Friday, July 8, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Camping Where the Desert Meets the Ocean, Part 1
Three whole weeks have passed since we went on this camping trip and I cannot believe that neither one of us has made any effort to chronicle the weekend’s events until this point.
Anyway, bright and early at the crack of 12:30 in the afternoon, we set off in our caravan of SUVs with some fellow compound neighbors for adventure on what I like to call the West Coast (I am still humored by the fact that we can drive coast to coast in 1.5 hours). An hour and a half later we arrived at the small town of Zekreet, and this is when we left the asphalt and was only the beginning. For an additional hour we drove off road through the desert, the terrain was mostly rocky and only sometimes sandy, the truck took a real beating from all the bumps, lucky she is a rental I guess. After driving just long enough for my internal organs to develop an understanding of how a martini shaker feels, we came to a stop and the leader of the convoy got out of his vehicle to explain how we were all going to get down the rather sheer section of rock ahead of us. Having grown up a city boy driving a little two-seater sports car for the last nine years, I had never been introduced to the exciting world of locking hubs and tires lifting off the ground due to a poor center of gravity, so, now I know how cool it is. So in spite of the bumping, jostling, climbing and the goofy ear to ear grin that Emily was making fun of me for, we arrived safely.
This is how it looked.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
The Driving
An excerpt from my drive home:
After speeding by me and not half a mile later, the driver of the Landcruiser is forced to stop at the stoplight that everyone else is at. At the light the center lane of cars is shorter than the left lane and so I am able to move closer to the light and thus pass the very important driver of the Lancruiser. Upon doing so I cannot resist a look to the left to catch a glimpse of how important this driver must be (and possibly see some burka clad woman giving birth or something…) As I am finally able to see the driver of the vehicle I am not able to resist the urge to literally laugh out loud, sitting at the stoplight I cannot help but howl with laughter at the ludicrousness of the whole situation. The driver of the Landcruiser is just some little sixteen year old Arab boy, someone gave him the keys to a brand new Landcruiser and told him that he was super special. With their actions his parents have shown him, “don’t worry if you wreck it, daddy has three more and don’t worry if you kill someone in an accident, they will most likely be Pakistani and we won’t have to pay the family very much.”
I love Qatar, something new and exciting every day,
I just had to laugh…
Driving home from work yesterday I was merging onto a six lane road, I had two people cut in front of the vehicle in front of me forcing him to merge into the middle of the three lanes and as I did not feel like patiently waiting while for the lackadaisical driver of the Camry in front of to get up to speed I merged into the far left passing lane to get around him. As I am smiling to myself and listening to the Detroit muscle growl it's way past the pitiful four-bangers, I happen to look into the rear view mirror and see the poor driver of the Camry (now also in the far right lane) getting mercilessly flashed with the high beams of a Toyota Landcruiser. The frightened driver of the Camry instantly understanding his mistake at entering the “Landcruisers Only”, lane moves back to the middle lane as quickly as possible. Seeing all of this transpire in my rearview I imagine this to be a very important Qatari who has many important places to go, so as soon as I am able I also merge back into the center lane, thus avoiding the highbeam wrath of the Lancruiser.
After speeding by me and not half a mile later, the driver of the Landcruiser is forced to stop at the stoplight that everyone else is at. At the light the center lane of cars is shorter than the left lane and so I am able to move closer to the light and thus pass the very important driver of the Lancruiser. Upon doing so I cannot resist a look to the left to catch a glimpse of how important this driver must be (and possibly see some burka clad woman giving birth or something…) As I am finally able to see the driver of the vehicle I am not able to resist the urge to literally laugh out loud, sitting at the stoplight I cannot help but howl with laughter at the ludicrousness of the whole situation. The driver of the Landcruiser is just some little sixteen year old Arab boy, someone gave him the keys to a brand new Landcruiser and told him that he was super special. With their actions his parents have shown him, “don’t worry if you wreck it, daddy has three more and don’t worry if you kill someone in an accident, they will most likely be Pakistani and we won’t have to pay the family very much.”
I love Qatar, something new and exciting every day,
I just had to laugh…
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The First Month
Just over a month has passed and after all of my whining and complaining about inactivity, I am now seemingly too busy to post any updates, that and the fact that I do not have the internet at home yet and also the fact that the computer that I brought over had a very rapid demise when I plugged it into the 220 plug without switching the current switch on the PC power supply. So, I am still waiting on a replacement power supply and the internet to be installed... Until then...
It has actually already been a month, where to start.
It is hard to describe the feeling of excitement and intrigue one gets when they are in a strange and unknown place. I have been working mostly ten sometimes eleven hour shifts since I have been here, sometimes working a six day workweek. This leaves me not a lot of time to go out and explore the area but I have been managing to get enough excitement in thus far.
Worth Mentioning:
- The Souqs -
Although largely commercialized by the Qataris as one of their few tourist attractions, the Souqs, in particular Souq Wakif is still very interesting and there are many different local fare restaurants of which I have not nearly tried enough of. In some of the adjacent Souqs, (read market/bazaar/etc.) which are not as touristified I was able to get myself completely lost one day and managed to find enough interesting things to look at to keep me occupied for over three hours of walking around. More investigative exploring will be required though.
