DarrenConley.com

I checked out a job opportunity today.  There is a college here in Doha that is desperate to hire an English teacher in the next week, and someone who we met at our new church passed my name along to them.  I called them yesterday, talked briefly with the head of the EFL department on the phone, and decided that I'd check out the campus (and talk to the department head in person) this afternoon.

Getting to this college was a bit of an adventure in itself.  It's way out by the airport (where there isn't a lot of civilization) and my taxi driver didn't actually have any idea where to find it.  I brought along a map that the college had emailed to me, but it still didn't help this driver beyond getting us to the general area.  We had to make about 4 U-turns, as well as backtrack several times before we finally found the campus.

The administrator that I spoke to was a very nice British woman, and she made it clear that she was hoping that I'd sign on with them.  It's nice to walk into a potential job opportunity and know that the ball is completely in your own court!  We talked about the school, discussed the details of the contract, and then she offered to briefly introduce me to the director of the college.  

We walked down to the director's office and were escorted through his door.  The office was fairly large, with several pieces of leather furniture, and large pictures of the Emir of Qatar behind his chair.  He also had an ornate copy of the Quran prominantly displayed on a portion of his large desk.  He himself was not yet in his office, but he came in a short time later.

If you hadn't already put it together, the director was a Qatari man.  He was dressed in the standard thobe, and had a moustache which is typical of many Middle Eastern men.  He walked in like a hurricane, with another man behind him, just as his mobile phone (which was on his desk) began ringing.  He told us to wait a moment, answered his mobile, spoke briefly in Arabic, and then hung up.  He then turned to the man who had followed him in, discussed something else in Arabic, and was interrupted by his landline phone.

He answered the phone, had a 5 minute discussion with someone in English which mostly consisted of exchanging contact information (fax numbers, email addresses, mobile numbers) and told the person on the phone to call back and speak with someone else.  As he was speaking on the phone, another man (who looked like a maintenance worker) knocked on the office door and let himself in.  When the director got off the phone, he got up, turned to this man, discussed some dates in English, and sat back down at his desk.  Then he looked at some papers and promptly got up and walked out of his office again.

As someone who "has the ball in his court", I didn't feel particularly annoyed or intimidated by this situation, but rather intruiged.  I didn't have anything to do for the rest of the day, and it was interesting to study the working lifestyle of a promenant Qatari college director.

While the director was out, I commented to the EFL department head (who had been sitting silently beside me this entire time) that "this is one busy guy."  I also remarked that I was surprised that he didn't have administrators under him to take care of these issues that kept interrupting us.  She said that he used to have a very competent assistant, but when she left for another job, they couldn't fill her shoes.  They had actually hired two people to cover this assistant's job, and they were both fired for not keeping up.

After a couple minutes the director came in again and sat down at his desk.  The department head introduced me and handed the director my resume.  He looked at me briefly, and proceeded to take a full two minutes examining my resume.  He then decided to ask me several questions, including "Where are you from?" (which I get a lot – he meant my ethnic background, not my citizenship) and "Is your wife actually sponsoring you?"  He made a joke or two about how that is every man's dream – to have the wife working and the husband free to do what he pleases.  I went along with the joke.

He then had a few questions for the department head about TESL certification (which I don't have, but which, technically, my MA degree should supercede).  After she pointed out my relevant educational qualifications, the director dismissed me so that he could speak to the department head in private.  I waited back in the department head's office until she finished her discussion with the director.

She came back several minutes later saying that basically, the job was mine, if I was willing to take it.  I am, however, going to turn it down.  Why, you ask?  Here's what they're offering me:

The contract is not full time (even though it is full time hours), which means that I would not get paid vacation or holidays.  Part of the problem is that I am sponsored by Larissa.  There's some crazy rule that if the husband sponsors the wife to enter the country, the wife can do any kind of work she is able to find, but if the wife sponsors the husband, the husband is not allowed to be employed on a full-time contract.  It's a government rule, and there's no way around it – unless the college decides to take on sponsoring me themselves.  In that case, they would need a firm committment from me for at least a year, probably two.  That would close any doors to better job opportunities in the future.

