And I'm here!

After all the summer anticipation in Cleveland, the beautiful weddings of 2 fabulous friends, a visit with those I hold dear in Guelph (Ontario), a couple of nights on my most familiar couch, pumpkin pie, premature Halloween candy, and one very large batch of cookies from the Cone Shop, I was ready to board the largest civil airplane-type in the world and travel to Doha, Qatar! Natalie Robertson, friend and prayer extraordinaire was kind enough to drive me to the airport. Beyond the security check-point at Pearson I accidentally met a group of well-seasoned Canadian and U.S. Military Professionals (self-titled "Bills").  My academic interest in P.T.S.D. and Horticultural Therapy among this population made the meeting a real treat for me. Next group to meet was my deeply-wonderful airplane seat-mates - a fresh UoT grad on his way to Kolkata, and a Pakistani gentleman on his way to Dubai. With Leona tucked in the middle seat, we teased, napped and entertained ourselves for the entire 14 hour flight. The discovery of a new music-genre [that's a shout-out to House, Romet], pretty decent cabin-fare, honest spiritual conversations, delightful stewards/esses & a seemingly endless supply of chick flicks (well, I was the only one with that specific movie selection... although the guys did show me how to work all the remotes & touch screens!) made the fun quite unforgettable.



A modest hallway of DIA's Arrivals Section;
A huge moss-covered water feature in Terminal 3 gives
in-transit visitors a place for reflection and quiet.



I then did my very best to not miss my connecting flight due to either a poorly-timed chat with Kenyans or a desire to purchase a celebratory sweet tea (those who experienced my latest distate for Newark as a part of my overall Calgary-L.A.-Cleveland Adventure this past July may applaud a decision of such personal growth). Thankfully, I also had 3.5 hours in my favor, and made the most of my time in Dubai International Airport peeking though duty-free non-fiction novels (eventually landing on Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi), making sure that I did not purchase any alcohol (as it would have been confiscated upon entry to Doha), taking in the thoughtfully designed interior landscape of DIA's spacious Terminal 3, and doing my new, assertive, American best to keep a bit of distance between myself and the many unnecessarily-crammed-together Indian nationals boarding my connecting flight. By assertive, I mean to say that I silently observed the ruckus of a line formation until I literally put my foot down to stop the Indian gent behind me from squeezing a bit too far into my Canadian-standard personal space. Even then, the guy merely stepped on my foot. Haha! On board I was twice mistaken for a member of the Emirates crew, (my particular favourite was the elderly lady who asked me for a wheelchair to disembark the plane) which really befuddled me at first, because I lack one of those super cool hat-veil thingies. Anywhoo! As our plane landed in Doha, a new Yemeni engineer friend gave me a brief tour of the expanding Doha Airport; then I was quickly whisked though immigration and baggage with the help of a lovely Airport Concierge, originally from Sri Lanka (Doesn’t this mix of nationalities sound like fun!). From there, we met up with my Brother-in-Law Darren who offered a brief hug, loaded my bags into the car and gave me a short tour of this gorgeous city along the drive back to the house. My beautiful sister Larissa had waited up for us (although Caleb didn’t quite make it!), and with a warm greeting showed me around their nice home. And that was that!



Ladus (sometimes spelled laddus) are delicious milk
and flour based confections that are rolled into balls...
Deliciously rich like any Indian sweet!



Today my sister and her husband did even more to acquaint me with our part of Doha – the community that is our compound, neighbouring compounds, roller-coaster-esque roundabouts (which define urban Qatari highways), and the Lulu Hypermarket (essentially an International Wal-mart but way more exciting!). Haven’t seen too many white people, but I have seen a lot of Indians!! (Although I regretfully left Hyderabad in the late summer of 2007 without a working knowledge of Hindi vocabulary, I am still widely delighted by saris, biriyani, butter chicken, ladus, and head bobbles. As it turns out, there is a huge market for all of these things in Doha... So I am having a hayday!)



Here is a a taste of the Doha skyline at night.



First thoughts: It is Hot... delightfully so. But it is hot!

This week: Larissa and Caleb will be teaching me their schedules & getting ready for Larissa’s shift back to work, while I do my best to work out mine. (Kansas State is feeding my curiosity as much as ever and I am loving it!). Meeting a few of Larissa & Darren’s friends will also be on the agenda.



Closing thoughts: That is a sizable update! Friends, don’t believe everything the media tells you – the Middle East has been nothing but wonderful to me so far, and it looks like this is just the beginning.

The building on the far right is the Museum of Islamic Art.



TTYL, with love. Leona