Doha from The Pearl!

He has your keys!

This traffic guy makes me laugh. Emily Duncan and I think the "thank god for safety" slogan is a great one. But this morning while I was sitting in traffic on the way to work I look over and this guy has some keys in his hand. The middle of a busy road and someone has lost their keys! What a crappy day that person must have had! I must admit there are some pretty great road signs around Doha, and some morbid ones as well - death tolls are always a pleasure to read about while you drive these crazy roads!

Blast from the PAST!

Just Emily and I playing on the dunes. Sisterly fun in the desert. I remember dune trips ended with having sand in your hair for days, and bringing home half the dune is all part of the fun. This post is for Emily because she is such a talented young lady! I want to share her Art Blog she has to keep for University with everyone because her work is amazing. I love your new work and I can't wait to see more! <3

Emily Duncan

The right idea - but? Week 4 of teaching!

I am loving every minute I spend in the classroom with our 14 guys! They are all so funny, and we really have a great time together. We are constantly joking and I think that the atmosphere is pretty great for a class of 14 Arabic guys being taught by 2 blonde females. We spend Sunday through Tuesday studying ONLY English which pretty much consists of correcting grammar, spelling words and sentences, working on listening skills, speaking and reading out loud to practice vocabulary and pronunciation, and writing essays. All of this, and some practice tests from the IELTS book because these guys need to improve their scores on the exam! I feel like being hands on is teaching me way more than I am learning from my ONLINE course and I am really grateful that I am getting this experience.

I love the one liners they sometimes come up with because the translation is always interesting, and the words they guess with you can't help but laugh at... like the question I got the other day from one of the younger students - "miss, do you paint your hair?" - why thanks for pointing out that my roots are showing :) or when I am correcting work and the sentence is so backwards that you have to start from the very beginning on a new sheet of paper without making the student feel like what he did was wrong. Or like above... A misuse of a word but a perfect sentence if you remove the last two letters.

It is a never a dull day in our conference room class room at Qatar Foundation. 

Brunchin' it!

A picture really says it all...

Arabian Beauty!

Horse Photos Stollen from the Photographer above - PaPa Duncan :) 

Henna me up!

Being the tourist that I am I jumped in line to get some free henna at the horse show today! Even though the horses are very beautiful, and a horse show is always some what entertaining, there is only so much of a horse show you can watch before you want to take a nap! Sometimes before we would leave for summer vacation my Mom would let us get henna.

Normally Emily and I would get it on one foot, going up our leg a little bit, because we knew we would be living in sandals on the beach - and it just looked cool! I just remember it being an exciting thing to do before we would jump on a plane to escape the desert heat for the summer. Henna tips: leave it on for as long as possible so that the color becomes darker, to help boost the color add lemon to it after you wash it off, and if you want it to last for as long as possible then put Vaseline over it while you are showering. Henna is a natural dye made from a plant and is used mainly for temporary tattoo designs, but women sometimes use it for their hair, and fingernails. Basically it is the closest thing I will every be getting to a tattoo :) Henna art is really something else, and I have seen some pretty amazing designs (you can google it if you don't believe me). It is part of the wedding traditions for the Arabic women to get henna before their weddings. I just love it, and I love doing touristy things even though I am not really a tourist! 

International Equestrian Festival week has officially started, and it ends March 1st with the most famous day of racing in the Middle East (yes this day has been around longer than the big race days in Dubai). HH The Emir's Sword will certainly be an interesting ending to the week! 

UPDATE(26th FEB):


Conversation in class today... 


Student "Miss I really like your henna... but you should put it on your foot. Then a guy will see it and be like WOooooOOOW, and then wallah you will be married."

The W - maybe my new favorite place?

So I have now had drinks at the W in London, and dinner at the the Spice Market in Doha (dinner and cheap, yet surprisingly expensive wine). And I won't forget to mention that we spent Easter at the W in Atlanta a couple years ago... I think I am starting a trend here. Ha. The hotel is just all around cool, no matter what country it is in. The interior designer/s of this place have done a great job (photos from website).

About a week ago I went to dinner at Spice Market. It was an excellent night out with an old friend, and some people she has introduced me to, here in Qatar. My chicken pad thai was amazing, and Courtney Dutton you would have been extremely jealous. I am enjoying getting out and about here in Doha, meeting new people, and going to places that were not here before I left. Got lots planned now, I am super busy with teaching, and exploring the "new Doha." It is nice to have the comforting things that never change, but I love how developed this place has gotten and how many more interesting places there are to visit. I still need to go for a walk along the corniche, back to the souq, camel track, dunes, beach, and much more and I can't wait! 

I can't forget to "name drop" but when we were all sitting eating out meal at Spice Market someone noticed that at the table next to us James Blunt was enjoying a cosy meal with some of his crew/event manager/entourage (have no idea who they were). In true Doha fashion I had no clue he was even playing here. You always find out about stuff that happens, after it happens. He played at the Intercontinental Hotel on Valentine's Day. Now I love me some James Blunt, and I think it is great he stopped here in Doha to play, but, but it made me think - just how badly is he doing these days? 

You're Beautiful! 

Already sliding my "Arabic" into my English.

Today I was helping one of my students with his personal statement for Texas A&M and I was explaining something to him and slipped "yani" into the sentence. My student started laughing... I paused and said "oh dear I can't believe I just said yani" and he replied "SEE... you are MADE to live in Qatar!" Next thing you know I will ending my phone calls with "yallah bye bye."

Yani - "I mean."

Yallah - "HURRY UP" but also can mean "All Right."

ALL OF THE LIGHTS!

Somebody is getting married and wants everyone to know! Don't quote me on this but if I remember correctly this means a young woman in this house is getting married. The family of the daughter decorates the house with lights. I personally think it is a lovely tradition and it makes the ordinary white concrete block houses look beautiful, well at night! I do laugh though because growing up I asked my Dad to put lights on our house sometimes when I would have a birthday party, or just any random party. I guess everyone around us just thought "poor guy, he has a lot of daughters!" I think I might bring this tradition to the states and make my parents put lights on our house when I get married. 

The photo is such a bad one because I only had my phone on me when we drove past it. I am hoping to find a house and take a picture with an actual camera because I know that the quality, and the lights will look far better than above! One of my students is constantly going to weddings so I am sure another house will not be hard to find!