdue!

Hello friends and family!

First of all, I am so so sorry that I have not been more diligent in updating you on life here in Qatar. It's been a little more than two weeks and it's been kind of busy. A lot of pool side lounging and getting to know the other teachers....

Where to begin? I arrived safely after a 2 hour delay in Toronto, which resulted in a 6 hour delay in the Athens airport. Sadly, we didn't leave the airport - we were too tired from the overnight flight and the jet lag and just felt gross. We finally got to Doha around 1 a.m. The English department head and her husband were there to meet me and the other teachers I was travelling with.

So, first impression of Qatar: HOT. There is really no way to describe the heat. It's like living in a sauna or a steam room. The instant you go outside, your glasses and your camera will heat up and get all foggy. It's so hot that you kind of feel it in your chest.

We took the school's van/bus back to our accomodations. To clarify any questions, I am supposed to be living in Al-Khor, Qatar right now. Al-Khor is a very tiny town, but ironically enough Qatar's second biggest city - the first being Doha. Al-Khor is about forty minutes outside Doha. It's more conservative than Doha. There is not a lot to do in Al-Khor - other than eat at the fast food restaurants. People here seem to like fast food: McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Krispy Kreme, Baskin Robbins, Subway, Quiznos, Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, Miss Vanellis, Cinnabon, etc. (I am also very happy at the large number of Starbucks here, no Tim Hortons though - I had my first craving for an XL Tim's one milk, one sugar and a blueberry bagel toasted with cream cheese yesterday...).

Instead of living in Al-Khor, I am currently staying with the rest of the new staff in a large apartment building in Doha until our villas are finished in Al-Khor. We each have a huge condo with 5 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms and a large open concept living room/kitchen/dining room. This place is amazing. If the same place was in Toronto, it would be a million dollar condo at least. I will probably never have a place this nice and never be able to afford a place like this on a teaching salary. I live on the 24th floor and have an awesome view of the gulf. Other than the gulf, the rest of the view is dominated by construction. Qatar is investing lots of money in construction and many projects remain unfinished. Since the weather is so hot, the construction work is done at very odd hours. In my first few days of living here, I was awake really odd hours because of the awful jet lag. I would sit in the kitchen, or out on the balcony, from 4-5:30 and watch busloads of workers arrive and make their way to the different construction sites surrounding the apartment. They seem to work for a couple hours in the morning, take a break and then work resumes later at night around 7 or 8 pm and goes until 1 or later. This makes sense because of the heat, but I had to get used to hearing construction sounds in the middle of the night.

We arrived in Qatar during the month of Ramadan which has been extremely interesting and I feel like it has allowed me to learn so much more about religion and culture. Since people are not allowed to eat, drink (not even water) or chew gum between sunrise and sunset, businesses are open very odd hours. Stores open between 6 and 8 p.m., usually following the evening prayer at 6 p.m. The call to prayer is played on loudspeakers in the mall and played out loud all over the city. I especially like hearing it at school around lunch time. It's beautiful and I don't think I will ever get sick of the sound of it. Anyways, back to the weird hours...stores are open until around 1 a.m. So during our first week here, we would go grocery shopping around 11 p.m. As much as I like these hours because I enjoy being up late, it did not seem to help the jet lag situation. There were quite a few nights where sleep felt impossible and bed time wasn't til 6 a.m. I am happy to report that after about a week I seem to be on a fairly normal sleep schedule.

In the evening, people celebrate by breaking their fast by eating a date and then having Iftar (dinner). We were taken to a wonderful Iftar dinner at the Four Seasons as a new staff during one of our first nights here. Yesterday was the last day of Ramadan, so last night and today are dedicated to celebrating Eid. We went for dinner at the W Hotel last night. It was beautifully decorated, a traditional band and a dancer performed and the food was pretty incredible. There were stations for different countries - France, Japan (sushi - we are all so glad we can find sushi to eat here), China, Mexico, the Middle East, Italy, and an amazing dessert area.

Hmm...what else?

I guess what resonates with me the most about my experience so far is that you really never know what to expect. In my decision to go here, the responses were quite varied and my decision was described in many different words, ranging from "stupid", "insane", "badass" (my personal favourite), "amazing", "incredible", and "scary". I am really glad that I had an open mind when coming here. It's a very odd mix of new and old. After a few weeks, I am completely acclimatized to seeing men in thobes (long white tunics, white linen pants, head covering - don't know the name of that yet) and women in abayas (women's dress varies here - it's usually black, sometimes with some sort of decoration and women either cover their whole face except their eyes or just have their hair covered). From our many trips to the mall, we have seen many people dressed in more 'Western' attire and it really isn't as conservative as I thought it would be in terms of the dress code. It was interesting to see the malls here and the types of stores: Mango, Zara, H&M, The Body Shop, Limited Too, Sephora, Aldo, GNC, etc. We also frequent Carrefour, which is the Middle Eastern version of Walmart.

Other than shopping (which we do often), we have also spent a lot of time at the pool. During one of our first nights, we were in the pool from 2 to 4 a.m. and met some staff from Northwestern University and Texas A &M. The Foundation also organized a day for the new staff at the Intercontinental hotel. The beach was beautiful, although the water feels like bathwater. The pool was much more refreshing. We also had a brunch there. Today we went to Villagio, which is the biggest mall in Qatar. The cieling is painted like the sky and you can get gondolla rides through the mall. There is also a skating rink (big enough to play hockey on apparently...), an Imax theatre and an amusement park complete with a roller coaster.

The school is very nice. I will be working with another teacher in a Kindergarten 1 classroom. There are 18 students in each section; 10 boys and 8 girls. The students will spend half the day with me and half the day with the Arabic teacher. The students are between the ages of 3 and 5, so the first couple of weeks will just be about not crying and learning routines. School hasn't started yet, but we had an open house this week and I got to meet some of the students and their parents. It's going to be a challenging year. Some of the students speak a little English, while others speak absolutely none. Some students, not all, are used to having a maid and a nanny - basic manners and cleaning up after oneself will be a major focus this year. Really though - when is the whole sharing and caring and singing 'clean up' songs not a part of kindergarten instruction?

Okay, hope that's enough for now. Off to hang out with some other teachers...