Little Blue Pills & "Bacon" Made Out Of What???

Last night, I learned what happens when one gets too cocky----One doesn't get to sleep until 4 in the morning, and that was with the help of a lovely blue pill. There I was, thinking I'm pretty much over my jet-lag and enjoying the fact that I don't have to wake up early on Saturday morning. I surf the net a little, watched my recently purchased "New Moon", and then proceeded to finally go to bed around 12:30am. I figure I'll read a little and go to sleep. I should've known. I'm currently reading Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight series and anyone who's read them knows that if I'm just begining to read at 12:30 am, I most likely won't be done for a while. That is, unless I have an uncanny ability to stop reading when it's gettin crazy-good. But I don't. So I was up for a while. Till 2:15, in fact. Now this isn't terrible since I can sleep in, but I'm still adjusting to the time change and it's not good for me to stay up so late when the next night, I have to be to bed early. Well not only did I not put down my book till 2:15, I also thought I was adjusting so well that I didn't need my little blue pills anymore. (Our HR person had JUST finished telling us that the 4th and 5th night, this night, would be the hardest to fall/stay asleep. I apparently didn't think I needed to worry.)  I bet ya'll know what happened...yup! I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 2 hrs later. For those of you who aren't wizzes at math, that's 4:15 am. Nothing like throwing off your sleep schedule just when it's begining to look normal. Even though I knew it wasn't the best idea, I HAD to get to sleep, so I pop my Tylenol PM at this early hour and was still "hungover", peeling myself out of bed at a little after 11am today. Teacher says: lesson learned.

After that somewhat rocky start to my day, it had no where to go but up. And it did! Today was the day the school arranged for us to go to the InterConn Hotel & Resort (fyi-I almost typed "hotel and casino" out of habit just then) on the shoreline of Doha. The pics are on facebook, but they don't do it justice. It was AMAZING! Great beaches, beautiful pools, comfy lounge chairs, SWIM UP BAR...just what the doctor ordered. It was a bit of a let down though to step into the Persian Gulf for the first time and feel like I was actually taking a bath instead. The water was insanely warm! I only swam for a few minutes because it was also insane hot outside and I needed to cool off. It was so much fun getting to know the old and new staff in such a casual setting. They were there with their familes just relaxing and having a great time. I got to see some of the swimwear that more traditional Muslim women wear. If you've seen Sex in the City 2, then you've seen it. If not, it looks like a really loose, really light and flimsy surfer suit. Covers from the ankles up to the neck. Some friends and I sat down to get some food and walking to the little bar/restaurant cabana (I guess that's what you'd call it), we noticed that one of the cabanas was-get ready for this- actually a STARBUCKS! I couldn't belive it! If you look at the pictures on my facebook page, look for the cabana with the typical "Starbuck's green" umbrellas and you'll see it. Crazy. It was also funny to see a burger on the menu complete with cheese and "beef bacon". I was curious to see what it tasted like, but not enough to order it. My chicken wrap was excellent though :)

That's all for today. I popped some PM before I started to write this blog and it's taking effect. Tomorrow it's back to the grindstone because here, my week starts on Sunday and ends on Thursday. (Muslim Holy Day is on Friday. It's a fabulous time to drive since no one's on the road.) I'm still not used to it. This will be a busy week as I continue with all kinds of training, finally meet with my team members, and get my room ready. It's exciting but also crazy to think that school starts in just a little over a week, so keep those prayers comin'!

Pricks and Flips

These last few days have been interesting learning experiences yet again. Yesterday (Thursday), was Medical Day! We had to get up and be at the school by 6:30 a.m. to get bussed around town in order to get our exams: chest x-ray, blood work, blood type, and eye. Those of you who've ever recieved medical care in any forgeign country know that it will always be an experence all its own...this was no exception. There were many odd and out-of the-ordinary aspects. First-men and women entered the hospital through sepearte entrances. Second- when you enter the hospital, you have to punch the little machine to get a NUMBER. Both the machine and ticket looked exactly like they do at the DMV! Even better, the first number it punched out for our group was 4062! Needless to say, it was gonna be a while; but then our angel of a security guard who met us at the door realized who we were and began to expidite the process, MUCH to the other waiting women's chagrin. (And we wonder why some don't like us....hmmmmm) Third- we had to hand over our passports to our two guides while we were there. This helped speed up the process, but it was still unnerving. There were also colored arrows on the floor to direct traffic like cattle to either exam (yellow), chest x-ray (green), or blood work (red)- I kinda found that funny. As we went through the process, it went pretty quickly. I just felt bad that we didn't have to wait and other people did; one woman was actually heard griping in Arabic with a few "America"s mixed in. From the hospital clinic, we drove to another clinic just to get our fingers pricked so they could run our blood types (I know...don't ask). A simple prick, no biggie. We go into the small building to find a men's waiting room to the right and a women's to the left. :) It was just us so we all stayed together. I wouldn't bother sharing this but I couldn't resist telling you that when it was my turn for the finger prick, I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. I already had my blood drawn and I was done being poked. So I go in and remind myself that I'm being silly. I'm waiting for the lady to take out the little plastic punchy-thing that you can barely feel but what she actually brought out was about a 4 in. long, bringht, shiny needle! Out of the corner of my eye, I see her flick this thing up and then flick it back down so fast and hard that I jumped-actually jumped a few inches out of the chair. Not so much the pain as it was the sheer velocity of the needle that got me. Goooood times. Our last stop was a (get ready Alias fans) super-swank eye glasses store for our eye exams. These consisted of us reading four letters forward with the right eye and backward with our left eye...very thorough. 

