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.