Qatar-isms

Three separate reasons have led to my posting another blog update after 6 months of absence, first I have just gone through my camera and I think some of these require sharing, secondly my other half has posted her first blog thingy and I feel I must make an attempt to keep up with her. And last but most important, I am procrastinating my homework. Using the "Force Method" to analyze indeterminate beams and structures is hardly the most riveting thing I have attempted to do today.

So here are just some snapshots of life in Qatar, not so much the glitzy, glamor travel-channel ones you may have seen or heard about. Funny, ironic or just interesting these are some things I just had to stop and photograph.

 At the gas station telling you which way is out.

 Bumper sticker where the "T" fell off at the beginning (these are very popular over here but we haven't figured out where to buy them).

 I just thought this was an awesome truck and for some reason enjoyed the fact that someone in a thobe was driving it, (at the Lulu's of course).

 The papers reported the next day that the remainder of this building collapsed, I just happened to snap this photo while driving past. Also I'm guessing the level sensor has been disabled on the excavator...

 Believe it or not this is a rain cloud. It poured massive amounts of water and I just stood out in it and got soaked, it was the first time it had rained in 8 months. I never thought I could miss rain.

 If you look closely you can see that this is the "Iranian Cultural Center" for some reason I think this is funny. I guess my little American brain imagines people sitting around holding seminars on the culture of theocratic hate and villainy... or something.

 Sheep on a two wheel dolly. My pun loving wife wondered if the sheep was a clone of Scottish origin.

Rental cars, nothin special right.

 I love this, pronounce the "R" when you say it, phonetically it works... kind of.

The latest edition, insert your own comment.

Whatever the Weather

 

Part of the adventure of living in another country is dealing with the weather.  "Winter" in Doha hasn't exactly been what we thought Winter in the Middle East would be like.  This morning it was 9 degrees Celsius (42 degrees Fahrenheit) when I left for work, and I felt like I was going to freeze to death.  But, beyond the "cold" (I put it in quotes because, well, I didn't want our counterparts in Italy or Indiana to go "pssssssh, cold?!"), a few weeks ago the fog came creeping off of the Persian Gulf like a prop in a horror film. 

I wish the photos I took of it creeping in had come out better but alas, you're left with a before and after shot.  It really was an entire wall of fog.  Seeping through the towers in downtown like someone was pouring out molasses on a cold day.  It was incredible.  The photo above, as I mentioned, is a before and after.  The one on the right is my usual view from the 41st floor of the Tornado Tower.  Pretty nice, right?  It was terrifying being above the fog.  Usually there's a slight hum coming up from the city below but with that mass of grey semi-precipitation moving in on us the quiet was practically palpable.

In addition to experiencing the crazy weather, experiencing driving in the crazy weather is just as much of an adventure.  And by adventure I mean suicide mission.  People over here already drive like they're texting while blindfolded but when there's fog, or rain, or an errant cloud all of a sudden it's like their blindfolds have been dipped in LSD and it's seeped into their brain via osmosis.  People were swerving across lanes, parking in the median and waiting out the fog, driving at 1/3 the speed limit, and there were hundreds more people than usual on the road (don't ask me why).  If both of my hands hadn't been glued to the steering wheel I would have taken photos of two of the accidents that happened.  One was a car, with a tiny pick-up that had t-boned it, that had t-boned another car.  It was like mangled train cars.

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I'd like to say thank you for joining me on this momentous "Emily's First Post on Adventuring" occasion.  The Mister and I decided that if we both keep up with this thing maybe we'll write more than once every six months.  I'm also keeping up with this and this though so... this could be a difficult process. :)