In the middle

I'll warn you in advance: this post is right now just a vague thought in my head, which sometimes means that by the end of it, the post will either be totally disjointed, unexpectedly morose, or a flash of genius...but more likely one or both of the first two!

I've been thinking a lot about change.  First, it's the season of birthdays here (we all have spring-ish birthdays) and while I know it's a thing to mourn the babes your children once were, I can't help but think every year at this time how great it is to have put the indignities of the past behind us.  No more bottles, diapers, pre-verbal frustration, tendencies to run away, potty training, accidents, etc.  My oldest can read to himself.  He can read to his little brother, for crying out loud.  That is just plain awesome in my book!  My oldest can go get his brother and bring him back to me and the youngest will actually follow him.  It's like something out of a fairy tale!  No one needs their food cut into small pieces any more.  Everyone drinks out of normal cups.  Everyone knows how to tell me where it hurts.  It just keeps getting better and better!  That's the kind of change I welcome and embrace.

Second, we are planning some trips in the near and not-so-near future (because of the husband's recruitment and conference schedule, we actually have all our travel and visits mapped out between now and the end of January 2016--yes, we are those kind of people).  Every time I start to plan a trip and I pull out my list from the last similar trip, I get to cross off all sorts of essentials that the kids have grown out of, shift more and more weight into their backpacks and more responsibility onto their backs, and imagine different kinds of activities because they are getting older.  Again, that's the kind of change I like.  Our trips become little markers of progress as well as fun vacations.  Again, I like those changes.

I've even liked the biggest change lately, moving to the Middle East.  I thought I would take longer to adjust than I did, though, I'm not gonna lie, coming back here this summer was a rude shock to the system and it took me much longer than anticipated to settle back in again.  But today, someone, a new transplant, asked me if I liked it here and I could say yes without hesitation.  Because I do!  I've got some good friends, I like my house, we're making progress in our finances (one of our major reasons for coming here), I'm even enjoying working with the young women at church, with is nothing short of miraculous!  Actually, I think this move has been so good for us, in so many ways, just as I hoped it would be.

But there have been a few tradeoffs.  Just recently I ran into another of these, when the husband and I sat down and planned out that work/travel schedule for the next year.   I finally realized (naively, I know) that picking up and leaving for two-ish months in the middle of the year and the husband's work commitments happening for at least a week every month aren't all that conducive to my having a job, unless that job happens to be at the boys' school so our vacations line up exactly, which is highly unlikely.  So.  There we are then.  I came to terms with this realization fairly quickly, surprisingly.  I had always imagined that when the boys were in school full-time, I would begin working again, at least part-time, but I hadn't counted on a move here...or a move to Cleveland...or a move away from Cleveland, for that matter!  But for now it appears a job is not in cards for me.  Because we don't want to hire a nanny or curtail our traveling (first world problems!) and there would be no way for me to work otherwise, it's really not in the cards, except under very specific criteria.

I'm not entirely throwing in the towel, of course.  I've got a few irons left in the fire and we're not at all sure which schools the boys will actually be attending in the fall (STILL working on that, to my utter dismay), so I can't say I have exhausted those possibilities yet, but...these are all long shots.  So, instead, I have decided to do something productive with my time.  I went to EdX and wrote down all the courses that appealed to me in any way, and then I'm going to turn that into my own special degree, sort of a choose-your-own-adventure course of study.  And I am finally going to take an Arabic class, because it's appalling to me that I have been here a year and I literally know three words.  Pathetic!  So let the educational pursuits begin!  Let's put it into some kind of worthy language, shall we?  It's time for me reimagine my own narrative, write a new chapter in my (mythical) autobiography, and I think I'm going to enjoy doing so immensely!  Ta Da!  (The bravado will help, I think.  Just go with it!)

It was Time(s)

We finally did it; we took the plunge.  After years of debate and refusing to kowtow to the man and feeling like maybe it was unjustified and insisting that information should be free, gosh darn it, we finally capitulated and paid for a digital subscription to The New York Times.  (And yes, this is significant enough to warrant its own post!)

