From Texas To Qatar

In October of 2010 my husband, Alan, sent me a text and asked me what I thought about moving to Qatar.  I sent a text back and told him it sounded great and very interesting.  When he told his work we definitely wanted to look at the job the ball started rolling.  Right after Thanksgiving his company made arrangement for us to visit.  It was a whirlwind trip of 4 days. It's a 16hr flight so basically you have two days to see everything you need to see.  My brain was in overload and hurt because of all the information that was thrown at us.  We did like it better than we even thought we would.
 

We didn't actually get a real move date till two weeks before we were suppose to be there.  We decided to get a house sitter until I come back in the summer.  The housing market is very slow in Houston and we were going to lose too much money on the sale of the house.  The house sitters are my really good friend from works in-laws.  We are so grateful for them.

Goodbyes were really tough; we have two sons in college in Abilene
I just moved to Qatar and I keep thinking of all the things that I have experienced just in the few days I have been here.  We arrived here Feb. 4th 2011.  We left Houston Feb. 1st, but it wasn’t easy because bad weather was coming and our flight to NY got cancelled.  We were routing through NY because Alan needed to go to
Geneva to sign his.  Our flight was supposed to leave at 12:00 p.m.  Alan worked all morning with people in Qatar to find another way out of U.S. because things were about to get really bad with ice and snow all over the U.S.  He found us a flight to Geneva going through Frankfurt Germany.  We flew first class to Frankfurt then had to change planes, go through customs etc in order to travel to Geneva and that was only a 45 minute flight and no customs, another story for another time. We arrived around 2p.m. I think.

Geneva was beautiful.  The hotel was a boutique style hotel and when we got there with our 5 large suitcases and 2 small suitcases and 2 backpacks, the people behind the desk were looking at us really funny but offered no help.  I went in to ask if there was a luggage cart and they gave me a dolly!!  Alan and I laughed and our taxi driver had to help bring the luggage in and we ended up storing them in a closet in the reception area.  We decided the next day that we would have to get 2 of our large suitcases and bring them up.   We had no room in our room for the small ones much less them and the 2 large ones.

We went walking around and found a place to have fondue. They served it with bread and small finger potatoes it was soooo yummy! In the Hotel they had a little restaurant and it had the best breakfast ever.  All different kinds of fresh fruits, pastries, an egg cooker, cheeses, deli meats and great cappuccinos.

We arrived in Doha and it has been really busy with Alan starting a new job and trying to get our residents cards and license to drive.  None of which has happened yet.  We don't even have cell phones which makes you feel naked!!!  I am lost without a cell phone but who could I call in this country anyway?  I have one friend that she is new to the country too.  Her name is Lori and she has been here a month and she at least has a car and can get us around really well.

We had to go to American hospital yesterday and have our blood type done, I am A +, you got that right!!  Alan was B+, so that means I am better than him. HA!  There was nothing American about that hospital.  They spoke English but you could barely understand them.  We were unclear what they were going to do to us and they didn't explain anything to us. The good thing is that it didn't take long.

I found out yesterday that we had a dinner to go to Thursday night and I was worried that I didn't have anything to wear to it because all my dressy clothes were in our shipment. I found out that it is really "business casual" so I will be fine.

Alan drove for the first time night before last and He did really good we went to Villagio mall and tried to get his phone fixed.  He had put the SIM card in wrong and could not get it out. The driving is pretty crazy there are these roundabouts that are 4 lanes and cars going all directions.  You have to watch all sides.

I got to practice my driving last night and I did pretty good only was honked at once.  We could not find anything we wanted to go to though. So I just drove around a lot!!!