The salary itself is comparible to what I was making back in Canada (a little higher, actually), but less than half of what Larissa is making in her position.  It's not that I'm hoping to rake in a ton of cash or anything, but I'd at least like something in the ball park of what my wife is making.

Another consideration is transportation.  Many companies, including the others that I've applied to, offer either paid transportation to and from work, or a travel allowance which would allow you to buy or rent a car, or pay for a driver to pick you up and drop you off each day.  This college is not able to provide such an allowance, so my transportation costs would have to come out of my already smaller-than-I'd-like paycheque.  And I think I mentioned above that this school is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

There is also the nature of the teaching itself.  When I spoke on the phone to the department head yesterday, she indicated that I would be teaching one particular skill (probably grammar) to a group of middle-intermediate students.  However, today she said that I would actually be teaching all of the skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar) to a group of beginner students.  Now, I'm sure that I could learn to handle such a situation, but I've never actually taught beginners before.  I was always given the middle to upper-level students when I taught back in Canada.  I think that I would find beginners to be very stressful for the first couple weeks.

Besides these things, there's the consideration that even if the college did sponsor me and I decided to work there on a full-time basis, my holidays would be less than Larissa's, and on different dates, making travel difficult.  If the position was one that offered a much better salary and benefits, it might be worth the trade-off, but as it is, it doesn't seem worth it.

Of course, by turning down this offer I'm setting myself up for the possibility of not being able to get hired anywhere, and being left unemployed.  On the other hand, I think there is some wisdom in not accepting the first offer that comes your way.  I don't want to be stuck in a position that I don't like, and have our chances for travel and visiting with family be ruined by it.  Besides, everyone that I've spoken to seems confident that I should be able to land a good position here, given my skills and experience.

I just hope that such a position comes along soon, because the sponsored-by-your-wife comments are starting to lose their charm, even when they come from promenant Qatari college directors.

I had a little trouble in deciding what to name this post.  At first I was going to call it "Ramadan Dinner", but then I thought that I should probably call it by its actual name.  When I asked Larissa what the real name of the meal in question was, she said it was Suhoor.  However, when I verified what Suhoor was using this Wikipedia article, it said that it referred to a morning meal, while the event I'm about to describe to you happened at night. 

The evening meal that happens after sunset during Ramadan is called Iftar, so I asked Larissa if that was the name of the meal which we ate (and which this post is about).  She said no, that Iftar happens earlier in the evening, immediately after sunset, while the meal which we ate (and which I want to tell you about) happened several hours after sunset.  So I suppose what I'm talking about here is a very, very early morning meal (like, before midnight), even though I'm calling this post "Ramadan Dinner" after all.  Maybe I'll add a question mark in brackets.

So, the other night (Friday, to be exact), Larissa and I went to this dinner-type-thingy which is probably called Suhoor.  Here's how this dinner thing works:  During Ramadan, Muslims fast during the daylight hours.  After sundown, they break the fast, typically with some close friends and family.  Then, as the night continues, many of them like to, for lack of a better term, party.  Usually this involves more food, and possibly some shopping or visiting of well-liked acquaintances.

When it comes to the food portion of "party time", there are many businesses in Doha that are more than happy to cater (literally) to the hungry Qatari citizen (or expat, for that matter).  To this end, all of the large hotels in Doha have set up elaborate tents, where they serve extravagant meals for inflated prices.  Since we are here in the midst of this and since we have some extra cash lying around, we thought we'd give one of these tents a try.

We noticed a sign-up list in the lobby of our apartment for an outing to one of these tents that was being arranged by someone in our building.  Since signing a paper was much easier than picking a hotel and trying to find our own transportation, and since we knew some of the others who were going, we signed up.

Transportation was being provided by Johnson and his (4 person) fleet of drivers.  Have I mentioned them on this blog before?  Ah yes – briefly, in this post.  Anyway, our favourite driver from this company, Tiju (sp?) was our chauffeur for the evening.  He knows all the shortcuts and back roads, and even though we were the last car to leave, we were among the first to arrive.  The meal began at around 9:30 or 10:00pm.

