2010 has been a busy year for us so far. We found out at the very end of January that we were moving to Doha, Qatar. We were able to move out of Paris in less than 2 weeks...which if you know anything about Paris, or France in general,...the land where things take much longer to accomplish, this was quite a feat! While we were sad to leave our home in Paris that we enjoyed so much, we were really excited to be moving to the Middle East.
The winter had been mild in Paris before we left so we packed up all of our winter coats, scarves, gloves and hats. The week before we left, once all of our things were gone, it started to get really, really cold. It was almost like France, Paris in particular was mad at us for leaving so the city was just literally pushing us out.
We, unfortunatley, had to say goodbye to lots of friends. This was really difficult. We made some really wonderful friends in France and while we were sorry to say goodbye, we know our paths will meet again.
We boarded the flight on Saturday morning, February 13 non-stop to Doha, Qatar. It was a very easy flight. A little over 6 hours and since it was during the day, we did our best to stay awake so we could fall asleep easier that night...who were we kidding though?! Once we actually arrived, we were too excited to sleep!! Unfortunatley, it was already dark and there was not much to see. Luckily though, we already had a house waiting for us so we don't have to get settled twice. We are living in a very nice complex here in Doha near the new "Villaggio" mall...google it, it's amazing! The development has many other people living here from Eric's company and we have met many of them so far. They have been so welcoming and kind, it has made the transition a lot easier.
It's really intersting so far to live in Doha...such a young city compared to Paris. Doha is a city of 1.7 million people and growing 9% each year. Strangely, only 300,000 of those people are Qatari. There is a large mix of other nationalities including many laborers from the Phillipines, Sri Lanka and other South East Asian nations.
We definitely hit the ground running as we arrived on Saturday evening around 10pm (unfortunatley, our flight was delayed) and Eric had planned to report to work on Sunday morning. The work week in Doha is Sunday - Thursday as Friday is the Holy Day. While I still will probably say "Happy Friday", it's not terrible as the whole city is on this schedule.
We live in the only cul-de-sac in the development. Each villa is identical. Our villa is at the end of the "sac" as our neighbors call it. We've got a nice group here and everyone is extremely friendly.
The weather has been warm since we arrived. It's about 75 degrees fareinheit in the evenings with a cool breeze and it has been as warm as 100 degrees fareinheit during the day. It gets light around 6am and dark around 6pm.
There is so much more to share, until then...we hope you are all well :)
