Doha Diary

our little prince!

2010-11-07T14:18:00.006+03:00

Well, considering we haven't updated for months... we have a lot to catch up on! But one thing we will share right away: We are expecting our first child, a baby boy, in early February!

We are thrilled, excited, and nervous all at the same time. In fact, we likened the feeling of realizing we were pregnant to the moment the rollercoaster ride starts down the track. You can no longer get off, rather you are committed, and so you might as well enjoy the ride -- all the ups and downs, the screaming and the laughter...!

We are especially happy to be living in our new apartment compound (gosh, another thing to update) because two other ASD couples who moved over here with us are also expecting, all within a few months of each other! It's nice to feel like we have a safe and supportive community during this crazy time in our lives.

We've been doing a pretty good job of scouting out baby stuff in Doha and supplementing, when necessary, with better (and often less expensive) products from outside the country. Babyshop is definitely my new favorite place to get supplies here in Doha -- it's not overpriced like some of the other stores (Mamas and Papas, Mothercare, Prenatal...) with lots of selection on basics like onesies and blankets as well as bigger items like pack 'n plays and furniture. We recently picked up a Graco Pack 'n Play, a glider rocker/ottoman, and a safety gate for our stairway from this store at fairly reasonable prices. The secondhand market in Doha for baby supplies is alive and well, on QatarLiving as well as ASD's (in)famous classifieds list -- although ASD is slim pickings since it seems like everyone is pregnant this year, and we're all due at around the same time! Luckily we did manage to pick up a Mothercare baby bath and an Evenflo high chair from some fellow teachers.

But most of our purchases have come from outside of the country. Nick's parents (bless their hearts) carted over our preferred car seat and stroller on their recent ten-day visit, along with the Bjorn front carrier. And two good friends just ordered our crib and mattress from Ikea during their recent trip to Dubai -- I scouted around in Doha and was thoroughly unimpressed with the quality (low) and the prices (high) of the available cribs here, and Ikea has higher safety standards than US manufacturers, with excellent prices. One of my closest girl friends is coming back this weekend with a 50-pound suitcase full of books that were ordered in the US for my baby book shower (set for the end of this month!). And when my dearest mother comes to spend two months with us as the baby is born, she has already been told that the majority of her two suitcases will be packed with things for the baby -- cloth diapers and liners, breast pump, Moby wrap, mattress covers and sheets... Well, that's just how shopping is here in Doha!

But to be honest, the thing that has made us the most excited about welcoming the new member of our family in February is the hand-painted nursery walls that Nick's mom and I slaved over during their visit. It was Suzi's grand idea to do a Little Prince theme (I contributed the desire for some stripes, and helped pick out the colors), and the credit needs to go to her for formulating the plan, sketching and painting by hand, and finishing it all in three days of hard work. The pictures don't do the actual walls justice -- it's just such a special thing to have in our home, and our only sadness is that we won't be able to take it with us when we eventually move back to the US!

Enjoy the pictures of the nursery walls, the artiste herself, and, of course, the expanding baby bump!

psa: "left is king"

2010-05-02T14:32:00.003+03:00

::sigh::

There's always something wrong with our car, huh? Although I will say, with all the care and work we've put into it (new and more powerful engine, new transmission, etc. etc.), it'll end up being better than when we first bought it. :)

Last Sunday, I had the lovely experience, for the first time in my life, of having another vehicle slam into my car. I was going through the Center R/A by Jaidah Flyover; granted, I was in the middle lane and was trying to turn left, but I had my blinker on and I was in front of the van on the left; and the van on the left suddenly and unexpectedly turned to go straight and slammed into my driver's side back door, and then slid up the side of my car, ripping off the side-view mirror before finally stopping its trajectory. Considering it was approximately 7:45 am, I had been fighting through traffic for 20+ minutes just trying to get home from dropping Nick off at ASD, and we were now crashed in the middle of a roundabout, I was not a happy camper.

The police came somewhat promptly, and the situation was also helped by the unfortunate third party involved in the accident, an American named Derek who rear-ended the idiotic van when it suddenly swung into me. Derek was very calm and supportive and seemed to know exactly what to do: "Let's all exchange ID numbers and mobile numbers. Let's write down the police officer's information." Obviously he'd done this before! I guess I should be happy that we've only had one accident involving others in two years here in Doha (knock on wood...). The police officer refused to say who was at fault, saying only that I would have to come to the station that afternoon and get the report. Finally I finished the drive (2 minutes) to get home and felt better after I had duct taped my mirror back onto the side of the door.

Nick was very supportive (as usual, the little bastard!) and as it was just exterior damage, we were hoping it wouldn't be too expensive to repair. (It ended up being only 900 riyals after insurance, and it was fixed up better than new by Kalam's random industrial area garage man!) Of course, we were holding out hope that the van was at fault and thus we wouldn't have to pay anything -- hopes that were dashed when we arrived at the police station to find out that I was, technically, at fault.

As described above, that seemed unfair, as the impact showed that I was ahead of the van, which shouldn't even have been turning straight anyway. So the official brought out "Adil the English Speaker" to come explain the situation to us. We had my HR rep from Georgetown, Hussein, with us, and we all learned something new -- "left is king."

Adil explained that no matter what the left-hand lane does in a roundabout, he has the right-of-way. This means that even though the van hit the back-seat side of my car (indicating that I was ahead of him), it was my fault for not giving him the right of way. I continued to probe this rule with more and more ridiculous scenarios -- what if the van had rear-ended me? what if the van immediately tried to turn right after entering the roundabout in the left lane? -- and each time the answer was, "The left is king." So imagine someone flying into the roundabout from the left side and immediately cutting across the next two lanes to turn right -- you might think that shows obvious fault on his part if you get into an accident with him -- but you would be wrong. As Adil helpfully pointed out, "This is not European Union."

In this country, I see accidents averted every single day by people who, albeit begrudgingly, accommodate each other -- slowing down, swerving, honking, flashing, lane switching, etc. The driver of this van obviously didn't even look -- he just turned directly into my car -- and if he had been at all careful, the accident would have been avoided. Yet it's my fault because the left lane can do whatever it wants to do in this country (the painted left-turn symbol on the road is, apparently, just a suggestion). Hence the public service announcement to all my friends here in Doha, a little-known but quite important traffic rule -- when in the roundabouts, left is king!

how to be healthy in qatar

2010-04-28T12:16:00.003+03:00

I love how many times this article has been posted by my friends on Facebook and sent to me via email!

It's always interesting to read articles written in the Western press about Qatar and the Gulf. The articles have revolved around diplomacy, hydrocarbons, extravagant wealth, labor exploitation, travel, and education -- but this one brings the reader's attention to the particularly important problems of obesity, diabetes, and genetic disorders that afflict the Qatari general population.

Look, the genetic disorders are a really unfortunate consequence of retaining the tradition of marrying first cousins. Although this is now being talked about openly in Qatari society, no one seems to think that marrying practices will drastically change, much to the detriment of the 73 children (out of every 1,000 births) born with a genetic disorder (this is the 16th highest rate in the world; Saudi Arabia is #2). But the real health problem facing Qataris -- the one which tradition has nothing to do with (and modernity, everything) -- is that of lifestyle choice.

By some estimates, in five years 69% of Qatari men and 73% of Qatari women will be considered obese. Obesity leads to terrible consequences, including heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension. And all of this has to do, as the NYT succinctly puts it, with "leaving behind the physically demanding life of the desert for air-conditioned comfort, servants and fast food."

I previously discussed some of the problems I've had with making healthy food choices while living here -- and how I'm making a renewed effort to manage my cholesterol. That post contains a lot of good ideas for managing one's intake of fat and fiber in this country, but there are other things you can do (Qatari and non-Qatari alike) to make sure you don't fall into the obesity trend.

Besides making a conscious effort to eat healthily, some more suggestions:

- Walk, walk, walk. Make it a point to drive to a place where pedestrians can be comfortable -- the Corniche or Aspire Park (at night or early morning), or any of the numerous indoor, air-conditioned malls -- and take a walk. Buy a pedometer if it makes you feel more inspired. Everyone's goal should be 10,000 steps a day, but obviously you can build up to that! Other ways to fit in some steps: take frequent breaks from your desk to fill up your water bottle, get your own tea (stop calling the tea boy!), visit a colleague's desk. Park far away from entrances. Use the stairs instead of the elevator. All of these are little improvements that add up to a big difference.

- Drink tons of water and cut out the sodas (and the juices to an extent).

- Look into a standing desk -- you can make your own or order one online. The benefits to standing rather than sitting are clear and help you burn tons more calories (while steering clear of increased risk of cancers, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other causes of early death).

- Get to the gym. You don't need to work yourself to the point of exhaustion. Pedal on the bike, take a walk on the treadmill, do some arm weights. A half an hour of working out is better than nothing. It's a good excuse for buying a new iPod Nano, too.

Any other pointers, please let me know -- I'm gladly taking suggestions as well!

Photo credit:
Qataris eating fast food, Shawn Baldwin, New York Times

Best of Bali

2010-04-01T16:49:00.000+03:00

Seminyak

We've been in Bali less than 24 hours and we already feel like life's pace has slowed to a leisurely stroll. The warm humid air that envelopes you with offering aromas, the background hum of birds and leaves swaying in the breeze, and the welcoming smiles of the Balinese people all put you instantly at ease.

This morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of banana pancakes and an omlette, with an incredibly tasty Balinese coffee on the side (it's called Indocafe and it happens to be the best instant coffee I've ever had anywhere, we even brought some back with us!). Our meal last night was incredible as well, I chowed down on a whole red snapper while Joce gorged herself on pork ribs. We washed it all down with several drinks of the local draft Bintang (although later we would discover an even better local brew called Storm, their Golden Ale is akin to a Magic Hat #9). All this for 36 bucks tip included, and this at one of the "expensive" places!

This is one of the great things about visiting Bali- although it's an expensive flight from many places, once you are there the prices of food and accommodations make up for it. I don't think any of our meals for two, no matter how extravagant, exceeded $50, and even our cushiest accommodations averaged about 50-60 bucks a night.

Gunung Batur

What a day: we rose at 3:15 am for our hike to the top of Gunung Batur, a volcano in central Bali. It wasn't hard to wake up after a somewhat restless night at our spacious but Shining-esque hotel Pur Bening Hayato- fighting stray dogs outside woke us up on more than one occasion.

The hike was breath-taking, both for the steepness of the ascent to the crater and for the scenery upon arrival. This was the first time either of us had been on an active volcano, and the experience was certainly unique: odd shaped and colored igneous rocks that we scrambled over (and scraped our knees against :), lush vegetation covering every inch of the fertile ground, stunning views in all directions as we hiked around the sharp rim of the crater, and eerie hot steam rising from the rocky sides of the caldera- a faint reminder of the forces of nature below.

Ubud
Scene change- we arrive in Bali's culture capital Ubud, with street after street lined with craft shops, galleries, and dark trendy cafes inhabited by expat hipsters who came to visit and never left. Our accomodations, Tegali Sari, is one of Trip Advisor's top rates hotels in all of Bali, and now we know why. For 50 dollars a night we have the bottom floor of a villa facing a peaceful rice paddy, staying in a stylish yet functional room that has all the facilities we missed in the mountains (tissues! A/C! Mini-bar! Shampoo! Showerhead! Working water heater!), not to mention a bed to die for (or rather in). I think we'll enjoy our time in Ubud, rain or shine.

3rd day in Ubud, 3rd day of heavy rain. How have we coped with the rain? Yesterday we stayed close to home and did a lap of Ubud's main roads (Monkey Forest Rd to Main St. to Hanoman), buying sarongs and grabbing lunch along the way. In the afternoon we had an unfortunate massage miscommunication: we were scrounging Monkey Forest Rd. for a $5 massage and we thought we had found it until they stopped halfway through and said "finished!". Apparently they thought we wanted a 1/2 hour foot massage- not sure how that happened, but we left half the money and were able to find the remaining 1/2 hour elsewhere for 6$, so all ended well. Then we had an average dinner at Bebeck Bengil and attended an excruciating Balinese tradition: Wayan Kulit, the shadow puppet show. The entire show consisted of dialogue (in Indonesian) with repetitive, nausea-inducing music and very little in the way of "action". Even the fight scenes consisted mainly of two puppets smacking together in inanimate battle, or a barrage of flying phallus attacks (don't ask, but these did provide some unintended humor in the show). At least we weren't as bored as the kids in attendance, who were actually falling out of their chairs in fatigue. Oh well, some cultural traditions shouldn't be shared! Puppet shows aside, Bali is a magical place I'd recommend to anyone, and in sha'allah we will return one day!

3 days in New Delhi

2010-02-07T16:58:00.003+03:00

I was lucky enough to receive funding from ASD to attend an education conference in New Delhi India the other weekend (the Near East Asian School's Winter Training Institutes). Having only traveled to India once before, and stayed mostly in rural ocean-side Kerala, I knew I was in for a much different side of India! New Delhi is India's capital city, home to nearly 10 million people (surpassed in size by only Mumbai). The vast majority of the city is Hindu, but there's a 10% Muslim population- so a smattering of mosques throughout the city made us feel at home.

We arrived at dawn in the Delhi International Airport (super late or early flights to India is the rule from Qatar- seems like a classicist slight in my opinion, but who knows). With my intrepid travel partners Lauren and Aaron, we dumped our bags at our hotel and set off on foot to explore the city. The map we got from the hotel lacked a scale, but it seemed like the Red Fort would be a nice stroll. We didn't realize that it was actually 7 kilometers away through some main arterial roadways and roundabouts that were time consuming to meander around as pedestrians. But at least on our 3 hour romp we did get a sense of "real" India: street vendors serving up breakfast on tiny kerosene burners, markets bustling with action, wears laid out for sale all over the sidewalk, stray dogs defending their territory from each other, brush fires burning in the street for warmth, bikes rickshaws and small cars crisscrossing all directions on the roadways, many homeless hidden under blankets catching sleep in quiet corners. For a long time we were the only tourists we saw, but the city was so consumed with its morning routine that no one seemed to notice.

The Red Fort was worth the walk (it's one of India's World Heritage sights and I can see why) but unfortunately we only had 20 minutes to enjoy the fruits of our footwork because we had scheduled a walking tour (oh, the irony) for 10 am. The fort was awesome in scale, beautiful in it's architectural intricacy and the pastoral grounds had a Zen-like feel. The fact that there were still men sitting behind machine guns in sandbagged bunkers was very incongruous.

Unable to take another step, but late for our next walking tour, the 3 of us piled into an auto rickshaw (or tuck-tuck if you prefer), which is basically a covered couch strapped to a moped. In crowded streets they are the ultimate mode of transportation, provided you don't mind close proximity with much larger vehicles like buses that could crush your rickshaw like a tin can if your driver blinks. At least it's the cheapest thrill ride you'll ever take- even with the obligatory white tourist price hike. We arrived at our destination without disaster, and tried to be upbeat about the prospect of doing more walking. Since we hadn't eaten anything all morning, we managed to find some breakfast at the train station catering shop, which served some delicious vegetable pastries- I ate about 17 of them. Aaron, in a decision he would regret later, ate a singled boiled egg.

Our walking tour I had discovered online when I was looking for unique things to do in Delhi: http://www.salaambaalaktrust.com/street_walk_delhi.asp The Salaam Balak Trust is an organization in New Delhi that serves street children, kids who have poor (and often drug-addicted) parents that send them out to beg as the family's main source of income. In addtion to being undernourished and undereducated these kids are often abused as well- and it's a horrible reality for much too many of India's urban youth. Thankfully there are groups like Salaam Balak Trust that are trying to make a difference in these kids lives. The trust runs several shelters, that takes care of and educates these children- but unfortunately only the lucky few are allowed by their parents to do this (most parents are unwilling to give up the income these children bring in begging). So the Trust also runs contact points- places in the city where the street children can come during the day to hang out with a counselor who plays games with them, gives them some education, and overall just gives them a safe and caring place to be.