The tent was set up along the waterfront of the West Bay area of Doha, and the walkway and trees leading up to it were covered in lights.  This particular tent was being run by the Intercontinental Hotel, and it was pretty freakin' huge.  It was the size of a large convention hall, and the entire apparatus was fully air conditioned.  I would say that it could hold about 500 people.  

We were seated at a long table with the 25 or so other people who came from our building.  The food was set up buffet-style (see the pictures below), while drinks were served by the wait staff.  I should tell you that it cost about $75 per person, and that did not include drinks (i.e. water).  You could also, for a little bit extra, order a Shisha, but we passed on that option.

The buffet consisted of several different sections.  Closest to us was the salad table, which you can see in the picture below (click on the picture to see it larger):

Since I generally find that salad is not difficult to make at home or find at most other restaurants, I usually skip it at a buffet.  Also, I like to save room for MEAT!  Wow, I look like an enthusiastic carnivore when I put that in capitals.

On the other side of the salad spread was the desert table, pictured below:

This is actually only a portion of the desert table (I couldn't get it all in one shot).  The next picture focuses on the stuff that's at the far end of the picture above:

Most of these desserts are fairly typical options that you'd find in dessert or pastry shops in Doha, and unfortunately, most of them look far better than they taste.  However, the chocolate mouse cake was killer!

Between the salad and the dessert sections, there was an area where these two ladies were making crepes, and you could choose several different options of what you wanted inside of them (cheese, yogurt, some other stuff I can't remember, but Larissa said it's thyme).  I didn't get a picture of that part of the buffet, though, because I didn't feel like asking permission to shoot the crepe table.  It felt a little too touristy.

Behind all of the above sections was another smaller tented area where they served most of the hot dishes.  There was a wide selection of meats, mainly consisting of chicken, beef, or lamb.  There were kebabs, BBQ'd items, and stews.  However, the best option for consuming meat was to have it as part of a prepared-while-you-wait stir fry!  Honestly, I couldn't get enough of this stir fry action!  It was like Asia and the Middle East made a deal to deliver the best tasting meat & vegetable combination directly to my mouth for that evening.  Here's a picture of the stir fry making area:

Yeah, I know I sliced off that guy's head.  I was so focused on the food!

Beside the stir fry was an area where they prepared Falafel.  I tried some.  It was okay, but not really my thing.  Behind that area was a place where you could get some stuff that was like a Samosa, but with an Arabic name.  For some reason, I took a picture of Larissa standing near it:

I can't remember if I liked them or not.  I think I didn't care for them much.  I was way too focused on the stir fry.  Man, that stir fry was tasty.

After most of the eating had been done, they began with the live entertainment.  Actually, there was a guy on stage playing traditional Arabic music for the better part of the eating as well, but we kinda tuned him out after a while.  The real entertainment began when the Whirling Dervish came out.  I would explain what this guy is all about, but first, this Wikipedia article explains it much better, and second, some video footage would probably give you a better taste of the experience.

This was only a small portion of his entire dance.  He actually starts out with just one of those round things, and then as he continues, they multiply.  He holds them in different configurations, and spins continuously for about 10 min or more.  

I have a second video of him spinning around with his skirt (?), but I should explain a couple things about it.  First, the reason why it goes in and out of focus is because there are many people standing in the foreground between the dancer and I, and our little digital camera gets confused as to who it should be focusing on.  Second, I have no idea what the significance of the folding is.  Third, yes, that is me sounding dumb toward the end of the video.  I think I forgot that our camera records audio as well.

After the Dervish was finished, we had a band come on stage and play some traditional instrumental music for a little while.  Later, the band was joined by a singer.  I managed to capture a bit of footage of the singer and the band:

By the time she had done a couple songs, we were getting really tired (it was about 11:30, and we're used to going to bed at 10:00 and waking up at 5:30 or 6:00am), so we put in a call to Johnson, and had him send Tiju to come pick us up.  In about 15 min, we got our "I'm here!" call on the mobile, and were escorted home, very tired and very full!

