Doha, the Recap

(Note: This recap was written while on the plane back to New York.)

So, with limited internet access, limited sleep, and limited patience, the plans for daily blogging were scuttled. Hopefully this will serve as a nice recap.

SLEEP

So, from our first night in Doha Nico was able to sleep whenever he lay down in bed seemingly without any issue. It may be a skill that will be helpful to him in the future, and I am slightly jealous.

Thurman, Carma, and I however had a bit more trouble. Actually, the problem stemmed mostly from Thurman. He would wake up sometime after midnight and then wake us up to tell us he couldn’t go to sleep. We’d let him read for awhile, and then he’d come and wake us up an hour later to tell us he still wasn’t sleepy. You can see where this lead to problems.

After two nights of this, Carma and I split the nighttime responsibilities. She would stay with Thurman for night #3, and I would get night #4, ensuring that at least one of us got a decent amount of sleep. Unfortunately, night #3 was a disaster for Carma (up from midnight until I awoke at 6:00). Night #4 was better, I told Thurman just to stay up as late as he could reading and then come to bed. He actually got 6 hours that night.

As I type this on the plane it is 4:00 am ET, and 11:00 am Doha time (currently flying over Turkey). We got up at 4:00 this morning to catch our car(s) at 5:30 for our flight back to JFK. We even stayed up late on purpose to short-change our sleep so we could all sleep on the plane to help ease us back into US time. I guess I’m glad everyone else is a sleep, but I am unable to sleep very well or long on planes, business class or not.

CHURCH

On Friday morning, as mentioned previously, we were able to go to church in Doha. Having Friday be the Sabbath is interesting and different, and does cause some mental gymnastics. For example: last weekend our church had General Conference, a semi-annual conference that is televised and broadcast around the world for members to watch and see the General Authorities speak. Since this occurs on Saturday and Sunday in Utah, the weekend after General Conference (the time we were visiting) the wards in Doha watch a session for their weekly meeting. So, we got to see a part of conference we had already seen, not a big deal. We were late anyway (sleeping issues), and were more focused on talking with the members there after the session was over anyway to find out more about life in Doha. But we do like the idea of having the Sabbath on the first day of the weekend.

OBSERVATIONS

· There is a LOT of construction in Doha. Buildings are going up everywhere, and the city is growing at a rapid pace. The Asian Cup (Soccer) is happening in Doha in January, and sounds like a big deal. Also, there is tremendous support and excitement for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup, for which they are a finalist nation (from my understanding). They are also building a massively gargantuan new hospital near Education City, among other huge capital projects. This results in lots of construction jobs, lots of cranes, and lots of tractors for young boys to watch.

· On a smaller scale, it is interesting to see the small buildings and residences. Most of these are surrounded by a wall of some sort. Individual houses (usually pretty large by American standards) or groups of homes all look somewhat fortified because of the walls. I’m not sure what the primary purpose is. It may be a protection from sandstorms, a historical or cultural need, or maybe the Wall Union is very strong. No idea.

· Many expatriates live in areas called “compounds” (which really I think is a bit too militaristic sounding). These areas are like walled neighborhoods with small streets and lots of villas (houses) and communal areas. The communal areas can have an assortment of services and facilities, including: swimming pools, exercise rooms, squash courts, tennis courts, basketball courts, table tennis, billiards, restaurants and more.

· Update: We are now over the Black Sea, just north of Istanbul (not Constantinople).

· Driving in Doha has been compared to being an extreme sport. In some respects I see this, as sometimes the drivers are erratic and unpredictable. The roundabouts (circle intersections) are probably the most intense part of the driving experience. But really from what I’ve seen it’s not that much worse than New Jersey drivers.

· The predominant vehicle of choice in Doha is apparently the Toyota Land Cruiser. They are everywhere, and 90% of them are white. Between this and the number of vehicular accidents, it has become cliché to say that all hit-and-runs are caused by white Land Cruisers.

· In addition to the opulent wealth created by the oil and natural gas industries in Qatar, there also is apparently no shortage of cheap labor. For many of the service industries, construction work, and other unskilled labor is often done by Philipinos, Indians, Africans, Sri Lankans, and other immigrants. While the labor payments for these individuals is often substandard to what we Americans would consider fair, it is often orders of magnitude above what is available to them in their own country.

ELEMENTS

Not too long ago, Thurman became interested in the periodic table of elements. Not satisfied with what his father could remember from chemistry class in high school, Thurman found a book at his school's book fair that delighted him and would further inform him: The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe. It is an element-by-element summary complete with pictures of the elements or things made from/with them and full descriptions of the properties of each element, often along with some science nerd humor.

Well, on this trip with the sleep deprivation issues, Thurman has had the chance to practically memorize this book, and was constantly quizzing us on different elements. Some examples:

· Dad, can you name all the radioactive elements? Can you name the Noble Gasses?

· What happens when you add sulfur to water?

· One thing in this room is radioactive, can you tell me what it is?

· How dense is mercury?

· Which element has the shortest half-life?

I think one highlight of the trip may have been when I introduced Thurman to a professor of organic chemistry while we were visiting Weill Cornell Medical College. He was impressed by Thurman’s newfound knowledge and even explained more things to him. At this pace, I may need to get another degree just to keep up with Thurman.

(Update: Just flew over Bucharest. Hello, Europe.)

MALLS

The Qataris (and presumably the expatriates as well) love their malls. Each new mall seems to try to outdo the last one. One evening we went to the City Center Mall, near the newer downtown area. It is a few years old, and seemed very nice. Very big, three levels, and it had a bowling alley, and ice rink, two food courts, and Fun City. We spent most of our time at Fun City. There were bumper cars, a large frog-hopper type ride, and several other small rides comparable to your typical county fair. There were also lots of video games, air hockey tables, skeeball, and all sorts of other things kids typically hate and never ask their parents to do.

However, we were told we should really check out The Villagio, because it was a much better mall than City Center. Well, it certainly was trying to be. The Villagio is a single level mall (that goes on forever…) with more upscale stores. This mall is also entirely themed to look like Venice, Italy. Each store has a faux second story with windows and the ceiling is painted to look like the sky, giving and appearance of walking down the streets of Venice to shop. There is even a canal running through half the mall, complete with motorized gondolas. The illusion continues into the food court with “outdoor” seating, but is completely disrupted by the ice rink (and hockey game in progress) in the center of the restaurants. The Villagio also has its own version of Fun City called Gondolania. This center of joy (for our kids, anyway) includes a roller coaster, log ride, even better bumper cars, a bigger frog-hopper type ride, a dark ride, and several other rides, games, and eateries. There is also a kid’s trampoline (huge) and a massive play area/habit-trail.

Another interesting aspect of the malls is most of them have a large Super Wal-Mart type store selling goods and groceries. They even have escalators (for malls with multiple levels anyway) that more resemble moving sidewalks so people can take the shopping carts on them.

To sum up: we had fun. I think I’ll order a snack and watch a movie while I still can.