Our tour was led by a young man name Anil who had once been a child begging on the street himself, but with the help of the trust he learned English, is working on a college degree, and now has a much brighter prospect on life. Anil took us to visit the area these street children live, which is directly along the tracks of the Indian railroad (the hovels were so close to the tracks that at first we thought the train no longer ran through that area until our guide assured us that they did). We met a group of the street children who were hanging out at one of the Trust's contact spots near the train station and they were totally delightful- curious about our strange bodies and clothes, eager to shake hands and teach us their names, showing off with their dances and songs, so just typically kids. It was heartbreaking to hear about their plight from our guide at the same time as seeing them so happy- I've never felt so privileged to be born where I was. Anil would swell with pride every time he talked a child that had been able to turn his life around with the help of the Trust- even something as simple to our Western ears as getting a steady job at Pizza Hut- for these poverty stricken children that was something to be proud of and aspire to. If you ever visit Delhi, I highly recommend the walking tour, as emotional as it is, it's important to remind yourself of the real inequities that exist as well as support an organization that is clearly serving an enormous need.

The rest of our Delhi trip was mostly a binge fest of Indian food- I wasted no opportunity to destroy my digestive system with dal, chana masala, dosas, palack paneer, and garlic naan. Oh and the conference was enlightening too, but I don't want to mix business and pleasure in the same post!

the entire female population of doha

2010-01-07T09:40:00.008+03:00

...in one small Japanese restaurant sitting room. Yessssssssss!

Perhaps we should have expected that the first girls' night dinner upon everyone's return to Doha would be quite well attended. Yet I thought I was rounding up when I called Oishi yesterday to make a reservation for ten ladies "in a private room." I ended up having a five-minute conversation with the Oishi guy, who was very concerned for our comfort. Apparently they can only guarantee that eight people can sit comfortably in the private rooms. "Ten people can sit together but it will be tight," he told me sincerely. "It depends on how big you are. Are you all Americans?"

I assured him that we were ladies of varying nationalities and that some of us were very small and that I was sure we could all fit and it would be a lot of fun. He laughed along with me and said "hopefully!"

Once the numbers ballooned to fifteen, I was pretty sure we were headed for disaster. But I envisioned that it would be fun to be crammed together in one of those rooms -- and sure enough, we made it work! Out went the seat backs, in came more cushions, and somehow, with five on each side and 2-3 on each end, we had a lovely time together.

Even better, not only was the Oishi staff gracious about our immense overcrowding of their room (and the food, though appearing haphazardly, was delicious as usual), they even brought us a boxed doll as a gift at the end of the night!

Photo credits:
All B&W photos, Mia Buchignani

villagio cinemas: qatarded?

2010-01-06T14:18:00.002+03:00

At the risk of enraging the local population (see this Peninsula article re: a perhaps poorly worded but fairly legitimate gripe posted by an expat on Qatar Living; I'll discuss this in more detail later), I am continuing with a new installment of "that's so Qatarded." After all, when you experience something like this, it deserves recognition!

Background information: Villagio, the Italian-themed mall (complete with canal and gondola), finally opened their 13-screen cinema, including an IMAX. Although I was initially excited about seeing Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes this weekend, various friends have convinced Nick and I that we need to see Avatar, James Cameron's latest blockbuster (already past $1 billion in ticket sales). And that it is essential to see it in 3-D at the IMAX theater in Villagio.

So since I was at Education City today, I figured I'd swing by Villagio on my way home, check the movie times for tomorrow (Thursday), and purchase tickets ahead of time.

Ha!

I walk up to the ticket counter (after first walking aimlessly around the snack counters, as of course there is no obvious sign for the tickets) and ask, "Can I buy tickets for Thursday?"

(Keep in mind that Thursday is tomorrow.)

"No," is the reply.

Okay. Remember your New Year's resolution: be a nicer person! Just breathe. "Why not?"

"Because we change schedules every Thursday and we don't have the new schedule yet."

"All right... so can you tell me when Avatar is playing tomorrow?"

"I can tell you that Avatar is playing but I can't tell you what time."

"When will you know the schedule for tomorrow?"

"Around 6:30 or 7 tonight we should know."

"Okay... so... can I buy the tickets over the phone?"

"No."

"Can I call to find out the schedule for tomorrow?"

"No."

At this point, I'm cracking. "I can't call and find out the schedule??"

"No, you can come here tonight and ask at the counter. We don't have telephone service."

***

Never mind a business model that changes the schedule for one of the most popular nights of the week the day before, so that nobody can plan for the weekend. It's not possible to call the place and find out when movies are playing? They haven't mastered the art of a phone line (or a voice recording)? So now Nick and I get to just show up at Villagio tomorrow afternoon and get a "surprise" as to when Avatar is playing. Not being able to buy a ticket for the next day's show or even find out when that show will be? That's so Qatarded.

Update, 1/7/10: So this morning I did, in fact, drive back down to Villagio to see if I could purchase tickets for Avatar IMAX. Yes, indeed, I could, and the transaction went very smoothly, with me picking our seats in a central location (I do like this whole reserved-seats thing), until the very end when I presented my credit card -- these IMAX tickets were pricey! -- and the lady said, "Cash only. We don't have a credit card machine yet." Luckily I had enough cash, but I couldn't help inquiring when, exactly, this theater had opened. "October 22nd" was the reply. So it's been two and a half months -- and they don't yet have telephone or credit services. That's so... ;-)

Photo credit:
Old movie ticket, In My Life blog

highlights of tanzania

2009-12-31T19:42:00.010+03:00

Tanzania was really the most amazing vacation we've been on so far -- and that's saying a lot because we've been lucky enough to travel to many incredible places! But in terms of the friendliness of the people, the beauty of the nature (flora and fauna), and our excellent travel partners, we couldn't have had a better vacation. Oh, I guess Zanzibar could have had electricity (and therefore air conditioning and lights at night), but we wouldn't want to ask for too much, now would we?

Following are some highlights I culled from our journals... Nick's recap of the lioness hunt, our Swahili dictionary, the list of spotted animals, and "animal lore" picked up from Felix, our amazing guide. Sprinkled throughout are my absolute favorite photos.

The Lioness Hunt
When the drizzle subsided we happened upon another safari truck perched next to a dense acacia tree concealing two female lions. At first the lions seemed to be doing the typical lion laze, but a passing herd of zebra made them perk up, and when one of the lions actually stood up (!) we could feel anticipation in the air. By this time 5 or 6 safari trucks had gathered around for this very close lion encounter, and the vehicles were packed in so tight jostling for photo-ops that they created a wall, further hiding the lions from the unsuspecting zebras. To our utter amazement, the closer lioness started slinking out of the bush and closer to the herd, using the safari trucks to cover her stalking. With baited breath we watched her, eyes fixed on the closest grazing zebra, her tan body crouched close to the ground. A few more stealthy steps past the trucks and the lioness was mere meters away, still concealing itself behind a termite mound. It was at that moment one of the other zebras realized the danger, perhaps because 40 pairs of eyes and clicking cameras were trained on the scene. Simultaneously everything ran- zebras bolting in opposite directions and the lion bounding after, close- but not quite close enough for the kill... It took a long while for our hearts to stop racing after the experience, in fact even as I recount the story now I feel the adrenaline returning. There is quite possibly nothing more exciting and terrifying than coming face to face with such a powerful animal in a wild setting where you realize the limitations of your own humanity and the carnivorous advantage of the beast. Being able to witness such a stunning and beautiful moment in person, reaffirms my passion to protect remaining ecosystems like the Serengeti- not for the human pleasure of experiencing the wild side of nature, but simply out of respect for these awesome living creatures. Today the lion failed to catch the zebra, but she captured my admiration instead.

Our Swahili Dictionary (in order of learning)
jambo - how are you
habari - how are you
kaRIbu - welcome!
ahsante sana - thank you
twendey sasa - let's go
sawa - okay
nzuri sana - excellent
penzee - dear
penzee gogo - dear log (Nick liked to call me this)
poley - bless you
poley poley - slowly!
poah keh-cheezi caman deezee - crazy like a banana
macho nzuri - good eyes!
ooseku whema - good night
qua-HAIR-ree - goodbye (forever)
po-ah - cool
mambo po-ah - hi/what's up
haraka haraka hyena baraka - rushing leads to bad luck
haraka haraka - quickly!
habari zajionee - good evening
lala salaam - sleep well, good night
habari zamchanah - good afternoon
habari zasubuhee - good morning
karibu chakula - bon appetit
kabisa - completely, exactly ("I agree")
bid-EYE - see you later
sawa hakuna shida - oh well
ahsante neema sheeba - thank you, I'm full
tam sana - delicious
safi sana - very pure/clear (beautiful, nice)
caman toto - like a baby (slept)
HOM-gair-ah - congratulations
NAH-koo pena - I love you
raFIki nzuri - my good friend
baHAti zuri - good luck
swala - impala
apana ahsante - no thanks! (la shukran also works in Zanzibar)

List of Animals We Saw (asterisk means "up close and personal"!)
blue monkeys*
vervet monkeys*
elephants*
hippos*
zebras*
giraffes*
impala*
water buffalo
wildebeest*
banded/bandit mongoose
Thompson's gazelles*
Grant's gazelles*
eland
ostriches* (12/25, mating right in front of us!)
hart beast
kori bustard*
cheetah* (12/22, 12/23 (2 of them!), 12/24)
lions* (12/22, baby and two adults; 12/23, 2 lionesses and 1 lion together, 3 young on a rock, and 2 lionesses hunting!; 12/24, 7 adults and 3 cubs on a rock, 1 spotted on the road back)
warthogs*
leopard* (12/22, 12/23, 12/24 - out of the tree, hunting, killed a dikdik right in front of us!)
vultures*
termite mounds (do they count?)
baboons*
buzzard
hawk*
tortoise*
white-headed buffalo weaver*
white-headed shrek
crocodile
rainbow lizard
bat-eared fox*
topi*
dikdik*
cap buffalo
fish eagle
lilac breasted rolla*
stalin*
leopard-faced vulture
white-backed vulture
hyenas*
black-bellied bustard
secretary bird
red buck
egret (large white)
water buck (male)
rock hyrax
guinea fowls*
flamingos
jackal*
black rhino (12/25, 13 total, out of about 20-something in the crater!)
baobab trees
tree squirrel
white storks*
maribu storks*
tsetse flies* (boo!)
hornbill*
scorpion/spider (12/26, dining room, Taragire Safari Lodge, yikes!)
red colobus monkeys*

Animal Lore
- Wildebeests and zebras migrate together (symbiosis): wildebeests can smell the water, while zebras remember the route- Birds divebomb baboons to protect their nests/eggs
- Impala are found in the trees because they eat grass and leaves, gazelles are in the plains because they eat only grass- Gazelles have male and female together in their herds, while impala have separate herds
- Elephants uproot trees to eat the leaves
- White birds (small egrets) hitch a ride on cap buffalo's back and eat the insects that are kicked up along the way- 10 minutes after birth, wildebeests can run!
- Wildebeests and zebra young are more brown - the zebras have light brown stripes!
- Cheetahs hunt only during the day, don't climb trees, claws stay out
- If a water buffalo charges you, either climb a tree or play dead!
- Acacia trees and ants have a symbiotic relationship - the ants make nests amid the thorns and use the tree as part of their material, if an animal tries to eat the tree, the ants swarm out and attack!
- Leopards take kill up a tree to protect it from other animals, if it is too heavy, rip out entrails first!
- Crocodiles open mouth to cool off, release bad smells after eating
- Hippos get sunburned, they produce a mucus on their skin for protection (but this only lasts about an hour), so they usually get out of the water to eat at night- Rhino horns are cartilage, not bone
- If there is no rain, the wildebeests can hold their pregnancy for up to 3 weeks!
- Hyenas are born with open eyes and teeth
- Rhinos hide when it's windy because it blows their ears back and makes it hard to hear
- Dikdiks are monogamous and amte for life (kids kicked out around 5 months)
- Bush babies have big eyes (to see at night), cry like a baby, the small ones can leap 7 meters!
- It is baboon-mating season when the women have red butts
- When it rains, the elephants go to higher ground, because if they go to the water, there are ants that go up their trunks!
- Masai like the color red; purple and black for women; purple blanket coverings for older men
- If a leopard eats a human, it has to be killed because otherwise it will want more (the meat has more salt)
- Elephants have six layers of enamel, go through them in their lives, once teeth enamel is gone, they must go to the swamps to eat soft food and they die there (making it look like a "graveyard")

tanzania! zanzibar beach

2009-12-30T20:55:00.000+03:00

At Ras Michamvi Beach Resort... the "relaxing" part of our trip... or at least, it would have been if they had electricity

At least there are overpriced Serengetis here to see us through the dark and sweaty nights!

Monkeying around

The days were beautiful at Ras Michamvi, with great weather, lovely pool, and three different beach areas

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon

After a terrible night's sleep (summer in the tropics, no AC or fan, fun!), we revived ourselves with some excellent snorkeling in the coral reefs

I have a gorgeous husband :)

My toes poking out of my flippers

Once I got used to the psychological horror of taking a breath while under water, snorkeling was great... the coral and fish and seaweed were all amazing!

Nick had a great time, staying out longer than everyone else

We moved down to beach #2 for our second afternoon...

Since we barely slept anyway, Nick and I got up early on our last morning to watch the sunrise over the beach...

The clouds showed the rising sun before anything else

Just behind a cloud...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh................

One of the best things about our resort was the prevalence of red colobus monkeys, particularly in the early morning. At 6 am, they romped freely about the resort, especially loving the covered walkways

Good morning to you too!

This one was busily eating from the tree right outside our villa

No monkeying around for this monkey -- look at that intensity!

How long is his tail?!?

One last Serengeti in the airport before heading back to Doha!

tanzania! zanzibar stone town

2009-12-27T20:40:00.000+03:00

Our last group shot... saying goodbye to our "rafiki nzuri" (good friend) Felix

Waiting for our Coastal Air flight... they confiscated our waters, but not our last Kilimanjaro beer... IT'S KILI TIME!

We wished we had smuggled in a six-pack once the rain started pouring down and our flight was delayed for two hours (without communication about this)

The waiting area literally flooded... and Kili Time floated away...

The irony of boxes of water getting drenched by the downpour was not lost on us

Another poor soul uses Kili Time as a foot rest

After two hours of this, we were ready to get on our flight even if it was still pouring and thundering. No need to explain why this is safe!

We saw a rainbow as we finally flew to Zanzibar

And our pilot was cool

We were welcomed to Zanzibar's Stone Town with a sunny afternoon

Enjoying a "linner" at a cafe overlooking the harbor

Mmmmmmm spiced coffee...

I'm a commercial!

The title of this book is quite frightening to us now that we've seen hyenas in action... we don't recommend this book for your toddler

Many doors in Stone Town were outfitted with this type of "armor" to keep elephants away

Interesting trees

Fresh meat and seafood at the Stone Town park in the evening

Tons of vendors, locals, and tourists made this a great spot to look around (but we ate elsewhere...!)

The slightly scary Christmas decorations at Asmini Palace in Stone Town

I love the description for nutmeg. Who knew it was such a magical spice?

Shopping for spices in Stone Town's market... we supposedly got the "black man's price" of 500 shillings a packet (less than 50 cents)

"Welcome to Zanzibar"

Exploring the real Stone Town

They love Barack Obama here

Nick makes himself at home

Obama display above a shop, with newspaper headlines and pictures

At the harbor

tanzania! tarangire

2009-12-26T22:13:00.000+03:00

A banana truck with some extras

Duh.

Our last day, in Tarangire National Park, famous for its elephant herds. But first, we see a dik-dik (the little antelope killed by the leopard)

A vervet monkey observes our car passing by

Finally we see the elephants! Our first herd came walking directly toward our car...

And proceeded to take mud baths right in front of us

This one was having a lot of fun in the mud

See how close they were?

Love the ear flare

This park was beautiful as well -- with the exception of the tsetse flies!

