Doomsday is here

My days of doing a lot of nothing are coming to a halt as of Sunday. I will be a working lady once again. I was just getting the hang of being a lady of leisure , but I guess at 25 I am a little too young to fit into that category just yet. By 26 I'll be ready.

Mike has been in Bahrain for almost one week of his five sentence. Things are good for him , he can actually concentrate on studying and focus on his type rating. According to him Bahrain is a lot more green and developed. He also said there is pork , so we are going to go to a nice Italian restaurant and eat as many things that have pork on the menu. It's weird , I didn't even like pork that much when I was in Canada but now that I can't have it , it is all I want to eat. However he did say that there are some areas of unrest there and a couple of the guys he has met went out for dinner and had to come home because there was too much tear gas in the air. I am going next weekend for a visit , so it'll be exciting to do some traveling. He starts his actual flying in the sim at the beginning of March and then will be home on the 18th.

Brunch view

Before he left we had a nice brunch at the Intercontinental hotel , which is a very popular thing to do here on Friday's. All the hotels have huge buffets to gorge yourselves on. Anything you can want and imagine is there , well except pork. I did have some beef prosciutto , interesting but a one time thing. They had sushi , salads , Arabic mezzes , seafood galore , lamb , 20 different types of desert and a chocolate fountain. Chocolate fountains are huge here , they have their own stand in every mall. The lunch was good and it was nice to spend some time together before Mike left for so long.

First course for Mike

The kitties are loving it here , they lie in the sun all day long and watch all the action that is happening outside. Since we are living in a Middle Eastern suburbia there are tons of kids running up and down the streets all the time. It's very interesting living in the compound , everyone you meet is from some other corner of the world. Surprisingly there are tons of Canadians here though which is awesome. I have been blasting Tragically Hip quite often hoping that it is a Canadian mating call and I'll get to meet a few more. No luck so far , maybe I am not playing it loud enough. Tonight I am going to pick up our friends Prit and John at the airport. Prit is finally moving back here and bringing along her two little kitties as well. Winston and Bailey might have some new friends :)

I have been doing not a whole lot , so there isn't too much new right now . Mike's vacation has gotten messed up for the summer so as it stands right now we don't know when we will be able to come home next. We are trying to fix it but everything takes 5x longer here then what it should. I am pretty excited to be able to come home and see everyone and hopefully see a little rain. It did rain for about 40 secs here the other day, it made the news.

Here is our address if anyone ever feels like sending a little letter , we do love getting mail.

Blding 9 Unit 1
Sara St
Location 56
Khalid Bin Ahmed St
Doha , Qatar
PO BOX 22802

Next time I'll have lots of fun info to share about work :( and of course visiting my husband in Bahrain.

Miss everyone

M&M xoxo

The PG version of jello shots

Clubhouse at the compound

One of three pools at our compound

Coffee house inside the clubhouse - This is for you chooch!!

Too many to choose from

Lebanese restaurant 

Mosque inside the compound

Main Gate

A Whole Furry Family

Yes I know that title sounds funny , but the best thing since we have gotten here has finally happened. Our kitties arrived!!! What a long day for them  , it took them 29 hrs to travel over 10800 kms !!! Not too many cats have that kind of milage. They were stuck in customs here for over 6 and a half hours and finally got to our apartment at 1:30 am. KLM is the way to go if anyone ever ships their animals. The boys arrived here cleaner then when they left and had nice little stickers on their kennels informing us that "they enjoyed their stay at the animal hotel in Amsterdam". The Dutch are great when it comes to hospitality. It took them about 24 hrs to be back to their old selves , 1 hr of cuddling , 1 hr of eating , 30 mins of playing and 22:30 hrs of sleeping. For Mike and I this was the last thing we were waiting for to complete our new home. What you probably didn't know is that we have two good friends here who are just as cat crazy , if not maybe a little more then us :) John and Prit will be getting their boys from England on the 22nd . Get into the pet importing business if you want to make money , I am telling you the demand for importing into Doha is out there.

Enjoying the Doha sun

Mike is enroute to an overnight flight to India. He leaves at 8:30 pm here and gets back home at 5:10 am I think. This is the 320 roster so we are going to have to get used to it. He has his caffeine breaks already scheduled . He leaves to Bahrain on Saturday for 5 weeks , so we are spending the last few days getting things organized and spending some time with friends. The women's tennis tournament is in town so we are going to go watch them grunting in their mini skirts this week. For some reason the guys are way more enthusiastic about going to watch these games then they were when the men were in town.

I went out for dinner with my department on Thursday and got to meet everyone. Everyone was super nice and it seems like I may just enjoy having a job here. I am the only female in the office - ever. I am also the only one from North America , so I am going to take advantage of this and plan some pot lucks so I can try some global cuisine. Hopefully , fingers crossed , I will have my RP on Thursday so I will start working next week.

Almost as good as Mama's - a little taste of Hungarian home cooking for Mike

Guess who's really excited to get a letter from home!! Thanks Grandma xo

Speaking of food , the food here is pretty good. The organic products for the most part are way cheaper here. One small annoying thing is that there is no fresh chicken breasts . It's a good day if you walk into the store and there are fresh whole chickens . When they are out there are always quail to buy though . We haven't tried it yet , it's on the list next to camel and mutton . There is no clear reason why there is such a lack of fresh chicken , but I have heard it has something to do with a "political situation" with a neighboring country. For now it's bulk frozen chicken breasts.

