The Eats in Doha

Wherever I go, I find that people are always concerned about what I'm eating. Perhaps it's my bony body type or my history with mild illness, but whatever the reason, if you're one of those people, I'm about to put your mind to rest.

There is a lot of food in Doha. In terms of quantity, there is plenty to go around. In terms of diversity, almost anything can be found here. Because of the large expat community (from the West, as well as from the East - India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Phillipines...), there is a good selection of ethnic foods to be found.

Having said that, there are some items that are harder to come by than others. We have bought brocolli but it's not always easy to find. The same is true for special products like Miracle Whip (which Darren happened to find in one store and stocked up for me!) and whole wheat pasta. On the other hand, there are tons of Asian and European products that I'm not familiar with and that would be interesting to try.

So what do we eat? Well, at home - pretty much the same thing we ate in Canada. Wednesday night, for example, I made spaghetti. The night before we had stir fry. Last week, when we were being fed delicious lunch buffets at orientation, we had simpler dinners, such as egg sandwiches and omelets.

That's not to say that we always eat what we've always eaten. Last Saturday when we got home late and hungry from a city tour, I sent Darren to a nearby takeout kebab place to pick up shawarma. Last night we went to a Middle Eastern restarurant and sampled baba ghanouj (pictured above), chicken kofta and shish tawook. Tomorrow I'm planning on making Biryani. And more and more I'd like to experiment with the "different" vegetables and spices here.

We find ourselves eating out more in Doha than we did at home. Not because of the lack of options for at-home eating, but because of our need to get out.

There are a few reasons for this. First, it's too hot to go out during the day. This makes it really easy to stay in the apartment for hours on end. Fortunately I am forced to leave each morning to go to my job, because I'm the kind of person who would stay planted here. Darren does a good job of getting out most days to run a little errand at least, but he still spends the majority of his time cooped up in here. It's not just us - after sundown, the city seems to come to life. All the stores are open until at least 9 or 10, and children can be seen running around and playing in the rubble heaps late into the evening.

The other reason is that we're bored at home. Once dinner is finished, we've still got a few hours until bedtime. Because I've spent all day at work, I usually just want to be with Darren, or maybe another couple. However, with few distractions at home, it gets boring really quickly. So we find reasons to get out for a few hours in the evening. Sometimes it's to use an Internet cafe, this past week we spend days on our quest to find more comfortable sheets, but other times it's to have a meal.

Fortunately eating out is not as expensive here as it is at home - as long as you stay away from the ritzy hotels. These are the few places that have liquor licenses in the country, so they are popular destinations for non-muslims. But the city is full of interesting (and familiar) places to eat, and we're enjoying discovering them one by one.

Hopefully now you will be less concerned about the Conleys' eating habits in Doha. We've never had it so good, actually!

Friday thoughts

It's Friday, the day of rest! :)

We got ourselves up early this morning just in case the couple who offered to give us a ride to church were planning on going to the 8:30 service. We would have arranged it last night but there was a problem with Q-Tel's tower and the entire city was without mobile service for a good part of the evening. As it turns out, they were going to the 10:30 service, so we had some time to relax this morning. Relax for Darren meant play spider solitaire, and for me it meant try out our new swiffer-esque mop. Which, incidently, works better than I had hoped on our floors. Anyway...

The church rents a villa to use for their services. It holds about 200 people and it was PACKED. We had to sit in the very back row and we weren't even late. The air conditioners were working hard, but whenever you get that many people in a single room, it's going to be hot. Rather than sandals - which allow air to circulate and keep one's feet cool(er), I foolishly wore my wedding sneakers. So in order to help maintain a reasonable body temperature, I took them off. I hope no one was offended by my barefootedness.

The service itself - for better or worse - was very similar to what one would experience in North America. This is not surprising since the majority of the attenders are from Canada and the US. There were some South Africans and Europeans, and at least two people from China, as well. But the church is definitely an expat church. Again, this is not surprising. Qatar, an Islamic nation, is willing to allow foreigners to worship in their preferred way (there are also Buddhist, Bah'ai and Hindu meetins in the city), but I'm not sure what would happen if a Qatari decided to convert.

