Lately

This week passed pretty fast, i had a bit more free-time than usually. And had a billion of exams

Yesterday i got up around 5am (!) to revise my studies, than exam in the morning, than the rest of the day was mine. I decided i won’t waste my time for sleepin --> gym and pool. I love the gym when i’m mentally tired i expend all my energy that left and it completely sooths my mind.

Than with the girls we visited „M” and chilled out in his pool who lives in one of those huge new skyscrapers. We particularly enjoyed the view of aircrafts taking off just above our heads i was afraid the aeroplanes are gonna sweep off the top floor of the building they were so close to us.

In the meantime „M” was preparing the dinner for us. He is probably one of the most generous and unselfish person i have ever met. Hard to belive in today’s world but there are some people who just like to give things to others coz it simply makes them happy. So he prepared several dishes for us and guess what? He had beer and wine in the fridge! I know this doesn’t sound that exciting anywhere else in the world, but here i Qatar it is a big deal! There are some special shops where alcohol is sold – during ramadan they are closed – and you need to have a special permission for purchasing any kind of alcohol - and of course due to my work position i’m not allowed to apply for this permission. So i had a glass of nice wine with the fish. He always comes up with something new American cookie or dish that we haven’t tried before – this time twinkies – snack cake, i didn’t like them, cinnabon is my all time favourite (thanks to "M" i have to do double workout in the gym). But i particularly liked the story he told about the cookies: they say in his country that if the USA lost the nuclear war they would still have twinkies coz it consists of only chemicals :) Thats true, quite full of artificial stuff :)

And a special present for us: a world map for each of us to highlight the cities we visit – he made our day :)

So after the square meal he took us home and i straight fell into my bad around 8pm.

Today again early start, early finish - afternoon --> shopping mall – City Center. Shopping malls dressed in festive decoration - it's ramadan - like in Europe during Christmas.

Anyway when i mentioned that it's a shopping paradise - i take it back. For food shopping it's true, but as for cloths.. i had a closer look to the selection and.. well, it's not to my taste. I'll leave it for somewhere else..

Finishing my weekly foodshopping i almost comitted a serious crime: opened a buttle of juice in daylight and i was about to drink it – but i realized the situation in time. I completely forgot about ramadan. „You are not allowed to drink madame” oops.. hard to keep in mind all the rules all the time. I'm wearing my winter clothes to cover my body in August. And can't eat/drink at public places. Even the Cinnabon shop was closed :s

Favourite item for the day my new body lotion: cookies & cream --> right now i smell like a bowl of chocolate brownies. Instructions on the buttle: „..and while it smells good enough to eat, it is not. Please do not eat Truly Luscious.” :)

Desert Fun

Shower never felt so good as this one and the water was relatively "cold".. my principles of happiness: appreciate small things and never expect too much - so you won't get dissapointed (and of course never trust man - but thats another chapter, i could write a whole book about that..)

So today was probably the most funny and exciting day since i'm here (i know i say it every Friday, but this one was really fun)

Started quite early, 8:30am our American friend "M" came to pick us up - we had some problem getting up, we are not used to so early appointments) so finally when everybody was in the car we drove to the beach where "M" booked the jetskies. Once i tried it very long ago in Croatia, but this time i really got the hang of it and enjoyed so much i could stay there for all day. We got a little safety briefing and some funny equipments: cheap sunglasses (looked funny on us), giant size lifejackets, baseball caps (we were instructed to turn it around so the wind won't sweep it off - haha i still lost mine :) so when we were finally ready to ride the waves looked quite funny.
By the way as "M" is a very well ogranized person he prepared and planned everything in advance. He had a water-proof map of our jetski trip, water-proof camera bag and all the necessary equipments we might need.
At the first couple of turns i almost droped "A" - my passinger - into the water.. but than i learnt how to maneuver. When you see the huge sea and nothing else in front of you want to speed up and the more speed you add the more you enjoy it. Btw i love speed! I think this is going to be my next addiction
So we went to a deserted island (artificial) to take some photos than headed to the harbour and along the coasts of Doha (awesome landscape). There were some ocean-going boats further from the coast and fishing-boats lied at anchor we went there to have a closer look of them. It was very cool. And we met some arabic idiots showing off to us circleing around us and finally hit our jetski - surprising but we didn't fell into the water. Our adrenalin level went up a little bit but it was fun :)

