Still riding in the passenger seat...

I was hoping that my next post would thrill you all with the tales of my driving test and purchasing a car. Unfortunately I am still waiting on my Resident Permit to be approved. This means I am still bumming rides off of colleagues and waiting to finish the “settling in” process. ---- Since I do not have that news to share, I figured I would just give a general post on my thoughts.

First, as I write this there is an Always commercial on TV. It is amazing how things are adapted to fit the market here. This particular commercial has turned the Always maxi pad into a flying carpet with hanging tassels. It is flying through the night sky twisting and turning, and there are no leaks. Wow! That is an amazing feminine care product. Other products have adapted to this market also, like the Tide commercial that shows a woman lamenting because she can not get her husbands thobes (the long white garment men wear) as white as the other men’s. Thankfully she switches to Tide and his thobes are as white as all the rest.

One thing I have really come to love about Doha is the call to prayer. I do not like that I still wake up to the morning call to prayer, but I like the actual call to prayer. When walking around late at night you can hear several call to prayers overlap each other from the surrounding masques. While I know it is male voices it sounds instrumental and the various voices seem to fit together in an amazing way. It has been a few weeks now and I still get the “we’re not in Kansas anymore” feeling. The minute or two of each call to prayer makes up for any frustration over not being able to finish getting settled in.

On a different note. Avril Laveen has left the musical lime light in the U.S., but she is living strong in Doha. I typically leave the TV on for background noise and have started to hate the “I’m with you song” because it plays soooooo often in commercials for a local soap opera.  I used to think that some was amazing – I was wrong.

I hope my next update has more substantial content for you all.