One Weekend Down

My first weekend in Doha was great. As you can see in the picture, it was a windy weekend (I spent at least 50% of the weekend holding my skirt down.) For my first weekend in Doha it was a good mix of busy and relaxing.

Thursday night there was a farewell dinner for Caleb, the housing intern. It was a great opportunity to meet a few people I had not met and to get to know others better. We went to Soy, and Asian restaurant. The building itself was the coolest part about Soy (others would say the food). It is located on the second floor of the traditional Souq, but it wound around over a few different shops. There were several areas with different types of seating and it had a great feel. Following dinner a group of people went to Harry Potter. For those of you who don’t know book 6 is the book where the characters hit puberty --- and Qatar is an Islamic country. A few times in the movie scenes were less and artfully cut because of too intimate kissing. While it did not significantly disrupt the plot, it does leave you feeling like you missed something. I will be watching the movie on my next flight home (possibly December, or maybe March).

Friday was a full day, but full of relaxing things. Timika and her fiancé Rory took me and Justin around Doha and out to eat for “good American food.” We had a filling breakfast at Rick’s Kountry Kitchen. It was really good and it was packed. Following lunch we had some time before the Museum of Islamic Art opened so we went to the giant pearl to kill some time. It was really hot, and really windy, but it was worth it to get a must have picture out of the way. (see picture above). After that we were able to visit the Museum of Islamic Art, which is one of the best buildings for a museum I have been in. The art was interesting, but I think it is a growing collection. It did bring flash backs to museum studies and art history classes from Hope. An hour was enough time to casually look through the collection – I will take another trip to go back and read all of the information.

Friday night several individuals were celebrating their 2 year anniversaries in Doha with a pool party. It is amazing to think I am getting used to the heat because I did not find it to be too hot to be outside. The location of the pool and clubhouse is right in the middle of several masques and we were able to hear multiple calls to prayer at the same time. It really is amazing. We spent most of the night just sitting outside and talking. I really like everyone here and am excited to get to know everyone better.

Saturday was a more casual day with grocery shopping, skyping with friends and talking with family. I ended the day by watching a movie with Wil  (it really is one l) and Justin. It might take me a while to get used to a weekend ending on a Saturday night so you can get ready for work on Sunday.

This whole weekend I have had the song from Annie where she keeps singing “I think I’m going to like it here.”