Blinking... or napping on his feet?

My perfect shot... I thought, wouldn't that pond and palm trees be perfect if some elephants walked by them... and then it happened :)

Elephants on the move

They are all coated brown with mud (it helps prevent sunburn)

An adorable little one

Off they go...

A baboon youngster getting a piggy-back ride

White storks were all over this park

Gorgeous!

At Tarangire Lodge, contemplating using the pool... but the stagnant, cold water, dead bugs, sudden clouds, and tsetse flies deterred us

Leah is determined to have fun!

Reading in our tent (with an even better bathroom than Ngome -- tiled floors, hot water showers... wow!) with a beautiful view of the Tarangire park below

Oh Serengeti, you never disappoint...

tanzania! christmas in the crater

2009-12-25T21:56:00.001+03:00

Nick had to say goodbye to his wildebeest skull... by Tanzania law, you can't take anything out of the country without proper papers

A wildebeest's last, valiant standoff... we saw the two hyenas run her to exhaustion and the race ended right by the road (of course), as we left Serengeti on our way to Ngorongoro Crater

In Ngorongoro Crater, a hippo finally gives us a smile ;-)

The best shot we got of a hippo -- still obscured by grass!

A male ostrich, immediately after we saw him do an entire mating dance, attract a female ostrich, and have his way with her. Yowza! (And yes, we have video.)

The Ngorongoro Crater used to be a large volcano, which erupted and collapsed, forming this crater... and the ash drifted across what is now the Serengeti (making the land very fertile with all the minerals). Also, it's known for its population of extremely endangered black rhinos -- it's estimated there are 20-something rhinos in this crater, and we saw THIRTEEN of them (an amazing number!) -- but too far away for any good pictures!

"Pole pole" (pronounced "pol-ay pol-ay") = slowly! Love the baboons on this sign

A great tire cover

Back at Bouganvillea Safari Lodge, we take advantage of the beautiful (yet cold) pool

Before Christmas dinner, on the veranda of our villa

Felix joined us for Christmas dinner, which made it even more special!

It's a Kili Christmas!

tanzania! serengeti day three

2009-12-24T14:53:00.000+03:00

Felix popping out of the top of the car as we leave at dawn for our last day in the Serengeti

Baboons did lots of interesting activities

Giraffes out for a stroll

This bird is called "Stalin" -- he looks imposing, no?

Loved these trees

Lions asleep on this rock during a cold and gray morning

Aw.... they're so cute when they're asleep!

Elephants had climbed this rock and were feasting on the trees

More elephants on the rock

You can see how high they had to climb -- our guide, Felix, had never seen this before!

Do you see anything in the tall grasses...?

A leopard! Out of its tree and stalking through the grass...

Right in front of our car (of course), we heard a shriek! The leopard killed a small antelope (a dik-dik) and started trotting off with it in its mouth

Love how the tail is jauntily up

The leopard paraded its kill past all the safari cars on its way back to its tree

After depositing the dik-dik in the nook of a tree...

Surveying the scene

Beautiful!

Another view

A great silhouette

Nick's proud of himself because he spotted another lioness on our way back home -- can you see it?

Celebrating a great three days of the Serengeti with cold local beers

Nick's handmade beer coolers

On our "walking safari," our guide Safiri showed Nick the vertebrae of a wildebeest

Nick has found his souvenir from the trip, an amazing wildebeest skull -- horns, jaws, all intact. But will he get it through customs?

A cactus fruit that can be used as lipstick

Since Safiri did it, I felt compelled to try it as well

Lovely!

Another gorgeous sunset

tanzania! serengeti day two

2009-12-23T22:38:00.000+03:00

These cloth flags were hung to attract bugs -- apparently black and blue are the colors to avoid in the great outdoors!

Ready for more Serengeti exploration

An impala (in Swahili, "swala," the name of our tour company)

Can you spot the croc?

The crocodile, opening his mouth to cool himself down

Hippos generally just floated about like this, giant blobs in the water... but don't worry, eventually we got one of them to smile for the camera

A hippo jaw

A bird hitches a ride with the migrating water buffalo

The buffalo were crossing the road right in front of our car

Two impala females showing their love

Can you spot the leopard?

Pride rock

Two zebras drinking, unawares...

(in British accent) "It's a lioness!"

Two lionesses, in the acacia bush, only about ten meters away from our car!

Do you see what the lionesses are interested in?

The first lioness starts coming out of the acacia bushes...

Extremely interested in the zebras, grazing unawares close by

Coming out of the bush and starting to stalk the zebras

Using our safari cars and a well-placed termite mound as cover... but luckily for the zebras, they realized the danger and bolted away just as the lioness attacked -- phew!

The other lioness voices her disapproval of a failed hunt

Love how they're both smiling for the camera

Incredible!

Deciding to take a walk...

...directly under our car. That is our door handle! We could have reached out and petted the top of this lioness's head. If we had wanted to die.

Strutting around by all the safari cars

Scanning the horizon

Time for a nap!

Lilac breasted rollas mating on a branch

Another beautiful shot of the symbol of Tanzania

Nick finally succumbs to the lure of my hat (it *does* help when it's sunny!)

Writing about our lioness adventure before our nightly four-course dinner

tanzania! serengeti day one

2009-12-22T14:36:00.000+03:00

On our way to Serengeti -- Kori bustard? Secretary bird? My notes are failing me... but it's a great shot anyway!

"Mzungo" = whitey

A beautiful view of the Ngorongoro Crater (to which we would return for exploration in a few days)

Couple shot of Leah and Dan

My favorite!

Zebras = donkeys with stripes

The adventurer!

Arrrrrr!

Our best shot of a cheetah... don't worry, we got up close and personal with the other big cats, you'll see

Giraffes made amazing silhouettes against the sky and plains

The giraffe is the national animal of Tanzania, as it is a "peaceful" animal

Love this front-back pose

Lion cub, sunning himself in the sun right by the main road in Serengeti!

And here's daddy, just on the other side

Enjoying our seats with extra padding

An elephant trunk extending upward is a sign of good luck

Can you spot the leopard in this photo?

Where's Dan's hat?

On our way to our lodging, we find a whole herd of giraffes grazing right by the road!

Amazing up close experience

Enjoying the pop-top

A beautiful sunset

At Ngome tented camp, where permanent tents were set up -- with an entire working bathroom attached to each! Flush toilet, sink with running water and mirror, and hot shower! This is my type of camping.

My Obama shirt was well received in Tanzania

tanzania! lake manyara

2009-12-21T15:26:00.000+03:00

With our absolutely amazing, incredible, knowledgeable, friendly, and sweet tour guide and driver, Felix! Can you tell we love him?

Beautiful landscapes... interesting cacti

Nick enjoying the pop-top of the modified Land Cruiser

In Lake Manyara, elephants were right next to the road!

Baboons in a row

I've been spotted!

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous

Nick made a lot of fun of my hat. In retrospect, I think he was on to something.

Loved the positions of the baboons

Our first day, and we're already having a blast!

At Bouganvillea Safari Lodge, with our own villa for the night!

"Karibu" = welcome in Swahili

tanzania! dar essalaam and arusha

2009-12-21T14:07:00.000+03:00

On the Qatar Airways flight to Dar Essalaam!

Interesting billboards, signs, and paintings up all over about the dangers of AIDS

Potted plants painted the Tanzanian flag

An artistic trash can

At the rooftop pool of our lovely hotel, Harbour View Suites

Attempting to eat Tanzanian food at the Peacock Hotel... we can't recommend the ugali specials (although my beef and banana was excellent) but we did enjoy taste-testing the various local beers. And so began our love affair with Serengeti beer!

Dar Essalaam's harbour, early morning

An early breakfast before our flight to Arusha

Ah, my excellent hat appears

Yowza! The smallest plane I've ever been in!

Close quarters!

We got front-row seats

Amazing views of the countryside

And it was cool to see right into the cockpit, and get the pilot's view as well!

Nick using his map skills to help guide the plane

We survived! Onward to safari!

I felt like I was back at home in Doha

"It's Kili time!" became a sort of mantra for us

So many choices! We picked South African wines, naturally. And now we were ready for SAFARI!

the miracle of chanuka!

2009-12-19T14:08:00.000+03:00

The photo above was submitted to the BBC by Gordon Visgandis, who battled through flooding on Molly Millar's Lane in Wokingham. Gordon is quoted as saying, "My car made it through the water just fine to the other end, only to be blocked passage home by the police."

Which is just one more example (of many) of why it is so ridiculous that a puddle in Doha completely ruined our engine.

But don't worry -- as alluded to in the title, there is a happy (although slightly poorer) ending!

Yes, my Sunday in Doha started off relatively well. It was pouring buckets, but I come from Maine. I've driven a half an hour in a blizzard to school because the district was relatively sure the roads would be plowed by the end of the day. I can handle rain. Even rain in a place like Doha, which is ridiculously flat and has absolutely no drainage. And I was just two minutes away from my work at Education City -- going at a careful, reduced speed, accommodating for the hydroplaning -- when I came across one last puddle (okay, probably a somewhat deep puddle, but a puddle nonetheless). In I went... and instantly the engine just stopped. I got out of the puddle on momentum and sat, completely dumbfounded, in my car, staring at the blinking oil and battery lights. I remembered hearing something about how if a car gets wet underneath, it can stall. But I had no idea what to do next, nor did the policeman who stopped to assist me. Between the two of us, we revved the engine enough to get it going again (it took several minutes) and I figured I could drive the short distance to my work and then let my car dry out in the covered parking.

As soon as I started driving again, I knew something was horribly wrong. The whole car was shivering and shaking, the engine sounded terrible, and there was barely any power. I made it to the parking lot, got to my office (yes, it's just a cubicle, but I like to pretend I'm more important than I am), and called the Honda service center at, yes, the industrial area. The voice on the other end of the line was grim. "You need to have the car towed to us immediately," he intoned. "It could be complete engine failure."

Convinced this was just another example of miscommunication in Doha, I said I'd call him back, and went to Google. What I found was terrifying. Cars are not supposed to inhale water, and they are built so that they do not do this (as evidenced by Mr. Gordon, above, who was able to use his car as a glorified boat in Hicksville, Britain). In rare occasions, water can be sucked up the air intake valve, resulting in hydrostatic lock -- when the engine just stops. This may appear inconvenient, but it is in actuality a really important self-defense mechanism. If the car is left alone and towed to the nearest mechanic, the valves can be drained and the engine will almost certainly survive. However, if you are witless enough to start a car that is in hydrostatic lock -- which every single website devoted to this screams at you not to do -- you basically force the engine pistons to start firing up and down with water as a lubricant, and instead of oil, which compresses, the water pushes back on the pistons, and basically bends/breaks every single part in the engine. Which is exactly what I did.

Your car is basically your engine. Totaling the engine often means totaling your car. And I knew that this would most certainly not be covered by insurance, as it was not a collision, it was "mechanical failure brought about by use." Which meant that I had somehow managed to do the one thing that would total our car in a way completely uncovered by our otherwise comprehensive insurance policy.

You can understand why Sunday was not a very good day for me, right?

Nick was incredibly supportive throughout this entire ordeal. He insisted that the important thing was that I was safe ("Of course I'm safe! It was a frickin' PUDDLE!" I sobbed in return) and that it was, in the end, just money. But I was so upset at myself for not knowing about this scenario and for not handling it correctly. I'm not sure how I missed this rather crucial part of Driving 101, but I had never learned about hydrostatic lock before (now I'm an expert). Lighting the Chanuka candles that night, between my sobs, I wailed, "This is the worst Chanuka EVER!"

The only reason I dragged myself out of bed (which I'd been in all afternoon) and went to my tutoring session that evening was because I knew we now needed the money (well, I did feel a responsibility for my commitments as well, especially as it was the last week of ASD and the poor kid had a lot of upcoming tests). Red-eyed and fragile, I vowed to put on a brave front, which lasted all of two seconds before the driver, Ahmed, asked me how I was doing that day and I started wailing, "Terribly!"

I started telling Ahmed the story and he became very animated, very quickly. "Get it out of Honda!" he insisted. "I have a friend, a mechanic, very good, he can fix this, no problem, very cheap. Honda, they will charge too much, take too long. My friend, he is very good, tow the car to him!" Considering our honest and sympathetic friend at Honda, Ismael, had just informed us that Honda would charge us 2,400 riyals (about $650) just to look at the engine and diagnose the problem, and that a new engine would run us between 20,000 and 30,000 riyals (the price of our car!), Ahmed's friend looked like the right option for us. After consulting with every member of the Qatari family for whom I am tutoring, as well as Nick, we agreed to tow the car to the mechanic the next day.

Monday morning, after much back-and-forth, phone calls, cash transfers, etc., our car made it to Ahmed's mechanic. Monday afternoon, Ahmed calls me, depression dripping from every word. "The engine is completely broken," he says. (He clearly hadn't realized the problem was as bad as I knew it to be.) "But insha'allah, we will go to the Industrial Area tomorrow, we will call all our mechanic friends, I have contacts in Dubai, we will find you a good engine." I thanked him for all his help and efforts, but privately Nick and I felt it would be a difficult and long process to find a good replacement engine. The Honda Jazz got a new engine with our 2006 model -- so finding a used engine would only have a few years to work with -- and how many body-wrecked-but-engine-still-intact Jazz's could there be in Doha?

Monday evening, another call from Ahmed. This time his voice was jubilant. One of his other mechanic friends had called him -- they had an engine! Another 2006 Honda Jazz, got into a body wreck, but the engine was fine. I tried to ask for details on the engine (for example, like how many kilometers there had been on it) but all Ahmed could communicate to me was "very good, very good." (Hey, his English is better than my Arabic!) Considering our beloved car already had over 90,000 kilometers on it, we figured that there was a good chance it would be a lower amount, negotiated the price of the engine down to a somewhat reasonable 6,000 riyals -- this seemed comparable to what we could find on prices for used Honda Fit engines in the US -- and gave the okay for work to commence. The engine was bought on Tuesday, put in by the mechanic over the next two days, and we picked our car up on Thursday, resurrected!

Of course, there was still a final check to do... bring it in to Honda (Industrial Area, of course) to make sure the engine was up to snuff. Today (Saturday morning, the last day of Chanuka) we woke up extra early and begged our way into the schedule for an engine check. It probably works to my favor that I now know most of the people working at Honda by name. Our service technician, Yousef, remembered our car from last week and looked suitably impressed that we had found and installed an engine in under a week's time. He promised he'd call by 3 pm -- but around 12:30, my phone rang. "We did the engine check," Yousef said, "and everything is fine." We did have to replace the oil filter (150 riyals), and he wants us to replace our two back tires sometime soon (he found some cracks)... but all in all, we are thrilled that the engine is A-OK!

It was tough making a 6,000+ riyal mistake, but we are so thankful for Ahmed's help. Considering insurance was not covering the engine failure, and considering our car is no longer under warranty, we would have had to just sell our beloved Jazz off for parts if not for him and his mechanic friend. We have always gone to Honda, and paid Honda prices, in part because we don't know who else to go to here in Doha. Just like in the US, you need a recommendation of a good mechanic -- and there are very few English-speaking expats who have that recommendation to give. Because we were connected via a friend, we felt comfortable despite the language barrier. And on the last day of Chanuka, our car was pronounced healed -- a true Chanuka miracle!

do you know how hard it is...

2009-12-18T16:46:00.007+03:00

Do you know how hard it is to have National Day rained out in the middle of the desert of the Gulf?

Yet today we managed! Rain, rain, pouring down and thundering all day today. There were to be several parades (a "national" parade, a car parade, and a boat parade) as well as evening fireworks on the Corniche. Now even the call to prayer sounds a bit depressed, and everyone is bedraggled and staying at home.

Although judging from the scene last night as we took 45 minutes to get to the Sheraton through the clogged streets (see the following pics), I wouldn't be surprised if the Qataris don't let a little rain stop them from singing -- and dancing -- in it.*

Happy 38th day of Solidarity, Loyalty, and Honor, Qatar!