All in all it was an enjoyable experience, although you can find a good meal of comparable quality for much less money within walking distance of our apartment.  It was good to have participated in a piece of the Qatari lifestyle, however, even if we aren't fasting, or rich (yet)!

Hey everyone!  Just a quick post today.  I was going through some of my playlists on YouTube, and even though I've heard this song a bunch of times, the emotion of it hit me again this morning.  It reminds me a lot of how I felt before I got together with Larissa, and it especially makes me think of a friend or two who struggle with finding real love.

I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to post your thoughts about the video in the comments section.

Well my friends, it's Thursday afternoon in Doha (which probably makes it Thursday morning for most of you reading this in North America) and the weekend has begun.  Not that I notice much, what with my lack of employment making every day seem much like the last.  You can't even tell the days apart by the weather, since the only thing that changes is the amount of dust in the air (or, to put it another way, how well you can see the tower at the sports complex down the road from our apartment).  I guess Larissa is around the apartment a lot more on the weekends.  There's always that difference.

Speaking of Larissa and the weather, I actually heard the following phrase come out of her mouth yesterday: "Well, it's only forty degrees today."  Were talking Celsius here, folks.  You know you're living in a hot country when someone utters that phrase as a message of comfort.

The major change that happened this week was that we finally got our apartment fully wired up with a landline telephone and, more importantly, internet access.  The download speeds are not quite the same as back home, but it's not as bad as I expected either.  I'm consistently getting about 60-65 Kb per second, which is just enough to make Youtube and SurfTheChannel run without too many hiccups. 

We also went ahead and installed Skype on our computer so that we can use the internet to make phone calls at extremely cheap prices (i.e. about two-and-a-half cents per minute to call someone's phone in Canada).  However, if more of you good people would take a couple minutes to install Skype on your OWN computers, we could have voice conversations over the internet with you for FREE!  So let me encourage you to take advantage of the wonders of modern technology, and get that hooked up.  If you have a webcam (along with the required speakers and microphone) we can even get the video chat going, and perhaps I could bring you on a virtual tour of our apartment.

There will, however, be no webcam stripteasing.  I'm just going to eliminate that question before it comes up.  I don't want to see any of you naked (or nearly naked).  It's not that I think you're ugly, it's just that my computer has become very conservative since we've come to Qatar, and I don't want it locking me out for subjecting it to innapropriate content.

Speaking of inappropriate content, the internet is fairly well-censored here in Qatar.  There's only one internet service provider (called Q-Tel), and they have installed software to filter out anything that may offend Muslim sensibilities.  Not that I would want to look at such material anyway.  I do, however, have several pork-related posts that I'm hoping are still visible to readers who might be in this country.

Pretty much the only thing in our apartment that still isn't up to Canadian standards is our refrigerator.  It has nothing to do with it being a Qatari refrigerator (it's actually made by Whirlpool), but it has more to do with the fact that something's not functioning properly with it.  Our food is not cold.  It's not even really cool.  It's more like "luke-cool".  Our food feels like you've left it in a basement for a few hours.  

I've tried to make it colder – I've read the entire instruction book that came with it, I've adjusted the settings to allow for maximum cold-iosity, I've put the milk on different shelves to see if there is a colder spot somewhere… nothing is helping.  The downside is that most of the fresh foods that we put in it go bad in under 48 hours.  The upside is… well… there's not really an upside to having a less-than-cold fridge. 

The other downside is that Larissa is developing some sort of phobia about leftovers now.  Ever since we discovered a couple of moldy items a few weeks ago, every single time she pulls something out of the fridge she asks me to smell it, examine it, and tell her if it's okay.  Now, she actually has a much better sense of smell than I do, and with my colorblindness I don't trust my eyes to tell if something is rotten or not, but I guess she feels that she needs a second opinion about whether or not to risk food poisoning, and I'm the only one around to give it to her.  