For quite awhile, we have been limping by on the 10 free articles per month per device the Times allowed us to peruse for free, running into frustration mid-month when we reached our limit or strategically saving up articles to be read while we were traveling.  Sometimes, since we share a desktop computer at home, we would each be silently cursing the other when we found out we couldn't read something that looked interesting because we had already reached that computer's limit (or maybe that was just me doing the cursing?).

But the straw that broke this particular camel's back was the realization that ultimately, we really have fairly limited access to global and American news here.  We don't have cable, so we don't get very many English language television channels and the programming on the one news channel we do get is timed crazily, so we could never just sit down and watch a comprehensive broadcast when we had time in the evenings.  Plus, we simply haven't even turned on the television to watch actual television in months so now we don't even think about finding that one channel anymore.   As I have said before, we also get Al Jazeera English on the car radio, which does do the headlines on the hour, so we can get news there, but (not surprisingly), their coverage of Western news leaves a little to be desired.

Which leaves us the Internet, and what we can access for free is not ideal.  Have you spent any time on CNN.com lately?  Don't.  Just...don't.  I'm not even going to link to it (or any of these sites, for that matter).  I mean, CNN on television is bad enough, mostly sensationalistic pseudo-news reported far too early to be useful, but CNN.com is just abysmal.  The coverage of everything is quixotic at best, patently incompetent at worst.  For these same reasons, sites like msnbc.com or Foxnews.com are also useless.  BBC.com is better, thankfully, but again, every now and then it's nice to have the American perspective to compare with the thoughts from across that pond.  NPR.com is pretty disappointing to me, actually, given that I was a diehard NPR listener in my previous life.  While I find the radio broadcast entertaining and informative, the same mix of news and features on the website always makes me feel like I'm missing the meat of the news, for some reason.

And so we buckled.  Or, more accurately, I buckled and told the husband we were subscribing.  And we got a lovely deal, actually, which gives us access to both the national and international versions on the desktop and our phones for the same monthly cost of our subscription to Netflix, which seems more than fair.  We should probably pay at least as much for quality news as we do for (sometimes) quality entertainment!  Granted, the kids use Netflix much, MUCH more frequently than we do, but still.  And we're still paying less than we would be for cable either here or in the States, so everyone wins!

Which means, now I can curl up with the "Sunday Book Review" and read fabulous pieces like this one to my heart's content or delve deep into my favorite Times blog Motherlode without worrying that I am wasting my 10 articles.  Huzzah!

Happy Birthday, J!

We celebrated J's 7th birthday yesterday (and no, internets, I am not telling you the actual day, you identity stealing scourge!) with an Angry Birds (and) Space party.  Originally, it was supposed to be your usual Angry Birds Space fete, but once we got the plates and cups and a book of mazes, we ran out of readily available themed decorations and opted instead for additional space themed decor and games.  It was a great day!

J has had a big year.  Last year for his birthday, we had only been in Qatar for a few weeks so we invited his Primary class full of strangers over for his party, which ended up being a great way for him and us to meet some new friends in the ward.  Several of those kids have since left but a few are still here and came to this year's party as well, along with some new friends from the compound and his classmates at school, just one measure of the distance he has covered between then and now.

In the past year, J has started a new school, discovered that lobster and salmon are his favorite foods, learned to ride a bike, graduated from Kindergarten, returned to the US, caught his first fish, learned to swim and dive, visited Sri Lanka, started first grade, begun to learn Arabic, designed his own rainbow loom creations, started playing the ukulele, and lost his first tooth.  Whew!  He has thrived here in Qatar and has been a big help to me and his brother as we have all learned how to be better world travelers and happy residents of the Middle East.  J is a lovely boy who likes to sing and draw and laugh and play tame video games and any board game you can give him.  He tries very had in school and has made great strides this year.  We are grateful we get to see his smiling (gap-toothed) face every day!

And now, birthday pics!

A shot from the actual birth day--it was really cold
that morning on the way to the bus!

Why yes, that is a homemade Angry Birds set made out of
assorted figurines and Jenga blocks with a giant basket of
sling shots--it was a huge hit!

These look like planets, right?

Painting our own styrofoam planets.

Time to sing!

Make a wish! 

Favorite party guests.

