You are never going to believe what Ryan and I did today!!! We went grocery shopping at Carrefour at 2:45 pm. While we were walking up and down the isles….. are you ready…..? We had COFFEE!!!! At 2:45 pm!!!! In broad daylight!!!!
OK, it was exciting to me. GOOD-BYE RAMADAN!!!!
I also updated the photos with some more recent pictures. Click on the photos tab to view them.
Today we went to the Sheridan Hotel for a “fancy” dinner with the kids and Kara. We all got dressed up, and the kids were extremely well behaved. Thomas was busy snatching all the garnishes off of the deserts (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries…) After a few handfuls he asks Ryan “How do you say Blackberries in Arabic?” I got up the nerve to ask some Arabs sitting next to us…. their reply “Toots”!!!
For everyone who knows us, they should have heard at one time or another that we refer to “farts” in a child friendly way as “Toots”. So Thomas and Daniel are eating their blackberries/Toots while Ryan, Kara and myself are cracking jokes about “How we like our Toots juicy” and other such childish nonsense. Finally we run out of material… and then little Thomas pipes up (after about 20 mins or so). “Hey Mom, Toots and Tooty bum are the same”, and bursts out into laughter. Funny thing is, he caught on faster than Daniel…..
Anyway, for all of our none Arabic speaking friends…. Toots=Blackberries…. you now know some Arabic!
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In less than 48 hours I will be happily sitting in a Starbucks IN BROAD DAYLIGHT having a nice cup of tea for all to see!!!! Ramadan has had its good things about it, like Ryan being home at 130, the kids not starting school until 8am… but the not eating or drinking in public durning daylight has been really rough. Imagine 45 degree weather and not being able to have a sip of water! As soon as the Arabs see the new moon it will all be over, and I for one cant wait!
Draw backs… Daniel and Thomas will now be starting school at 7am (yikes). Ryan will be working regular work hours, but thats just regular life.
We went to the beach again yesterday. Ken brought his little Chevy Tracker and we went duning. It was SO much fun. I learned how to drive it up the dunes and drove down a hill that was probably 80 degrees straight down. It was really awesome. I cant wait to come home to Canada and practice my new “sand doughnut abilities” in the snow. Thanks Ken!
-jen
So. I didn’t write a lot this month. A lot of you realize that this is nothing new. 9 months ago, I started a resolution to update it every 2 weeks(I think) and… well… yah. t’s been more like a month on average. it’s not like there isn’t a ton going on, it’s just that I don’t do it… sorry I’ll do better… Oh, and for those of you who’d like a more balanced view of what’s going on here, try bugging jen
anyways… I was out last night test driving a used audi A6. it was nice to be behind a powerful, sexy german again… it’s been a while since the fatherland has taken me for a ride. car didn’t have any real guts to write home about, but it was smooth and brakes on a dime… sasha always had one, and he is a sexy beast… so oI think by association, I’ll be a sexy beast if I drive one… yay sasha…
we went to the beach on the weekend, it was fun but super hot. I ended up getting some sort of sun rash from the… uhh sun? might have been the water, but it was all across my chest and shoulders. Took a day, and went away. The boys are loving school. They are both enrolled in Qatar academy this year. Daniel is in kindergarten and thomas is in Pre-3. We were concerned about the ratio of nationalities in that school, but have been VERY happy with how they are treated and the general vibe you get form the school. Plus, it’s nice having the family so close to me. I work about 10 minutes away, and home is a 5 minute drive from that. Everyone on the same campus is pretty cool.
Humm… what else? Rosie’s leg is not doing too good. she tore the ligaments in her knee in January, and although she did pretty well for about 6 months, she is really starting to look like it bugs her.
Umm.. I think that’s it for now. if you have anyquestions for me… let me know in the comments. Dave… keep it clean.
Firing through emails
Just wanted to let everyone know how we treat our guests in Qatar… any visitors form the colonies want to join?
Hey… yah, it’s been a while. today marked the first day of ramadan… First of all, ramadan is a month in the islamic calendar. it’s like saying today is the first day of september, which it is, but that is besides the point… so, when people are celebrating ramadan, really they are celebrating september… Another thing I found out is that their year only has about 355 days(or something like that) there is never a leap year, and the only way you can tell if the month is gonna switch is by reading the moon… All the Muslim countries in the world look to saudi arabia to tell them when the month is changing. Saudi was chosen cause that is where Mohammad lived and died. K. nuff history
Ramadan… the work hours are cut back to only 5 hours a day… none of this working 8 or 10 hours a day stuff… 5 is good… then you are encouraged to go home and have a nap. So, today I did. I went grocery shopping after that, Had to get some burgers for dinner. Hopped in line, adn the one lady in front of me had 1200 Canadian in groceries, and she didn’t buy any meat. She had 8 carts of food… she brought a pick up truck to bring it all home in. it was incredible. I had my burgers and felt like I was not holding quite the same calibre party as she was…
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Anyways, I’ll see if I can get jen to write about the traffic, She and Kara went out tonight, I am home with the boys. I am interested to hear if the no eatign thnig all day makes people as agressive as I have heard they can be…
