Holy Bacon, Batman...I'm Here!

WOW! It's been quite an interesting last 3 days. For those of you who don't know, my journey to Doha, Qatar started in Cedar Rapids. From there, I flew to Chicago, then to Washington D.C. and finally, a 12 hour flight to Doha. Everything went pretty well, especially on the logistical end: no delays, no major travel catastrophies, I didn't lose my passport or work visa (which, lets face it, MANY of us had ligitamate concerns about), and we landed in Doha 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The down-side to the traveling was the unexpected bout of nausia and/or air sickness I felt. As it continued, the anxiety of being sick and traveling, along with the fact that reality was setting in and I was, in fact, getting on a 12 hr flight to a foreign land made it all that much worse. Thanks to my Father above, many many MANY prayers, a disgusting dose of chewable Dramamine, and listening to a certain nephew of mine sing "I like to move it, move it" I made it on the plane in good spirits.

Speaking of, the plane was AMAZING! A boeing 777 with my own screen to watch movies, tv, listen to music, etc and really good food (although I barely ate anything)! Thankfully, I slept through most of it and by the time I watched a few Big Bang Theory episodes (that's right!), we landed safely in Doha.

Describing what it was like to step off that plane would take writing skills that I know I don't posess. I will say this, though. It was all completely surreal. Another word that comes to mind is HUMID. No dry desert heat for me the day I landed, but thankfully, everyone says its rare for it to be so humid. 3 days here and I have yet to feel my greatly-missed desert heat :)

Customs was easy as pie and thankfully, no one stashed anything illegal in my stuff while I wasn't looking (we all know that'd be my luck). The fabulous workers at the airline piled up my 5 bags and I walked through the doors to the first familiar face I'd seen in 24 hours: one of the principals I met in February when I got hired. Words can't describe how wonderful it was to see him.

He took another teacher (who I didn't realize was on my same flight) and myself from the airport to my very own apartment! 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathroom, and don't even get me started on the square footage! The hallway alone would keep Drew-bug busy running for hours! I'll post pictures soon. Some cons of this beautiful place: dealing with foreign outlets= one heck of good time (especially since you average one per wall), my water as of right now is just a bit shy of hot (but maintenence will take care of it sooner or later/in a few weeks), my matress reminds me a lot of sleeping on plywood (thank goodness for my memory foam pad!), and the call to prayer every day at SUNRISE from the Mosque across the street (beautiful music, but way too early for my liking). It's been great to meet all the other new teachers in the building since it is used only by the school. We've been each other's support system, navigation guides, and shopping partners. 24 hours together and I already know I'm making lifetime connections.

I think I'll keep it at that for now. Mostly at school, it's been logistics and learning programs on our super cool new laptops :) I'm loving the keys with arabic on them and googling something only to find the results coming up automatially in arabic...good times! Thanks again to all of you for your love, support, and prayers. I couldn't do this without all of you and my Heavenly Father who's calmed my nerves and healed my jet-lag in record time! Love you all and I'll post again soon!