Many kids made homemade cards, it was so cute!

No one would stay still long enough for pictures!

Learning new rainbow loom variations....

Books and culture and libraries, oh my!

Turns out I would be horrible as a journalist; it's all I can do to come up with a new idea for a post every three days.  I would be awful if I had to make a daily deadline!

And yet...I've still got something to say! Imagine that?  Last week I visited the Silver Jubilee 25th Doha International Book Fair and the Doha Cultural Festival.  With names like that, you would expect the events to have gotten major publicity, would you not?  But no, in typical Doha style, I found out about them only via word-of-mouth and when I made my way there this week, I saw few WesternersEnglish speakers in attendance, though many, many Arabic speakers, even at 10am when I made it there, which is crazy, because no one goes anywhere before 4pm around here usually.

I was going to go over first on Wednesday morning, after a quick run to Toys-R-Us and an art store in search of planets or anything having to do with space or anything I can turn into something having to do with space (J is having an Angry Birds Space party for his birthday coming up and I am getting desperate!).  Wednesday was the first day of the fair/festival, so I had low expectations: timeliness or punctuality are not really prized here, so the first day of things is always a bit rocky.  As it was, I ended up taking a bit longer with my errands than I had anticipated (the real story of my life here), so I made it over on Thursday morning instead.  I was actually happy with that turn of events, since I had read somewhere that the Qatar National Library would be at the fair signing people up for library cards, but they weren't planning on starting until the second day of the festival...because of course they were!

**A word about the Qatar National Library: at the moment, this library only exists online.  There is a huge new building underway across the street from the husband's hospital-to-be, but there are virtual collections and digital resources you can access...if only you can get a library card.  I have been trying to get a card for over a year, since before we even moved here, because that's what I do, get library cards and visit libraries, even if those visits can only happen in cyberspace!  But the official rigamarole surrounding getting a card has proved impenetrable.  I did learn that you could cut thorough all the beuqacratic red-tape if you could be signed up in person at some event where QNL was represented, but I kept finding out about these events after the fact.  So here was my best chance to get a card, and I was not about to miss it!**

Anyway, off I went.  And it was HUGE!  Over 500 vendors, including giant, elaborate spaces for luminaries like the library and the national tourist agency were housed in just one giant exhibition hall of the enormous Qatar National Convention Centre.  I found the library booth right away and, miracle of miracles, got signed up for a library card!  Do you hear the choir of angels??  Then I decided to browse, which meant walking...and walking...and walking some more.  Did I mention this place was gigantic?  Disappointingly, about 80% of the merchandise was in Arabic, and most of what there was being offered in English were materials to teach people English as a second language.  It wasn't really a place that was good for browsing unless you were looking for something very specific.  They did have lots of Usborne books (no Scholastic books--we get British imports far more often than American around here) and all sorts of leveled workbooks and many classroom supplies that would have been great if I were homeschooling or an elementary school teacher, which I'm not.

A picture of the Convention Center.  I love how it looks like
 tree branches, though I'm pretty sure that sky was photo-shopped!  And
 this photo is at least two years old, so there are now huge structures on either side.
(Photo found at qatarisbooming.com)

But while I was there, I did make one discovery.  Did you know the American Department of State has its own publishing arm (my sister and brother-in-law are nodding "duh!" right now)?  I found out about this at the American embassy's booth.  They create all sorts of nifty publications with names like "USA Literature in Brief" (women profiled? Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison, Louise Gluck, Annie Proulx, and Amy Tan--interesting choices) and "USA Government in Brief" and "Muslims in America."  They also produce CDs with titles like Sing Out Loud: Traditional Songs and Sing Out Loud: American Rhythms.  They even have their own eJournal, EJ/USA (available in print as well) covering topics like cricket in the US, Thanksgiving, and American higher education.  Unexpectedly, the best prices for English books came from the embassy booth as well.  They must have some kind of relationship with a few American presses since they were selling an eclectic mix of children's and adult books for rock bottom prices (especially here were books cost so so much money).  I left the embassy's booth with three CDs, three hardcover kids' books, and Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein.  Woot!

Seven star!

