Easter in Qatar

Easter Greetings!

We were fortunate enough to meet some fellow Christian Americans and were invited to a Good Friday lunch. It was a wonderful experience to enjoy a meal in a cozy home with great people, we had a ham and it was sooo good! All pig products are banned from Qatar, but our host had an in at the American Embassy. These people have a small church and meet Sunday evenings at a person's house. John and I are looking forward to going in the future, we are busy the next few Sundays.

On Easter Sunday, John and I went to an Easter brunch at the Marriott hotel, it was huge with food from all over the world. They open all their restaurants so you can choose food from five different places and the hallway between each one. They even had candy and dyed eggs on our table. Due to the heat here, the Canburry egg didn't make it home in a solid state. John's friend that works at the Marriott (and is from Dearborn, MI) said their regular buffet on Fridays usually has 350 people, Easter had about 150. I hope this blog finds you all well and not to stuffed from chocolate bunnies and jelly beans!

Souq Shop Haggling

This morning I bought my Jalabiya to wear to the Arabian Nights dinner on Saturday, pictures will follow. The cost was 250 Rials, so I said to the guy "how about 200," the guy said "230" and I was good with that, then another guy came in and they chatted and the first guy told me 200, sold! Which works out t0 about $55, not bad for a party dress. Then I met up with AWA ladies for a fabric shopping trip, mostly just to look and see what is available-tons of silks: printed, embroidered, plain, Liberty Cottons which are from England and kinda of vintage prints, lots of lace too. Makes you want to have a ballgown after seeing everything. I met a twenty something American that just arrived in Qatar a week ago. We had a long lunch(all meals take forever here.) Then we bought some Pashminas and talked the guy down from 25 to 10 Rials. I felt good about my skills today! And I tried to find a shop I heard about and went on some streets I had never been on and some how ended up exactly where I needed to be to get back home (score again!) Never did find shop though.

I'm Back

Hi Everyone, its Spring! Sorry I haven't writen in a while. I haven't done much that I thought was blog worthy. My mom came for two weeks and it has been quite since she left. I have been helping John: fixing quotes, making contacts and helping with his launch party in May. A few weekends ago we went to a Shake's private collection of things he has collected over the years. The museum was in a huge building out in the middle of nowhere. There were swords, furniture, paintings and American cars. Mostly Fords from the 1920s and some Dodge trucks. It was a weird mix of items. There were some signs of a professional museum and then not so much when a guy started one of the cars up in a gallery. Yesterday I went Jalabya shopping with a dozen women. Jalabyas are the dresses Arabic women wear when they go to a party or wedding. Through the AWA I am going to an Arabian Nights dinner and we are supposed to dress up. After a day of shopping I didn't buy anything, too many choices! I will go back and try again, now that I know what I am looking for. I will let you how the dinner is.