Spooky Field Trip

I thought this post would be a great one to save for Halloween.  My Russian teacher thought it would be fun to take us all to see a cemetery.  I wasn't that keen, as they aren't exactly my thing, but I had no good excuse to get out of it.  It turned out to be quite interesting.  Russians put a photo on the headstones, which is something I have not seen before.  Sometimes it's a small photo, and sometimes you will see large, elaborate carvings or statues of the person.  Also interesting:  Russian Orthodox bury their dead facing west, and they bring gifts, food and vodka on holidays, birthdays and anniversaries.  I took some photos of some of the more interesting plots.

 fake flowers are common, as is bringing food and vodka

 My teacher said that the pictures are often telling....notice he is standing by a car, talking on a cell phone with a beer in his hand....he died at a young age, so it's very possible that it was a car accident

 very large and elaborate statue

 the red stars signify a veteran

You get quite a bit of information from the headstones....this man was a pilot

Welcome Home!

When we returned home from our vacation, this is what our house looked like.  You might wonder what the scaffolding right off the front porch is for?  Well, you aren't the only one.  The explanation I got was to catch the snow falling off our roof, preventing it from hitting us in the head as we stepped off our front porch.  Hmmmmm.......notice the amount of snow actually on my roof.  

Did you know Colonel Sanders was Japanese?

The KFC in Otaru, Japan

Snow in Liberty, Texas!!

What the heck is going on?  It hardly ever snows in Southeast Texas, but even when it does, there isn't ever any accumulation.  Well, Wednesday night my hometown of Liberty, Texas, was blanketed under 4 inches of snow!  These pictures are of my parents house in Liberty.  This is just what my house looks like...except I live in Russia!!!

August in Doha

There isn't much to do in the summer in Doha.  August is by far the worst month to be here, with the highs reaching into the 12o's with the heat index.  There aren't as many people on the roads now, with most of the population taking off to somewhere with nicer weather.  We are still hanging around, of course, since we are moving in a few weeks.  One good thing about August - the driving is not as crazy!  Every now and then when I am driving around I see something out of the ordinary and grab my camera to take a picture.  This post is basically compiling a few pictures that I have taken over the past couple of weeks.  

This car looks like it should be in the Houston Art Car Parade

On this car is a Jesus sticker, a State of Qatar decal, the flag of India and the word's "God's Gift" - hmmm...

I really just have no idea what is going on here.  This is at Landmark mall and everyone was standing in line to get their picture taken with this thing

The photo isn't that great, but there is a Texas registration sticker on the back of this Landcruiser - along with a State of Qatar decal, of course!

What an idiot

What a way for a country to be in the news!  This guy should really look into using his brain more often.  Couldn't he have just flown in special parts, oil, mechanics, or whatever else might be needed to service this car?  Click here for the story.  

This is just CRAZY!!!

I was reading the Gulf Times (Qatar's English newspaper) today and ran across this article. I couldn't believe what I was reading!!! If this had happened in America, the maid and driver wouldn't have been the ones arrested, it would have been the homeowner! Check out the craziness that is Sharia law in Qatar:

Maid, driver jailed for having illicit relations

Published: Thursday, 8 May, 2008, 02:03 AM Doha Time

A DOHA court has convicted a housemaid and a driver of having illicit relations and sentenced them to a year’s imprisonment and subsequent deportation. The couple are in jail since early January.
The Filipina housemaid and Nepali driver were caught in a compromising position by the maid’s employer.
The employer, an Arab woman, claimed that she chased the man then tied him up and waited for the police to arrest him.
She returned home at lunchtime to find her maid in a state of undress with the man.
When she shouted at the pair, the 22-year-old man hastily put on his trousers and fled through the back door of the house in Markhiya. However, he had not counted on the home owner’s determination.
Seeing the man flee, the 38-year-old Palestinian jumped into her car and gave chase.
After quickly catching the man, she locked him in the boot of her vehicle before driving back home to tie him up.
In prosecution papers read to the court, the woman explained: “I followed him using my car until I caught him. I put him in the boot of the car. I then took him to the house and tied him up before I called the police.”
The court also convicted the Filipina (28) of granting access to a house without the owner’s consent, and the man of entering a house without the owner’s permission.
The defendants denied they were sexually involved, and both insist the man came to the house to collect a mobile phone belonging to another Nepali currently serving time in prison.
The court decision is open for appeal.

It should come with the apartment...

This is our friend George. He lives in an apartment building on the 6th floor. After a few trips to the liquor store and to the grocery store, he found it necessary to keep the shopping cart! I can't really blame him, but I really would have loved to see him wheel this thing to his building all the way from City Center!

Your guess is as good as mine...

I dropped Shane at work today after lunch - Adam wanted to have lunch with Daddy - and was driving back down the Corniche to go home and I saw this truck...actually there were 3 of them. They were Emirates (UAE's airline) trucks, and they all had these spacemen in them. Not sure what they are for, but you know me, I always have my camera!

We have been here too long...

