Look Canadian Thanksgiving in Qatar. The gravy was even done in a pan the same as mothers. It was such a good meal. Happy Thanksgiving!
Well I never would have thought that I would be wearing my long johns in 45 degrees Celsius weather but they did double duty and served as a pair of tights. I am in Doha Qatar and it is very conservative. Shorts and short skirts are a no, no in public. So when I visited Haley’s school I was wearing a dress but my legs needed to be covered, hence the long johns and I pushed the limits because my forearms were exposed as my sleeves only came to my elbows.
Haley is at a Qatari school, Qatar Academy. It is on a campus that houses a primary and secondary school as well as a recreation center and university. The school is very well off and has great facilities with each student receiving a Mac book with their tuition. I sat in on an English class, a higher level IB math class, read to a grade four class and helped a primary class make wordels for a math lesson they did. The IB 11 math was interesting, it was high level for sure, and it made me think. They were doing topics we would not cover as in depth in our high school curriculum. It was neat to sit in on.
Haley lives in the part of town they call Education City because it is close to this Academy which is the sheikas (the sheiks wife’s) special project. Haley is in a housing complex that has very spacious apts and a club house with a great pool area and a gym. I have been taking advantage of the nice pool area. But remember that I mentioned the country is conservative? At the pool area I have gotten in trouble from the lifeguard for wearing a two piece bathing suit, not allowed. I have been told I must cover my stomach. So that nice scarf/sarong/blanket/skirt/… became a tummy cover. I just wrapped it around my midsection and swam like that.
The souk is great in Doha and Chloe and Laura you will be happy to know I have gotten my big flower for my hair and I am set to be Effie from the Hunger Games for Halloween, compliments of the souk (market) here. It is huge and should do just nicely. The souk had incredible people watching, many sheiks and men in full garb. Oh yes there was a falcon souk. It is an area devoted to multiple shops where you can purchase a falcon. I guess it is a big thing here if you are male to go falcon hunting in the desert. So I saw lots of men and boys parading their falcons around. At first I didn’t know what the he** was going on. It was night time when I went there and like I said cool people watching but not great lighting for more photos. I went in the evening as it is outdoors and the heat was more manageable in the evening. I said yes it is noticeably “cooler” and guess what the temperature was? 39 degrees and I could feel the difference.
Haley and I went to an open mic night. It was great, lots of expats singing and playing. It was very entertaining. There were a few bands there and lots of individual singers. It was great live entertainment.
Another thing to do in Doha is walk along the Corniche. It is the waterfront area and I walked 6km’s of it when it was 45 degrees Celsius out. Needless to say I was a little sticky when I made it to the Museum of Islamic Art for a little reprieve. They had the A/C pumping in there and I was then freezing. Doesn’t help that I was good and sweaty entering. There was neat architecture along the walk, the Sheraton hotel is a Doha icon with its pyramid like shape and the museum itself was pretty good.
Arabs love Baskin and Robbins which can be found everywhere, so I have been treating myself to my all time favorite, chocolate peanut butter. It always reminds me of home to see a Baskin and Robbins with its only plant in the world being in Peterborough, until now, since they have pulled out of the Patch this fall.
I am not sure if you are aware or not but the weekend is different in the Middle East. It falls on Friday / Saturday. Friday most things are closed or for part of the day at least as Friday is their Holy Day and their “Sunday”.
Wayne and Meg a lovely couple from Australia took me and their son Ethan (who just moved here) on their patented driving tour of Doha. Whenever there are visitors they kindly take them around to see the sites. Wayne and Meg have lived here for 3 or 4 years and Ethan is in grade 4 and had lived with his mom in Sydney.
One of the pictures turned out to be really fussy as the air was full of sand particles. They are so fine you don’t see or feel them, but they came up in the picture and you cannot see too far in the horizon because of it. Just thought you might be interested in that piece of information.
We saw the camel race track today. You will have to tell dad the track is 6km’s long and they had two of them side by side with paved driving lanes around them so you can drive in your car and follow the camels. I tried to get to a race but the season has not started yet, also there is no betting on the camels allowed.
Camels use to be driven by children but they have outlawed that now and they are driven by robotic jockeys, which we happen to see. So that driving lane around the track is not just full of cars watching the camels but people remote controlling their robot jockeys, telling the jockey to hit the camel to go faster etc. The roads are chaotic here so I can only imagine seeing that take place.
Driving is crazy here and parking lots just as bad. The locals choose not to get out of their cars to order food or ice cream, whatever. They just keep honking the horn and someone comes out to their car and takes their order. Someone said no wonder they are overweight.
Some stats for you. There are 300 000 Qataris and 2 million people living here. There are tons of nannies, laborers, servers, clerks etc, they are the workforce.
We went to the Pearl Qatar which is a ritzy island area in Doha shaped like a pearl and shell. Beautiful homes and apt buildings, mega cash there. The Maserati, Rolls Royce and Ferrari shops are all there, was thinking of having one sent home? Not.
We saw some cool war art that was made out of Arabic tea and coffee utensils. We also went to a red velvet cupcake shop, girls you would have loved the cupcake shaped table and chairs. The visit came in handy as Canadian Thanksgiving dinner was later that day and as the day was going we were not going to have time to make that pumpkin pie as previously planned, so cupcakes will have to suffice.
Happy Thanksgiving. Ten Canadians got together for Thanksgiving. It turned out there was even pumpkin pie, whip cream, cranberries and amazing juicy turkey. It was a fabulous meal.
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