Sorry for the protracted silence. I have been settling in and it has taken me a while to get back into the habit of this. That and I don’t yet have an internet connection at my new digs which means i have to carve out a little time for this. . .and like I said, I am out of practice with this.

There is so much to say, but I just need to marshal my thoughts, and then I will dive in with stuff. So, this roll-out, as it is, will be kinda small (school just started), so I will only report on a few things I have noticed right way.

I have been in Qatar a couple, three weeks now and I have to say I am enjoying my new home. . .quite a bit, in fact. In lots of ways it is not unlike any place you would recognize as being different from parts of the US (the heat. . .like Arizona, the humidity. . .like the South, the malls. . .well, come on. . .they’re malls, how different can they be, right?). There is a lot here that is the same as where I left. Starbucks, Hardee’s, Chilis. . .even the DQ has a place to call home. This is hardly a backwater country without the comforts you might think.

Then there is all the stuff that is different—unusual. Even with that, some of the things are what you would expect to find in the Arabian peninsula: women draped in black abayas seemingly able to float over the surfaces they walk across, the men in white thobes so crisp and white they defy laundry explanation, and camels, of course. Which is not to say these guys are running wild across the dunes. In point of fact, I have only seen them at the souk [market] where you can buy them, and they were pretty tethered-up. I hear there are camel races here so that I look forward to, but still. . .is it really unusual given the place I am.

Then, however, there are the anomalies. . .those things that are unique, totally foreign and rather unexpected. Like the fact that I have to turn a light switch DOWN to turn a light on. Not only that, all the light switches are on the OUTSIDE of the room you are trying to illuminate. I can’t tell you how many times I have walked into my dark bathroom and fumbled for the toilet because I can’t be bothered to try and find the light switch. What has been really odd is the fact that all my clocks run fast (some by a few minutes, others by almost half an hour), the only thing that keeps decent time is my watch. Go figure.

No, I like my new home. I like the daily discoveries of how things are done (or not). I came here for an adventure and I am having them. . .and will have more most probably. But it is these little things, these unexpected things, that I find so interesting. They give me a moments pause and remind me that I am in a different place. A place that is not my usual space. Perhaps because these things are outside my norm they are intriguing. Perhaps too, they are all a part of what makes my new home my N-E-W home.

Filed under: General by law