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.