Pot Souk

We made a trip to the "pot souk" last weekend. For those of you thinking otherwise, this is where you buy plants and "pots" for the plants.

The villa definitely needed more life besides just the two of us. Indoor plants were easy - we bought 5 of them, watered them and put them around the house. Planting the outdoor plants into the ground was a bit more of a challenge (especially without the appropriate tools that we forgot to buy). So, I spent a full morning digging and digging and digging (with a small steel bowl); then, planting; then bagging tons of sand. But, the end result made it worthwhile. Here is the final outcome for you to see: http://picasaweb.google.com/faridalada/PotSoukOutcome.

The Pink Villa

Yes, we live in a pink villa!

We are adapting to the large amount of space we have, though we both prefer smaller/cozier homes. At least we have a lady come clean it every Saturday.

Odd thing: the windows are tinted dark! First I thought it was rather odd and didn't like it, but then the thought of 120F weather with the strong summer sun made me realize that this is actually a practical design. So, come summer, I am sure I will appreciate it.

For now, it still feels a bit like living in a hotel, but once our shipment arrives, the personal touch will hopefully make it feel more like a home.

The nice thing: there are indoor and outdoor swimming pools and squash courts (for our racquetball games, of course) for the community.

Desert Fun

See the album

This is the perfect time of the year to enjoy the desert out here. So, with a local Qatari friend that Peter made, we went to the Sealine Beach on Saturday. The beach really is not the highlight of this affair; rather, it's the sand dunes on the other side of the sea that take your breath away. The sand is beautiful, very fine and cool. Our friend has a hummer, in which he drove us over and across the dunes, and in between the adventures, we sat around on the sand and enjoyed the landscape. The sunset was amazing. What fun!

Give credit where credit is due

Okay, so there are the positives:

1) Corniche: GREAT walk around the bay - large paved walkway, gardens around it, pleasant evening weather (pictures to come)

2) I found Le Pain and Segafredo

3) Souk: traditional, local shopping, eating and hanging out place; outdoor/indoor; really happening on weekend evenings; lots of traditional stores; and a good ice cream shop

4) Shopping: malls have stores I previously could only find when traveling in Europe or Asia
--- Mexx
--- Massimo Dutti
--- G2000
--- Zara
--- Mango
--- Etc.

5) Breads: good breads (european and arabic) and you can find them in most grocery stores

5 most interesting things about doha so far...

1) you grocery shop in the shopping mall (lure you in)
2) you hear call to prayer 5x/day (yes, even at dawn)
3) the entire city is like a big suburb (drive everywhere)
4) land cruisers galore (and all white too)
5) the city = construction site or desert

more to come!