Tacos and Dr. Pepper

It’s been 31 days since we landed in Doha – and time has absolutely flown by. Let us start by apologizing to those avid readers of Marhaba Qatar, who have had to wait more than 4 weeks for a fresh post. As you can imagine we’ve been running about having various adventures and just haven’t had a chance to capture those experiences on the web… to help you digest our journey we’ll summarize the key points here and address any questions and future developments with more detailed posts.

1. The trip out... Moving is tough. Moving overseas is tougher. The last week in Houston absolutely flew by. As I watched movers pack our house – the back bedroom into air containers, the rest of the house into local storage crates, Sheri drove to Austin to get a last minute signature from the USDA on Zona’s health certificate. On our way to the airport we said goodbye to our house (which a week later became someone else’s happy home), crammed 6 suitcases, 2 bags, a kennel, a dog, and 2 adults into 1 Buick Lacrosse (glad we got the full-size). We deposited a handful of checks, shipped a few packages from the post office, dropped off our cable box, and had time for me to stop by my office to fax over the closing documents on our house. We arrived at the airport with 2 hours to spare, but would not have made it through the long line at Terminal D security if it weren’t for the heroics of a young Lufthansa employee who had taken a liking to Zona when we were checking in – he ushered us past everyone like VIPs and we ended up having 15 minutes to grab a free drink in the Business Lounge, which turned into an hour and 15 minutes after some mechanical issues delayed boarding, and once we finally got airborne our 3 hour layover in Frankfurt had become 45 minutes. All 3 of us made it aboard and 7 hours later were happy to have made it to Doha. Being the only inbound flight has certain advantages - Immigration took 2 minutes, we picked up our bags, grabbed Zona and headed for the door. When we saw the driver holding our company’s sign we knew we had arrived, we just didn’t quite know what to expect next.

2. Settling in… You never know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. In a matter of 24 hours we went from living out of a 3 bedroom home to living out of 6 suitcases, and a hope that our 50 cubic foot air shipment would soon arrive to transition us out of “vacation” mode into “permanent resident mode”. Our villa is located outside of downtown Doha, conveniently in between my office, Sheri’s school, and one of the Expat friendly malls called Landmark. The villa is a 2 story duplex in a compound with about 50 units total, on 3 quaint streets surrounding a clubhouse with pool, workout facility, tennis and squash courts. Security falls somewhere between mental hospital and the Mayberry town jail. It keeps the riff raff out, but doesn’t require any id cards or rolling the window down – a friendly wave in a familiar car will get a resident inside. The furniture in the villa was probably purchases at Saddam’s garage sale before he skipped town; everything is very large and has a touch of over-the-top. At first we didn’t have a phone and the water pressure couldn’t even keep the shower on, but after we bought local prepaid cell phone SIM cards and found the water pump switch we were off and running. Groceries tend to expire a few days after purchase – especially break, milk, and meats… so we’ll have to venture to the grocery store twice a week. The bright side is that things spoil because they don’t have preservatives, so they tend to be a bit more natural and healthier for you. Only a few items are pretty rare and tend to cost more than back in the states: Dr. Pepper, Tostitos chips, Blue Bell ice cream, and English magazines… otherwise you can find most of the products that grace the Kroger and Randall’s shelves back home. I’m not sure if it’s because we hadn’t had a home cooked meal in a week, because the beef was from Australia, or because we paid a dollar for the Dr. Pepper, but when we sat down a few weeks ago for Tacos and Dr. Pepper I felt like we had ARRIVED! As for consumer goods, like clothing, electronics, and media are comparable to the states, with a few affordable brands like H&M and Zara that help make up for the elevated prices at stores like Gap and Quiksilver ($100 for a pair of board shorts!!!). A Best Buy or Target would absolutely clean up shop here… of course, when gas costs $0.80 / gallon, we’re quite happy to pay a dollar per can of Dr. Pepper, and we’ll buy our swimming trunks and Gap polos when we’re home for Christmas.

3. Getting the hang of things… So after a few weeks in Doha we’ve learned some valuable Qatarisms:

*You reap what you sow – we bought some Purina at the local store since dog food selections are a short list. We quickly learned that moving from an organic kibble like Nutro to Purina can have very unfortunate consequences. After plenty of carpet/rug cleaner we’ve moved to Iams with slightly improved results (plan on bringing back some Nutro on our next trip).

