Living abroad has been relatively easy to adjust to. Doha is fairly modern and anything you need is easily accessible. I do have to say I was very naive before coming here and had no idea what I was getting myself into. Would there by cow's milk for my cereal? Was the water drinkable?
I realize how stupid my questions about Doha are now that I have been here for eight months. Bringing my Pur water filter with me and recipes for breakfasts that are not cereal and milk were wasted. I sometimes forget that I live in the Middle East when I run to the mall to go to the grocery store and pick up some bath bubbles at Lush.
Truly, the hardest part of living abroad is the time difference. Read More...
When I was in college and when I moved to San Francisco after, I could go months without seeing my family and one time I even went over a year without seeing some of my best friends. But I could still text, call, and skype them all the time. When you're living with a 10 hour time difference, you can't call family at the drop of a hat because chances are they are asleep. I can talk when I'm getting ready for school at 5:30 (7:30 at night in CA) in the morning or when I'm heading to bed around 7 (9 in the morning in CA). But most of the time, I text when I can, and I get a response sometime during the night.
When I got the chance to see my aunt when she was stopping by Abu Dhabi, I jumped at the chance.
Not to toot my own horn, but I have pretty much the best family ever. I can honestly say my mom is one of my best friends, my dad can pretty much do anything, and my brother is now officially Dr. Kridl, although growing up he charged me a quarter to kill spiders in my bathroom. I am lucky enough to have my dad's side of the family living so close and having Christmas this year for the first time without them was heartbreaking.
My mom's side of the family always lived farther but I remember when I was little taking road trips down to San Diego to see them. I think it is no coincidence that I studied abroad in London and now am teaching internationally. My cousin Kelley did both of these things before me. If I continue to follow in her path, I will be a lawyer any day now!
As for wanting to travel, I think that might come from reading emails and postcards from my Aunt Katie. I believe she has been to almost every single country in the world and knows everything about booking travel.
She was planning her way to Sudan with a layover in Abu Dhabi when she invited me to join her for the weekend.
I headed over after work (an hour plane ride from Doha) and spent the first day of my weekend holed up in the club lounge talking with my Aunt. As I mentioned, she has been almost everywhere. I feel like I have played "Where in the world is Aunt Katie?" all my life and being able to sit and drink coffee with her felt pretty great. She is my mom's oldest sister, so even though I was missing my mom more than ever, it was pretty much as close as I was gonna get.
Whenever my aunt and uncle travel to an Arab country, she wears an abaya. Although I own one, I don't feel the need to wear it around very often, but she said she feels that everyone is just a bit more friendly when she wears it.
After spending the day with my aunt and uncle, they left early the next day.
I spent the next morning laying on the beach. The hotel was just across the way from the Grand Mosque which I had heard was unmissable.
So with a straight view of a huge religious building, I chose the mocktail.
Afterwards, I wandered around for a while then decided it was probably time to leave the hotel.
I don't know if you all know this, but one thing the Middle East does well is doors. It has become a weird new obsession of mine. This was my closet!
I then took the hotel shuttle over to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
At first view, I could tell it would be pretty spectacular.
The details were amazing but I think they can speak for themselves.
The next morning, I took advantage of the breakfast buffet for the last time.
It was bittersweet leaving Abu Dhabi after getting to spend time with family. Arriving back in Doha felt like arriving home but it meant returning to the time difference and waiting for responses to text messages sent from 10 hours into the future.
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