After the service, we came home and had lunch, followed by a long afternoon of napping. On our new sheets. We really love our new sheets. It's amazing how different 180 and 300-thread counts feel! And now the sun is beginning to set and we are discussing how to spend our evening. I'm sure it will involve a taxi ride to an airconditioned location, a bite to eat and perhaps even the picking up of something else from our never-ending "not essential, but would be helpful" list - like a computer desk, or a vaccuum cleaner, or a strainer. We're so extravagent, aren't we? :)

Work update: off to the camel races (or maybe tortoise?)

We're off to a pretty slow start, but things have started. I have been assigned to teach two sections of a particular course. In one section, there are no students enrolled yet. That doesn't mean there won't be any students; it just means none have gone through the registration process at this time. In the other section, there are 8 enrolled, and I met 2 of them today. Yup, only two. Aparently there were 4 in the first class this morning, but by the time I got to see them, the number had dwindled.

There could be a number of reasons for the lack of bodies, including the facts that it's still August, people are returning from vacations abroad, and Ramadan is about to start. I'm sure I'll be posting more about Ramadan in the coming weeks.

As for the students themselves, my first impression is that they are very lovely gentlemen. While the school I work for is co-ed, all the students in my classes will be men. It's a trades preparatory program, and these guys will go on to be process operators or instrumentalists for a large local oil company. But first they have to improve their langauge skills to the point where they can make it through their courses, all of which are taught exclusively in English.

I'm all ready to get them to work, but I'm learning to be patient and wait for the dust to settle, if you will. In the meantime, I have organized my office space and made a lovely calendar of my workweek.

I hope to meet some more students tomorrow, but then again, it will be Thursday - which is the equivalent of Friday at home (see Darren's post), so chances are not good. Good thing I'm easy-going.

Settling in

We're nearing the two-week point, and there are a few things that I now realize I took for granted in Canada.

1. Cold water. Since I have been here, the only place I have found cold water is in refrigerated water dispensers. The hot water gets very hot, and the cold water is warm. I think it has something to do with the water being stored on the building roofs! :) It's not necessarily a negative thing, but it takes some getting used to. I have to remember not to turn the hot water on when I'm washing my hands, or it will turn into a hand burning session.
   


2. Quiet mornings. As I've mentioned earlier, the city is in a constant state of construction - deconstruction - reconstruction. As I've also mentioned earlier, it's really hot in the daytime here. These two facts combined mean that we awake at 5am to the sound of jackhammers and backhoes hard at work breaking down what once was a four storey building. when the machines move, it sounds like a train squealing its breaks on a track - not the most pleasant sound in the world. But it will be interesting to see what gets built next door to the south and next door to the east. Oh, and next door to the north! :)
   


3. Recycling bins. We drink a lot of bottled water here, and each of those bottles (except the few we keep to reuse) are thrown in the garbage. The same goes for pop cans, styrofoam containers, cardboard boxes, you name it. The college started a paper recycling program last year (I think it might have been students in the environmental health department, but I'll have to verify that). There are green bins beside the photocopiers that say "paper and cardboard only". The chair of my department reminded us to use them, noting that as far as we know, the paper in the bins is being recycled, although no one has actually followed the truck to its destination. I understand that recycling alone is not the answer to the world's environmental dilemmma, but I sure do miss my blue box!
   


4. Trevor. Before leaving Canada, Darren and I sold our Honda Civic, affectionately caled Trevor. For reasons practical, financial and environmental, our plan is to live in Doha as long as we can without owning a vehicle. There are busses that take employees (and their househusbands!) to the college, and the public bus/taxi system throughout the city is pretty good. So, we're doing fine for transportation. Besides, there's no way I'd get behind the wheel after seeing how people drive around here! Having said that, there have been times already (and many more to come, I'm sure) when it would have been nice to have had the freedom to jump in our own car and go somewhere on our own schedule.
   
   
5. The Internet. I do have access to the net at work, but it's for work-related business primarily. There are plenty of coffee shops throughout the city that offer free or cheap internet access to their customers. We've also visited an internet cafe. These are great options, but nothing is the same as having access to the world`s resources from your sofa. This one is just a matter of time. Once we get our residency settled, we can get a phone line and then DSL. Apparently our apartment is not within the range that can have wireless connection, but Darren will figure that all out. That's what a househusband is for!!
   

First Impressions

Now that I finally have a few moments to reflect and type, I'd like to share some of my inital thoughts and observations about our new home. The list of insights will be by no means exhaustive, nor is it meant to give you a clear idea about what we're experiencing. My main goal in writing this is to document some of the first things I noticed in order to return to them in the coming months and years and see how they've changed.

