My first day in Doha...

I thought I'd celebrate my first full day in Doha with a nice glass of wine.  Of course the wine bottle opener broke before I could get the cork out, so Coconut Juice it is!  :-)  It made me laugh as I thought back over the day and thought I'd share a few snippets of my first day in Doha.

Quality ... it's just not the same as the US!!  I already mentioned the opener for the wine bottle broke on first use.  We've been warned that the glasses provided in our "fully furnished" townhouse will warp in the dishwasher ... not the plastic ware, the glasses!!!  The measuring cup has no lines on it!  The baking sheet warped on it's first use.  All the cooking utensils (spatula, etc) are metal and the pots and pans are of the non stick variety -- metal utensils scratch them all up.  The stove blew a fuse 3 times while making dinner.  Ken tried to reheat something later and couldn't even get it to turn on!  The dead bolt on the front door doesn't work.  There is no hot water in the boys bathtub ... I filled it up using hot water carried up from the kitchen!  And that's just the things I remember! 

Pool and mini market ... my only outing today was to explore the club house and mini market within our townhouse community.  We live very close ... only about 5 units away!  yeah!!  The pool was nice, but the water was cooler than I expected.  My little munchins were shivering in the water after about 45 minutes!  It was later in the evening (about 5pm), but it had to have still been 90 degrees F.  The mini-market was fantastic!!  They have these great little baskets on wheels and I picked up some fresh fruit and veggies for dinner.  I have no idea how much I spent ... I still don't have a grasp on the exhange rate.  It's kind of like monopoly money!  Turns out I can open a tab and pay later.  They also deliver the groceries to your door!  Crazy fun!!!  :-)

Dust ... when Ken said things were dusty, he wasn't kidding!!  I don't know if today was typical, but the sky was hazy gray all day.  It's not clouds, it's the dust in the air!  As the sun was setting, it looked like the moon through a hazy night sky.  Ken said that not all days are this bad ... I hope so!!  You can smell it in the air, it can't be good to breath all that fine sand!