- The Wholesale Market/Nurseries -
Two weekends ago I decided to take my tourist map of Doha and try to find my way to the wholesale market. I had the whole Saturday off and I wanted to find out what the little icons on the map actually were. After spending an hour or so driving less than ten miles, I found the market. Although I had a bit more trouble tracking down the nurseries I was finally able to find them and several vegetable plants. To my ever thrifty excitement one tomatoes plant in a little four inch pot was only one riyal (approx. 25 cents), I bought several different things. It was kind of funny though because my largest expenses were the pots and the potting soil (the simple dirt was by far the most expensive). Enough about my green thumb excitement...
- Races/and the Entertainment of the Masses -
Let me begin by saying, there is not a whole lot to do in Doha. As far as I have been able to tell there are primarily three main things to do in Doha, (besides working and sleeping of course), The first and most popular among the local population is shopping, shopping and more shopping... strike one. The second most popular thing to do in Doha is eat. I think this is partially by default as there are not a lot of other entertainment options and though there are more ethnic varieties of food than you could ever hope to try, most places are rather on the expensive side... so strike two. The third and most supported and subsidized by the government is sports. Every kind of sport you can think of is represented in some way in Doha, it is a matter of national pride that they participate in every form of sport on some kind of national level. Anyone who pays attention to soccer knows about the 2022 World Cup in Doha, but what many people do not know is that Doha held the world championship competition of pingpong (the month before I got here sadly). The opening race of the Motorcycle Grand Prix was held last weekend which I proudly attended along with maybe two thousand other people which I am guessing is the lowest turnout the MotoGP will have during its circuit. During the woman's tennis championships several months ago they sold tickets for 25 riyal (a little over $5) and no one showed up so they went out on the streets and started giving away tickets so the video cameras wouldn't show the embarrassingly empty seats.
I am sure that as time goes on and I am here longer I will develop a better understanding of the Arab culture and what motivates their actions, until then I will continue my uneducated peerings into their culture and chuckle at some of the things they do.
Until next time, the view from my rooftop oasis...
ps. I never thought it would be possible for a nation of people to drive more aggressively than the Italians... I now stand corrected.
It has actually already been a month, where to start.
It is hard to describe the feeling of excitement and intrigue one gets when they are in a strange and unknown place. I have been working mostly ten sometimes eleven hour shifts since I have been here, sometimes working a six day workweek. This leaves me not a lot of time to go out and explore the area but I have been managing to get enough excitement in thus far.
Worth Mentioning:
- The Souqs -
Although largely commercialized by the Qataris as one of their few tourist attractions, the Souqs, in particular Souq Wakif is still very interesting and there are many different local fare restaurants of which I have not nearly tried enough of. In some of the adjacent Souqs, (read market/bazaar/etc.) which are not as touristified I was able to get myself completely lost one day and managed to find enough interesting things to look at to keep me occupied for over three hours of walking around. More investigative exploring will be required though.
- The Wholesale Market/Nurseries -
Two weekends ago I decided to take my tourist map of Doha and try to find my way to the wholesale market. I had the whole Saturday off and I wanted to find out what the little icons on the map actually were. After spending an hour or so driving less than ten miles, I found the market. Although I had a bit more trouble tracking down the nurseries I was finally able to find them and several vegetable plants. To my ever thrifty excitement one tomatoes plant in a little four inch pot was only one riyal (approx. 25 cents), I bought several different things. It was kind of funny though because my largest expenses were the pots and the potting soil (the simple dirt was by far the most expensive). Enough about my green thumb excitement...
- Races/and the Entertainment of the Masses -
Let me begin by saying, there is not a whole lot to do in Doha. As far as I have been able to tell there are primarily three main things to do in Doha, (besides working and sleeping of course), The first and most popular among the local population is shopping, shopping and more shopping... strike one. The second most popular thing to do in Doha is eat. I think this is partially by default as there are not a lot of other entertainment options and though there are more ethnic varieties of food than you could ever hope to try, most places are rather on the expensive side... so strike two. The third and most supported and subsidized by the government is sports. Every kind of sport you can think of is represented in some way in Doha, it is a matter of national pride that they participate in every form of sport on some kind of national level. Anyone who pays attention to soccer knows about the 2022 World Cup in Doha, but what many people do not know is that Doha held the world championship competition of pingpong (the month before I got here sadly). The opening race of the Motorcycle Grand Prix was held last weekend which I proudly attended along with maybe two thousand other people which I am guessing is the lowest turnout the MotoGP will have during its circuit. During the woman's tennis championships several months ago they sold tickets for 25 riyal (a little over $5) and no one showed up so they went out on the streets and started giving away tickets so the video cameras wouldn't show the embarrassingly empty seats.
I am sure that as time goes on and I am here longer I will develop a better understanding of the Arab culture and what motivates their actions, until then I will continue my uneducated peerings into their culture and chuckle at some of the things they do.