*If you see something you like, buy it – it won’t be there later (from grapes to cars to blue jeans). After nearly a month of test drives and research we landed on 2 cars for our stay in Doha – a new Accord (Brandon) and a gently used Pilot (Sheri). They aren’t flashy, but they are reliable and safe on the wild streets of Qatar.

*Keep your knees to yourself – women get stared at if they have any cap showing, and expat men are quite happy to sport the MANpri on an afternoon trip to the mall. Luckily flip flops are socially acceptable in any setting, so it’s a fair tradeoff (that’s for my parents who never miss an opportunity to point out how casual flip flops).

*You can be cold or hot, but not comfortable – in Doha the daytime temperatures can reach 120, and by August we’ll be confronting 80% humidity… plainly put – it’s hot. Meanwhile, every major building (mall, office, home) will have the air conditioning on full force, remember from an earlier post that no one pays for electricity around here so why not use your share of it. This interesting dichotomy creates a violent shift in climate that not only fogs your sunglasses upon exiting any building or car, but also leaves you quite uncomfortable. Even in our own home we have to have blankets on the couch because we’d rather be cold with a blanket than sweltering in our undies.

*Always carry Kleenex – my previous posts included an observation that almost all people carry Kleenex in their cars. On 2 separate occasions during the past week we’ve learned why you should always carry Kleenex. I awoke last Tuesday to what I thought was Zona peeing on the tile next to the bed, only to find that our A/C pump had frozen and starting pouring water out of the wall unit onto our dresser. Took more than a few Kleenex to manager the spill after I found the breaker to shut down the A/C. Saturday night we woke up at 4:00am to a phone call on Vonage (8 hour time difference for those who sometimes forget!)… as I got up to move the phone out of our room I nearly slipped on a puddle next to the bed. My thought immediately turned to Zona again, until I turned on the lights to discover a large ominous water spot above our bed. I climbed onto the roof some 3 stories up to find that someone had left the spigot turned on, and the loose water had found its way through the roof to our bedroom ceiling… not cool and until today still not fixed! By the way, the view from our roof towards downtown Doha and the Arabian Gulf in the moments before dawn was actually quite amazing.

*It’s always easier when someone else does it for you – we have a maid who comes once a week to clean our Villa and costs less than eating dinner at McDonald’s… enough said.

4. When in Doha... do NOT do as SOME of the Qataris do (limiting myself to 2 experiences, but there a few others that I’ll save for later posts). I want to be clear that not all Qataris behave like these 2, most are quite friendly, and that driving is the only arena that I’ve really felt like I’m in a foreign country.

*Leaving one of the malls outside of town we cut quickly from a parking lot to the left turn lane (or so we thought). As the green arrow turned red, a few cars rushed through and we were left at the intersection. Within 10 seconds a large Landcruiser with lights flashing pulled out from a few cars back and cut right in front of us. Judging from his wild hand gestures (which we’re not supposed to use here), very angry face, and sharp tongue it appears that he wanted to go straight and we were blocking his way. Instead of going around us and through the intersection to his destination, he thought he would stop and teach his expat friends how to drive in Qatar. After a few tense moments (2 separate outburst with him practically exiting his vehicle and Sheri and I putting on our best “I didn’t know any better” faces) the green arrow clicked on and he TURNED LEFT FROM THE 2nd lane – the very action he was so upset at us over.

*Driving home from site last week I came up to a roundabout that had an accident on our entrance ramp. It took nearly 20 minutes to creep up to where I could see that a large work truck had side swiped a smaller sedan. We were almost clear of the accident and on our way, when the local in front of me parked his Pathfinder, walked across traffic and kindly explained to the Filipino that he should move his damaged car out of the intersection (mind you that’s the ONE thing that you CANNOT do in Qatar… insurance will only cover you if you have a signed police report with the original position of the cars involved). After the Qatari had shaken the Filipino a few times he jumped in the man’s car himself and drove it to the side of the road… it blew me away. The local then walked back to his Pathfinder threw the SUV in drive and forced his way through traffic with horn blasting and lights flashing until he was clear. I had to pinch myself – by far the clearest example of cultural differences I’ve experienced in Doha.

*One exception to observation #4 – Do try to hold the same working hours as the Qataris. Expats are expected to work the same if not longer hours than they did back home, which luckily for me has only included one Friday since arriving (equivalent to a Saturday for you Yankees). As I was working last Friday morning I became extremely thirsty, and around 10:30 I realized that I hadn’t had a single glass of water. I forgot that the tea boys only work Sunday through Thursday… you never know what you have until its gone.