Qatar (and, arguably, the Gulf in general) is obsessed with quote-unquote seven star experiences.  What?  You have never heard of something being seven stars?  Well, then clearly you are not used to the levels of luxury we mean to reach here in the Middle East.  Why refer to something as a five star experience when you can give it SEVEN stars!  Five stars are SO 2010, don't you know.   (Why did we skip right past poor little old six and move on to seven?  Don't trouble us with inconsequential questions!  We have places to go and people to see!)

Our restaurants are not world class, oh no.  At our restaurants, you can "awaken your senses with stylish 7-star gastronomy."  And if the so-called seven star property doesn't actually exist?  Even better!  We especially like referring to as-yet-only-the-stuff-of-unrealistic-dreams concepts as seven star.  Let me tell you about our zoo:  it will include in its 70+ hectares "an exclusive seven star resort, nestled in mature trees, with boardwalks throughout the tree canopy!"  That's right, even our tree houses are seven star!  Or what about this incredible floating hotel, ready in time for the 2022 World Cup (probably)!  Or there's The Palace which promises, quite mysteriously, that "metrology services from The Palace provide you with real seven-star service from a partner that you can fully rely on."  Metrology?  Surely they don't mean that a banquet hall will be my partner in the science of measurement?  But who knows, since I'm not exactly sure what The Palace really is or does, though the website assures me humbly that its goal is "to be the most elegant and luxurious facility in Qatar and to serve as the finest 7-star service provider in the Middle East and in the world."  But of course!  Actually, here among the mere mortals in Doha, calling something seven star has become shorthand for saying whatever it is is planned to be over-the-top fantastic, but many of us are not holding our breath while waiting to see if those plans ever become reality!

Not to be outdone and in order to ride the wave, local businesses have rebranded themselves, including Seven Stars Trading and General Services, which appears to be a company that helps other companies navigate the Qatari government red tape (reels and reels of it, trust me), or Seven Star Novelty, which may be a clothing store (though, as is common for most small businesses here, they have no website to speak of, so I can't really be sure) or, my personal favorite, Seven Star For Rent A Car, which handles, wait for it...real estate!  Surprise!

To be fair, the term "seven star" is used in other places to refer to "the absolute most luxurious of luxury hotels," though rumor has it the phrase was coined on a visit to Dubai, which perhaps explains its popularity in the region, and the claim to fame of the first seven star hotel, the Burj Al Arab, which bills itself as "the world's mots luxurious hotel."  In fact, as of two years ago, the Seven Star Global Luxury Awards were created, "the Highest, Most Exclusive award for the pinnacle in hospitality and lifestyle" [sic--strange capitalization and phrasing all their own!], which quite a few hotels in Doha have already won.  And the seven star concept is even making its debut in the US, according to The Telegraph, in Orlando (where else?).

So, whether you're in the mood for luxury accommodations, food, or attractions, the Gulf States have got you covered...or will have you covered...maybe.  But don't worry: it will be awesome!

Something to share again

Like I said, this is a semi-regular feature where I share what I've run into on the web.  Fun times!

I've been looking at a lot of packing posts on other sites in preparation for an upcoming trip (and a post of my own), and this one made me laugh!

Heard about Air New Zealand's new Skycouch in Economy?  I want this on every long-haul flight I take with the kids!  Heck, I want it even more when I fly without the kids!  On the other hand, I'm not so sure about this other new seat configuration, table seats for families.  I think it wouldn't work so well on long flights, but might be just right for flights under 4 hours or so...?

Did you listen to Serial, the podcast spin-off of This American Life?  If you didn't, you should go listen, right now.  No, really, NOW!  If you did listen (like I told you to), you'll enjoy this parody of the final episode: so good!  And if that floats your boat, check out these interpretations of Serial and TAL in chart form.  I don't know where these people find the time, but I am glad they did!

Back when I did go to Target, I completely felt like this on every. Single. Visit (minus the little bit of swearing, of course)!  Target is like suburban mom crack!  But I would totally go back just as often if there were one here--the first step is admitting you have a problem....

How many times did I inadvertently sabotage myself when I was teaching?  So many!

