Festivities of February

February:
This nice short month started off with a school field trip to the beach! Our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders got on a few buses chaperoned by teachers and headed off to the beach! This trip was not about hanging out at the beach, having a picnic and enjoying the sun. NOPE, the students' job was to pick up trash on the beach! FUN! Well the kids saw it as a fun game of "who can fill the bag the highest and find the coolest trash!" I guess that works for a fun event to get out of school!

February keeps getting exciting as I finally passed my driving license test and now can legally drive in Qatar! The process of getting a license here is Doha is quite grueling! To make a long story short...

To get a license in Qatar, one needs to complete a ridiculous amount of paper work and then pass 3 tests! I have never been so nervous to take a test! First, I had to pass the test on all the road signs, and WAIT to see if I passed. Then take a parking test while driving in a car, and WAIT to see if I passed. And then finally, I had to take a driving test on the road with 2 police officers in the car, making sure I did every detail correctly, and of course.. WAIT to see if I passed! When all was finished 3 hours later, I got my license in hand and could drive that very day! This whole test started at 5:30 AM! I missed some of school, so my students were very excited for me once I came back with my license! :)
I am hoping the next post in a week or so will include a photo of our new rental! Enshalah... "God willing!" in Arabic.

Did they celebrate Valentines Day in Doha? Yes! I was quite shocked to see the hype at the malls and restaurants for the "holiday". Yet on the other hand, we were not allowed to say a word about it a school because of the religious connection to Saint Valentine. Rather than celebrating Valentines Day, us single ladies did some celebrating for Summer's birthday and even treated ourselves to some great meals. First, we went to a buffet at a 5 star hotel. This is a typical event for a hotel to offer a Friday buffet. WELL we certainly hit that up for all it was worth! Without trying to look like "those Americans", we enjoyed plate fulls of salads, lobster, fish, and even were surprisingly amazed with delicious duck liver (foie gras)! We saved a bit of room for the tables upon tables of desserts! Haha, we had to laugh at ourselves trying just about every single chocolate moose, strawberry tart, cheese cake, or freshly made crepe! We could hardly get ourselves out the door, but look forward to going back for another experience!



For Summer's 25th birthday we gathered our friends from school and other acquaintances to Spice Market at the W Hotel. We enjoyed the company and being out on the town!


I was lucky enough to meet up with some good friends in Dubai! A close friend from high school, Laura, and her husband, Glen, traveled to India and then stayed with Glen's sister in Dubai! His sister, Joy, and brother-in-law Gavin just had a baby boy- two months OLD! It was an amazing 3 day weekend! It was SO nice to have a ton of fun, catch up with a good old friend, to have some "family" time at the apartment, relax and do some sight seeing! What a nice way to end the month of February!

Catching up with life!

WOW! I did just what I imagined I would do-struggle keeping up with this blog! I will just give a few highlights from the past 3 months! My roommates put me to shame with how diligently they update their blogs! I, on the other hand, am going to refer you to Lauren's blog to read about my Christmas Vacation in depth! :) thanks Lauren!

Sweden

Denmark

Norway

City Streets in Oslo

Looking at the cute town of Stockholm

December:
The month of December went quickly as time just seemed to stay still in the "fall"-type weather. It was very difficult for me to get into the Christmas Spirit being in the desert, away from family and in a Muslim country. The four of us: Ashely, Kate, Lauren, and myself all thought some winter weather in Scandinavia would do the trick! Well wow! Did we get blasted with COLD weather, sites to see and some crazy traveling adventures. December 18th we left for Stockholm. Took a bus to Denmark. Spent Christmas there, met up with family, and then took a cruise from Copenhagen to Olso, Norway. We spent a few cold days in Norway and then traveled back home via Stockholm, Turkey, UAE and then finally DOHA! For me, the highlights were:


- Seeing my Aunt Elizabeth and cousin Paulina for a week. They traveled with us in Gotenburg, Copenhagen, and Olso.
- Meeting a friend, Amy, in Oslo and other roommate, Summer, in Copenhagen
- Enjoying the scenic winter sites with a warm cup of Hot Chocolate in hand
- Seeing Christmas lights on display in Copenhagen and Stockholm
- Going to Midnight Mass at the Cathedral in Copenhagen
- Viewing many museums but especially the Nobel Peace Museum in Oslo, Norway
- Snowboarding for the first time ever and did it in Norway!!
- Seeing the SUNSET while on the slopes in Norway!

The traveling adventures/mishaps kept us on our feet and certainly taught us a lesson or two about being in a foreign country, about each other, and about ourselves. It was great to be "home" and settled in Doha when all was said and done!


January:
New Years was spent in Dubai. Fireworks on the beach for New Years was a great way to ring in 2010! It pains me to say that only Lauren and I were able to go. We had flight complications and other issues with getting Ashley and Kate on the flight. This was all after a long 2 weeks of traveling in Scandinavia. So really we were at our whits end of mishaps in transportation! Still, the 28 hours that Lauren and I had in Dubai were a fantastic time! We met some of Kate's fun friends and saw just a few sites of a larger Arab city, Dubai. This just made us want to go back and spend more time there.

New Year's in Dubai with Mahdi and Jenny

A few other highlights in January took place during some weekend fun in Doha. We have to be creative to find new things to do here! Too easily we get into the same old routine of the work week and the weekend. To mix it up, we had Lauren's 25th birthday to celebrate! Then, my roommates and I enjoyed showing some fellow American visitors, Brady and his mom, around Doha. Brady is applying for a job with Qatar Airlines and wanted to check the city out for a weekend. We enjoyed showing him the sites of Doha. The best part was the BBQ on the beach with food, volleyball, music, and good people! Finally, we had an enjoyable time singing Karaoke at the apartment of another teacher. He works at the American School of Doha and gathers a large crowd of American workers to his apartment. We blasted out a variety of songs from Disney tunes to Lady Gaga!

BBQ in Doha