It was a long but great day at school after that. I finally got to see my classroom, which looks great, and meet one of the other 5th grade teachers, Chad. My friend Katie and I drove home and after being there for a while, I decided I wasn't feeling up to going to the dinner that was being hosted for us that night. Everyone else left though so I was just gonna chill. In the midst of chillin, all of the sudden I hear a loud ringing-exactly like an old-school hallway bell- from the hallway. Turns out, the fire alarm is going off! Now, I had just cooked something in the kitchen and our stove has an on/off switch so I immediately panic. My Mountain View peeps know exactly why this is but for those of you who don't yet know, I kinda set off the school fire alarm one day by accident while toasting my pita bread :) Thankfully, the kitchen was fine, so I run to get my flip flops and go down the 3 floors to the parking garage. By this time, it's been a while so I was very surprised not to see anyone in the parking garage! So I go in to the lobby, see that the alarm was triggered from the 6th floor, and go back out to finally see two whole people waiting around. Turns out, these alarms are quite common but, and I quote, "most of the time" just false. Awesome. However my favorite part was finding out that the one time they had a real fire last year, the trucks couldn't fit all the way into the parking garage and so when they tried to get the hoses upstairs to the fire, it wouldn't reach. Again...awesome.

The day before some friends and I went on a shopping excursion to a store a lot like Pier One. All we had to do was pull out onto the main road for a while and go around the corner to the entrance of the mall. The mall is easy to find, but the entrance is an underground parking garage around the corner. We shop and all is good, but when we went to leave, my trusty navigation partner and I kinda left from the wrong entrance. This mall takes up about half a sqaure city block so leaving from the wrong exit can screw ya up big time. And it did. Needless to say, after a few turns and stops a red light (have I mentioned they're all on average 4 minutes long?), we finally realize where we are because we see our school on the right! The school isn't too far from the apartment but it's definitely much farther away than the mall, so we were waaaay off. 

Today, I got to sleep in (Yup! Finally slept through the call to prayer!) a little, because Friday is the start to the weekend here, and do some more shopping. It's amazing how clear the roads are on the Holy Day. I'm going to stop and take a video the next time I'm at this mall, because at Coldstone, there were 4 guys lined up in a row at the counter mixing, flipping, and tossing their ice cream mixes before serving..it was like flare bartending for the ice cream world! It was fabulous! I was able to buy New Moon at the Virgin Superstore so I'm gonna go watch it now-woo hoo! Love y'all!

Driving in Doha, Nutella, & Hot Water

Setting out on the first day began with my phone ringing off the hook! First, two people from the school called to make sure I knew the pick-up time. Second, a phone call from another teacher upstairs who needed a ride, and finally, a call from the principal making sure I knew who was picking us up to lead us to school. Needless to say, they take care of you at ASD and I didn't mind at all having someone in the car with me the first time I set out to drive in Doha. Now, knowing we're going to caravan to the school brought a lot of comfort and yet, knowing how insane the driving can be, my worst fear was loosing the caravan & getting lost. Everyone begins to pull out of their respective parking spaces and I'm in my CRV in the spot closest to the exit. As I wait, I realize I'll be the last one out. No big deal...or so I thought...We begin to pull out, but then realize (mostly due to the slow speed and the "rrreerrruuggh" sound) that the emergency break is still on; the rental car people left it that way.  So as the last car before me drives out of the parking garage, I try to lift the emergency break. A liiiiittle hard to do when you can't find it! So we're looking, looking...by the time we found it (thank you, Scott- it was on the FLOOR in the far left corner-who puts it THERE???), the entire line of six cars was no where in sight. Excellent start to the morning :) Thankfully I wasn't alone and we had a map.  After a few phone calls, I survived my first of many Doha roundabouts and we made it to school in plenty of time.

After orientation (won't bore you with the details of it, but good times and I got my laptop!), we set off in another caravan to this place called the Carrefour (it's like a Wal-Mart) led by a guy named Ryan who rivals the energy level of Lars Coleman or a room full of sugared-up 2 yr olds. We all head out and this time I'm able to stay with the caravan. All is well. It was also pretty entertaining watching Ryan hop in and out of his car at least four times on the way there and back--mid traffic, mind you--to run around his car, step out onto the shoulder, count the cars in the caravan, and get back in. It was like watching a teacher on a field trip. 

The Carrefour was fantastic and overwhelming. TONS of stuff to look at while you A) try to remember all that you need to get B) constantly divide every price that you see by four to convert the currency C) try to find the item that most resembles the American item you're looking for: ie- me trying to find cheese slices that are actually yellow, not white. All I have to say is, I about yelled out a "hallelujah!" in the middle of a muslim city when I found an entire 6 x 4ft shelving section dedicated to four different-sized jars of Nutella. Still made in Italy and still delicious! Once I had everything I needed, I made it through my first official Qatari money transaction, thereby squelching the fear that I'd be standing alone in the middle of the aisle, with a handful of Qatari Riyals, crying, with no idea what to do next. (This image may have cause a minor freak-out incident prior to leaving that resulted in me crying on the phone to my friend Amanda, but we wont go into that.)

That evening, we had some fantastic Arabic food a one of the teacher's houses. We had freshly baked pita bread, 3 kinds of hummus, vegetable spreads, grilled lamb and chicken... It was amazing!  Thankfully they didn't make us stay too late. I was able to get home early, try to call my parents for the THIRD time and miss them, take some Tylenol PM to keep me asleep, and go to bed. Oh, but not before I talked to the maintance guy again only to realize that I did have plenty of hot water, but had just been turning the knob in the wrong direction. (I swear I checked them both.) It was scalding and wonderful. 

Plenty more stories to tell involving getting lost, medical checks in a foreign city, and a fire alarm. But that will all have to wait :) Love you guys! P.S.- I have yet to sleep through the call to prayer...at least it's pretty.

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!