We've made some phone calls to try to get our fridge repaired/replaced, but getting those kinds of things done is a long process in Doha.  You pretty much have to pester people until the weekend, and then wait for the weekend to be over, and then pester them some more.  So far I've spoken to the guy in charge of building maintenance twice, and the fridge has been inspected once by our building's front-door security guard.  He confirmed that it was, indeed, luke-cool.  More on the fridge situation as it develops.

One other exciting piece of news is that I bought a new suit this week!  Alright, it's not that exciting a piece of news, but I didn't want to end this post on the topic of our not-so-cold fridge.  So yeah, a suit.  It's black with small pinstripes, and was purchased for a very good price from BHS here in Doha.  I believe that we got the jacket, the pants, a blue dress shirt, and a blue tie for about $160 CAD altogther.  I still would like to get a solid black suit, as well as a sand-coloured one, but I think I'm going to get them tailored.  It costs a bit more money (about double what I paid for the one I just bought), but I want some suits that fit well and are going to last.  

The main reason for the suit purchase is to give me something to wear to job interviews, and hopefully, to whatever job I end up landing here.  Besides, there's something about wearing a suit that makes you feel more respectable.  People treat you better and take you more seriously, and you feel more like a responsible member of society.  I remember when I spent 3 weeks selling Cutco knives back in my late teens, I had to wear a suit to all of the presentations, and even though I was just selling some freakishly expensive knives, I felt like a somebody because I was wearing a suit.

But the Cutco job did suck.  There's no two ways about that.  That's why I only lasted three weeks.  I'm just hoping that whatever suit-wearing job I get out here will last much longer, and have better benefits than discounts on really expensive knives.

Hallowe'en was always one of my favourite nights as a kid.  You get to stay up late, dress up in cool costumes, and best of all, there was FREE CANDY!  My favourite costume, by the way, was this bat costume that my mom made for me when I was 5 years old.  Not Batman, a bat.  What made it so amazing was that when I lifted up my arms, there were bat wings that attached from the sleeves to the side of the costume.  Bat wings.  If I could find that costume in my adult size, I would never take it off.

Would it surprise you to know that there is a Hallowe'en-ish celebration that happens in Qatar as well?  It's called Garanga'oh, and it shares several similarities with what we do in Canada for Hallowe'en.  First, there is free candy, which the children collect from friends and relatives, and put into special bags.  Second, it only happens at night (in the middle of Ramadan), so the children get to stay up late (although everyone stays up late during Ramadan).  And third, there are costumes, although the children do not dress up as something scary or funny – they dress in the traditional clothes of their culture, often with elaborate designs.

CNAQ put on a Garango'ah party for the children (or young relatives) of staff and students the other night, and Larissa coaxed me into bringing our camera and taking some pictures.  I won't display all of them here, but if you want to see the full set, you can check them out on my Flickr page, or see them as a slide show.  In the meantime, here are some of the highlights (you can click on any photo to see it full size on my Flickr page):

There was a fairly large crowd of people on campus that night.  I would say about 300-400 people.

They were doing face painting inside one of the tents.  The kids were surprisingly patient and well behaved!

The CNAQ mascot "Hamoose" also put in an appearence.  In case you're wondering about his name, it's supposed to be a play on words with hummus.

They were serving up kebab for the attendees.  Always a popular food choice in this part of the world.

Larissa had some Henna done while she was at the party.  It looked beautiful, but it was stinky!  It freaked me out a bit, but I'm used to it now.  Her Qatari students loved it.

Larissa wasn't the only one getting Henna done!  This little girl looks like she's still trying to decide if she likes it or not.

The kids were all very cute in their traditional costumes.  The girls' outfits were especially elaborate.

One of the more colourful outfits that I saw that night.  I'm very happy with how this picture turned out, considering I was using a flash. 

Larissa with some of the little boys in traditional Qatari outfits.  They were really cute.

I love the guy on the right in this photo!  You have to click on it and see it full-size to be able to appreciate the expression on his face!

So, I hope you enjoyed the photos, and don't forget to visit my Flickr page if you want to see the rest of them.