Summer in Doha is hot. When we arrived at the airport at midnight, and walked off the plane, the heat hit us like a brick wall. Fortunately, we were quickly escorted to an air conditioned shuttle that took us to the air conditioned terminal for processing. But the next day when I was standing outside the clinic where we got out medicals done as part of the residency process, I experienced for probably the first time in my life a hot wind. I’m used to a breeze being a cooling agent, but the breeze that was blowing on me was just as hot, if not hotter, than the air. It felt as though I was standing on the wrong side of an air conditioning unit or beside the exhaust pipe of a running car. It was a very interesting experience.

In the past week the temperature may not have fluctuated too much (we don't have internet or TV, or even a thermometer, so we can't check the official temperature) but depending ont he level of humidity, there have been bearable and unbearable days.

Returning faculty keeps saying to us, "Oh, you live in Al Saad (the common name of our apartment bulidng complex, named for the major street it's nearest)? That's a great area! There are tons of restaurants, shops, etc. in your neighbourhood!" However, until the winter comes, I'm not about to go exploring on foot, which is the best way to explore.

There are tons of non-Qatari nationals. In the first few days here, I have not spoken to a singe Qatari. That is not to say I have not spoken to a single non-Westerner. The hotel we stayed at for the first two nights was staffed with people from Sri Lanka, India, Philippines, etc. The same was true for the restaurants we've visited, the bus and taxi drivers whose services we've used, and the stores we've shopped in. The country is full of expatriates without whom there would be no service industry.

Don't get me wrong; I have seen Qataris - on the street, in the mall, around the campus, but I have had no contact with them. I will get to know about two dozen of them starting next week when class begins. The stream I have been assigned to teach is TPP (Trades Preparatory Program) in which 100% of the students are Qatari.

One good thing about the large ex-pat community is that the grocery stores are filled with foods from all around the world. Likewise, there are restaurants and services that cater to a wide variety of tastes and cultures. Also, as a Canadian who comes from a multicultural environment (especially as an ESL teacher!), it's much easier to adapt to a place where there are people of various culture and colours than a monocultural environment.

Doha is an architect's dream. I have seen so many impressive buidlings, especially when driving through the business and hotel districts. Doha is even building a community called the Pearl that is akin to the Palm Tree islands in Dubai.

Everywhere you look there is construction. I had seen more construction cranes in the first 24 hours of being here than in my entire life previously - and that includes pictures! Things are constructed and deconstructed at incredible rates. When we moved into our apartment, there was a building in front. One day when we got home from work (orientation), it was half demolished. The next day it was a rubble heap that matched the rubble heap on three other sides of our building.

Unfortunately, due to the speed at which the city is growing upward, it is impossible to hire enough skilled labourers. As a result, the workmanship is not as good as one would expect at home. But things are bult fast, and built to impress.

There are many other things I could mention, but they will have to wait for another time. For now, I hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse into our new surroundings.

Settling into our New Life

It's hard to believe we've been here for over a week already. then again, it's hard to believe we've been here for only a week!

For the last work week, starting this past Sunday (remember, Friday-Saturday is our weekend here!), I've been in full day orientation at school. That was 5 days full of long sessions at which tons of information was thrown at us. I feel like I have a basic sense of the campus layout now, although I still have to regularly ask security guards or returning faculty to point me in the direction of a particular building. I also have a basic idea of what I"ll be doing for the next 4 months. In EFL/ESL around the world, we never really know what and whom we'll be teaching until the first day of class. It's frustrating, but that's the way it is. So I'll spend Sunday in departmental and team meetings, and then jump into the classroom on Monday. Fortunately for me, a lot of the technology we're expected to use is similar top what I have used in Canada, so that's one less hurdle for me.

My colleagures are all Canadians. Well, there are some local hires from sub-continental Asia in administrative and support positions. Many of them are from sub-continental Asia. But all the faculty come from Canada. I have met people from all across the country, but since CNA is based out of Newfoundland, there is a huge proportion of Newfoundlanders here. I have very little experience with people from Atlantic Canada, and Newfoundland in particular. As language people, it has been very interesting for Darren and me to hear their different dialects. What a big and diverse country we come from!

