Doha Update

I know, I know! Still no pictures.  It's just that 1, we still don't have wifi here in our villa as we are still waiting for residents permits that allow us to be real people here in Qatar and I refuse to follow the 54 million steps to upload pics without wifi and 2, we live on the outskirts of town meaning a giant sandy, dusty oasis, or as Bailey likes to call it- "beach without water" (aka desert, but whatever Bailey)  and up until 2 days ago I was carless so I only went where I absolutely needed to since the taxi/whole family combo was not so fun.  The point of that enormously huge run on sentence is that other than some great poolside pictures of the kids, we really haven't done anything that has merited a snapshot.  I mean, yesterday on mine and Jack's venture down to City Center we passed the Corniche and Gulf (or whatever that body of water is there) however I dare say we both would have died terrible, awful deaths had I tried to both drive amongst the locals and snap a quick picture and noon in August in a dessert is not as pleasant as one might imagine so I felt no desire to pull over for some sight seeing.

So what have we been up to minus pictures...

As well noted, I now drive!  Driving tests are an interesting process culminating in having your name announced followed by "pass" or "fail" as you walk through a crowded room to collect your papers.  It is no small blessing that I passed both parts of the thing on the first try.  So far I have not been bumped, crushed, or trampled which is super exciting considering the number of roundabouts I go through each day.  They're fine until you glance through one of your mirrors and then you realize you've entered the vehicular Hunger Games.  We need Robert to, uh, pass his test this time since he'll have is RP before me and then we can purchase a car or two.  I'm in the market for at tank.

School orientation/meet the teacher was Sunday (Friday here is the Sabbath).  Because of the grades, we arrived (by taxi) at 8:00am and were there until 4pm.  Despite the tremendously long day it went well and prepared the twits well for Monday.  Trey and Bailey are in classes close to each other.  They both chose to study Arabic.  I opposed the idea until a friend of ours said that on their family's trip to Jordan their 3rd grader read all of the signs for them.  Fine, Trey and Bailey. But I'm expecting some Arabic usefulness in our future travels! Next week they start the swimming unit in PE.  Good timing as they are going through withdrawls after this summer's swim team experience.  They have a bunch of elementary intramurals they're hoping to play.

Tyler really didn't want to like the school.  He really wanted to be miserable.  He instead really enjoys it.  Middle Schoolers are divided into 5 houses (not chosen by a sorting hat. Lame.) Already he's got some house pride and has made some friends. He'll be issued his personal laptop today.  He also is doing a PE swimming unit and has found that he is really a great swimmer.

Jack will hopefully be attending pre-k at ASD sometime soon.  We just turned in an application for him last week. Poor foresight on my part.  We should have done it when we did the other kids earlier this summer.  Until school starts for him he'll hang out with me and we'll do some Mommy School.  He has yet to sleep in his own bed (usually ends up with Bailey), has overcome his intense fear of swimming, has finally made it through primary without falling asleep, and has learned to tolerate strangers touching his little round blonde head.  He's an awesome kid.

We have gotten our air shipment.  Packed primarily with toys chosen by the kids, I was really happy to see them quickly empty the boxes...to play with the boxes.  I would have shipped way more kitchen stuff had I foreseen that! Twits. We did, however, get lots of storage boxes, some linens, and the contents of Peyton's trunk (the actual trunk comes sea).  We don't have a lot of things still, but we've got a 4 foot manatee!

Just yesterday Jack and I bought a kitchen table so we can stop using the giant table in our dining room. Today I sharpied up a big dry erase board to make a command central calendar.  It's especially useful now since we can't all share calendar items (ugh, wifi). Slowly but surely things are coming together.

Lost in Translation

Late Tuesday night (the evening we arrived) I sent Tyler(12) to the clubhouse to find out times for the pool...

Mom: "Did you find someone to ask?"
Ty: "Yes.  I politely said 'hi, do you know what time the pool is open?'"
Mom: "Oh good. And?"
Ty (with the slanty eyes I do when I am less than amused): "He said 'Del'"
Mom: "Del?"
Ty: "Del."

We then spend a few seconds saying "del" to ourselves in varying dialects trying to decipher what the heck "del" could be.

Our best guess is 10.

We find out in the morning from a resident that the pool is 24 hours.

(Nearly)Everyone here speaks English.  It's the dialects and accents that'll get ya!

We're Here!

We are still working out network kinks, and won't be fully technologically competent until at least Robert has a resident's permit, but thanks to new friends, we have something workable in the villa and wifi, if needed, at the compound clubhouse.

So, a briefing...

We left Houston Monday night to fly 14.5 hours across the world (and over the Tigris River, you have NO idea how cool I thought that was!) to be picked up from the airport a full day later and dropped off at our villa.  None of us had seen Qatar in person but after 2 years of research, the place looked remarkably familiar. 

We arrived at our villa which is comfortably furnished and stocked with what in someone's mind are basic dietary needs.  We went grocery shopping yesterday :)

The villa is a great space, the compound is quiet and safe for the kids to easily navigate on their own and the pool is ridiculous.

We attended our first Iftar, the meal when Muslims break their fast in the evening, on the last day of Ramadan.  It was the first chance to meet work people and for the kids, the first chance to be fancy pants.  My super taster was less then impressed, my "eat everything" enjoyed his first lamb chop, my "stick to the basics" is on a roll after his accidental order of crab on the plane and has become an overnight foodie, and the baby slept.  We let him.

Today's to-do's:

    Swim
    Get dryer fixed...again
    Swim
    Go to ikea to get little step stools so teethbrushing for 3 of the littles can happen a bit tidier
    GO OUT TO EAT! WooHoo end of RAMADAN!
    Swim
    Uh, hang out, maybe play the wii that I set up at 4am 'cause I'm still jetlagging a bit
    Swim
    Dinner (after playing supermarket sweep I'm pretty sure I accumulated the fixin's for taco salad)
    Swim (did I mention it's 24 hours)

Being Taxi dependent (again, have to wait on an RP before our existence here is recognized) means we have a pretty laid back life right now.  I'm enjoying it while it lasts.  At some point (school starting) things will get crazy again and I'll be running like a mad woman.  I hope my family is enjoying my sanity.  I make no promises as to the duration of it :)