What it takes to move 8,000 miles.

Well Kara and I are still preparing to go to Qatar. Actually I should say that I’m still going to work everyday and Kara is doing most of the preparing. With packing, doctor’s visits, HR forms, visiting family and friends, handling bills and everything else that goes into this I don’t think I will have any time to relax until Kara and I actually leave. That’s in less then four weeks … I just fainted and had to pull myself together. Kara and I went to a wedding of a family friend this weekend. It was a lot of fun, and interesting to see people that I hadn’t seen in 10 to 15 years. The fact that I’m 24 means my recollection of their names was pretty fuzzy. It was really weird seeing that church for the first time in that many years. I walked in and everything seemed a lot smaller. After the wedding we went to Dick’s Last Resort. It was a lot of fun but I wouldn’t suggest it unless you need to let off some steam by yelling at your waitress and throwing paper balls at the kids in the table next to you.

In the past week I’ve also said another goodbye to a friend of mine that I have known since fish camp. Literally one of the first people I met and we were both in College Station 7 years later. He just finished his masters in Public Health and is going to medical school at Texas Tech. It’s funny how things work out.

Starting our goodbyes

Well it is official, I signed for the job in Qatar this past Thursday and will be start work on August 1st. So we now have less then five weeks to get our lives in the states wrapped up into nice little U-Haul boxes. The fact that we have been aware of this for over 6 months helps out a lot.

Part of the process in wrapping things up is to say goodbye to friends and family. This is then not so easy part. Even thought I’ve made a Gantt Chart to schedule when I’m going to see who it’s not like putting things into a box. It is more like going off to college again. The big difference is this time your family and friends are a little farther then a car ride away. There’s also no guarantee of seeing each other during Christmas break. This weekend I had my 2nd try at this with one of my best friends. I met Mike in 10th grade and we’ve been chill ever since. He’s taught me more then I could write here, most importantly he helped to water the seeds of my faith at some pretty crucial times.

We ate at James Coney Island hotdog stand in Houston with my wife Kara. He happened to be in town because is grandpa got pretty sick but thankfully he has recovered a large amount. After talking we realized this would be our last time to see each other for awhile. So instead of crying like women we reminisced a little and he promised he would visit me during his spring break with about 98% accuracy. I trust that he will, as long as he doesn’t buy a ticket to Doha, CA will be OK. Keep it real Mike. Soft Rock.

Going fishing and finding a home

Yesterday we went on a fishing trip with the ITS (Information Technology Services) staff. It was really a lot of fun. We went out on this speed boat so far that we couldn’t see land any more. I’ve never gone that far on a boat before so it was a pretty cool experience. We fished with some pretty primitive tools, but with 10 people on a boat it definitely was more practical then all of us swinging our fishing rods back and forth. Basically we used a piece of wood cut into an “H” shape. The fishing line was tied around it and the bait was some cut up squid on two hooks and a weight. You drop the line in until you feel it hit the bottom (it’s not flying through your hand anymore) and then pull it up about a meter. This allows the bate to float above the ocean floor for a while. The guide was pulling in one after the other but I only got one. It was still pretty cool. Everybody else got one or two. Most people caught small sharks. In the end we left with about 20 fish, but we gave them all to our guide and went out to eat. Kara did get sick but being the trooper that she was curled up and did not ask us to go back to the shore.

Today I had my 6 interviews. They were pretty low key and I think went very well. Tim the CIO and my potential boss told me that he will start the paperwork for an offer and I should receive an official one by next Monday. That sounds pretty good to me. Nothing is for sure, so I didn’t take a picture in what potentially will be my office chair quite yet.

After that we went looking at houses and I think we settled on living in a high-rise (we’ll be on the 8th floor) across from the mall. It’s very different from the other options, but I think it is more then enough for us and gives us a chance to live in a style that would be very hard to do in the states. It has a very nice weight room, pool and stuff like that. There will be a lot of construction going on, but when we were visiting we couldn’t really hear the noise. I would estimate that it’s between 1,300 and 1,400 sq. ft.
After looking at the different housing options we went to a place they call “Pizza Hat” it’s basically a place a pizza hut with a little half circle on the top of the “hut” part of the logo. The food there was great and really cheap. I’ve noticed that there is a lot of variation in the prices. A game of monopoly could cost you $25 but a nice wall hanging will cost the $20. It all depends on the product and where it comes from. Gas here is roughly $0.50 a gallon. I guess when you are right next to the source it helps.

