I made it! Read more...
Our permanent apartments are not quite ready yet, so the other new teachers and I were placed in temporary housing, which I guess here means I am now sitting on the couch in my own private three bedroom, two and a half bath hotel apartment. A little more room than I need, so I keep the other bedroom doors closed and only reside in my king size room with the ensuite (not bad, right?)
I am currently cozying up with my blanket in my air conditioned apartment while the heat still rages on outside. It is day four of my life here in Doha, Qatar and I can finally say I am getting a little more used to the heat and humidity (sort of). Although there is really no way to fully describe what this kind of stifling heat feels like, at least I know what to expect each day. Although one would think wearing sleeves and long skirts/ pants would make you cooler, it seems to protect me from the sun a bit more. Shorts and a tank top could not disguise the swamp that is the air here in Qatar so I am not too upset about the modest dress code. Thankfully, everything is very air conditioned, so most of the time my sweaters are a welcome addition.
The first couple of days were spent trying not to fall asleep (a 10 hour time difference is not easy to adjust to) and wandering the many malls of Doha. In the summer months, most of the city clears out with most expats and workers spending time in other (cooler) exotic locales. So the people that are still living in the city flock to any air conditioned space, mainly the malls! It was a bit odd for someone that came to find a new experience to see that most of the people are walking around with their Starbucks and shopping in Sephora, H&M, and Topshop. The malls are all vastly different, from huge high rise buildings to mini-Venetian canals and even the normal sprawled out mall. The various malls will probably get their own blog post one day because Qatar does have beautiful architecture.
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| City Center Mall |
After spending the first few days wandering the air conditioned spaces, the group decided to brave the heat and venture outside (I also needed some Vitamin D). We commandeered the bus to take us on a mini bus tour of Doha that did not involve any more malls. Our first stop was to drive through the downtown area. I have not managed to capture the skyline of Doha yet, but it is truly beautiful. There are huge sky scrapers running along the Corniche, which is a walkway that runs along the water. I urge you to google pictures! We drove along and marveled at the water and green spaces (far and few between in Doha). We made our way to the Katara Cultural Village, which is a huge space dedicated to the arts and heritage. It has a ton of restaurants, a huge amphitheater, theaters, and exhibitions. It is only open at night, so we did not get to go in to any of the buildings, but it was still really cool. It is built with small traditional alleyways with lots of shade.
As I am still getting used to the humidity, I did not know that this is what happens when you emerge from the air conditioned bus...
I guess I know now that your camera lens will quickly fog up! I was careful after that...
Another thing about Doha is that it is a desert. Needless to say, there is a lot of sand and dust.. everywhere. Many times when I look out at the distance, it looks as if a layer of fog has rolled in, but it is just sand!
Katara also has a great waterfront walkway where you can see the boats docked and supposedly has a great fish and chips stand!
The water is a light turquoise blue color that really is amazing. Although we were only outside for around 20 minutes, it was definitely time to head back to the bus.
Next, we drove up to The Pearl. The Pearl is a man made island that, from above, is supposed to look like a string of pearls. Qatar was once a major pearl trading post so this island, built over a previous pearl diving site, represents this aspect of Qatar's history. It has very high end shopping and residences. The marina is home to some pretty impressive yachts. We walked along the water and then quickly jumped back into an air conditioned restaurant for some lunch.
These two outings were enough Vitamin D for most of us, so we got back into our bus and headed to our apartments for some rest. A couple of other teachers and I spent some time in our outdoor (covered) pool. Not the most cooling of ventures, but when a slight breeze blew through, it was kind of nice?
That night, we headed back out to one of the most anticipated places, the Souq Waqif. The Souq Waqif (translated to "Standing Market") is an open air marketplace that sells a huge variety of items such as fabric, spices, art, and food. We spent about an hour wandering the alleyways that wind through this huge marketplace and probably saw only about one fifth of the items.
We hit up a Syrian restaurant for dinner before heading back to our apartments for the night.
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