Videos from Dukhan

Day Four: to the mall! (again...)

First of all, check out the photos. There's a link on the side that should lead you right to it. If not... www.flickr.com/photos/cqydjy.

So, question answering time. No camels sadly. I saw a donkey though. Happily English is good everywhere. Sometimes you can't understand what they're saying because they have some sort of an accent or another, but its all still good. I haven't seen too many Americans, but there are a fair amount of Westerners, from wherever they may be. Gasoline is pretty inexpensive around seventy five percent less than in the US. The cats are just skinny little cats flitting around, but they do have that slightly deranged look in their eyes that comes with the territory of feral-ness. They are all different brands and such, as well. Some look better fed in different areas however. The food is okay for me, we recently found gluten free, I think I mentioned this, but hummus is always good too. 

So, today. We went to the mall for lunch and there was this bizarre food court full of American fast food places. But let me tell you, fast food was NOT fast. It took 15 minutes I suppose to get our food. I had a Greek salad today while my family enjoyed the American style: This new mall is not as decorated as the Villagio, but the stores were similar in style, however I did not recognize many of the stores, they were more foreign. The clothes inside were almost the same though. There was also a Starbucks. Hooray! We then went to Carrefour, again, and it was pretty much the same as the other one, but they had more French cheese. Oh, me and my cheese. Then we progressed on to the gym again. Today, was not so enthralling let me tell you. I used the workout equipment like the muscley ones and the erg for crew. I am terribly tired out now. And Daniel played in Game Palooza, which was an empty room with a pool table, a ping pong table, a foosball table, and board games. Woo, not my forte. Especially since I really, really stink at ping pong. But, whatever, mom. Then it was home again, home again, jiggity jig. 

On the flip side my mom is making me take squash & yoga. But I'm in the older group for squash above Daniel. Anyways, I'm a tad bit nervous, but not really, I mean who knows, I've never done either at any time. 

For today's feral cat count: 2!

So that makes...

Feral Cat Count: 4

Peace, Love, and Happiness

Catharine ♥

Three Videos

more about qatar

hey everyone! Today my family and I went to the mall, we went to games palooza! that was really fun. We played ping pong and foosball and air hockey. I enjoyed that. I had lunch at the Pizza Hut in the mall. The pizza was greasy and very good. I drank 7up from a can through a bendy straw :) .

I was going to play squash today, but the coach canceled the lessons because he had something "important" to do :( .

New things about Qatar: i am not sure if people here do this, but they dip their pizza in ketchup. It kind of sounds good. I might try it.

Thanks for reading! Post a comment please!! Little people rock \m/:)\m/!!!

Daniel

P.S If any of my friends read this, please tell everyone about it and tell them to check in on it

what Qatar is like

For almost all of my friends, and anyone else that thought that Qatar was like Saudi Arabia, WRONG!!!  Qatar is very peaceful, i especially like all the cats, even if they are feral.  The people are very friendly, they know English, and , no, the don't carry guns.  I haven't seen any camels yet...  I think we are going to go to the farm this weekend.  But i did see a donkey.  

My mom is making me take Squash.  Which is the same thing as Racket ball.  I am kind of looking to it.  

I am on my third full day here.  I know how to say hi, thank you, no, my name is, my name, how are you?, and mom.  They are all very simple.  I also know all of the numbers.  That includes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0.  Not much but i might be able able to talk to people.  

That is all for now!  Post again when i know more wrds or something interesting happens!!  Short people ROCK  \m/:)\m/!!!

Daniel

Day Three: Around Town (and day two)

Buenos dias everyone. Today was a day out and about around the town. Yesterday we visited the campus rec center. My mom & I worked out in the Ladies Fitness Room. Ooh now, isn't that fancy? There was also a pool, and a little kids pool. Daniel & my dad were in the little pool and we met my mom's colleagues and her little kids. After that we went to dinner at Turkey Central in the city. It looked a bit like the seedier part of NYC. All the shops were tiny and neon. There were  million different types of stores; hairdressers, restaurants, men's clothes, women's clothes, art stores, pretty much whatever you wanted. The food at Turkey Central was pretty good. Delicious hummus, spinach pies, chicken, etc. Now, today.

First off we went to Mega Mart. Not so mega, let me tell you. However, it had more gluten free food than there had been other places, but not much, not much. There were more American, British, and French foods rather than at Carrefour. Then we went on a drive to the souq; which is just a little market place, or not so little, in any case. It was full of a huge assortment of stores selling pretty much whatever you wanted. There were stores selling colorful scarfs, hijabs, and abayas in whatever color suited your fancy. There was a store selling falcon gear, because people use falcons as messenger pigeons. There was a sweet rug store in which my mother bought a rug. In the store there was a man making a rug by hand. They said it would take him seven months to make one of those full sized rugs. Seven! Phoar. There was a store that had the prettiest color necklaces too. Pretty necklaces were everywhere. Everything there smelled so good too, you could smell all their spices and cooking, and everything. Their architecture is really cool too. And I actually took pictures of it. Downtown Qatar is like a mix between Florida & NYC & something else Mediterranean. The sky line is so pretty. But I had to be veeery sneaky taking pictures since Muslim people don't like their picture taken. I'm like a spy... :]

Daniel is currently trying to learn Arabic, but I already know the Arabic letters. That's what you get when you watch license plates out your window while mom and dad try to navigate the city. Oh, but let me tell you, I am so sick of classic cartoons like Tom & Jerry, and whatever that one is about flying bears. There are only ridiculous TV shows on here, as currently James Blunt is on...you're beeeoootifullll....

And I've decided to start a feral cat count. Today I saw one. Yesterday I saw one. Oh, but today we saw two kittens in the souq. My cat instinct was twitching. They weren't feral yet. And then it was sleeping in the baby carriage with the fake baby. Weird stuff...

Feral Cat Count: 2

Anyways, off for now.

Catharine ♥ 

In Qatar!

Catharine, Daniel, Bonnie & Tom have arrived in Qatar. It's currently 10:50 PM here, and it's still hot out. It's probably around 80 degrees at night, like in Florida during the day. The air is thick though. Well, our house is pretty nice, kind of like, in Florida. It's two stories, furnished, maybe four years old? We have a TV & two bathrooms and two half baths. It's nice and air conditioned, thank goodness. But, all that's on TV is old shows like Tom & Jerry and the Flinstones. 

Anyways, today we went to the grocery store. Hooray. It was actually Carrefour, which is in fact a French grocery store. So I had great fun with choosing cheeses, because I really actually like cheese. :] Carrefour was in a mall, and there were tons of sorts of stores there. Like Sephora, Boots (British CVSish), H&M, L'Occitane, and Arabic ones that I didn't know. Also other French, Italian, British, and American stores. The mall was decorated all Italian style too with a gondola ride up and down the mall in this man made river. The mall was really big too. But there were fake house fronts above the stores, with a cloudy painted sky. 

Outside is really sandy and everything is under construction because it's all up and coming and jazz like that. There are supposedly random feral cats running around, but I have yet to see one. However, there is sandy cat foot prints on top of our car... huh. Otherwise, nothing special going on yet. It's only our first official day here. Once I take some pictures I'll post them up. 

Peace, 

Catharine ♥