*Addendum: Right around 8 pm, I thought I heard another thunderclap -- but no, it was the fireworks! Up we ran to the second-level rooftop to see a fantastic display of pyrotechnics spread out across the Corniche. I didn't remember to bring my camera (or warm clothes!) so we'll just have to remember how it looked to peek above a neighboring building (under construction) at the blossoms of color lighting up the night. A crane in the front and bursts of light in the back -- this is Doha!

Cranes decorated with flags for National Day

This Toyota sported two flags

Happy National Day, Qatar!

This car loves Qatar

q-post

2009-12-16T20:28:00.002+03:00

So I have been waiting... and waiting... and waiting... to write a blog post about the Doha post office. I clearly remember the first time I used the mail service here. It was last winter, and I, very begrudgingly, had to send a signed form to Geneva, forcing me to brave the Q-Post building. I was fully prepared to have it be the most ridiculous experience ever -- complete chaos, illogical issues, an abyss in the back of the room where all letters were thrown into -- and couldn't wait to blog about it.

Sadly (?), when I went there, I found a large yet orderly system with clearly numbered lines (although the electronic signs were not always understandable, line #16 is the magic line for stamps) and competent staff. I was in and out of there within 5 minutes, including a pause on the top deck to admire the excellent view of the Corniche and West Bay. And the letter even made it to its recipient within two weeks!

The second time I went was just a few weeks ago, to buy a whole bunch of different denominations of stamps for my mom as a little present (as she works for the US Postal Service). Again, other than a somewhat long line, the entire experience was pleasant, as long as I ignored the impatient man behind me tut-tutting while I picked out my stamps. At this point I was pretty sure I would not have any reason to blog about Q-Post.

...Until holiday card time! I was able to send the vast majority of our cards to the US through Georgetown's Fedex mail service, leaving me with only five cards I had to mail at Q-Post -- 2 to the US (late responders to my request for addresses!), 1 to the UK, and 2 to Israel. While confirming her address, Rona mentioned to me that she had been unable to send her wedding invitation last year to my address in Doha via Israeli mail (she ended up sending it to my parents in Maine). At this point, I thought that perhaps I might have something to blog about after all on my next excursion to Q-Post.

Qatar has had an interesting relationship with Israel. As part of its preferred diplomacy to be friends with absolutely everyone in the world (and perhaps extraterrestrials as well), Qatar maintained some ties with Israel, including hosting a trade/economic consulate here (truly, a de facto embassy), allowing those with Israeli stamps in their passports to enter the country, and dabbling in economic (and perhaps even diplomatic/espionage?) partnerships. However, with last winter's Israeli invasion of Gaza -- a counter-attack considered disproportionate by almost everyone in the world except the most adamant Zionists -- the Arab League successfully pressured/shamed Qatar into cutting ties with Israel completely. Out went the Israeli trade consulate -- including the de facto ambassador who was in the process of playing the coach in the Doha Player's production of Grease -- and a formal Israeli economic presence has not yet been reinstated. So whereas last year, I would have been quite surprised if it were impossible to send a piece of mail to Israel, this year I considered it a distinct possibility.

I arrived at Q-Post ready to find some controversy. I gave my letters to the clerk and she began to weigh them. Wait -- she stopped at the Israeli ones! "What country are these going to?" she asked. "Israel," I replied. "Hmmm..." she said, and walked over to someone else to confer. Here it comes, I thought. She's going to come back and tell me, "I'm sorry, but we don't send to Israel..." Back she comes... and weighs the letters. "Three riyals each," she said, as if her momentary hesitation hadn't even occurred. I picked out some great Qatari stamps to adorn the letters and sent them off. So again -- no controversy! Of course, we'll have to wait and see if they actually arrive... :)

Update, 1/4/10: Reina has just confirmed with me that she did receive her letter in the mail -- so it worked! Q-Post, you win again... you always do.

cheetah as my co-pilot

2009-12-15T15:00:00.000+03:00

How would you feel if you saw this sticking out of the car next to you? Only in Doha.

what better way to celebrate a 30th... than in dubai?

2009-12-05T23:15:00.003+03:00

"Dubai is fast emerging as tourist destination of choice. When I was compiling a list of places to visit in year 2009, City of Dubai was amongst the top 10 places to see. In 1990, it was nothing more than a barren land where you find nothing but blazing heat and dust. At that time, very few people believed that this wasteland could ever be transformed into one of the most successful cosmopolitan city in the world," writes Travel to Work in his blog post, "Dubai: A Tourist Paradise" (complete with ridiculous promotional pictures of the perfect skyline and incredible engineering projects).

Of course, there's always the alternative perspective of Johann Hari, commentator for the UK Independent: "This is a city built from nothing in just a few wild decades on credit and ecocide, suppression and slavery."

For a birthday that one can't help feeling ambivalent about, why not go to Dubai, the perfect Jekyll/Hyde symbol of extravagant wealth and human exploitation?

My 30th birthday coincided with Dubai World, a state-run company that managed to rack up over $60 billion in debt, defaulting on its loans and sending the Middle East markets -- and the world -- into a state of shock and panic. The economic recession of 2008-2009 had hit Dubai hard, as the not-very-rich-in-hydrocarbons emirate largely depends on revenue from tourism and real estate, the types of things that are the first to be cut in the big-spenders' budgets in times of economic downturn. (Note: By mid-December, Abu Dhabi had come through with another $10 billion loan to help bail out its struggling neighbor, and things have stabilized for now.) But when we arrived -- on the occasion of the 38th National Day of the UAE's independence! -- Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayad Al Nahyan (the President of the UAE and the ruler of Abu Dhabi) made sure give the economy a little shout-out in his speech: "We would like to assure everyone that our country is stronger and better off, since our economy is fine." Well then! If you say so!

We stayed at the 4-star Ramada in Bur Dubai, which sported the largest stained-glass mural in the world in its lobby -- pretty sweet! That combined with the beautiful fountain and talented pianist made for an excellent daily happy hour experience (buy-one-get-one-free, but only if you order the exact same thing, a fact that was not explained to us when we ordered -- d'oh!). The friendly (if perhaps overzealous) service and the spacious and well-decorated split-level rooms (with huge closets, a couch/armchair sitting area, king-sized bed, desk and coffee station, and -- the one anomaly -- a hideously neon-lit bathroom) made us feel that our $75/night (!) was well spent.

For our first night, off we went to the Mall of the Emirates via the newly-opened Dubai metro! The metro was lovely -- the entrances are shaped like giant dhows, everything is well lit and well marked inside (except for any notation at all of which stops are actually up and running, and which ones are listed just for show), and clean, albeit packed, metro trains that are fully automated. (Don't worry, they make up for that potential loss in national employment opportunities by overstaffing every other section of their metro, from door guards to ticket helpers to turnstile guides.) It was nice to be able to take the metro directly to a point of interest (although there aren't many stops open yet -- but in a year, watch out taxi drivers!) and made us a bit nostalgic for the DC metro.

The Mall of the Emirates was the first of four malls we visited on this trip, and its defining characteristic/tourist attraction (they virtually all had at least one) is Ski Dubai, the indoor ski slope in the center of it. First, there was the long, overheated process of changing into ski wear, getting fitted for boots and skis, and eventually clunking ourselves up an escalator to the three-story-high ski slope.

Once inside, it was a negative 3 degrees (Celcius) -- we could see our breath! -- and except for the slightly strange smell of the slopes -- like we were in a gigantic Tupperware container, not like the fresh and crisp air of snow-covered firs and light breezes -- and the painted-on blue background of the walls and ceiling, we really felt like we were on a ski slope! After a couple practice runs down the easier of the two sides, we braved the "only indoor black diamond in the world" and then alternated between the two until we got cold enough for a hot chocolate break.

The slope was only about 400 meters long and each run -- chair lift time included -- took exactly 9 minutes (most probably 7 minutes up and 2 minutes down). Still, Nick and I were pleasantly surprised at how much fun we were having! But there was also only so much we could handle before we had to call it quits (half boredom, half cold). Still, we skied for a good hour and a half, and definitely had earned our late-night dinner!

The next day's adventure began with Aquaventure, the water park at the Atlantis resort on the tip of the Palm. I had not been entirely sold on going to a water park, but I am glad that Nick pushed for it, because it was so much fun! We got there about when it opened and didn't wait in a single line for any ride until after we stopped for lunch. Also, we opted for a double tube, which made the rides so much more fun because we were able to shriek like loons together all the way down. We did all the rides in the Ziggurat complex (the pyramidal Sumerian temple seen in the background and the site of one of the most famous meltdowns in Amazing Race history - a must watch!), and our favorites were the Surge, the Shark Attack (you end up floating through an aquarium), and the Shamal (a largely undiscovered one that was a ride back up the Ziggurat tower). After doing everything at least twice, we took a break for lunch and a nap at the gorgeous resort beach, did the rides one last time, and finally left.

The day after was Friday, and Friday in Dubai means one thing: brunch! All-inclusive brunches in Dubai can charge upward of $100 (even $200!) per person -- we chose a reasonably priced brunch at the Dubai Creek Golf Club and this ended up being a great choice for us -- all-we-could-eat delectable food and our a la carte drinks ended up being about $100 total, for three hours of pure bliss! The view was amazing -- it was a gorgeous sunny day with blue skies and a light breeze, and we were seated outside overlooking the golf club pool, Dubai creek, and the main Dubai skyline. And the food... so many different stations, yummy dumplings and amuse bouches, sushi and sashimi, eggs cooked to order, and best of all: perfectly cooked BACON! The incredibly strong cocktails helped us wash it all down, and we finally rolled ourselves out of there and on to the next mall. :)

This evening we went out to a special dinner for my birthday at one of the best Japanese restaurants in Dubai - Kisaku. (Can you believe that Dubai has enough Japanese restaurants that they can make a Top 10 list of the best ones??? That's one difference - among the many - between Dubai and Doha.) Kisaku is considered one of the most "authentic," although we didn't try anything extraordinary, as our old favorites just looked too good to pass up -- tempura, miso soup, unagi box... For dessert, we ordered a scoop of green tea ice cream -- but instead out came five scoops in a pile (of each flavor available) with a candle on each, and everyone in the restaurant sang happy birthday! The Japanese know how to do a birthday right. :) Even better, this helped us try -- and absolutely fall in love with -- sesame ice cream.

On our last day, after a lovely morning spent sunning on one of the nicest public beaches in Dubai (another advantage over Doha!), we taxied to one last mall, the Dubai Mall -- the largest in the Middle East with over 1,200 stores, an ice rink, a movie theater, a SEGA kids' amusement park, and, best of all, its own aquarium, which you could see from the outside or pay 50 dirhams to walk through a tube in the middle of it. We contented ourselves with viewing it from the outside for a few minutes, then went in search of Nine West for the final icing on my birthday vacation cake.

After the Friday brunch, we had walked across the street to the Deira City Center Mall, and it was here that I first saw this beautiful canary yellow bag at Nine West. Assured by the saleslady that all malls in Dubai have a Nine West, we left it on the shelf that time, but I kept on thinking about it -- the perfect size, the perfect color, and not a bad price either. (Nick didn't seem to understand how reasonable Nine West's prices were, so I casually brought him into a few designer handbag stores like Coach and let him peruse the price tags for himself. He soon came around.) So after enjoying the aquarium, we found Dubai Mall's branch of Nine West and Nick finally bought me that gorgeous yellow bag for my 30th birthday. :)

Dubai -- like many countries in this region -- has a seamy underbelly to its outwardly opulent riches. In 2006, Human Rights Watch published a report on the UAE entitled, "Building Towers, Cheating Workers"; in 2007, Human Rights Watch published another set of testimonials detailing domestic worker abuse in Muslim countries; and, also in 2007, Arab News did an article on the similarities between the sponsorship system and slavery -- see the Islamic Workplace for an excellent blog commentary on the abuse and exploitation of migrant workers. Abuse of migrant workers can happen anywhere -- here's a terrible example from the US -- but there is a big difference in whether those responsible for the crimes will be punished when they are caught (and if they ever will be caught). We enjoyed Dubai's exterior, while keeping in mind that things are not always what they seem.

Photo credits:
Dubai skyline, The Islamic Workplace
Dubai workers, The Islamic Workplace

god's will strikes again!

2009-11-19T08:52:00.003+03:00

We've previously discussed the tendency of the people here (including myself -- it's definitely rubbed off on me!) to caveat every pronouncement of the future with the Arabic phrase, "Insha'allah" (if God wills). This can sometimes be said when a person actually has no intention of following through with the future plans, or doesn't believe that something will get done, as a way of smoothing over the interaction -- rather than saying a blunt no, the person nicely leaves it in the hands of God. Then if it doesn't get done, it's not his fault!

But of course, it can also be used as a respectful term, symbolizing the idea that we are not omnipotent and no matter how well we lay our plans, there are other forces at work that may stop them from coming to fruition. In fact, it's often used in a very humble manner, and I really believe that when people say to me, "Insha'allah," after I say, "See you on Tuesday!", that they are praying, even subconsciously, that God allows them to arrive at that day happy and healthy. Jews say "Shehekeyanu" after something good happens; Muslims do it preemptively.

So I should have known that, when the helpful administrative assistant told me that my business cards would be done by 1 pm Tuesday, and when I said with a smile, "Insha'allah," and she cut me off with another "No, they will be done," -- I should have known that this would surely incur God's wrath. See, I need business cards for my upcoming conference in the US. For reasons truly beyond my comprehension -- perhaps someone didn't say "Insha'allah" -- although all the new faculty and staff have been working at SFS-Q since August 9, we have yet to receive our business cards. Oh, I did just get a proof -- which had mistakes on it -- but that only served to make me more depressed, knowing that I would probably arrive back from the most important conference of the year to see a nice box of cards belatedly sitting on my desk. I was already having a bad day on Tuesday, and this fiasco just made me more depressed. Yet as I was explaining my poor mood to my professor during class, a student spoke up with a solution: She worked in an office that was able to print its own business cards, and she was sure she could get 20-50 cards printed up for me by the time I left that afternoon. Grateful for this opportunity, I rushed to the office, talked to the assistant, and the fateful absence of "Insha'allah" occurred.

Thus, when I went down to the office at 1 pm, I was completely unsurprised to see that the printer had messed up, ruining the few remaining sheets of business cards, and they hadn't been able to find any more good quality business card sheets, so they were currently printing out some cards on paper quality that would be tough to pass off as anything more than a home job at the conference. I really appreciated their effort -- it made me feel a lot better to know that someone cared enough to volunteer their time to try to help me -- but after all, God didn't will that I should have business cards for my conference. And that's that. :)

Photo credit:
Business card

tribeca comes to doha

2009-11-01T23:23:00.001+03:00

Well, this was best weekend ever in Doha (WTA championship tennis, Halloween parties, and..... Tribeca!). The Tribeca film festival, started after the 9/11 attacks by Robert DeNiro and others to stimulate the NYC economy through the arts, has come to Doha with the first annual Doha Tribeca Film Festival!

Nick and I can count the number of times we've been to the cinemas here on one hand -- usually they only import the biggest blockbusters (which do, usually, suck -- see Exhibit A, Terminator 3). We often wistfully think of Providence's Cable Car Cinema and the Avon Theater, and DC's E Street Cinema, with their varied independent offerings. So having Tribeca come to Doha, with tickets for all movies at 10 QR each (that's ~$2.50), was an incredible breath of cultural fresh air. Luckily, we went to the box office a couple weeks ahead of time and managed to snag the last tickets to several shows of interest... and we were eagerly anticipating this weekend's shows.