In terms of settling into our new lives, we're doing alright. Darren and I are both sleeping well at night, and I have awoken 2 minutes before my alarm clock (set for 5:45 am - in order to be downstairs for the bus's prompt 6:45 departure) the past three mornings. Even today, I woke up at 5:50, rolled over and fell back to sleep, because it's Friday!

Our apartment is very nice. We live in a building with just over 70 units, all inhabited by Canadians working at CNA-Q and their spouses. We have seen over a half dozen units now and no two are identical. Some have long living/dining rooms and offices. Others have the dining room in one of the bedrooms. Others have balconies. We are fortunate to have windows that face the city, not air shafts like some of our friends. The sun wakes me up each morning!

Our little apartment (acutually, compared to where we were living in Thorold it's a BIG apartment!) is beginning to feel like home. As Darren has mentioned, we've been slowly purchasing lamps and rugs and bedding. He found a store that sells real plants so we're going to look into getting a tree for the living room - since there isn't too much foliage nearby. We'd still like to get a different sheet/duvet set for our bed, as well as a different desk for the office. And the baking sheet we bought is too big for the little oven that came with the apartment, so that means a rdeturn trip to the mall to exchange it for a smaller one. But these are all details now - our place is definitely liveable and becoming distinctly "home", which is important because for at least the next 3 years, that's exactly what it is.

Thoughts in our final Canadian days

The last week has been odd. We are currently staying at home #2 on our friends tour. Because we moved out of our apartment July 31, we needed somewhere to stay until our flight - August 12. For some reason, I was afraid to impose on any one person/couple/family to put us up for that long a time frame, so we asked 3. Yup, I decided it would be good for us to move around from house to house to house while Darren and I each finished teaching and prepared to start our new adventure. But it has actually been nice to spend some time with different sets of friends before leaving, and not nearly as stressful as I imagined.

So here we are, sleeping in guest rooms, with clothes and toothbrushes in tow. I am proud to announce that all the earthy possessions we are bringing to Qatar are packed and neatly stored at my in laws'. Except, of course, that which we're using this week. We took one small carry-on-sized suitcase back to St. Catharines with us to use for the week, as well as the backpack that houses our laptop and camera, and a "school bag" each for teaching.

Now that it's time to move to our last stop on the circuit, we're finding it a little trickier to fit everything into the same number of bags we brought here. It's amazing how things can quickly multiply. Besides a few gifts we received at our going away party (which we HAVE to bring with us!), we have accumulated a year's worth of prescription drugs, a few more toiletry items, and a Qatar-appropriate skirt that I couldn't turn down. But I'm married to a master packer, so I'm just going to fold everything nicely and wait for him to come and work his magic!

The fact that we're moving to a completely different country with a different culture, climate, set of expected behaviours, etc. hasn't really hit me yet. I know that we will be immersed in an expatriate community, which will soften the foreign-ness of the experience, but this expat community exists in the midst of a middle eastern culture.

We really have little knowledge about what we're walking into. We've familiarized ourselves with all the information the school provided for us to read, and I check a few blogs written by people living in Doha semi-regularly. Darren talks to his Saudi students about Qatar, and we just re-watched The Kite Runner to renew our excitement for "that part of the world". I've also been reading a book about Iran which is peaking my interest in the region as well. But like any overseas experience, we won't really know what life will be like until we get there and experience it. And that's part of the fun.

But at the moment, I just feel like I'm on vacation. That might worry me except for the fact that my friend Kathy didn't realize she was moving to Japan until she was in the car on the way to the airport. And she turned out alright.

Thank-you!

Well, we are no longer residents of Thorold - thanks to a ton of people.

This past week was one of the most stressful we've experienced in a long time. But like all stressful times, we made it through!

I went to work Thursday morning and by the time I had finished teaching, our apartment had been cleared out of almost everything and cleaned from top to bottom. It was an amazing experience!

A BIG thank-you to

• my family who sorted, packed, cleaned, transported, protected
• our friends who helped with the moving itself
• those who took our possessions either to use or sell
• Darren's family who found room for more furniture than they expected
• everyone who prayed for my anxiety

For the next 10 days or so we'll be staying with various friends and relatives in St. Catharines and Hamilton. It will be a time of visiting and relaxing before we begin our adventure. Hopefully we will run into you in the next week, but if not, we will have to make plans for next summer!