Until next time, the view from my rooftop oasis...
ps. I never thought it would be possible for a nation of people to drive more aggressively than the Italians... I now stand corrected.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Huntsville
It seems to be semi-oxomorinic to update the adventuring blog from Huntsville Alabama, however, when sheer boredom sets in I have watched more hours of cable news than I can possibly bare... I guess I will resort to updating my blog. As I sit here in the lobby of what could quite possibly be the oldest hospitality building in the state of Alabama, the thought of elaborating on the excitement of my stay crosses my mind. All good tall tales start this way anyway don't they? I suppose not, just out of curiosity I googled "Huntsville Alabama Tourism" and was enlightened by this link, (if anyone can glean any actual adventure from this link please advise), Oh if only I had more time for space camp I might forget the fact that it is 36 degrees here and that I am once again relegated to a hotel room by night and a class full of know-everything jabbermouths by day...
Friday is my planned day of departure, I think it cannot come too soon, not only for my own well being but for the semi-existent quality of this blog. I imagine many people are very pleased with their lives in Huntsville, I think I will be pleased to leave, as will I imagine the readers of this blog, due to the fact that I will then have no excuse for whining. So I have whined my fill.
To be continued... (with more optimism I promise)
Friday is my planned day of departure, I think it cannot come too soon, not only for my own well being but for the semi-existent quality of this blog. I imagine many people are very pleased with their lives in Huntsville, I think I will be pleased to leave, as will I imagine the readers of this blog, due to the fact that I will then have no excuse for whining. So I have whined my fill.
To be continued... (with more optimism I promise)
Friday, January 28, 2011
Qatar and my Impatience
While surfing I came across this video about Qatar, have been trying to educate myself/pretending I am not sitting around waiting to go still.
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Today once again the temperature in Doha will be 73 degrees... again.
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Today once again the temperature in Doha will be 73 degrees... again.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Standby
So my PCS to Doha Qatar has been delayed, due to the proximity to the holidays, my passport paperwork will not be completed until the end of January, at which point I am finally to report for duty. In the meantime I have managed to somehow entertain myself, entertain visiting family and perform all of the requisite stay-at-home househusband duties... oh yes and all the preparations for moving overseas for the next two years.
So in other words, I am still in Albuquerque, NM. A brief summary of what I have been doing to "catch up" on all the New Mexico experiences that never got accomplished are as follows.
San Antonio Hot Springs: http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=XFA024-026. Spent the day hiking to and from the springs, it was a beautiful day and was spent with good company.
La Luz Trail, Sandia Mountains: http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=HGS122-039. Since I moved to Albuquerque I had wanted to tackle this trail, it climbs directly up the western slope of the Sandia Mountains which I have admired every day since I have been here. In making the best of my period of standby, I am glad I was able to have the opportunity to satiate my need for enjoying nature, physically challenging myself and strengthening companionship all in the same event.
~ Making the best of every moment ~
So in other words, I am still in Albuquerque, NM. A brief summary of what I have been doing to "catch up" on all the New Mexico experiences that never got accomplished are as follows.
San Antonio Hot Springs: http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=XFA024-026. Spent the day hiking to and from the springs, it was a beautiful day and was spent with good company.
La Luz Trail, Sandia Mountains: http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=HGS122-039. Since I moved to Albuquerque I had wanted to tackle this trail, it climbs directly up the western slope of the Sandia Mountains which I have admired every day since I have been here. In making the best of my period of standby, I am glad I was able to have the opportunity to satiate my need for enjoying nature, physically challenging myself and strengthening companionship all in the same event.
~ Making the best of every moment ~
Monday, January 10, 2011
The Concept of Blogging, and my Ever Present Opinion
I suppose we all eventually succumb to new technologies and trends we never believed we would embrace ( I remember my first cell phone and the extreme aversion I had to texting with it...) Anyway I have succumbed once again, this time to the popular trend of blogging.
With that being said however, I still do not find myself in the least bit interesting. When I went to Iraq back in 2006 everyone said I should keep a diary to chronicle my "journey" and my "experiences". I am glad that I did not follow their advice, the amount of shear boredom and drudgery that was my four months in Iraq would have bored a snail to tears. However as I get older (graduated) and more opportunities continue to present themselves I am realizing that I would like to keep these experiences, and that they might possibly be of interest to someone other than myself.
I am still lacking in any form of interesting facet, yet each day it seems the thing I have just done yesterday surprises me with its sense of adventure and spirit. I am truly blessed each and every day, I am extremely gratefully for every opportunity I have been given.
More to follow...
With that being said however, I still do not find myself in the least bit interesting. When I went to Iraq back in 2006 everyone said I should keep a diary to chronicle my "journey" and my "experiences". I am glad that I did not follow their advice, the amount of shear boredom and drudgery that was my four months in Iraq would have bored a snail to tears. However as I get older (graduated) and more opportunities continue to present themselves I am realizing that I would like to keep these experiences, and that they might possibly be of interest to someone other than myself.
I am still lacking in any form of interesting facet, yet each day it seems the thing I have just done yesterday surprises me with its sense of adventure and spirit. I am truly blessed each and every day, I am extremely gratefully for every opportunity I have been given.
More to follow...
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