Opa wasn't my grandfather. He's the father of my 'babysitter'. Sylvia was the babysitter for all us kids, and we used to live next door. It's one of those deals where you kind of become family with some folks. Hence, I called her parents Oma and Opa.

On Thanksgiving day they were in a bad car accident. He never recovered from his injuries. It's sad. Good-bye Opa.

Rory.

I had a crack in my bathtub and they couldn't fix it; they had to replace the entire tub. I've been 4 days without a bathroom. I'm really hoping they will finish tomorrow!

I was shocked half way through when I saw the new tub in place, but not yet tiled in. Sand! They filled it with sand!






On a high note, I have a second date tomorrow night :)

Since I've been here there have been a lot of firsts for me. First time living overseas, first new car, first dune riding experience etc. Then there are a lot of firsts which are not necessarily my first, first, but are a first since being here in Doha. Such as my first conduct hearing, driving lesson, alcoholic beverage, birthday, etc.

The point of all that is to say I had another first last night that made me happy. I had my first date in Doha. By chance the guy happens to be the roommate of the girl I bought my car from. She invited me to the Rugby Club where I met him among 20 or so other people. Apparently we were getting along well enough for others to notice and so began the plotting of getting the two of us together. I guess it worked.

We had a nice dinner at a Thai place then got some ice cream and walked along the canal. It was simple, it was sweet. Maybe the fact that I haven’t been on a proper date in 6 years played a part in my happiness, but overall he’s just charming and highly entertaining. Cheers!

I cannot find the words to express how incredibly happy I am. I lost contact with a friend some 8 years ago. Our relationship was special, conflicted between love and hate. So much so that when you're 20 you simply don't have the emotional intelligence to deal with it. When he moved away and we lost touch.

3 years ago he was visiting me in my dreams almost nightly. He told me I had to find him. I tried. I tried so hard. The dreams lasted for several months. I cried in frustration because I couldn't find him. Then, the dreams stopped and I thought he was dead. I was convinced I would never hear from him again.

Until two nights ago, when I get an e-mail out of the blue. I almost didn't believe what I was reading.; I couldn't believe it was him. I don't want to go into detail about how my dreams eerily parallel his life at that time, but it makes so much sense now.

I'm just so happy to have him back in my life. I really am.

Damn if I didn't have a fine time last night! I was finally NOT working and I took up the opportunity of going to the human foosball tourney at the rugby club. I met SO many new people and they are incredibly fun, and just the kind of folks I've been searching for to hang out with! The night took an interesting turn as well ;)


It was sponsored by Corona. This was my spot about 1 hour into the event :)


the girls


we did tricks on the jumbo slide (resulting in many injured bodies this morning)


kangaroo boxing


and of course the always entertaining sumo wrestling


with which the boys were occasionally distracted by the large boobs on their suits and felt each other up


the foosball pen


going through my camera this morning i really had no recollection of this moment. how did i end up wearing a kangaroo head and holding a 1 USD bill?

Thank you for the restore backup button Paul! We've been having serious internet issues this week and it's hard to stay on more than 5 minutes at a time! So here's my story:

Today I was thinking about how stateside we gripe and complain about how inconvenient it is to get a car serviced. I reconsidered this as I made my way to the "industrial area". It sounds charming doesn't it? The "industrial area".

I was an industrial area virgin. I was nervous. I wasn't sure what to expect. I only knew the first step; find a human sacrifice.

You need a human sacrifice. This is the person you sucker into following you out to Timbuktu's neighbor, Bum Fuck Nowhere. You commence road combat with a few thousand cars and heavy machinery down narrow lanes of construction for about 45 minutes. You engage a series of defensive maneuvers to avert potholes, maniacs, and assholes to reach your desired desitnation. In my case, Kia.

Here you must be very brave and leave the 'security' of your vehicle. With nothing but your Spidey sense to protect you, you must navigate to the entrance on foot. Once inside you are subjected to a series of interrogations in an attempt to find 'customer service', which is heavily guarded by "sales", "replacement parts", "cashier", and "collisions".

