John at Souk Waqif
John and I are spending the weekend in sunny Doha. If I ever thought I wanted to live in the Arabian Peninsula, this trip has cured me of it – too darned hot! We arrived yesterday via Oman and just hung out at the hotel. This morning we ventured out to the souk to shop and poke around. Our plan was to walk from there to the Islamic Art Museum, but we were thwarted by massive road construction – we could see it but just couldn’t get there from where we were. The heat finally got the best of me despite several stops in the shade, so I finally threw in the towel and we got a taxi back to the hotel…where we are happily enjoying the air conditioning and a glass of wine! No shame.
One thing that stands out about Doha – other than the heat – is the number of third country nationals who work here. Our plane was filled with obviously blue collar workers from India, Pakistan and the Philippines. Most of the hotel workers and other service industry workers are Filipino (and they are so nice).
Our big news this week was our Spanish test – it was just an informal test to be sure we were at a high enough level that HR would go ahead and put us down for Guadalajara. We both tested high enough, so we are halfway there! We’ll still have to take a formal test via DVC from Pakistan because we need 3/3 level for the jobs. But HR felt we were capable of getting that before next fall, so that’s a really big relief. It will be nice to be back in Mexico and a bit closer to home!
Honey helped me study for the test:
Honey helps me study for Spanish (she is a Chihuahua, after all)
I was too hot to take many photos but here are a couple from the souk:
Creepy taxidermy shop
Outdoor coffee shop