We're going to Paris and Barcelona in April, so I am doing my part to find interesting little tidbits to amuse/entertain/educate the kiddies as we travel.  I think these will do nicely when we visit the Eiffel Tower!

It's the little things

Sometimes I have to stop and appreciate the little joys of life in Qatar...so I don't forget while I am white-knuckling it through traffic that there ARE joys to be found here!

Today, for example, I went to the dentist for the first time here.  Before this, I had gone while in the States but with a longer gap between visits this time around, I decided to go here.  Of course, I waited until the husband had found some place he liked and tried it out, then I took the kids to the pediatric dentist at the same office to see how they fared (the dentist was SUPERB with them, by the way), and THEN I went myself, but my visit today was one of my best dental visits ever.  Turns out, the office cleanliness standards, equipment, and practices were all top-notch, at a fraction of the cost our check-ups have been in the US.  And, there was an added, unexpected bonus: after years of going to the dentist and being berated and shamed for my flossing technique and given dire, scornful warnings about my gums, the dentist here complimented me on my obvious care of my teeth, my regular cleanings, and the general good condition of my mouth.  What??  Because, in comparison to most patients she sees, she says, I am a shining star of oral hygiene.  Hooray!  Positive vibes at the dentist?  Who'd a thunk it??

After almost drowning in the fluoride trays (no dentist trip can be completely drama free--this isn't Utopia!), I went grocery shopping and remembered something else I love about living here: the Middle East loves its bread.  Their love affair with baked goods rivals Europe's, actually, and the range of delicious bread available at your average grocery store, not to mention dedicated bakery, is mind-boggling.  Today, for instance, I walked out of the store with mango muffins, mini carrot cake cupcakes for after-school snacks, Viennese white bread rolls, and, of course, still warm from the oven pita bread you have to taste to believe.  I could have gotten about 50 other varieties of products, everything from scones to filled croissants to naan to bread filled with coconut and sweetened condensed milk.  It's not good for your waistline, but it tastes and smells amazing!

Then I went to get gas.  I know I've mentioned the cost of gas before, but it's still incredible to me that I can fill up my Honda Pilot AND get all my windows washed for 57 QR or $15 and change.  And that price includes the generous tip I gave the guy who both pumped my gas and washed my windows!  This little perk alone almost makes up 50% of the aggravating things I run into around here!

What else?  Oh, I also love how the underground information networks operate here.  First, the covert garage sales: because many things are so expensive and/or difficult to come by and because it costs so much to ship things home when it's time to leave, people are always selling things for rock-bottom prices either to simply get rid of them or to help out fellow expats.  Just last night I headed over to a woman's villa in a nearby compound and bought a bunch of books for 1 QR each (about 30 cents), including a brand-new, still-in-the-box set of the Game of Thrones series, which I have been meaning to read.  I found out about this particular sale through my friend who is a member of the home schoolers network in Doha.  While we were there, the woman running the sale told me about the Doha International Book Fair, which apparently starts in two days but about which I have heard nothing until this point.  So now, thanks to this helpful woman, I know about somewhere new and interesting to visit.  I have stumbled onto other fun events or sales through Facebook, a local mom's group, the women's group at church, and through friends in my compound.  In a world where there is no such thing as flyers or a comprehensive events website, it never ceases to impress me how much information we expats are able to share through these informal channels.  Of course, it takes a bit of assiduous digging to ever really know what's going on, and I'm convinced that somewhere out there a comprehensive website listing everything that's happening does exist...but it's probably in Arabic.  Oh well!

'Twas the season

So, Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy (a few days after) New Year!

We had so much fun over the holidays that I simply stopped posting because I was too busy running around celebrating!  And then for some reason Apple won't let me access all the pics on the husband's phone, so we're down to less than half of our photographic evidence of all the fun and it's been annoying me so much I couldn't post because I would feel like it was incomplete!

But today I have decided to buck up and catch up, so here goes:

We ate dinner by candlelight as part of our advent activities.

We watched the biggest fireworks display I've ever seen
for National Day!

We accidentally all wore red and green one day and a thoughtful
friend snapped this picture in our living room!

We made gingerbread houses with stability issues!

We blitzed a local mall while shopping for Christmas gifts...