And we were not disappointed! The four films we saw were all interesting and thought-provoking, and two of them won festival awards -- Team Qatar for best festival film and Pomegranates and Myrrh for best Arab film -- so I guess we chose well! (Although, mental note: I definitely want to see Road, Movie, a film from India, at some point in the future...) Following are the synopses of the films, along with our reviews... but first, a report on the celebrity schmoozing. :)

Besides the films, we got to go to the "exclusive" opening night-after party at the Four Seasons hotel, thanks to our well-connected friend Jovitta. Nick and I got all dolled up -- him more than me -- in anticipation of all the celebrity sightings we were sure we'd make. Many celebrities had been invited, including Robert DeNiro, Brad Pitt, and all the tennis stars (including Venus and Serena). Yet as we scanned the crowd, our (well, my) heels sunk into the squishy turf of the humid outdoor area overlooking the bay, eating free lobster and mourning the lack of an open bar, we began to realize that if you were actually a celebrity, there would be absolutely no reason to actually show up at such a peon-populated event as this. Martin Scorcese and Ben Kingsley were apparently spotted, although we did no such spotting, but I did miss an opportunity to have a casual interaction with Patricia Clarkson, who strolled by me wearing the most incredible peach silk dress. I, of course, only had eyes for the dress, and almost stopped her just to compliment her on it, but I didn't... and then a Georgetown colleague came up to chat, pointed at the retreating back of the peach silk dress, and said, "That's Patricia Clarkson!" Wouldn't it have been a better story if I had just complimented her five seconds earlier?

Of course, we weren't the only people frantically scanning the crowd for celebrities. The best part of the evening -- besides the entire bowl of lobster freshly sauteed in butter and garlic that I wolfed down -- was when Nick, James, and I were sitting in one of the majlis areas around midnight, and a lady shyly came up to Nick and asked to have her picture taken with him. Perhaps seeing my face, she hastily amended her request to, "...with ALL of you," and so we all had our picture taken with this lady who clearly thought my husband was slightly more important than he actually is. But who, who did she think he was?!? It was a great moment. Apparently Nick's decisions to pop both his shirt AND jacket collar, wear sunglasses all night, and keep his Brad Pitt-esque stubble paid off. Until next year...

About Elly, Iran, Director: Asghar Farhadi

The winner of the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival’s Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature, Asghar Farhadi's About Elly is a tense ensemble drama that unmasks male-female relationships in middle class Iran. Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani) plans a weekend getaway to the Caspian Sea with some friends, and invites her son's kindergarten teacher, Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti), to finally introduce her to the newly single Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini). However, her well-intentioned game of cupid turns foul when the trip is struck by sudden tragedy and Elly disappears. Fear and guilt riddle the group as they try to find Elly but Sepideh's secret soon triggers a web of lies where saving face becomes more important than revealing the truth. Farhadi skillfully sculpts a well-acted and powerful drama while maintaining the pace of a suspenseful mystery. A sophisticated and effective work of Iranian Cinema, Farhadi continues to illuminate the complexities and contradictions of Iranian life.

Our take: The movie dragged on a bit too long... but considering it had powerful and subtle character development, dealt with the "what happens after" shock and grief of tragedy, and painted a truly interesting portrait of Iranian culture (especially as it deals with women), we still really enjoyed it.

Pomegranates and Myrrh, Palestine, Director: Najwa Najjar

Najwa Najjar’s first feature film, Pomegranates and Myrrh, shot in the Palestinian territories, is a beautiful love triangle set against the backdrop of occupation. Talented dancer Kamar (Yasmine Al Massri, Caramel) has just married the man of her dreams, Zaid (Ashraf Farah). Their honeymoon is short-lived, however, when he is arrested by Israeli forces after refusing to give up his land, which is being confiscated. When Zaid is sent to prison, Kamar finds escape from her loneliness through dance classes with handsome choreographer Kais (Ali Suleiman, Paradise Now). Hailed as being the first truly Palestinian production, Najjar’s film is both a portrait of a strong woman as well as a look at the bittersweet reality of life under conflict. In a way, her feature, like her previous shorts, is Najjar’s own stand against the occupation — the conflict being only the frame to her picture.

Our take: We were captivated throughout by the excellent characters and the compelling story, and several times I found myself close to tears (including when I briefly broke down after the movie ended). The decision to tell the story through the viewpoint of a main character who barely speaks was an apt symbol for the Palestinian voice today. Some of the images were incredible and heart-breaking. I'm not surprised it won the prize for Best Arab Film at the festival and I encourage everyone to see it.

South of the Border, USA, Director: Oliver Stone

In January 2009, Oliver Stone traveled to Venezuela to interview President Hugo Chávez to examine how he has been portrayed in the U.S. media. Once the journey began, however, Stone and his crew found themselves going beyond Venezuela to several other countries, and interviewing seven Presidents in the region, telling a larger and even more compelling story. In casual conversation, Stone sits down with Presidents Chávez, Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Cristina Kirchner (Argentina), as well as her husband and ex-President Néstor Kirchner, Fernando Lugo (Paraguay), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), and Raúl Castro (Cuba).

Our take: We thought it would be interesting to hear, in their own words, the various populist leaders of South America describe their relationship with the US. Of course, Oliver Stone brings his own viewpoint to this "documentary," resulting in a very one-sided look. It could have been a great film if the information given by the leaders (especially Venezuela's Hugo Chavez) had been balanced by some additional facts. For example, Stone shows how Chavez has been vilified in the US media (especially during the Bush administration, and especially on the FOX channel). However, if you just watched this film, you'd be unaware of any reasons to criticize Chavez (such as his increased suppression of the independent media, his attempts to change the constitution to give the presidency more power, and his influencing of elections through use of state funds to support his preferred candidates as well as banning of candidates and parties that don't agree with him). We appreciated the opportunity to see these leaders in an alternative way, but just as with Michael Moore's documentaries, only an educated person who is willing to fact-check for themselves should go see this film.

Team Qatar, UK, Director: Liz Mermin

The government of Arab emirate Qatar hired a team of recent Oxford grads to coach the country's first national high school debate team. Led by the springy, quintessentially witty Brit Alex, the five multicultural 15- to 17-year-olds are setting their sights high: their first competitive debate will take place at the World Schools Debating Championship in Washington, DC. Team Qatar follows the group on a whirlwind crash course in debate that takes them from Doha to London to New York. A suspenseful competition movie while also closely examining the culture, Team Qatar invites us into the lives of a group of young Middle Easterners with diverse backgrounds and different ideas. Their candid conversations about religion and politics captured by director Liz Mermin's fly-on-the-wall camera, reveal varying degrees of worldliness, but they always challenge stereotypes.

Our take: We chose to see Team Qatar over Michael Moore's Capitalism and India's Road, Movie because we felt we should support a film based on recent events in Qatar: namely, the creation of the first Qatari high school debate team and their competition in the World Debates in Washington, DC. Several stars of the film, including the British coach, were in attendance at the film (along with a huge fan base of friends and family), which made it even more fun to watch. The movie itself didn't teach us much about Qatari culture that we didn't already know, but we would certainly recommend it to those who would like to learn a little about it in an amusing and engaging way. One interesting observation is that, of the five kids on the debate team, only one is of Qatari nationality -- but that 20% is about the ratio of Qataris to expats, so it's only normal for this society. I would have liked the film to delve a little deeper into Qatari culture and society -- perhaps by doing some informative segues a la documentarians Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock -- but as a time capsule of this one team's experience in this one competition, it was enjoyable. I do suspect a bit of hometown favoritism in the awarding of the Best Festival Film, however. :)

Credits:
Picture of Patricia Clarkson, Michael Buckner, Getty Images
About Elly screenshot, Doha Tribeca Film Festival
Pomegranates and Myrrh screenshot, International Film Festival Rotterdam
South of the Border screenshot, Doha Tribeca Film Festival
Team Qatar, BBC
Synopses of the movies from Doha Tribeca Film Festival webpage

rooftop halloween, take two

2009-10-31T23:11:00.000+03:00

For the second year in a row, THE rooftop Halloween party (as it was billed on Facebook) did not disappoint!

For those who thought Nick and I had hit our high-water mark with last year's Zombie McCain and Sarah P, we outdid ourselves with our co-costume for this year. To explain what on earth is happening in the picture above -- ever been to a Qatari camel race? As Nick detailed in our trip to the racetrack last year, "Robotic camel jockeys!... The tiny metal box sits atop the camel's back and is controlled via remote control from the owner's Land Cruiser, who drives alongside the track during the race. When the owner thinks the camel needs a little "boost" he can press a button and the robotic jockey swings into action- whirling a whip around that repeatedly strike the camel's ass. If this doesn't work to inspire the camel to increase his pace, the owner might have one of their friends lean out of the car and yell some encouraging remarks or whack at the track fence with a large encouragement stick. I'm not sure which race was more entertaining- watching the camels or the Land Cruisers." When we witnessed a Qatari, leaning out of his car window, beating the fence with a stick, and screaming at his frothing-at-the-mouth camel, which was being whipped about 100 times a minute by a demonic striped box attached to its hump -- we knew we had found our Halloween costumes.

Now, even though I loved my Halloween costume -- jockey pants and jacket, boots, hat, authentic whip, and an adorable stuffed camel strapped to my waist with the tie from my robe -- the true star, I have to say, was my husband, who had made his mini replica Land Cruiser entirely from scratch. (Well, I did the Arabic bumper stickers and license plate.) He spent hours sequestered in our spare room creating this monstrosity and his efforts really paid off; he was the most popular man of the evening, and that wasn't just bbecause he looks extremely good in a thobe, or that the hood of the Land Cruiser doubled as a drinks table. (Although these things certainly helped.) I was reduced to whipping people just to get some attention. Ah, the price we pay for celebrity.

But of course there were many other excellent Halloween costumes at this always-inventive gathering! Following are pictures of some of the best -- and most disturbing -- costumes of the night.

Policewoman Anne's not taking any bull from the thobes in the Land Cruiser (Nick and Whalin)

Possibly the most disturbing costume of the night

Duffman and Pirate play Guitar Hero, while Wolverine rocks on

Jellyfish, 70's Prom Date, Sports Roundabout, Joan from Mad Men, Mother Nature, and Samurai (with, yes, a real Samurai sword -- that's safe!)

Joe (aka wife of Whalin) shows some leg

Alhamdul'lah (thanks be to God) and goodnight!

another 1,000 words

2009-10-25T17:45:00.000+03:00

Some images of the randomness that is Doha...!

Yes, all ten of these suitcases would be ours... on our way back to Doha!

Being greeted by our fearless leaders :)

Of course, seeing the Emir and Sheikha Mozah in person (behind us here, at Layali restaurant) was even better than a car decal.

So our plan to unplug our battery for the summer and then hook it back up seemed to have worked perfectly... until our car refused to turn on after a day at Georgetown's orientation workshops. Luckily Hussein, one of my HR reps, came to my rescue... driving a Land Cruiser, of course!

Playing poker with a deck of US Army "most wanted" cards from the Saddam Hussein regime. Here pictured is the guy who now lives in Qatar and works down the hall from Leo. Don't worry, I'm sure he's innocent. :)

At the Intercon for Oktoberfest... hilarity ensued when, after frenzied dancing on the benches, the one beneath Mark collapsed in a heap on the ground. I like how he continued standing on it anyway, though.

The view from the 11th floor of the Marriott looking toward the city center -- a quite disturbing sight! There was an electrical fire at one of the old souq stores and sadly it spread to several stores before finally being put out hours later. Luckily no one was hurt but some stores and housing were completely gutted...

Watching hockey in the middle of a mall in the middle of the desert... of course.

A truly excellent picture.

But before you start laughing too hard at the previous picture, remember this Toyoto's exhortation! (I actually swerved into the busier lane of traffic at a roundabout just to take this picture.)

Abdullah and I at the original "control room" of Al Jazeera television station. (We got a tour of the facilities through Georgetown.)

The view from the General Post Office of the Corniche, the downtown construction, and the massive sign (they are all over Doha now) trumpeting the 2022 World Cup bid.

Every time I see this sign, I crack up. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

And then, of course, once in a while, we get a view like this... and it makes it all better. TID - This is Doha!

A new TV is born, an old PlayStation dies

2009-09-13T18:11:00.000+03:00

After an entire year of continuous lobbying, I convinced Jocelyn that we should invest in a bigger TV. The final straw was Joce's recent obsession with playing Rock Band on our PlayStation, and I sweet talked her with fantasies of how amazing the game would look on a large, flat, high-definition screen.

So as soon as we got back to Doha I started earnestly price-hunting for an HD bargain. Pretty quickly I realized that Doha is not a good location for comparison shopping since every store has essentially the same price- when you ask even the expensive looking places with high listed prices quickly come down to match Carrefour's price, which apparently define the price floor for all goods sold in Qatar! So I settled on a 42-inch plama Samsung, and saved quite a bit buying the 720p model instead of the more expensive 1080p versions (for a good explanation of why you don't need to fork over a ton of cash for 1080p on a set less than 50 inches, check this website out)
Luckily the monstrous box fit in our Honda, so we didn't need to wait another minute to get it home and set it up.

In my excitement to witness the miracle of high definition, I wasn't quite as careful as I should have been hooking up the new TV. I confused the connections for the PlayStation and the cable box, so when I thought I had plugged in the cable box I had actually plugged in the PlayStation, which I then turned on. When I went to hook up the cable box (actually the running PlayStaion) a spark jumped from the PS to the TV and everything went dead. My heart sank. Joce glared at me with dagger eyes. At that point I thought I might have just fried our precious plasma, but when I flipped back the circuit breaker in the fuse box the new TV and all the electronics came back to life. Disaster averted! Or so I thought... "Why isn't the PlayStation still on?" Joce asked. I pressed its power button- nothing. The PlayStation was completely unresponsive.

I hoped that it was only a blown fuse, and a quick internet search revealed that there was actually a Sony Service Shop in Doha near Jarir Bookstore. Since it was Ramadan and not too late, we drove over immediately to try to get it fixed. After waiting for over an hour in line, while the Service Shop closed and locked it's doors to prevent customers from continuing to stream in (who instead just beat on the doors in desperation), I finally got to the front of the queue and explained my situation. To my disappointment they told me that they can't actually repair PlayStations, they only send them to Dubia for repair if they are under warranty (which mine wasn't of course). Jocelyn was ready to summarily execute me for dragging her along through this ordeal, but they did give me the name of another service shop- Technical Care Center- that I hoped would save the day.

So the next night I dropped of my unresponsive PlayStation at the TCC on Al Murgab street, and they told me they would get back to me tomorrow about whether it could be fixed. A day later, I got my answer- the motherboard was fried. Since replacing the motherboard would cost more than a new PlayStation, it was dead for good. So much for saving money on our new TV!

Luckily for us, Jocelyn's fellow Georgetown TA Chris happened to be going to a conference in Canada that weekend, and he agreed to pick us up a new PS3 on his trip. This saved us a few hundred dollars because of how pricey PlayStations are here, and we in fact got an upgraded PS3 in the deal, because Sony had just come out with the 120 GB slim PS3. So in a few days and 300 dollars later, our new sleek PS3 arrived with Chris. This time around I hooked up the Ps3 and TV with Budda-like concentration, so everything was connected just right. Then the moment of truth....
As Joce captioned the photo: Nick presses the "on" button of our new 120GB PS3... and our lives become framed in 42" plasma.

That's all I can write for now, I've got some video games to go play.... :)

Bumper sticker politics

2009-08-20T17:40:00.001+03:00

Each year in Qatar you have to re-register your car with the Traffic Department of the Ministry of Interior. In order to re-register your car must first pass an inspection of the technical aspects of the car (brakes, exhaust, etc) as well as the cosmetic aspects (the body and paint job). Apparently Qatar doesn't want any beat up and dented cars driving around. We heard stories of people failing the inspection for all sorts of ridiculous reasons like tiny dents and scratches, so naturally we were a little concerned that our multiple rubs with pillars and curbs last year might jeopardize our chances (most recently Joce had put a nice crunch in the rear right side of our car and we opted for the cheaper quick fix, so the crumpled tin can appearance of that side remained). Like any law-abiding country, we also heard that the inspection would be no problem if we paid some of ASD's well-connected expediters to take care of it for us, so we coughed up a few Riyals and hoped for the best.