Going out for dinner can cost you a pretty penny if you eat at the hotels. If you like shawarma like we do then it's next to nothing. You can get 2 kebabs , Fattoush which is sort of like Middle Eastern Greek salad but hold the feta , and another pastry for 10 canadian. Not too bad I would say. The chains here are terrible , like I mean disgusting. I have said it before but there is seriously a KFC problem here. I can guarantee you that when the colonel died ( RIP) he would have never imagined how popular his southern friend chicken would be here. Heck I bet he never even heard of Qatar , ever. The only place we have been too that is remotely close to home is Cold Stone and McD's. Well actually we haven't been to too many places , but Chili's was terrible and I have nightmares now about Pizza Hut and Diary Queen. So maybe just avoid those places.

Other then that things have been fairly quite on the home front here. Weather today was 28 and no snow :) I actually miss having snow , I was a little jealous seeing everyone's pictures.

Well until next time

M&M + Winny and Bailey

xoxoxoxo

People drive around with wrapping on their cars to show that it is new 

Serious love sessions in the kitchen

Maybe having the import tag on the windshield is hazardous - Nah!!!

Captain Winston and First Officer Bailey - I know we are lame

Doha's Real Sport's Bar

Enjoying drinks with our friends 

Where is our internet!?!?!?

When we first moved to Doha the first thing we made sure we had before food , water , or a cellphone was the internet. It's the basis for our survival so now that we have been without it for a week and a half  we are starting to get a wee bit annoyed. Believe me it's not an episode of survivor man over here but it's getting a little annoying. But this is Doha. When we get to come home for a visit we will be repeating this saying over and over again , it's our new mantra , and believe me when you come here you will see what we mean.

So what have you guys been doing??? Staying warm and watching NHL I hope :). It's baby season at home our friends Karen and Robin welcomed their beautiful little girl Emma into the world this week and my cousins Adam and Kasandra did the same 2 weeks ago with Mackenzie. I don't remember if I said that already. These are the type of events that are making us home sick , but that just means when we get there we will have reserved cuddle sessions set aside for us.

Well the weather is sunny . Period. No just kidding it is chilly today and has been really hazy and sandy. When I sweep the floors I have enough sand to make a sand castle , and I sweep my floors more then once a month. The new apartment is great , we are getting things settled . It's a long process but there are pieces of home here now. We got our cargo this week and I felt like it was Christmas morning opening all the boxes I only pack a month ago. The smells of home and all the David's tea I packed brought a tear to my eyes. Almost everything made it , few minor breaks but nothing krazy glue can't fix right. The best part was all the photos I sent. It's great to see the familiar smiling faces of home. Speaking of which I am making a photo wall in the hall and am going to be putting pictures up of all our friends and family , so if you got a favorite of yourself send it to me or I will choose . We are going to get our place painted today so once thats done by Khumar ( he said he'll bring us some White Castle burgers ) , I'll be sure to put up pictures.

Mike's training is coming along nicely , he is doing some Human Factors course , that all North Americans have to do,  this week. Less then exciting. We just found out his training is going to be changed to Bahrain , so I will be solo for 5 weeks here. Visitors are welcome and you will have your own room . I am going to go for a visit , the flight is less then a Toronto-Ottawa so it's nothing major. I am actually excited about my first trip here :)

I did my medical today for my residency , what an experience that was. I can't describe how things that are simple and logical at home are completely different here . If you can imagine going to the hospital and having no one speak English except to call you sister and then wander around and have no one answer your questions then you have a bit of an idea of what it's like. What that also means is my days of leisure are seriously numbered and I will be working lady soon. Early mornings are long commutes are in my very near future.

I have started driving on my own , well really I did it once yesterday but it's a start. I am still stressed out about it . I found this article from an expat about her version on the driving "rules" here and I am going to share a few of my favs with you.

1. Never indicate - it gives away your next move. A real Qatari never uses indicators.
11. It is traditional to honk your horn at cars that don’t move the instant the light turns green. This prevents Herons from building nests on top of the traffic light and birds from making deposits on your car.
14. If you cut someone off at a road junction as you turn right regardless of oncoming traffic, it will be O.K if you flash your Hazard lights just before impact takes place.
17. Upon purchasing or renting a new car it is mandatory to leave the plastic wrapping on the seats for as long as humanly possible. This not only protects the leather/fabric but it helps to leave both driver and passengers with a healthy level of moisture (aka perspiration) on their backs and lower extremities. (this is weird but very true)
19. Child safety seats are “haram.” Small children should be allowed to roam freely about the vehicle, larger kids should stand on center console and stick head out sunroof. ( this gives me serious anxiety when I see it )

I know there aren't any pictures this time but I promise when we get set up I will overload.  On our time off we have been walking dogs and Mike has been studying tons. Our car arrives on the day Mike leaves to Bahrain so we are hoping that it gets here before his flight because we have no idea what this process is going to entail. 

The best news though is our sweet boys are coming on Tuesday and will be arriving on Wednesday  and will be ready to kill someone. They have no idea what is coming .  Our little furry family will be complete and then Mike has to leave again. All you non-cat people don't know the separation anxiety we are going through. I am not sure that the cats are even fazed  as they are being well taken care of by Mike's mom and dad. 

Well my free internet at the coffee shop is almost up so I must be going. Will be back soon!!


Miss everyone 

M&M
xo