"Customer service" is the devil's cousin. He will charm you and woo you to divert all your attention from the task at hand. He will lull you into endless conversation about the origin of your name and the presidential elections of your home country.

You must stay focused! You must negotiate a trade with "customer service": your keys for a small bit of paper. If you are successful, you embark on the same journey in reverse, if your sacrifice hasn't escaped and left you for dead.

Hours, or perhaps days later you will receive a call asking for you to exchange the bit of paper for your vehicle. This requires new tactics for gaining the trust of your human sacrifice as you need them to reach the drop point. I found food to be an incentive.

Act as quickly and efficiently as possible to make the extraction. Exchange your bit of paper and wait at the side door. When you see your vehicle coming down the line, yank the driver out and hop in while it's still rolling. This will maximize your time and avoid further seduction by "customer service".

Commence evasive maneuvers and retreat. Task completed: oil change. Time taken: 6 hours.

I can sleep well Knowing I get to look forward to this process for the next three years of my life. Yeah buddy!

Finally Mohamed took me out to the dunes. It was fabulous! We didn't get to do anything 'really' crazy because we were with our boss and he's not so into that. We did ride them though and it was soooooo much fun! I need to figure out how to do my videos but meanwhile here are some photos from the day! Enjoy.


first things first, you have to let the air out of the tires, down to 10psi!



this is what i called the 'launching pad', it is essentially the beginning of the dunes where everyone hits the gas and takes the first ride up


at the crest


when people talk about living on the edge, this is one of them


a view of where we just were on the crest


what we didn't do because of the boss, was bank...don't worry, there will be a next time without him and we'll do it!


then something very strange happened. it was as if someone blew a whistle and said, 'follow me', because hundreds of cars starting leaving this one area and heading for another spot


we followed because, what the hell...


the wind really picked up and it created a mysterious misty sand blowing over the surface, we stopped for pics


sunset was gorgeous

I had a rough night last night. With all things new come many growing pains. We seem to be stuck in a growth spurt over the last 4 months. Nothing but bitching and complaining from the student staff that are supposed to be part of the team. We all know there is no "I" in team, and right now it's all about the "I" for them.

I needed some inspiration to motivate me this morning. I dropped in an Enya CD to bring the heart rate down and began flipping through my Paulo Coelho books. I decided on this one:

"Courage is the most important gift for anyone seeking to understand the Language of the World" - The Alchemist

As a global citizen, doing the work I do, I am trying to understand the language of the world. It's not easy to be where I am, alone, in the palm of one of the most violent regions of the Earth. I work every day with people from countries I've never explored, customs I know nothing about, and religious views I don't understand. So today I will draw on my courage to guide me through what seems like the darkest hour.

I could come up with a bunch of answers to my own question but I don't know if any of them would be right. Someone contacted me recently looking for new friends in Doha. It happened to be a guy.

Now, I know 90% of the time what they really mean is they are looking for a westerner to date because they think we're free sex machines. Sad but true story. It is a tradition of mine to ignore and delete anything that comes my way in the form of, "U eyez so butiful, ur such butiful womenz". However this message just said,"I'm new to Doha and looking to make some friends". Ok, fair enough. I'm looking for new friends too.

So I checked things out, he appeared to be normal, his page wasn't full of porn stars in thongs saying, "me lick you long time $10". He was a rapid responder to everything I sent, "When can we meet up?", "I'm always free in the evenings and most weekends".

So after a few weeks I finally have a free night so we plan to go out. He was actually quite fun. I thought, wow, a new friend. Awesome!

Then we grab some food. Then the shoe drops. "What do you think of me? What were you expecting when we met? ..." Sigh.

Why, why, why do people do this? Did I ever ONCE mention anything related to dating or being interested? No. But all along you had this intention. All along you knew this wasn't about making a new friend. All along you had an agenda.