Well, our slightly dented and scratched Honda passed the inspection. On the technical side, it passed with flying colors, and as expected our dents and scratches were duly noted on the report, but what we didn't expect to raise eyebrows was our bumper stickers! On the report "Sticker on body" was listed as a MAJOR LEGAL FAULT, which sounded pretty serious until the expediters assured us this would not prevent our car from getting re-registered.

Now bumper stickers aren't nearly as common in Qatar as in the States, but it is extremely common for a car to have an artistic Arabic "Thanks be to Allah" or "The beauty of God's work" sticker plastered on the window. We thought these looked pretty cool and got one of each for our car last year. But I don't think either of these was the cause for the MAJOR LEGAL FAULT, instead it must have been our Obama '08 sticker that they took issue with. Whether this was a comment on Qatar's relations with the US, or a criticism of Obama's politics, we have no idea. Maybe next year we'll slap on a Bush '04 and see if we get a similar violation... then again, if we do that we may never see our car again.

Karwa taxis: Qatarded?

2009-06-11T09:34:00.002+03:00

Background information: When I last called for a taxi to take me to the airport (for my business class flight in May), I was told the night before that the taxis were fully booked for the next morning. Yes, basically, in this country, if I didn't have a husband willing to wake up early to drive me to the airport, I wouldn't have been able to get there. That's how good the national taxi service is. (And yes, I called Fox Taxi too -- and they were also fully booked!)

So today I called Karwa to see if I could book a taxi for our Monday morning flight. Considering schools are beginning to let out, I figured it could be quite busy at the airport and that it was best to book early. The conversation:

Me: "Hi, I'd like to book a taxi for Monday morning."

Karwa: "Sorry, ma'am, we only take bookings the day before. Can you call back on Sunday?"

Me: "But I need to go to the airport, and last time I called at night, you were fully booked the next morning. I can't make an advance reservation?"

Karwa: "It's a problem with our system. We are only booking a day in advance now because we had a problem with losing all the advance bookings. You can try calling back tomorrow because then maybe they can help you."

Me: "So the system is broken now, but it will be fixed tomorrow?"

Karwa: "Maybe."

That's how bad it is -- the Karwa operator couldn't even bring herself to say "inshallah!" Not being able to book a taxi four days in advance to the airport? That's so Qatarded.

That's so Qatarded!

2009-05-30T20:13:00.005+03:00

Last week one of our friends here in Doha (Chad, of Grease backup dancing fame) shared with us a new word that perfectly summarizes so many things in this country: Qatarded. In case the supreme usefulness of this word isn't readily obvious, here are a few examples of things this week that were so qatarded.

Disclaimer: My wife insists that I make it clear that by using this word I am in no way disrespecting people who are mentally disabled. That would be retarded.

That's so qatarded #1:
Joce and I went to Al Ahli Hospital this morning for our annual physical (don't dare ask why two people in perfect health would wake up early to voluntarily get inspected by a doctor after drinking heavily the night before- my wife isn't in the mood to discuss this point). Our doctor's appointments were schedule for 10:00 and 10:30, but when we arrived early we were informed that our appointments were in fact at 10:20 and 10:40. Apparently the doctor arrived late and they were behind schedule (at least we weren't the only ones drinking heavily the night before). So we sit and wait as agreeably as we can having not eaten anything in preparation for our blood tests. The minutes ticked by. . . . . I finished reading one book and moved on to another- doing anything to keep my mind off the gnawing pit in my stomach. Jocelyn sat and fumed. Two hours later, we finally get in to see the doctor and have our 5-minute slam! bam! thank you ma'am! checkup. Shockingly we seem in perfect health, though I'm still anxiously awaiting the results of my stool sample. Spending 3 hours in a hospital for a pointless exam? That's so qatarded!

That's so qatarded #2
I read in Qatar Happening the other day that there are talks currently underway between Qatar and the Tour de France organizers discussing the possibility of begining the 2012 Tour de France along Qatar's Corniche. I guess having international starting stages of the Tour de France is in vogue right now, but the thought of starting it in Qatar is ridiculous for several reasons. For one the logistics would be a pain in the bike seat- Qatar has proposed hiring a giant AirBus jet to airlift all the racers and equipment from Qatar back to France (a six and a half hour flight). I'm sure the world class bikers would love the extra challenge of dealing with jet lag. Not to mention that the Tour de France takes place in July, so the temperature on the Corniche will be a cozy 120 degrees. Oh- and most of the people who might be interested in biking will be vacationing elsewhere over the summer, so no one will be there to watch Lance pass out from heat exhaustion. Actually, if that happens he's probably luck- he has better odds of being flattened by a Land Cruiser. So qatarded!

That's so qatarded #3
The other week I needed to renew my residence permit for next year, so our school's HR rep took my passport and ID card to get it taken care of (God help anyone navigate Qatar bureaucracy without a good HR rep!). After a few days the HR rep got back to me to let me know that they had run into a problem. You see, according to the government I wasn't even in Qatar. Their airport records showed that I left for Spring Break and never came back. Despite showing the officials my passport (which was stamped with my return) and my ID, they could not be convinced that I was, in fact here. So I had to go down to the Immigration Office at the airport and show them my smiling face to prove that I was. After a brief questioning about the dates of my trip (which again, were stamped right into my passport) the official agreed that I did appear to be here. It was all just a little "computer error". At any rate, the minor inconvenience for me probably saved me from a major catastrophe- imagine trying to fly out of a country that you aren't officially in. That's so qatarded!

The cost of Qatar living

2009-05-18T22:54:00.003+03:00

So recently I have become increasingly annoyed at the cost of living in Qatar. On the surface, living in Doha seems about the same as living in any other expensive cosmopolitan city: high rents (glad ASD covers that!), $7 beers at bars (ouch), and costly groceries (especially my beloved veggie meats). After living in cities for the past 8 years, I've come to expect high prices for these things. But not infrequently you stumble on prices that are truly OUTRAGEOUS, which is exactly what happened to me on two occasions this week.

Occasion #1: I was attempting to purchase a cheap pair of sunglasses to replace my previous cheap pair which somebody stepped on (thereby validating my need to continuing buying cheap sunglasses). As long as a pair of sunglasses are polarized and don't look as ridiculous as my wife's sunglasses (see example on right), I'm happy with a cheap pair. It had already been a few weeks without replacement, and the burning desert sun was beginning to bake my cornea- time to find some shades! I headed to the bastion of all things cheap in Qatar- Carrefour (the French answer to Wal-Mart). To my shock and disdain, Carrefour only sold designer sunglasses about 100 dollars and up. Ridiculous. So I wandered aimlessly around the rest of the mall, but of course all the other sunglasses boutiques also sold only designer sunglasses, for even more exorbitant prices. Finally I found a Sunglasses Hut in City Center, sure that anything with a word as modest as "hut" in its must also have modest prices. HA! Wall to wall designer sunglasses, with a peppy salesman pushing me towards the more "professional choice" of $500 Ray Bans. I did manage to find a small rack of disasters called "Savers", but most of these were hideous female glasses anyway (the kind Jocelyn buys with reckless abandon). So, despite the fact that everyone in this country requires sunglasses to survive, and many here are living on much less than I, Qatar commercialism refuses to cater to the cheap sunglasses segment of the market. But the hunt is not over....

Occasion #2: I heard rumor there was a science supply store opening in Qatar- which is a huge deal for me, because most of our science supplies must be ordered internationally a year in advance... not good for an on-the-fly planner. :) I drove down there today in the hopes of finding some electric circuit components (buzzers, switches, etc) for use in our upcoming 4th grade invention project. I had already tried and failed to find these at Radio Shack, which is apparently worthless here in Qatar as they only sell things you can buy anywhere else (TVs, phones, etc.) When I asked the Radio Shack salesman where I could find circuit stuff he only answered with a blank look and the words "That is difficult here." Indeed. That's way I was ecstatic to find a treasure trove of electric circuit components in the new science store, Trans Gulf Technology Supply. After perusing the ample pickings for a while I selected 10 mini-buzzers and 10 button switches, which I though would compliment our supply back in the lab nicely. They didn't take credit, but I figured from past experience that these simple devices would only cost about a buck a piece (Radio shack lists them both at $1.99 in the States). Wrong! Try 700 Riyals, or about $10 a piece! I was stunned. I know they're are imported and all, but there's no way that even shipping fees can justify that price, no matter where it's imported from. I may start filling my suitcase with buzzers and switches when I come back from the States, if I can mark them up that much.

Why are some things crazy expensive in Qatar you ask? Well, nearly everything in this country must be imported. In fact, according to my new favorite search engine, Wolfram Alpha, Qatar's top commodity exports are fertilizer, natural gas, metals, and oil- not much help to the average Qatar consumer, except at the pump. As a side note, to get a sense of how much the Qatar economy is booming, check out the graph of the value of their exports (also provided by Wolfram Alpha). Qatar's top imports? Oh, just food, cars, chemicals, and machinery. In other words- civilization is imported in Qatar, and it comes at a premium price. Perhaps if Qatar's population continues to boom (currently #4 in the world in population growth, behind UAE at #3- thank you Wolfram) with enough cost-conscious foreigners someone will finally take advantage of the huge market for cheap goods. Until then however, I will be forced to search this luxury-priced landscape high and low for some low-cost lenses.

quarantine in qatar

2009-05-05T10:06:00.006+03:00

Yes, yes, I know that I'm contributing to the tragedy of the commons by scooping Tamiflu off the pharmacy shelves here in Doha... but after reading this (American?) traveler's story, of arriving in Doha from New York with flu symptoms and undergoing 5 hours of tests and a 10-day enforced quarantine period, even when he tested negative for swine flu, you can be sure that if I have so much as a sniffle, I will be downing all of my Tamiflu before getting back on that Qatar Airways flight!

Some particularly good excerpts:

"They cleared out an emergency room and turned it into an "Isolation Room" - a room where I spent the next 5 hours of my life. As I did not have all the symptoms of swine flu, their main concern was that it was still early from possible time of exposure- as such they needed to carry out all tests. Also as I was the first person in Qatar to come in with this problem I served as the guinea pig (pun intended) for them to teach the nurses/doctors on what to do if further cases came in. I was quickly surrounded and visited by all the top specialists and doctors in the hospital....

"Even though I do not have swine flu (or H1N1 as its now known), as a precautionary measure, I've been placed under "Quarantine" at home. Which means I'm not supposed to leave my house for the next 10 days until my symptoms clear up....

"Starting in a few days, anyone arriving into Doha will be tested for flu symptoms at the airport....

"The final thing that I was told by one of the doctors on my way out of the hospital -"Young man, unfortunately you seem to be a victim of circumstances."

And just by the way, here's a graphic from the Washington Post on the probable and confirmed cases of swine flu affecting the Maryland-DC-Virginia region. Just as I had predicted, I will be arriving just as things get all pandemic on me.

Photo credits:
Pig face mask, Studio Samira Boon
Swine flu in the region, Washington Post

insights into qatar

2009-05-04T10:44:00.003+03:00

I've been meaning to draw attention to this BBC News article entitled, "Trying to lift the veil on Qatar." I'm a fan of any mainstream Western news organization paying attention to Qatar; but at the same time, even though the correspondent tried to show the difficulties of understanding "real" life here and meeting "real" Qataris, there were still some inaccuracies in her article that annoyed me. My list:

- "Statistically, foreigners in Qatar outnumber Qataris by four to one." Actually, it's FIVE to one, but the government doesn't want to publicize that too much.

- "However long I live here, I can't get Qatari citizenship." (says a Pakistani worker) Actually, if he were a fantastic soccer player, he'd be naturalized right away so he could play for the national team.

- "Qatari women dress head to toe in black. Most cover their faces, some even their eyes and hands." Eh, I wouldn't say "most" cover their faces. But it is always exciting to watch the completely-covered faces driving behind the wheel!

- "There are state hangings." (says a Lebanese teacher) Nope. Although executions are technically legal, they have been suspended for years and all death sentences in the country have been commuted.

- "The Qatar-based satellite news channel al-Jazeera boasts that it tells things like they are. But not when it comes to Qatar." Although it has arguably been this way in the past, recently, al-Jazeera broadcast a news report on the unpaid workers here in Qatar. Perhaps they are feeling more comfortable criticizing their host country, especially now that people as influential as Sheikha Mozah have called for increasing press freedoms?

- "We accept everybody. We've worked with Israel in the past. Unlike a number of other Arab states we don't fear Iran, we understand it." (says a foreign ministry official and member of the ruling family) What they don't say: Ever since the Gaza massacre, the unofficial Israeli consulate (and official "trade office") has been shut down and all Israelis deported; and as for "fearing" Iran, all the small Gulf states do to an extent, which is why they banded together to form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 1981 -- for protection against Iran and Iraq (among other reasons).

- "...the Waqif market - 200 years old but knocked down and recently rebuilt. Here you can buy so-called Qatari antiques from South Asian shopkeepers." Nope, Souq Waqif (which means "old market" in Arabic) was renovated (and in some ways, "Disney-fied"), but was never knocked down. And although yes, there are plenty of South Asian shopkeepers, there are Qatari shopkeepers as well; I've met them. As for antiques, what kind of antiques do you expect from a country that, for all intents and purposes, came into existence a matter of decades ago?

However, this article also had some very real insights, including my favorite vignette:

- "It's wrong to say Qataris are born with a silver spoon in their mouths," schoolteacher Naima told me. "It's a gold spoon, encrusted with diamonds." Naima and her husband Jamil are Lebanese and have lived in Doha for 16 years. They laughed at my determined efforts to get to know Qatar. "Not even Qataris really know what's happening here," they said."

A couple other insights that are worth checking out:

- Our friend and fellow ASD colleague, Ann, recently wrote a post on the "unofficial bird of Qatar," for all you ornithologists out there! (Hint: It's a crane.)

- And in response to a Peninsula article on an imam using the swine flu epidemic to praise Islam's forbidding of pork, Marjorie pointed out that Islam should also have banned "cows (Creutzfeldt–Jakob), sheep (anthrax), cats (toxoplasmosis), rabbits (tularemia), civets (SARS), rodents (bubonic plague), monkeys (dengue fever), apes (ebola), all other mammals (rabies, malaria), birds (Spanish flu, West Nile virus), reptiles (salmonella), mosquitos (yellow fever), deer ticks (Lyme disease) and plankton (cholera)." What a great world that would be!

Photo credit:
Gold spoon, from the V&A Museum, India, 16th-17th century

swine flu and the tragedy of the commons

2009-05-01T18:32:00.006+03:00

As an update to my all-expense-paid trip to DC (including swine flu) post from yesterday, I'm going to get a little political science-y on you. Ever heard of the tragedy of the commons? The tragedy of the commons (similar to a collective action problem or a prisoner's dilemma) results when what's best for a group of people conflicts with what's best for an individual. In particular, this tragedy results when individual people, acting in their own best interests (selfishly but rationally) exploit a common resource that leads to the depletion/destruction of that resource, so that no one (including the individual) can benefit from it. The tragedy is that, unless laws are in place -- and enforced -- to prevent this type of behavior, it is bound to happen because each individual person will add to the tragedy by acting in a rational manner, trying to secure their own interests (safety, profit, livelihood, etc.). Wouldn't a rational person realize the consequences of their actions, and thus moderate their behavior? No, because a rational person would realize that all the other rational-but-selfish individuals in society -- their "competitors," so to speak -- are going to exploit the resource for their own benefits, and so it's only smart (at least in the short-term!) to get a piece of the pie before it's all been eaten.