We just got back from a killer Newfoundland party that was happening in an apartment above us.  There was food, there was drink, there were many people older than us by ten years or more, and there was a lot of group singing.  Yes, you heard me, singing.  Although you wouldn't have actually heard me singing if you were there, since most of the songs were of the "country music" genre, and I don't know many of those by heart. 

The highlight of the party, by far, was watching George play his "ugly stick", which he made himself, and has played onstage with several local bands back in the homeland (i.e. Newfound).  It's basically a stick with a bunch of pop caps attached to it (creating a tambourine-like effect when it is shaken), along with a boot which is nailed to the bottom.  He plays the ugly stick by shaking it, stomping it, and hitting it with another stick.  It sounds a little loopy to describe, but it is a sight to behold.

Luckily, we were able to shoot some video footage of George "workin' the stick".  Take a look at this action:

If you're wondering what song they're singing, it's called Kiss An Angel Good Morning (click for lyrics).  Here's another video of George in action:

At one point, the stick was passed to Larissa, who gave a very respectable performance for someone who has never worked a stick before.  (no, I'm not going to make that joke)

I've become inspired to try to create an ugly stick of my own now.  If any of you happen to come across a suitable stick in the near future, set it aside, and try to drink some pop from bottles too.  Here it only comes in cans.

It was brought to my attention earlier today (via comments by Dave Lapsley on this post) that I have been negligent in maintaining the regular frequency of my posting here.  Since I have very little excuse for not writing (well, except for the fact that I don't have internet access at home AND that my life isn't particularly exciting right now) I have decided to throw something up in the next 40 minutes before I have to catch the shuttle bus back to our apartment.

First of all, we've got our satellite TV installed and running.  A mustached gentleman came over a couple nights ago, chucked up a dish on our roof, ran some cable into our apartment, handed me the receiver, and took our 550 QR (about $160 CAN) and after running the installation software, we were ready to roll.  And by "roll" I mean "watch TV".  And by "watch TV" I mean "watch over 900 channels which largely consist of readings from the Quran, people having discussions in Arabic, Italian soap operas, and news channels from every major country in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East."  

There are actually about 50 or 60 channels which offer programming in English (usually with Arabic subtitles), and about 5 of those channels which we would probably watch on any consistent basis.  There are three channels which run current and not-so-current American TV shows (I watched a full episode of Knight Rider yesterday) and a couple channels which run subtitled versions of American movies.  I also watched The Karate Kid part II and Cool Runnings yesterday.  That's why I'm not posting on my blog.

As an aside, it's funny how much is done in this country by Indian men with mustaches.  You want a taxi ride somewhere?  You will be driven by an Indian man with a mustache.  Something wrong with your plumbing?  Guess who's going to fix it?  A guy from India with a mustache.  And who is delivering the water jugs for our water cooler?  A bunch of mustaches, with Indian guys attached to them.  If I grew myself a mustache, learned some Hindi, and put on some traditional Indian clothing, I'm sure that I could easily get a job working in the rubble field across the street.  Which brings me to our next topic…

The job search is still underway.  It's been a bit of a slow process, due to a few different factors.  First, I know (from having spoken to many people who have lived here for much longer than me) that the best English teaching gig pretty much in the whole WORLD right now is teaching EFL at CNAQ.  Since everyone I've spoken to seems to think it insane that they didn't hire me, and since many other employees here have applied multiple times before they are hired, I'm still kinda holding out hope that I could get hired in the near future (like, January).  However, they have to post an new competition number before I'm allowed to apply, and they haven't done that yet.

Another factor is that I still don't have my official residence documentation, and some employers would like you to have that before they'll consider hiring you.  We spoke to HR at CNAQ today (who are taking care of my paperwork in this area) and they said that it will probably be another week before the documentation comes through.  The sucky thing about that is that it will also have a bearing on my ability to leave the country for our planned vacation in a couple weeks (you can read this post on Larissa's blog for more information about that).