So after jetskiing we went to "M"s apartment to collect the stuff we need for our desert trip. As i mentined he was very well prepared, he got a huge cooling-box packed with chocolate, crips, chicken from KFC, water, diet coke.. and cinnabons (cinamon rolls - he said we don't have to eat all of it right now, we can have it later as well, but we eat all of it straight away haha - it was so divine we couldn't stop eating it - on attached picture on the right) provision would have been enough for a week - in case we got lost in the desert haha :) But as he was prepared - we had gps as well.
He lives in the new part of town on the 19th floor of a skyscraper with an amazing view, swimming pool on 22nd floor.. quite impressive. And he had 5 bathrooms so we didnt have to wait for each other to have a shower - ahh and he has cold tap water!
So afther the refreshment we started our desert trip. In Qatar there is not too much choise of roads or ways - one road to the north and another to the west and thats all and desert everywhere. Doha belongs to the desert as well, we have seen pictures 40 years back.. sand-dunes all over and nothing else, no flora or fauna, they just built these huge buildings here and planted palms trees and grass - i am always wondering how can they survive here)
So when we left the city we headed towards the north-west coast, the view was quite monotonous - white and yellow sand-dunes everywhere and the long road in front of us heading to the middle of nowhere and no cars on the road at all. Nothing behind us, nothing in front of us. I always wanted to see the desert. Desert - sounds a bit scary to me - desolate, no water, extreme temperatures, huge and everywhere you look you see the same thing. But this one is not that frightening, you can cross the whole country in one hour driving.
The next adventure happened when we saw a group of wild camels around a moor so we left the road and drove there to see them closer. When we wanted to cross the moor with the jeep - which looked small - we got bogged down in the mud. The more "M" stepped on the gas pedal the more we were sinking. "A" got scared but in a situation like this i can't do anything else but laughing. My only concern was the heat. When we climed out of the car got totally muddy. "M" was taking actions immediately, he saw a car somewhere bit further and went to get some help. Meanwhile we saw another car on the road and started shouting and jumping to drow attention. Some non-english speaker bedouins drove to us, the guys looked a bit weird to us, they don't see white woman often i guess. By that time "M" arrived with the other car we saw somewhere further, with an Irish guy. (Was nice to hear Irish accent again.)
So the 3 bedouin man pulled out the car without hasitating in a second - i was impressed, i thought we gonna spend the whole day there. So we thanked everybodys help when.. guess what happened? The bedouins crashed into the Irish guy's car.. well, that was a moment when everybody got speechless. The Irish guy didn't know what to say and the bedouins didn't speak english and i don't think thay had any insurance.. it was such an absurd situation that i needed to get back to the car and just laugh.. we left them standing in front of each other, the Irish guy waiting for some explanation or solution.. maybe they are still standing there..

So after seeing the camels from very close:) completely muddy and sweaty we continued our trip towards a castle - the scene of arabic movie shootings. We went offroad, only the gps guided us - smart invention.
It was a small castle with couple of palm trees, we looked around shooted some photos, it was too hot to stay too long and continued towards the to beach.
Completely deserted and desolate area around us.


And than suddenly we glimpsed the sea - we jumped in it immediately hoping for some refreshing.. but the sea water was boiling hot - 35 celsius we measured it - air 43 celsius. "M" brought a bag of ice into the water - we were cooling ourselves in the water with ice cubes haha
We set up a little tent to provide us shade and had a little picnic - we had the chikcen from KFC -, it reminded me to those movie scenes when some ppl got ship-wrecked and washed up to an uninhabited island. I always wanted to go to beaches where no one else is there just only us. Here it was. Walking on bare-feet to the water was quite painful - i thought its full of little stones but there were all shells everywhere, we collected millions of them.


(My bathroom is full of shells now.. doesn't smell too nice)

Finally when everyone got tired we packed our stuff and headed back to "civilization".
On the way lookin for the road we met camels everywhere walking around our car, they seemed quite friendly.
On attached pic top left another life-threatening situation haha (don't mess around with camels!)

And we arrived back without any more excitement in one piece.

Now i need some aloe vera on to my nose.. oops i got burnt a little bit..

Ramadan Birthday

I have a serious problem: i run out of drinking water! And it's 2:30am. And i won't be able to buy water during the day coz it's ramadan. Ahh..
Anyway during ramadan the shops are open till very late like 1-2am. There's a groceries at every corner and i don't even have to walk down, they gave me a phone number and a guy brings it to my flat when i order it. Well i was lazy to even pick up the phone..

So today i got one year older.. omg. I would love to stop the time-machine now. Anyway, i don't like birthdays, just reminds me how fast time is passing and how many things are still missing from my life..

Anyway, i had a great day today. I didn't want to make a big deal of it, but the girls suggested we should go out for dinner with the whole batch. Which was a very good idea. Nice to make it a little bit special even though i'm far away from my friends and family (family in Hungary and my family in Madrid :)) But anyway i'm getting used to have birthdays and christmas far away from home. And i learnt not to expect too much of these events, but my most memorable birthdays are the ones i spent abroad (England, Spain..).

So today i brought a choc cake to school to have a little fun and make it a bit different than all the other booooring days.
Than in the evening we went to souq (its like a medina in arabic cities, there are more souqs here in Doha, this one is pretty nice, lots of Asian and Arabic restaurants in a long street, everybody's smoking sisha). And chose a tradicional Qatar restaurant, the staff were very friendly and hospitably, when they got to know that it's my birthday i got a small arabic choc cake, don't remember the name, something tradicional, it was lovely - too bad that i was already so full that i could hardly eat any of it.
I just realized how cheap this city is - except alcohol. Alcohol, by the way i think since my 12th birthday this was the only one without drinking anything else than diet coke. I think i need some time to get used to that no alcohol can be ordered at restaurants or any place. Only some hotel bars serve alcohol - but during ramadan they are closed.