We see the tragedy of the commons in many areas of our lives, particularly in the environment; the over-fishing of our oceans so that some marine life is in danger of becoming extinct is a good example. We also see it in the pharmaceutical/medicinal supply chain when disease -- or the mere threat of it -- sweeps the world. In 2005, when fears of the avian flu were reaching all corners of the world, the only two anti-viral drugs that were proven effective, Tamiflu and Relenza, were scooped up off the pharmacy shelves by people who were not (yet) affected. This created shortages of the drug all around the world that prevented people with valid prescriptions from being able to get their medicine. An individually rational decision -- I should get myself a dose of this medicine so that I will survive if I get sick -- turns into a socially irrational outcome, wherein infected people cannot get the medicine they need, thus infecting more people; and unaffected people preemptively take the medicine as protection, which allows the flu virus to become more resilient to these medicines in the future. The cold hard fact that there is a limited supply of these drugs in the world -- in other words, there is not enough medicine for each person in the world, and if you need the medicine, you might not be able to get it -- leads to an individually selfish but completely rational decision that it's best to stockpile the medicine for yourself first, since there is a chance that the medicine could run out and not be available if you needed it -- which then leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy of the medicine, in fact, running out and hurting everyone in the process.

Which leads me back to my upcoming trip to the States. Here in Qatar, it's incredible the types of things you can get without a prescription. Birth control pills are available over the counter -- sometimes just on a shelf -- and for around 36 riyals for Yasmin, that's $9 a pack, much less than even a co-pay with insurance in the US. So I figured that Tamiflu, a prescription-only medicine in the US, was probably available here without a prescription. Considering that Qatar Airways is now issuing masks for all crew and passengers originating from the US, as well as all employees at the Doha airport, and amid rumors of the investigation of passengers with flu-like symptoms, with the possibility of being turned away from entering their destination country, I felt it was in my best interests to see about getting a pack of Tamiflu to bring with me on my trip to the US. I won't be taking it proactively, but if I do come down with the flu while visiting DC, I want to be able to quickly self-medicate myself, both for my own health and so I won't be denied entry back to Doha. I also don't trust the pharmacies in the US to have Tamiflu in stock (again, the tragedy of the commons; see South Florida, where not a single case has yet been reported!), so I figured I'd try my luck in Doha.

This is when I ran into the tragedy of the commons. Yes, I was contributing to the problem, but at least I had a legitimate reason for wanting to get a pack of Tamiflu: I'll be arriving in the US in two weeks, when swine flu is probably reaching its peak (in terms of infection and panic), and I need to be prepared. Do you think that this type of situation affects so many people in Doha that all the Tamiflu would be off the shelves? Keep in mind that the swine flu hasn't come to any country in the Middle East except Israel, and you would think that a Muslim country that bans pigs would be particularly shielded from an outbreak. Yet the first two pharmacies I went to both had been completely bought out of Tamiflu. Luckily (for me, not sure about the world), the second pharmacy directed me to a third, which happened to have five packs left of Tamiflu. And suddenly my mentality shifted.

As a political scientist, it's fun to step outside of yourself and study your own behavior once in a while. I know all about the tragedy of the commons. I know that individually selfish behavior will wreak havoc on the general good. And yet, the fact that it was difficult to get Tamiflu -- when I realized that other individually rational people were protecting themselves (and hurting me) by stockpiling this drug -- made me seriously consider buying all five packs that were left in this pharmacy. I started thinking, "Well, I need one. And Nick needs one. And then our closest friends will need them. I should make sure the people I love have access to this medicine first!" The speed at which I jumped from hoping that there would be just one left for me to feel safe on my trip to strategizing about how many packs I would need to stockpile to save the VIPs in my life was frightening. A minute before I entered that pharmacy, I would have been eternally grateful if someone had said, "Oh, I have an extra pack, here you go"; a minute after, I was perfectly willing to take away another person's chance at peace of mind (or survival).

A couple things stopped me. Yes, the price -- at $50 a pack, it really lets you come back down to reality and say, "Okay, it's not like I know people who are dying of this yet..." And yes, also, a bit of conscience. I know that I'm being part of the problem. I know that I shouldn't have bought Tamiflu before I got sick. If no one did this, then it would definitely be available for anyone who did get sick (including myself). But after seeing the government response (or lack of one) to disasters like Hurricane Katrina, I know that there is a real possibility that help would not be there for me if I needed it, and that I need to be prepared to help myself. How libertarian of me! Even anarchist! And yet, how true; how sad but how true. (For example, disease control experts recommend that governments stockpile enough medicine to treat 25-40% of their population; the highest estimates of the US stockpile are 10%, with some as low as 1%.) So I couldn't stop myself from buying two packs (one for me and one for my husband), but I left the other three sitting on the shelf, hoping that they go to individuals who need them for specific purposes, but knowing that most probably the next overreacting person who came into the pharmacy looking for Tamiflu would buy them all and take them home to place next to the nuke pills, plastic wrap, and duct tape.

So now I feel "safer" about my trip to the US, but also feel guilty, knowing that I am contributing to the problems associated with drug hoarding. And for all of you out there who like to carp on politics and say that you see no use for politics, politicians, institutions, regulations, and the like, here's your rebuttal. The only human mechanism that has been shown to mitigate collective action problems like the tragedy of the commons is that of politics, which is the non-violent way of dividing up limited resources to a needy society. A more perfect political system (which does a better job of regulating resources like Tamiflu) would help prevent tragedies of the commons from happening, and it's something worth striving for.

By the way, does anyone in the US need me to bring them some Tamiflu? ;-)

Photo credits:
Tamiflu, Astrit Lulushi's blog (original?)
Tragedy of the commons cartoon, Dave Coverly
Dilbert comic, Scott Adams

all-expense-paid trip to DC -- including swine flu!

2009-04-30T09:03:00.008+03:00

For those of you who don't know, Georgetown has restarted their TA-ships at the School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q), and I was lucky enough to get one of the fellowships for next year! I am thrilled that Nick will no longer be my sugar daddy, and hopeful that the added structure and purpose to my life will help me get motivated and focused on my dissertation projects.

Besides the monetary and self-esteem benefits of having my own job next year, I am also the lucky recipient of multiple perks. One such perk is soon coming up: an all-expense-paid trip to the US! Despite having lived in Doha for the past year, G'town feels that I need to be flown to DC to participate in orientation about life in Doha -- and who am I to argue? In all seriousness, it is actually wonderful that I get to participate in this, as I will get to meet my fellow TAs, professors, and staff who will be working with me next year, as well as learn a bit about my new responsibilities and meet with a tax consultant. I was also able to book a few extra days in my stay so that I can see my friends in DC (and recover from jet lag!).

This all-expense-paid trip includes a business-class flight on Qatar Airways (here's where their 5-star rating comes into play), which provides me with a fully-flat seat bed, a foot massager, two six-course meals (served on real plates, one course at a time), and of course, the comfort of having six galleys and four lavatories for 42 (assuming it's full) business-class passengers, as opposed to the four galleys and seven lavatories for 293 economy-class passengers herded like cattle behind me. (Check out this seat map if you want to see for yourself; I'll be in the second row of business class, thank you very much.) I can also lug two 30-kilogram bags (that's 66 pounds each) with me if I want (and although I don't think I'll be taking much there, I'll certainly be bringing a lot back, including about 20 cans of pumpkin puree). And last, but certainly not least, when I go to Doha's airport, guess who avoids the central terminal entirely and does a "sit-down" check-in at the premium terminal just for business- and first-class passengers, complete with free food and drinks, wi-fi, lounge, and (for the first-classers) spa treatments and private bedrooms? Yes, that would be moi. Hey, I'm not sure when (if?) I'll ever travel business-class to the States again; I'm going to milk this opportunity for all it's worth! I'm planning on getting to the airport five hours early!! (Am I kidding...?)

The fun doesn't stop with the flights, however. After spending my three extra days with Hastie in her Dupont Circle apartment, I'll be trotting (well, cabbing, since all cabs are paid for) a few blocks over to a four-star hotel that just happens to be one of the highest rated hotels in the area on TripAdvisor. I hope I make it for the free wine reception at 5 pm for all hotel guests... oh, but I guess I'll have several chances to go to this, since I'm there for three glorious evenings. ;-) Since the last few days are the "official" part of the trip, all my meals will be paid for from here until I return on my business-class flight back to Doha.

Wow, sounds perfect, huh? Too bad that the US chose NOW to have a swine flu pandemic sweeping the nation. I've never felt less like traveling to the US than I do right now. No cases reported (yet) in Washington, DC, and on the Georgetown campus, but it's really only a matter of time. I'm sure the entire area will be ready to infect me by the time I get there; and of course I didn't get a flu shot this year (not that this would help, but it would make me feel better about it!). There may be a "bright" side; as one NYT op-ed contributer notes, getting the flu early, when it's less adapted to humans and thus less lethal, could give me immunity for when it mutates and begins rampaging through the human race. So I could be one of the sole survivors in a Stephen-King-esque post-apocalyptic world, a la "The Stand."

But as Qatar's Ministry of Health has just urged people to cancel any non-essential trips to the US and other countries with outbreaks of swine flu, I really don't want to be the American Jew who brings back swine flu to a Muslim country that has outlawed all types of pig. Thanks for raining on my business-class parade, swine!

Photo credit:
Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER seat map from SeatGuru.com (apparently originally from TripAdvisor.com)

The Qatari Derby

2009-04-24T21:16:00.000+03:00

In every country there are certain tourist attractions that one cannot avoid succumbing to. Such is camel racing in Qatar. Never mind that I've never even attended a horse race- Camel Racing is a Qatar cultural experience Jocelyn and I just had to do, and now that we've done it I'm glad there's no need to ever do it again.

The trip was organized by the American Women's Association, which had arranged for a bus to drive everyone to the race track. Apparently the bus would actually be able to follow the camels around the track to as they ran, so we would have an exciting view of the action from our rolling box seats. I've always wondered how spectators at large racing events can enjoy the race when they are only able to view a small portion of the track- so I was willing to endure a bus full of ladies for a better vantage point of the camel race.

We arrived a little early to the track, which like everything outside of Doha, is in the middle of nowhere. Our bus strategically parked alongside the camel stables so that when we stepped outside for a breath of fresh air we inhaled the aroma of camel manure instead. It was one of the first hot days in Qatar after a very mild winter (if you can call it that here), so between the heat and the poo we didn't last long outside and returned to the air conditioned confines of our bus.

There was great excitement on board when the camels began lining up in front of the starting gate- though maybe "lining up" isn't an adequate description. Each camel has a handler who firmly guides the camel to the starting line by yanking on a rope tied to their neck. There seems to be no particular order or starting places for each camel- they all just bunch up together as close to the starting gate as possible, reminiscent of a Doha traffic light. At the right moment the starting gate flies up and the handlers attempt to avoid being trampled. It's quite a sight- I hope they have good health insurance.

The race itself is much longer than I expected- 8 kilometers! It takes a speedy camel about 12 minutes to complete this, so those of you mathematically inclined can deduce that them camels run about 40 km per hour (25 mph). This is not a very fast pace compared with horse racing, but when you consider a camel's anatomy and the climate their running in, it's not too shabby. Speaking of camel anatomy- watching these animals "run" was the most interesting aspect of the entire trip. Their front knees resemble ours because the bend forward, but their back knees bend backwards- so the front and back of their bodies don't seem to cooperate with each other. After much observation, we decided that a running camel looks like a combination of three things: the camel's large neck undulates like a threatening snake, the camel's front legs gallop like a horse, and the camel's back legs bound like a kangaroo. Put these together and you have a most unusual track star.

To add to this odd sight is the issue of the rider. Camel racing has an unpleasant past when children used to be enslaved as jockeys and submitted to all sorts of abuse. Thankfully, Qatar and UAE now have a ban on the use of child jockeys, and this has also created a new market opportunity: Robotic camel jockeys! If the idea of a robotic jockey conjures up images of C3PO wearing a beanie, you'll be sadly disappointed. Apparently early models were designed to include human-like features like a face, sunglasses, and even jockey "perfume", but these have been replaced with a much lighter and more practical version- a glorified whipping machine. The tiny metal box sits atop the camel's back and is controlled via remote control from the owner's Land Cruiser, who drives alongside the track during the race. When the owner thinks the camel needs a little "boost" he can press a button and the robotic jockey swings into action- whirling a whip around that repeatedly strike the camel's ass. If this doesn't work to inspire the camel to increase his pace, the owner might have one of their friends lean out of the car and yell some encouraging remarks or whack at the track fence with a large encouragement stick. I'm not sure which race was more entertaining- watching the camels or the Land Cruisers.

At any rate, our bus was stuck behind a heard of SUVs, which meant we only got to see the camels that dropped out of contention and decided to loaf it the rest of the way. Seeing their mouths foaming from running in the extreme heat made me think I would have done the same. There's no robotic whipping machine on earth that could make me run 8 km in that temperature.

Besides the masochistic glee of watching an animal getting spanked by a robot, I'm not sure what the appeal is for camel racing. The race is too long for anything exciting like a photo finish- it's more of a painful-looking endurance contest. The running itself is amusing to watch, but the camels gander by at a pace too slow to stir up adrenaline in spectators- no thundering of hooves or roaring of engines. Finally, there's no odds or betting (for obvious reasons), so after watching a few of the races and listening to an announcer who was way too excited about everything, we were ready to go. Check camel racing off the list!

dune bashing and camping by the inland sea

2009-04-20T07:02:00.018+03:00

One of the "must-sees" of Qatar, according to virtually every magazine, book, or website, is the Khor al-Udaid, the Inland Sea. Close to the Saudi border in the southeast corner of Qatar, the inlet is surrounded by beautiful sand dunes and can only be reached by off-roading -- "dune bashing" -- across them in a Land Cruiser or similar type of car. About a month and a half ago, Nick and I decided that it would be fun to check out this place, but with a reputable tour company, so as to avoid any of the shenanigans that accompanied our last camping tr ip (not to mention the fact that so much more can go wrong if you have to drive randomly out in the dunes in search of a body of water in the middle of the desert!).

So I did some research, got different quotes and details from the various tour companies in Qatar, played them off each other, and eventually settled with Alpha Tours, since they offered us a good price for 10+ people and had good reviews on Qatar Living. Then, of course, I had to rally the troops and actually get at least ten people to commit a month ahead of time to this excursion -- not an easy thing to do when your circle of friends likes to reply "maybe" to things and make a last-minute decision! But luckily we were able to get ten people signed up by mid-March to secure our date in April, and then continued adding people up until the day before the deadline -- five people signed up on the last day! -- to give us a grand total of 18 for our big adventure in the dunes!

The day started off by meeting at a local shopping center and loading into Alpha Tours' four white Land Cruisers for a speedy trip (120+ kph all the way) to Sealine Beach Resort, where we pulled over to take some air out of the extra-large, balloon-like duning tires. We amused ourselves by cheering on some of our friends as they took their first camel rides.

Then it was off through the dunes for my first experience with dune bashing. (Here's a video for you of someone else's crazy friend -- we'll see if our internet connection allows us to upload any of the videos we took...) The best thing I can say to describe dune bashing is that it reminded me poignantly of skiing, so much so that I entertained the thought of becoming certified in dune bashing for a good couple of hours that evening (I came to my senses the next day). The way the car glides across the sand and how it slips and twists down the steep cliffs of the dunes reminded me exactly of the feeling of barreling down a double diamond slope, knowing that it's not possible to slow down or stop on the sheer ice, that you just have to keep going until you reach the bottom. Except instead of two wooden boards strapped to your feet, you're in a massive metal box with four balloon tires, a seatbelt, and the distinct possibility of tipping over and rolling down the dune. It was akin to the feeling of being in a roller coaster... a really dangerous, unpredictable roller coaster made in China. ;-) Nevertheless, our driver really knew what he was doing (they are all trained and certified and do this all the time as their hobby) and I never felt unsafe. We all had fun screaming, laughing, and attempting to take pictures as our car swerved up and down the dunes. I really feel like off-roading on the sand dunes is Qatar's version of a "national park," and it was great to get a chance to truly experience it.

I particularly like this picture of me that Nick took clandestinely. You can actually see my tonsils, and I love how I'm clutching my chest!

We stopped a couple more times along the way to the campsite. First we stopped at a beautiful sand cliff overlooking part of the Inland Sea. I asked Nick to take a romantic picture with the sea in the background. This was the best we could accomplish. Ah, love never dies!

