Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to... no no no! That's not what this blog entry is supposed to be about!! After such a long silence, I've forgotten how to write a blog :-( It'll be like starting all over again, only at the end of my first year here and not at the beginning. Weird. So, just to remind you all what I look like, here I am:
This was taken on a recent weekend trip to Muscat, Oman, with five excellent female friends. It was the perfect break we all needed away from.... Hang on, hang on, that's not what this blog entry is supposed to be about either!!! It really DOES take some work remembering what it is I meant to do when I started typing. I can hear those of you who know my age today snickering to yourselves... I'm NOT suffering from middle-age senility!!
The topic of this blog is one that's been percolating in my mind for quite some time, ever since my friend Steve sent me an e-mail asking what the things were I didn't expect to find or have happen when I came to Qatar. He asked me that before Christmas, so you can see just how long this topic has been on my mind. In fact, I even have two pieces of scrap paper with notes on the subject from way back then, in December 2010.
So here goes; these are the things I didn't expect when I came to Qatar:
1) That I'd always be cold. I mean, this is a desert country, right? How can I possibly be so cold all the time? Ah, Dear Reader, the answer is simple: air conditioning! I have four of them in my apartment and even though I have them set at 25oC, my apartment is still chilly (for me!) The various buildings on campus range from fridge to freezer in temperature settings. I often meet colleagues going outdoors to warm up... and then hurrying back indoors to cool down ;-) The upshot of it all is that wearing layers of clothing here is as important as it in winter in Canada!
2) That I'd have to deal with too much water. I mean, this is a desert country, right? How can there be too much water? Well, partly for the same reason as with #1: air conditioners. They leak. Did you know that? Yup, they do, and it usually requires a couple of trips from the repairmen to get the water to stop! Then there was the overflowing bathroom drain. The first time I took a bath, the water gushed up the small pipe from the drain and onto the bathroom floor. Which totally negated the relaxing qualities of the bath I'd just finished and took an hour of me letting out small amounts of water at a time to safely drain said bathtub! And one trip from the plumber to make sure that the drain was unclogged and functioning properly.
3) That my Bluenoser accent would come back. I mean, I haven't lived in Nova Scotia for 23 years now, so I thought I'd mostly smoothed out my speech patterns to sound more "international". All it took was two weeks of orientation with a bunch of Bluenosers and Newfs to sound as if I were right back in Woodlawn! Again, weird. And here is a photo of some of those people I started with: (l-r) Richard, Hilary, Bonnie, Amy, Raigne (half-hidden!), Anne, Nikki (me) and Skipp. We're in the Sheikh Faisal....
Oops! Going off-track again... Anyways, it's funny how accents come back right some quick!
4) That I wouldn't have to much to do with Qatari people off the campus. Except when they drive like maniacs when I'm on the bus to and from the college or being driven somewhere in a cab or by friends... then they get MUCH too close for comfort! But seriously, other than on the campus, I don't come into much contact with Qatari people. We mingle in the shopping malls, movie theatres and restaurants, but I don't have any real social contact with Qatari people.
5) That I wouldn't have to learn Arabic to live in Doha. That's due to the fact that all the people who work in the service industry here are foreigners, too, coming from the Philippines, India, Nepal, Indonesia, etc. So they all speak dialects of English and we all communicate using English, even the Qataris! I had thought that by the end of my first year in Doha, I'd have a basic understanding of Arabic and at least be able to carry on a simple conversation. Nope. No can do. And no need to do so, either. Weird. However, I have resolved to start studying Arabic when I get back to Doha in September. Let's see if I actually follow through on that...
6) That having taught in Japan isn't a big deal. Nearly all the EFL instructors on staff at the college have taught in Japan at some stage in their careers. What distinguishes me from most of them is how long ago it was that I taught there. But let's not get onto that age thing having to do with which of my birthdays it is today, okay?!
7) That I could go skating in a rink in a mall. There are two malls with rinks, City Centre and Villagio. City Centre has a round rink, so you don't see too much hockey being played there. You can see some brave people learning how to skate on their ankles, though, just like at home. Or you can see something like this: young Qatari men with their gutras (headscarves) wrapped around their faces to keep them warm and their thobes (robes) knotted around their waists so they don't trip! This photo was taken in City Centre just last week:
The rink in Villagio often has hockey games scheduled and quite an active hockey league, too. Then, if you get tired, you can go for a gondola ride in Villagio, too. Now we're back to the topic of too much water in the desert!!
Which means that I must be just about finished this blog entry. But not quite.
I just want to let you all know that I've survived my first year in Doha. Although there were times in the winter semester I thought I'd quit and go home because my students were pushing me just that little bit too far, my belief that my choice of coming to Qatar was the right one to have made was restored by the fun bunch of students I had in the summer semester.
And here they are, with me, on the last day of regular classes.
The other factor that has helped me survive this first year has been the support of all my family and friends, new and old (friends, that is!) I've had a lot of interesting experiences and hope to have the chance to tell many of you about them personally quite soon. My summer vacation starts in just 6 days and I can't wait to be back in Canada!!! Yippee!!!
