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.

I have to tell you, this movie is fantastic! If you haven't seen it, get your booty to the video store and watch it.

While watching it I realized just how much I've changed in the last 8 months and how much perspective I'm getting on life in the Middle East.

I understood a lot of the Arabic which was cool. A lot of it was filmed in Abu Dabi so you can really get a good idea of what it looks like here in Qatar. The roadways are the same (well the major roadways that is).

Oh, and Jason Bateman's character does an outstanding job of freaking out about how they drive. Seriously, you MUST watch it. Watch how they fly through the roundabouts. Yes, I know they claim it's 'military procedure' in the movie, but that's REALLY how they drive here.

The part about the prince in his palace, totally accurate. Falcons are a big deal here. The guys are wearing the traditional thobe which the men here wear. The only difference is that Saudi's wear the red and white checked gudthra and the Qataris wear solid white.

Ok, just go watch the movie!