The end of February marked 18 months of us living in Doha. I was talking to some friends about how things that astounded us when we first moved here are now considered normal and part of life. I started really thinking about it and came up with even more things, and I thought I would get them all down to share with you:

1. You are no longer surprised when someone blatantly goes to the start of the long line you are in and demands service.
2. When you are out driving, you expect someone to try and move into your lane....it's just normal behavior.
3. Roundabouts are no longer scary....and the fact that there are no rules to navigating them makes complete sense.
4. You are no longer surprised to see 3 men with a ladder come to change a light bulb or clean an air conditioner filter.
5. 90 degrees is now cool, and 50 is COLD!
6. Being stared at like you are some sort of alien doesn't faze you anymore (this one applies to females only).
7. Having your grocery bill total upwards of 700 (Riyals) is normal.
8. You say "same-same" to someone from a western country and they don't blink an eye.
9. Everything being closed on Fridays is no longer an imposition - it's just the way it is.
10. It is now normal to tell someone how to get somewhere using landmarks, not street names or numbers, as nothing here has a physical address.
11. You expect the guy behind you to blare his horn 2 milliseconds before the light turns green.
12. You are no longer shocked when you see sheep in the back of SUV's, sedans, and pickups.
13. You know what time it is when you hear the mosques during prayer time.
14. You know people that travel to Bahrain just to eat bacon and you get a little jealous.
15. You know that "Insha'allah" actually means "maybe, but probably not" (literal translation: God willing) and you accept it.
16. Staying up to watch a football game that comes on at midnight (3:00 pm in TX) is normal.
17. You see two men holding hands, touching noses, or kissing and it doesn't bother you.
18. You don't even try to hold hands with your spouse in public.
19. You say something is on "the other side of town" or "outside of town" when in fact it is only 10-15 minutes away.
20. When the grocery store has a new stock of macaroni and cheese, Bacardi margarita mix, or Dr. Pepper - you get excited and text message all of your friends!

Just for fun...

I saw this picture on Facebook and thought it was hilarious. You just know the guy is telling those women to smile!!

When you think they can't get any uglier

We were driving around Saturday and saw this monstrosity...As if they aren't ugly enough - this guy had to go and paint it day-glow yellow!

This is just not good...

This is one of the new stores that opened up in the Villagio mall. It just doesn't seem like they will be selling much perfume - at least not to English-speaking people!

I have to go...

We went to City Center mall on the last day of Eid Al Ahda. There were these signs everywhere stating that it was family day. Is it just me or does the woman look like she needs a restroom?

Strange things in the desert

On our way back from the Inland Sea, our driver saw a bunch of people and trucks in a big group. He got nosy and went over to see what was going on. There were 2 large SUVs that were wrecked, with one overturned. I don't think anyone was hurt, but it was scary to see anyway. How they wreck in a flat part of the desert is anyone's guess...mine is that they were being idiots and just ran into each other...

We also saw a dog running along behind this SUV when we were on our way back. First of all, this is weird because you NEVER see dogs running around out here. Cats, yes, but dogs, no. The other thing was - why was this dog out in the desert - many miles away from civilization? Again, it's anyone's guess.

The Golden Rule - Qatar style

We have all heard of the 3 wise monkeys - see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil. They are also known as the Japanese Golden Rule. We were in the souqs the other day and saw these monkeys - and noticed there is a fourth one in Qatar - do no evil (notice where his hands are)! I just couldn't pass it up!

Crazy stuff

I read posts on QatarLiving.com on a daily basis. There is usually very useful stuff on there. Today was no different. I found these two posts very interesting and stopped to realized how different things really are over here.

The first post, about the new traffic laws had these two statements that stood out to me:

Expatriates caught drunk while driving are to be deported. This is the only traffic violation in which an expatriate caught is to be deported. - I wish they would do this at home!

The fine for a motorist driving an automatic car and caught resting his legs on the dash board or the side seat is QR10,000 and a jail term of a month to three years. - Is this really a problem????

The second post, was about physical addresses. Now, everyone in the USA has a physical address, even if their mail comes to a P.O. Box. Well, here, there aren't even street names, much less house numbers. We live in a compound, and have a house number for that compound, but to try and tell people where the compound is - now that is another story.

"All residents should keep a note with their full address stuck near the telephone in case they need to call 999. People still don’t know their addresses and this is a factor that holds us back in reaching our callers faster," said Penny Price of Hamad's Emergency Medical Services. "We need the caller to tell us the street name, street number, house number, and zone so that we could detect the location in our computer system instantly and respond," she explained.

-I guess I could call up our favorite Indian restaurant and place an order, then call the ambulance and have them follow the Indian delivery guy here - because he sure knows where we live!

Safety first!

Now does this look like something you would do? I definately would find a better way of getting this stuff up there. In that 'hole' used to be a bunch of windows - just like the ones on either side. Notice the guys hanging out on the ledge waiting for the container to make its way over...

Yeah, right

I saw this sign today - no honking! Hopefully, this sign was just for this particular area of town - I wouldn't know since it is in Arabic! I can't remember a day where I have gone somewhere and not used my horn! Everyone uses it here. You almost have to. I mainly use it to alert the driver next to me to stay in his lane. The driving here is so bad that you have to constantly be on the defense and alert them of your presence - with a horn.

Oh, well, good luck on this one, Doha!

Crazy American!

I went to Carrefour today because I heard that they were starting to carry heaters. I wanted to buy a few for this winter, since last winter the house was freezing. The tile floors and cement walls are designed to retain the cold, so in the winter (which can actually get down to 40F), it is a freezer in here! The houses also all have reflective glass in all the windows to keep the heat out. All this stuff is great in the summer, but not so great in the winter. Anyway, when I was in line, the Arab man in front of me sized up my basket and said, "Hi, Madame, you know those are heaters, right?". I explained to him that last year was very cold and all the stores were out when we really needed them, so I was going to get them early this year. I know he still thought I was nuts buying heaters when it is still 95F outside!