A busy week and weekend-October 24-29, 2010

Doha is not a booming metropolis as was Manhattan or Paris, and many people complain that there's not much to do.  Not for us, we are constantly busy going here or there, lucky for us, we've got some great friends who are always up for something.  We've got a really great balance.   Unfortunately, this particular weekend, there was NO balance.  It was the weekend of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival (names like Robert DeNiro and Salma Hayak) the WTA Women's Tennis Championship (Clijsters was triumphant), Halloween (not much here, we were too busy having fun with other things) Eric's company's safety celebration (no photos), the filming of the Qatar Bid 2022 commercial (I auditioned and got a part!) and then my good friend Joe (who I met in Italy studying abroad, but went to Marist) was in town....phew!  

The pictures of everything just don't do it justice...partly b/c I had many camera malfunctions this week including bringing the camera without having the battery charged and then just not having the camera at all.  Yea, I know, big party foul.  I have vowed to bring my camera wherever I go now b/c sometimes a Doha moment is just too good not to capture.  Here's a sampling of the few photos I took.  

Doha Tribeca Film Festival: 

Doha Tribeca Film Festival Signs

The Four Seasons, all lit up, one of the venues for the movies....we saw
"The Two Escobars" at the open air theatre here...it was awesome.  They had seats lined up all on the beach and the very large movie screen was across the water on the jetty.  After watching this amazing, documentary film, we got to actually meet the directors and talk to them for over an hour...Doha is definitely one of those "big fish in a little pond" type of places on many levels 

More of the Four Seasons, from a far

Some borrowed shots of the Katara (Cultural Village) where other outdoor films took place.  

Women's Tennis Association Tennis Tournament

Clijsters really took play to a new level

Wozniaki killing the ball 

Triumphant Clijsters

Halloween

Yep, that's all I gots, poor showing this year.  Better luck next time.  

Filming the commerical for Qatar's Bid for the 2022 World Cup-GO Qatar! 
I filmed two days.  First day I was cast as "woman in taxi" it was just me and another guy filming that day.  Pretty sweet.  Got to work up close and personal with the director.  When I get a copy (after it airs in Dec), I'll post.  Didn't get photos that day.  The next day I was an "extra" we were filming at a pub.  The commercial was a documentary style and it's supposed to flash on many different people in Doha right before they announce who gets the 2022 World Cup Bid...hoping for Qatar, how cool would that be?

Joe came in for a short visit.  We met up with him last year in Bruges, this year in Doha..where will we meet up next, Joe?

Pizza Night

A friend and neighbor, Wendi and I decided to host a "Pizza Party" of sorts in our compound's cul de sac.  When we first moved here, all the neighbors in the "sac" as it's called got together on Thursday nights for some pizza.  We did this most Thursday nights as it was a nice way to start off the weekend.  As the weather got warmer, it got too hot and our Thursday night ritual became far and few between.   Many colleagues moved to their next assignments over the summer and in August and September we had an influx of newcomers to Doha and the company.  Since we hadn't met everyone, we decided we'd host a gathering outside in the cul-de-sac (very informal) so that everyone could meet each other and socialize a bit.   We ended up having a lovely evening.  The kids were running around, people were catching up and meeting new friends.  All in all, it was a fun, easy to host event that everyone seemed to enjoy. 

The very casual set up in our car port

The kids helping out

Love this cute note

Our new neighbor Janine made this scarecrow, way to go Janine! 

Janine, Trine-Lise and Lisa

Yummy desserts!

Denise, Robin and Donna 

Allyson, Linda, Priscilla, Clay and Fraiser

The Powell Fam

Lindsay and friend

Brooke and Ella 

Nick, Robert, Frank and Glenn

Paul and Bruce

Eric and Eric :)

The hippest kid around, William

Robin and Evita 

Loads of kiddies, huddling around the candy...smart kids! 

Co-hostess, Wendi and her hubby, Nick 

Looks like this could get dangerous! 

Allyson, Donna and Wendi 

Don and Robin

The Holy Month of Ramadan: August 11- September 10, 2010

Since moving to Doha, everyone had been telling us about the dreaded heat in the summer and the Holy Month of Ramadan.   Well, the summer heat had arrived, and yes, it was VERY hot, but as most of you know me, I will never complain about the heat.  I am a summer baby all the way.  If you give me 365 days of sunshine and warmth, I'm a happy girl.  Sure, it felt like an oven each time a door was opened, and yes, during the Holy Month of Ramadan the stores are only open part of the day, and there's not much to do, and it's not possible to buy alcohol anywhere, or eat or drink in public, but to be honest, I kind of got used to it.  I think the build up of it all from every one made it much more tolerable.  I kept on waiting for it to get hotter (not sure it could have) and for the Ramadan timings to get old, but to be honest, we just "rolled with the punches" as one must be able to do if you want to live abroad successfully.  

The Muslim religion takes such discipline.  Not only does a Muslim go to the mosque and pray 5 times each day, but during Ramadan, they abstain from eating, drinking (not even water, in the 120 degree heat) smoking, and any form of sexual contact from sun up to sun down.  The holy month of Ramadan is based on the moon..once the crescent moon has been seen, the holy month of Ramadan has begun.   It is approximately 10 days earlier each year so this year was one of the worst taking place in the heat of the summer.   I most definitely admire such discipline and life long devotion to religion.   Being in Doha is always awakening and it certainly was quite an event to witness first hand.  

Some things that we adjusted to during the month of Ramadan were grocery stores have modified hours...usually 9am-1pm.  They opened up again from 8pm til about 2am.  Since the Muslims are not able to partake in many things during the day light hours, the local shops cater to this and are open much later.  There are no restaurants or any sort of establishment that serves food open during day light hours as well so eating breakfast or lunch out is not something that can be done during this time.   It's a running joke, but needs to be taken seriously that one should stay off the roads between the hours of 4:30 and 6pm during Ramadan.  This is because when the "cannon blows" (more on that later) the Muslims are driving as quickly as they can to "break the fast" with their Iftar (first meal after fasting all day).    It's also very dificult to go out at night because everything is so crowded.   The month actually flew by for us and we are happy we were able to be living in Doha during this very holy month. 

Some perks of Ramadan were the amazing Iftars.  We were invited to one from Eric's company at the Ritz.   The hotels here always go "all out" to make an event feel very authentic. 

The grand entrance 

Some of the tables inside the ball room

Some of the food

Yes, that's a falcon I'm holding.  They cover his eyes for obvious reasons.  Check out that glove I'm wearing.  

Eric and the Falcon man.  He did offer to take off the eye covers but we opted not to do that!

More of the decor

These men who spin for 10+ minutes non-stop show up all over during Ramadan.  I was mesmerized by them!