We also stopped again at the shores of the sea for some wading, splashing, and group picture-taking. You could see the mountains of Saudi across the sea in the distance, as well as army encampments along the border. After a little bit of goofing off, we were loaded into the SUVs for the last bit of driving to get to the Alpha Tours campsite.

Alpha Tours has a permanent campsite set into a dune (with fencing up around it so no errant Land Cruisers drive over us in the middle of the night) close to the shores of the Inland Sea. Even though technically we could fit all 18 of us in one tent for the night, they had all their tents open for us to lounge and sleep in. We were lucky to have the campsite to ourselves, although they have the capacity to host up to 250-300 people at a time (for big events like Christmas and New Year's). There was a dance floor and a stage for a DJ; tables and chairs; multiple majlis-style tents for lounging/sleeping; plenty of lights to illuminate the surroundings after the sun set; a food tent with a buffet table, refrigerators, and a water cooler; and actual flush toilets, running-water sinks, and even a hand-held shower. Although there was a sound system in one of the lounging tents, for most of the night we used the powerful speakers of one of the Land Cruisers to pump out the dance tunes (much to the dismay of neighboring camps, I'm sure). We played frisbee, volleyball, and a little bit of beer darts (until the inevitable happened), stuffed ourselves with kabobs, biryani rice, and hummus for dinner, made sure that none of our beverages went to waste, and had a group outing to the sea for midnight swimming, complete with washed-away flipflops and underwater camera shots.

Luckily for many, most of our cameras stopped working early on in the night -- so what happened in the desert stays in the desert... at least for now! ;-)

Early next morning, our intrepid group of adventurers were woken up by my "good mornings," accompanied by Ed's harmonica playing (Nick's response: "shoot him!"), served breakfast at 7 am, and were packed up and out of there by 8-ish. Our drivers, probably sick of us at this point, drove 160 kph (approximately 100 mph) all the way back, speed cameras be damned, and Nick and I were happily in the shower and taking a well-deserved several-hour nap by 10 in the morning. Everyone had a great time, and we're already looking forward to the next camping trip!

beer fridge instructions

2009-04-13T23:04:00.001+03:00

Upon opening our beer fridge after a week's hiatus, we found that the small icing problem we had previously noticed had become a full-fledged glacier encompassing half of the top part of the fridge. Obviously a defrosting was in order. Luckily for us, our Chinese-made fridge had special instructions for just such as occasion.

Any guesses as to what this paragraph actually means?

Remind specially

Hour in addition to frost. ice,slice can't use sharp or the metale piece pare away to evaporate the machine surface of frost layer,the in order to prevent damage evaporates the machine;Right method: Adjust temperature controller knob goes to "0" files to shut down the position to order, waiting for 10-20 after minutes, then use dry the cloth wipe in addition to then.

Pour a little oil on me baby

2009-04-12T17:19:00.004+03:00

One of the things we were looking forward to on our vacation besides beautiful beaches was enjoying affordable massages. Kerala India happens to specialize in a traditional form of Indian massage, called ayurvedic massage (Ayurveda is an ancient form of Indian medicine that also includes many herbal remedies, dietary instructions, yoga and meditations, and even some surgical procedures. Today it is enjoying growing popularity in the West as a hot new old alternative medicine). Joce and I neglected to read up on ayurvedic massage beforehand, but we were told it involved some natural oils, creams, and would rid our body of toxins (as well as hopefully relaxing our muscles we hoped!). Here's my account of the ayurvedic experience:

My first sign that this was going to be an intense cultural experience was when the masseuse handed me a small loin cloth. Though I felt more like an ape than Tarzan, I stripped down to my body hair, donned the cod piece and laid down on a large cushioned table. The interesting table had a wooden grove around the outside like a moat- I would figure out the purpose of this later.

The masseuse started with my head, and immediately I could tell his massage technique was going to be different than any massage I've had before. With a combination of squeezing, hair tugging, and elaborate skull slapping, he loosened up my taut tete until I thought it might come unscrewed. Little did I know that this was actually the high point of the massage.

Next the masseuse had me lie on my back and he reached for the hot oil. I've used massage oil before, so I can appreciate a little warm oil to make the massaging experience go smoothly. I was not prepared however, for the ayurvedic approach to oil massage, which in my opinion more closely resembles deep frying. With something like a ladle, the masseuse liberally dolloped hot oil all over my body, each plop sending a tinge of pain through my sunburned skin. I now know what it feels like to storm Medieval castle walls.

The ayurvedic massaging style was quick and forceful to the point of being too brusque and not relaxing enough. His fingers moved so rapidly and pervasively across my body (chest, inner thighs, ass cheeks, bottoms of feet) that I was in a constant struggle to de-tense my muscles and give into the massage while at the same time preventing involuntary spasms my ticklish unsuspecting skin.

By the time the masseuse started to lather me up in a greasy lotion I was on my stomach with my face pressed in a puddle of massage oil. The lotion only contributed further to the oil reservoir, which had been accumulating in the wooden moat around the table, surrounding me in a river of grease. To make matters worse, the combination of body hair and beach sand on my skin necessitated even more applications of oil to reduce friction (Note to self- always rinse in the shower before a massage. Sandy skin + massage = sandpapering off my epidermis).

When the deep frying of my body was complete, the masseuse attempted to wash me off with a few buckets of water he dumped over my head. Having another man washing my naked body was just a bonus cultural experience, but I still had to repeat the process myself in the shower back in our room to restore my skin to its original non-glistening state. So, I suppose the experience did remove toxins from my body in the form of many gallons of dubiously spiced oils, but since my muscles are not the least bit more relaxed, I think I'll steer clear of massages the rest of the trip and save the oil for my food.

spring break: india! ~kumily and home~

2009-04-11T19:04:00.026+03:00

The last leg of the trip... a better bed than the night before, more treks through the Reserve, some shopping in Kumily, and then a nice 22-hour-long travel back to Doha!

We trade being one with nature for hot water, electricity, and a normal-sized bed

At the Coffee Inn in Kumily, waiting an hour for our "good food" to arrive for lunch; the sign at the door said, "Don't yell at the cook - good food takes time!" (This claim was quickly disproved at the authentic Indian establishments we ate at for the rest of the trip.)

Our choice of hike for the afternoon

Taking an auto-rickshaw to the Clouds Walk

Coffee beans

Figs

A beehive suspended between two trees

Curry leaves

A gigantic tree root

A leaf that can be used to make packets for cooking

The final step to truly get us to walk in the clouds...

The view from the lookout tower: the towns of both Kumily and Thekkady

Our guides Dzedze and Indira, resting after our trek up the mountain

Nick thought I looked like a dork with my hat; but I think I look adorable!

Another moat for those elusive tigers

The intrepid hiker

A beautiful flower picture... taken with my sister, the floral designer and landscape gardener, in mind

A plant the sap of which can be used to blow bubbles

The view into Periyar from our balcony at the Coffee Inn

Look at how much food we ate! (just kidding... there was another couple at the other end of the table that was responsible for half of the polished-clean dishes) At an excellent, authentic Indian restaurant in Kumily - we picked it out based on how many Indians (along with a few intrepid Westerners) were happily eating dinner inside

Our big and exciting purchase -- a beautiful hand-embroidered wall hanging. I bargained down the shopkeeper from 1900 rupees (about $38) to 1100 rupees (about $22)! There's something to be said for shopping in the off-season...

Bags strapped to the window, we are back on the bus headed back to Kottayam (downhill took an hour less than uphill -- yikes!)

Clouds and mist today

The importance of a clean toliet is shown in this entrepreneurial family's advertising

Drenched from our first daytime rain, we turn to dosas for revival

At the Kottayam train station, sponsored by Kingfisher Strong

Nocholas and J Mitchell have reservations for the 18:20 train

Qatar Airways in English, Arabic, Hindi, and Malayalam

Heading back to Doha!

Our living room is now complete with our Keralan wall hanging

spring break: india! ~periyar~

2009-04-09T18:19:00.029+03:00

Traveling from Kumarakom, through Kottayam, to Kumily (lots of "K's" in Kerala!), where the Periyar Tiger Reserve is located... the cushy part of our vacation was now over, and from here on was the "roughing it" part of the trip :)

Some election graffiti espied during our auto-rickshaw ride from Kumarakom to the Kottayam bus station; the Communist party (LDP) is big here

Some election posters above an auto-rickshaw stand

The crazy scene in Kottayam as we start our bus journey north to Kumily... why all the K's here in Kerala?

Sights you don't see everyday; in Doha, it's camels, in India, elephants

The logo for Indian Oil -- see the drop of oil in the hand?

What does this traffic sign mean?? (Not that anyone paid any attention to signs, or rules, or lanes...) Nick thinks it means "no passing"... if so, it was probably the least obeyed sign in all of India

Beautiful views of the hills and valleys as we climbed the mountains to Periyar (100 km from Kottayam)

Another beautiful view; keep in mind that I'm taking these pictures from a lurching, horn-honking, moving vehicle -- not bad!

Another ambiguous road sign: does it mean a windy road ahead? perhaps a rapidly changing elevation? or maybe it's just an exhortation to levitate your vehicle?

My personal favorite: the pedestrian is literally sprinting across the road, his little bag flying out behind him

Nick's picture of the tea plantations near Kumily perfectly captures the way the bushes hugged the hills, with the little winding paths through them

Tea plantations stretching over the hills

This region had tons of these tea plantations, as well as spice gardens; many of the black teas and spices we've enjoyed, such as ginger, cardamon, cinnamon, and curry, probably come from here!

Tea plantations close up

We climbed quite high into the mountains, with some beautiful views; the nice part about being so high was that the humidity dropped quite a bit, and it was pleasant to the point of a bit brisk in the evenings

At our less-than-cushy digs at the Jungle Inn in Periyar Tiger Reserve

Nick hoping that the moat keeps the tigers out

We saw plenty of cows in Kerala

Nick communing with nature

Getting bitten by the mosquitos as we "relaxed" in the evening

The tea was necessary the next morning; the Jungle Inn was not the most comfortable of beds!

Our tranquil view (sadly, only cows and wild boars frequented the meadow while we were there)

A sambar deer

What used to be a sambar deer... apparently IT got to see a tiger!

Taking a boat tour of Periyar Lake, manmade (again by the British, of course!)

One of the 320 different species of birds in the Reserve: the kind that pose for pictures

More beautiful landscape; a bit different than Doha!

The highlight of the lake tour: elephants!

The closest we could get with our boat; we could have gone to a touristy "Elephant Junction" to have a half-hour elephant ride but we decided that wasn't necessary...

Macaque monkeys (probably the Bonnet Macaque variety); we saw these everywhere: in the Reserve, beside the roads, on fences and backyards in Kumily...

This little monkey had a couple babysitters

This grandfather macaque had a beautiful gray coat

The closest we got to seeing a tiger in the Periyar Tiger Reserve

spring break: india! ~houseboat~

2009-04-08T14:08:00.000+03:00

Spring break: India! continued... the houseboat through the Keralan backwaters, from Alleppey to Kumarakom

From Varkala, we went to Alleppey by train and got on our houseboat for an amazing overnight ride to Kumarakom

Nick and I were greeted at our houseboat with fresh jasmine leis and split-open coconuts with straws jammed down the middle so we could drink the milk

Relaxed already!

A typical canal scene in the Keralan backwaters

The beautiful deck of our houseboat

Canal transport

Watching the world roll by

I loved the colors of the saris here

Tons of election posters up (parliamentary elections are beginning on the 16th of April); only saw one advertising a female candidate, and she was the only poster in black & white. Go Suci!

Our luncheon feast... incredible food

Nick a la Rodin, post-lunch

An ayurvedic treatment center advertising on the canal

Two boys biking on a palm tree-lined peninsula

A bridge connecting the two sides of the canal (no roads in the villages here!)

Flocks and flocks of ducks

A duck highway, close up

White cranes

Sparkling afternoon sun on the water

Nick gets his exercise in as our canoe guy, Bido, brings us through the small canals of his village

A kingfisher bird

Lilies in bloom

The palm trees and the setting sun

Coconut palms leaning over the village canal

Dusk on the river

Evening time, time for a new dress

Refreshed the next morning (sporting dress #3 of the trip), as Nick assures the houseboat manager that everything has been perfect

The probable cause of the destruction of our fruit basket the previous evening

Getting some journal writing in before the long trek up to Kumily

A fishing boat in the morning

One last fresh pineapple juice for the road!

spring break: india! ~varkala~

2009-04-07T13:30:00.000+03:00

A photojournalistic look at our trip to Kerala, India... from the airport in Doha to the beaches of Varkala :)

Renee and I, sporting our Indian visas in the Doha airport

The plane was not nearly as empty as we first hoped it would be ;-)

Doha to Trivandrum (actually Thiruvananthapuram -- the Brits, in a fairly typical move, had decided that the original name was too long and it needed to be shortened)

Our baggage boys hard at work

The official tourism motto of the Indian state of Kerala. I asked our first driver why it was "God's own country" and he explained that it was because Kerala has everything: lakes, forests, animals (especially elephants), and tons of useful plants (coconut, mango, coffee, cardamon, etc etc)

Dawn breaking over the Indian Ocean on Varkala beach

There were two separate sets of waves because there was a sandbar in the middle of them -- just as the water got too high, you could reach the sandbar and then the water would be at your knees again and you could frolic in the first set of waves. Pretty sweet!

The beach was beautiful and peaceful in the morning -- oh, except for the MASSIVE SAND CRABS that would pop out of hidden holes in the sand, stare at you with their beady little eyes, and then burrow down again

Would you like this popping up right by your toes?

Enjoying a much-deserved breakfast at the Varkala Marine Palace restaurant

Sun, sand, and stars in Ryan's eyes

Smart dogs -- they claimed umbrellas just like the humans!

The view from the cliffs, overlooking the beautiful beach (picture cropped to cut out the trash heaped along the cliffs)

Dinner on the cliffs with a fortuitous 2-for-1 happy hour special

Kingfisher beer consumed by candlelight

For Breakfast #2: the REAL bacon has arrived! Arrrr!

Coconuts left to dry in the sun (to be made into coconut oil)

At the cliffside Cafe del Mar, watching a thunder-and-lightning storm rage over the ocean as we sit warm and dry

Investigating the Hindu temple during the festivities of Vishu

The temple had quite gaudy and colorful decorations; and the main event seemed to be a music jam with drums and wind instruments, flanked by fire-bearers -- no good pictures of this, though, so the neon effigy of Shiva and Parvati will have to do

Nick made a friend; this adorable little girl-puppy who decided to take a nap between his sunburned legs

We need cars with this sticker in Doha! (haram = "forbidden" in Arabic)

The view from the northern end of the beach

Nick climbing the treehouse at the clifftop Kerala Coffee House

An example of a palm-frond thatched house -- each length of the house is actually the stem of a palm frond with the leaves criss-crossed together to form a lattice thatch; truly amazing how they use all parts of the coconut palm

Our 8-year dating anniversary dinner at the Varkala Marine Palace with the manager, Subin. Please notice the first of many of my new dresses, which I bought for $6-$8 each (!)

Passing some time in Alleppey, we looked at the private Revi Karuna Karan Memorial Museum, established two years ago by his wife Betty, displaying three generations of personal collections... we are posing here in the Kerala room

bacon in qatar!

2009-04-01T10:41:00.002+03:00

Great news! A friend of mine just spoke to a Ministry official, who let slip that Qatar will allow pork imports by the beginning of this summer! Finally, I'll be able to cook with real bacon, munch on spare ribs, wrap things in prosciutto, enjoy the sausages at Dairy Queen... the possibilities are endless. :)

In other news, there are a couple exciting new economic and environmental developments going on in Qatar: using solar and nuclear power to create Qatar Snow City in the desert dunes (!), and using all the excess water that they have here in Qatar to green the desert so it looks akin to the English countryside. Check out the picture below for how parts of Qatar should look by 2010. I'm excited to take a stroll through the meadows and do some skiing on the weekends. Life in Qatar certainly is improving!