Two Weeks Down, How Many More to Go?

Morgan reminded us this morning that today marks two weeks here, so it's time for an update. I think everyone's getting more and more settled. Morgan's having a hard time adjusting her bedtime, though. School here starts at 7, and she's riding the bus, which means being downstairs at 6:15. That means getting up with the sun at 5:45, and bedtime should be around 8. We'll get there, though.

Friday night after gymnastics we went to check out one of the other big shopping malls in Doha, the Villaggio. It is patterned after Venice, complete with stucco storefronts, frescoed ceilings and a canal running down the middle with gondolas and gondoliers. That's where more of the American and London High Street stores are: Gap, Banana Republic, Topshop, etc. Morgan was excited to see a Claire's. Limited Too sells Webkinz (some things can't be escaped!). Of course it has the requisite ice rink as well. We tried TGI Friday's, which was a bit of a letdown (sorry, their beef bacon was not good) and Krispy Kreme doughnuts (not bad). Steve was excited to see a Virgin Megastore. He got some more Qatar guidebooks. Morgan got a movie and Harry Potter and The PHILOSOPHER's Stone (Bloomsbury/UK printing) since we accidentally put her Sorceror's Stone in the shipping container. She said at first spellings like "neighbour" confused her, and that she knows she'll come back speaking British English (that's what's taught at school, despite the fact that her teacher is also American ...).

Hall near Villaggio's food court

Morgan at the Villaggio canal

We joined the Bay Club at the Intercontinental on Friday. The weather was great, but Morgan totally freaked out about the flies. In just the past few days, it has started warming up. Today it's around 80, warm enough to break a sweat on my walk back from the grocery store.

The Intercontinental

The Doha skyline from the Intercontinental's beach

The beach at the Intercontinental

This brings me to my favorite topic, food. Overall, I'm impressed with what's available. We've come up with a short list of things we haven't found: Hershey bars (though French and Swiss milk chocolate bars are available), plain graham crackers (there's Nabisco cinnamon or McVities digestives), and almond butter. Some things are ridiculously expensive, but we'll suck it up: plain Cheerios are $10 a box. But most other American foods are readily available, particularly junk foods, I'm not proud to say: Pepsi, Coke, Kraft cheeses, Lays chips, Baskin Robbins ice cream, deli meats. What I really like is that Europe's a lot closer, so foods imported from there are more readily available and cheaper. Morgan can get three Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs for about $2; I think I paid $3 for one at Tysons Mall when we finally found them. One of our favorite drink mixes, sirop, is carried in five flavors and two brands. I can get limonade (the French fizzy drink kind of like lemon-lime soda but not as sweet). Twinings teas are about $2 a box. With all the workers from Asia, there's lots and lots of ethnic foods: one side of one row at Carrefour (the French supermarket in the mall) is just rice, another is Indian spices and curries, another is Filipino and Thai. There's even a small Mexican section. For meat you can choose local, Indian or Australia/New Zealand, and produce is imported from everywhere -- China (avoiding that one), Lebanon, Spain, France, US.

Morgan had her first playdate on Saturday with a friend from school. I think school's going well. She says the homework is hard; I think she is having to think more critically again after not using that skill much for the last year and a half. We're working on getting her a private tutor for French during the school day. The rest of her class who are taking French are beginners. Morgan said she reviewed articles of clothing for the fourth time yesterday. In PE, she's learning to play cricket.

I've noticed that the news coverage is broader over here, albeit with a different slant (see the ICC/Bashir story). I'm reading one of the local papers, The Peninsula, which offers more coverage of the Arab world, India and Asia than US papers do. It also reprints Financial Times business news. The building keeps a copy of the International Herald Tribune in the lobby that I flip through in the afternoon while I wait for Morgan's school bus. Every now and then we catch a few minutes of Al Jazeera, but don't really go out of our way for it. We also get BBC World News and CNN, and I supplement these with web browsing the online editions of NYT, CNN and the Post.

I'll close with one observation: from my perspective, it seems like women who choose abayas and veils could have a free pass on bad hair days. And why spend tens of thousands of dollars on designer gowns (Dior was among the busier shops in the Villaggio) when almost no one will see them? At least that's how I see it as an outsider looking in ...