The decoration was beautiful, very nice atmosphere and excellent service,we got huge portions. Each would have been enough for 4 of us. I couldn't identify the things on my plate - but i'm sure there was a whole chicken in it, by the time i got completely full it looked like there is more on the plate than it was before haha Anyway whatever it was, it was very delicious.

And it was nice to see almost the whole batch going out, they managed to make this day a little bit special and everybody had a nice time, i think i don't need anything else on my birthday.

being here

Almost one month.. hm, feels long and short at the same time. We have training 6 days a week everyday the same routine.. never ending. Will i ever start working?

My flatmate just told me that she is leaving, going back home. And i totally understand her. Makes me feel sad. And than i’m asking the question to myself ’what am i doing here’? Why am i here? What am i looking for? Staying in 5 star hotels at exotic places does make me happy? I know myself, i don’t like spending too long time at the same place, i get bored soon (average one year). And than after what?

Private life? This place is quite safe, i don’t see too much opportunity for that. Don’t have to worry about that.

There’s got to be a reason for me to be here. Something is waiting for me here.. What was waiting for me in Madrid? Experience – some of them good and bad, bad experience is an experience as well, you need to have them, they are the most important to improve yourself, that’s the only way to become a better person. I still gotta learn a lot. And i needed that one year to be here now. And i met a couple of great people. I miss them.

Hm i’m thinking too much again.. shouldn’t worry about those complicated questions.. just simply enjoy being here now. „Happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.”

Should be worried about that i haven’t studied for today not even for tomarrow..

Day off

Yesterday we had a lovely day. Friday :)
The last Friday we spent the whole day in the shopping mall.. so we agreed with the girls that we keep the Fridays for something more special.
Started yesterday evening in an Indian all you can eat restaurant where we ate until almost exploding. I don't remember the name of the dessert, couldn't compare it to anything, but that was the best (attached pic on right).
And than guess what? We walked home! I haven't walked since i'm here and it was great! No one else on (on foot) on the street, cars are honking, everybody were starring at us, but we walked home. When we arrived home (35 mins) looked like jumped into the pool with the clothes on, completely wet because of humidity and heat. (in the evening car windows look like it's been raining, sooo humid!) And drunk 2 liters of water straight away.


This morning the American friend of "O" picked us up to take us for lunch. She met the guy (and his wife) on the flight when she was coming to Doha.
"M" is working for Qatar Fundation and participating in a hospital construction project. He has been here for a year and knows everything about the city and country. He took us for a nice sightseeing tour and told lots and lots of interesting stories about Qatar, the citizens, the king..
And we had lunch in Ritz Hotel. Very nice lunch :)

After sightseeing wanted to go to the beach.. he dropped us off to Hotel Sharq and left us there, a very very nice hotel (nicer than Intercontinental). We walked in and acted us if we were hotel guests (haha it didnt work out - we screwed it up with some stupid questions - we were not really smart). So we payed and stayed there for the rest of the day (but were chating a lot with the hotel staff they offered us free entrance for next time haha). Huge pools and very nice atmosphere and no one else were there - coz its ramadan. The worst thing was that we couldn't even buy a buttle of water - ramadan.
Everything is soo hot here. The pool water, the sea water. You spend 10 minutes in the sea water and start boiling need to get out.
Incredible! Even tap water is hot, u can't do anything with it, we keep the boiler switched off in our apartment but still no chance to have a cold shower.


Sun goes down quite early here, after 6pm night is falling. We have seen two guys leaving from the hotel at the same time when we packing our stuff.. of course they took us home :)


Weekend has ended again.. lets get back to studying..

Doha night

Finally Thursday evening..
Our only day off is Friday. On the other days fo the week we are studying and adapting ourselves to rules we were not used to before.

But I need the Thursday night to switch off. In Qatar there are not too much choice where to go out. Some hotels have lounge bars and that's all.
We usually go to the bar of Intercontinental, the Paloma which has two important advantage. First is that with our company id we can drink for free and they let us in without any documents. To most of the clubs passport, residence permit.. required. And the minimum age is 21. (Unfortunately that's the only thing i don't have to be bothered with.)
But our passport has been taken (visa issue is under process for a month) and no residence permit yet.
So our Thursday evening starts a bit complicated if we want to look around somewhere.

But of course we want to look around. So with some girls dressed up and went to the most fancy club in city the Pearl. Well, it wasn't easy to get in.. but finally we made it :)
Very posh and stylis place.
We had couple of cocktails (payed a fortune) danced and drunk a lot.
Met a lot of our colleagues, we could get in to the VIP section by some friends which was even more comfortable and free drinks hehe :)
Clubs are closing around 2-3am.. when we were drunk enough a guy offered us a lift. We had fun on the way home as the enclosed picture illustrates :)
On the way home he took us to a Lebanese restaurant for breakfast. I think i have never tasted such a lovely food in my life! (I recommend Lebanese cousine to everybody).

Finally 5 minutes before 3:30am (the latest we have to be back) we arrived home.

Now it's time to study..