So, because of these considerations, I'm not super anxious to apply for a job that offers half my potential earnings (if I got hired at CNAQ) and for which I'd have to explain that my residency isn't ready yet, but it's coming at some point soon, insha'Allah.  Having said that, I did apply for a job posting with the British Embassy which would involve reviewing peoples' visa applications and screening applicants who may want to come to Britain.  I'm still waiting for a call to see if I have an interview.  If I do get a call, I'll still have to go out and buy an nice suit.  I'm hoping to get one tailored…! 

And speaking of jobs and fashion, Larissa has advised me that I should probably watch how I dress around campus, especially if I want to be hired on staff sometime soon.  Not that I walk around wearing cut-off muscle shirts and Daisy-Dukes or anything, but occasionally I'll show up on campus wearing khaki pants and a respectable t-shirt, while the staff dress code is actually "dress shirt and tie". 

Now, I know what many of you are thinking: "But Darren, you aren't staff!" to which I would add "yet".  But there is a proverb that says You should always dress for the job you want, not the job you have.  For the most part, I've been dressing like a student, and since I often eat lunch in the same secret-eating area as my possible future boss, Larissa's advice might make a difference.  That's why today I'm wearing black pants and a very respectable collared shirt.  No tie though – I think it would make me seem like a faker. 

I have made one change lately, however, which makes me feel like my existence in Qatar is more validated – I got my own mobile phone.  Everybody here, from the highest Qatari Sheikh to the lowest mustached construction worker, has their own mobile phone.  When we arrived, Larissa was given a free mobile to use by CNAQ, but since I'm only her lowly spouse, no free cell phone for me.  I was already embarrassed the other day when one of her co-workers called on Larissa's cell, and I answered it, needing to explain that she had left it with me at home in case I went out somewhere and needed to call a taxi.  

Everything has changed now, though, since I purchased my own phone and got it activated a few days ago.  I have my own number and everything.  I feel like I'm finally my own person!  And Larissa has discovered that she can now find out exactly what I'm doing at all times, and ask me to go do something different.  At least she can't complain about my choice of ring tone anymore.  It's my phone, and if I want to hear Euro-trance when people call me, then that's what I'm going to hear, dammit!

By the way, if anyone wants to pay big money to call me on my mobile, email me, and I'll send you my number.  Incoming calls are free!  For me. 

Well, that's all the time I have for today my friends.  Until the next time someone complains about my posting habits, this is Darren Conley, signing off.

I have just returned from an excursion to the Family Food Center, which is the closest grocery/dollar(ish) store to where we live.  It is quarter to eleven in the morning, and today I've decided not to go to the college with Larissa.

Most weekdays (that is, Sunday to Thursday), I hop on the shuttle bus with Larissa and the other CNAQ employees and spend the better part of the day on the campus.  I generally start out by going to the gym from 9am till about 10:30, after which I head over to the library (which is the building next-door), plug my laptop into to a wall outlet, and use the internet for a few hours.  The earliest bus home is at 12:50, but usually I take the 1:50 bus so that I have some time to eat my lunch.

It's taken a bit of time to adjust to the workout facilities at CNAQ.  For one thing, they don't have much in the way of cardio equipment that I'm very happy with.  I am, however, very picky when it comes to cardio.  When I was back at Brock, I would only use the elliptical machines (and then only one particular type of elliptical), or I would go running on the indoor track.  At CNAQ, the design of their elliptical machines feels weird, and they have no indoor track.  There are some outdoor facilities, but working out outdoors is pretty much an experiment in how fast you can develop heat stroke, so outdoor stuff is out (at least until the winter).  I coped with this problem by skipping cardio altogether.

Another thing I had to get used to at the gym was that all of the freeweights are labeled in kilograms instead of pounds.  Generally you can multiply by two in order to get a rough idea of the equivalent in lbs., but even then the weights go up in strange increments.  They're labeled like "21, 23 1/2, 26, 28 1/2, 31…" etc.  Often I find that one weight is too little, while the next level up is too much.  

The strangest thing about the workout facilities is that the men here are very shy about revealing themselves to each other in the change rooms.  There are signs in the locker room saying "Please wear a towel at all times", and there are individual stalls where you can go to change, and other individual stalls for showering.  I understand that women are generally more body-conscious, but I've never seen such conservatism in men.  It's the complete opposite of my experience with public baths in Japan.