My Thoughts
After pizza hat we went to the mall to look around. This is where I noticed the price differences. I also learned that I’m getting more comfortable with the environment. Many women walk around with their full veil. I’m going from “Oh crap I have to avoid where she is at completely” to “I just won’t look in her area”. It is a sign of disrespect to look at Muslim woman, or so I have gathered. I’ve also slowly been realizing that natve Qatari guys do not need to be avoided. They are highest on the social food chain, but I can still treat them like normal individuals. I ran into a group on the escalator at the mall, and I felt like I couldn’t squeeze past them at first, but I thought that was pretty stupid so I asked to get by they smiled I smiled, we were all a bunch of shiny happy people. I guess if I didn’t do that it would just enable them to continue with their arrogance that they definitely have.

30 hours and still smiling

vIt’s been about 30 hours since we arrived in Qatar and Kara and I are having a great time. My first impression is that it is really foreign but very inviting. There is everything you need to get along but it’s not the US. The important thing is that we feel like we can adjust to the lifestyle. It’s different it’s foreign but there are a lot of good things as well. Kara put it best when she was talking about driving but I think it can apply to a lot of things. It’s not like people are targeting you, it’s just a matter of jumping in and getting out of your comfort zone. Every expatriate that I talk to says they love it here, it’s not like a prison where everybody is counting down how much longer they have. I was also told that living outside the country frees you from all the assumptions that living in the states imposes on you. It allows you to be who ever you want to be. I don’t know how much I agree with this statement but it is something to think about.

What we have done:

We got to the airport at around 9:00 PM and waited in a pretty long line to get our passports stamped. We then took a quick tour of the area and stopped by at a friend of Danna and Zack. Danna is a friend who I worked with for a while at The Association of Former Students. Zach is on the IT team out here as well. They both went to A&M for their undergrad and were in the process of getting their masters in MIS when they decided to take jobs out here.

We were then dropped off at our hotel, and after we figured out how everything worked (toilet, safe, TV and Internet) we went to bed. This morning we went to a church that is pretty contemporary. It is very similar to the one Kara and I are attending in The Woodlands. We then went to Fuddruckers. That’s right, Fuddruckers. We had lunch with Danna and her / my potential boss. We also got to see a lot of Education City. It’s totally in the middle of construction but what they have done looks great. It reminds me of the early days of A&M in College Station, except without the billions in backing.

We also went to a Mardi Gras party where I got to speak with some of the faculty and relax. I met two guys who are serving in Iraq they were John and Paul. They have a program here where soldiers can come for R&R and stay with expatriates in the area.

Getting to Qatar

For traveling 8 time zones away things haven’t been too tough. Our trip started with the nice surprise of finding out we were going to fly first class. I had been told that we were before but when we got our tickets they were in business class seats. Being a person who has always flown coach I didn’t feel any need to ask for the upgrade. So when we checked in they told us the good news.

It makes the flight go by a lot faster just because my seating area is about the size of my old dorm room. Instead of pretzels we got to pick our meals from a menu. We also got complimentary sets of pajamas and toiletry bags. At least I think they were complimentary, HA!

We flew into Gatwick airport and took a bus to Heathrow airport. I had the same feeling on the bus ride between the two airports that I have each time I do something new. Everyone spoke English but it wasn’t home. I guess that goes under the no crap category, but it still hits me each time. While I’m writing this we’re about 2 hours way from Qatar. I bet things will look even more different there. I don’t want to be presumptuous though.

On my way to Qatar.

On my way to Qatar. It’s been about 7 to 12 months or maybe even 5 years in the making. It depends on how you look at it. Ever since January of 1999 I have wanted to travel overseas and work in a different culture. I didn’t know what I would do, but I did know what my perfect job would be. I would work in the Middle East using my experience as a developer. Hopefully I would be able to work in my expertise. It would really help if it was an area that was livable for me and my wife. If I was really going to dream big, I would actually be able to save some money while working there so that I wouldn’t be “behind” whenever my wife and I decided to move back to the US.

All I can say is that God answered my prayers. He answered prayers I was afraid to pray. Thinking it was too much to ask. It is punctuated by the fact that I would not be in the position to be considered for this opening unless I had been turned down for more jobs then I can count. That’s a lot. I mean really a lot. There were some close calls, but luckily they all told me “No”. This extends from TXU, to my infamous (among family and friends) “I’m the Alpha male” remark in the USAA interview, to using the wrong name in my thank you for the interview email to Wal-Mart. I can’t forget Chevron Texaco, ANICO, CIS, CIA and the close call of almost accepting a job with UCS.

Each time I put my hopes into getting the job, willing to do whatever, as long as I didn’t have to move back home with my tail between my legs. Thanks for the tuition mom and dad, I feel like the best use of your investment would be for me to go back to work at Macaroni Grill. Hopefully I can get promoted from server Assistant to a full fledged server. Thankfully God shut the right doors guiding my way through this maze to my current destination. I don’t have the job yet, but it looks good and I can’t help but to consider what my come of it.

So my wife and I are packing our bags, saying some preliminary goodbyes, getting our visas and taking the next step.

Ma'as s-salaama (Goodbye)