I just took a break to go make a peanut-butter sandwhich.  This is what we expats call "living the adventure".

Just when I was settling into a fairly comfortable schedule here, this little thing called Ramadan comes along and throws things out of whack.  Before I say anything about Ramadan, let me first make a comment about its pronunciation.  The first part of the word, "Rama-", should rhyme with the English word "trauma".  The second part, "dan", should rhyme with the word "gone".  By no means should you say "Ramadan" with the [a]'s sounding like the [a] in the word "can".  It makes you sound very ignorant, and whenever I hear one of the Canadians over here saying that way I shudder.

Ramadan is pretty much the largest Muslim religious celebration, and it lasts (this year) for the entire month of September.  The Muslims are required to fast from food AND WATER from sun-up to sun-down.  The rest of us living with the Muslims are required to avoid eating AND DRINKING in any public place during the daylight hours.  In other words, no bringing your water bottle with you to the gym or when you go for a walk, no going out for lunch, no eating your lunch on campus in any place where someone might see you.  

As far as things on campus go, there are some "secret rooms" (aka "Teachers' lounges") where the windows have been blocked up and you can go to have your lunch without fear of offending any practitioner of Islam.  The cafeterias are all completely closed during Ramadan.  Outside of campus, the Qatari people (as much as is possible) like to sleep during the daylight hours, and party with their family and friends after sundown until late into the night.  They kinda switch to vampire hours.

Because of this shift in sleeping/waking/eating habits, the stores and businesses all change their schedules to accommodate it.  Most stores during the month of September won't open until well after sundown – usually about 7pm or 7:30 (the sun sets here at about 6:30pm).  This includes most of the shopping malls.  Some grocery stores modify their hours, but still open for part of the day.  The Family Food Center (which I mentioned above) now opens from 8:30am to 12:30pm, 2:30 to 5:30pm, and 7pm to 12 midnight.  The major downside is that if I stay at home instead of going to CNAQ, I have very little I can do outside our apartment.  

My major task for today is going to be setting up the floor lamp which we bought yesterday night, and installing the light bulbs to make it work.  In fact, the main reason why I went out to the FFC this morning was to pick up light bulbs.  Something else that I had on my list for today was to check out the satellite dish situation for our apartment.  I have been told that in Qatar, satellite service is free – you just have to purchase the hardware and get it set up.  There are also several other CNAQ residences that have satellite dishes mounted and functioning – you just have to buy a receiver and plug it into your TV.  So this morning, as I was heading out to the FFC, I went up to the top floor of our building and found the door to the roof.

The roof of the building is flat and completely covered in dozens of air-conditioning units.  I'm supposing there's such a unit for every apartment in the building.  There was also a clothes line or two, and – what's this? – a whole bunch of satellite dishes!  Some had cables running into various maintenance shafts in the building's superstructure, some were obviously not set up yet (since they were not pointing at the sky), and some looked like they had been privately installed, with single cables running over the top of the building and down through people's windows into their apartments.  

The trick now is to find out if Larissa and I can make use of any of these dishes.  The dishes that seemed to have cables running into the building itself were all on the other side of the building; the opposite side from where we live.  There were at least two "private" dishes that had cables running down into the apartments directly above ours – Perhaps there is room for another cable to be snaked from one of these dishes into our own place?  We have a jack built into our living room wall which seems to be for TV service, but I don't have a cable that fits the jack type, and besides that, we'd need a receiver to decode the signal.  And I don't want to go out and buy a receiver only to find out that the jack in our wall is useless.

I think the best thing to do is to ask someone with satellite service if they're willing to share, provided that we buy our own equipment.  At the very least, they could let us know how they got hooked up.  I don't feel quite comfortable poking around in maintenance shafts, looking for how the cables from the roof are distributed throughout the building.  But then again, I certainly have a lot of time on my hands.

One way or another, we gotta get something hooked up.  There's only so much you can do when you're stuck at home.  Unemployed.  During Ramadan.