Arriving in Doha

So, who would have thought in a million years that I would end up in Doha, Qatar???

Ever since before I got married, I wanted to move overseas, but never even knew where Qatar was on the map.

Obviously, it is not the first choice for people wanting to go and learn the Arabic language, but it has to better than Canada, right?

Alhamdulillah, our move was finalized quickly and before I knew it, we were all packed up and on our way to Doha.

The flight couldn't have gone smoother, alhamdulillah and the kids loved their first time on an airplane!

Landing in Doha was amazing mashaAllah! It is the end of December when we arrive and the pilot is saying that it is a 'cold night' in Doha with the temperature around 15 degrees celcius! HA! For us Canadians, this is summer weather! We arrive very late at night, around one o'clock in the morning, but we were still very excited and fully awake (especially since in Canada it is daytime)!

We are greeted by a woman hired by Ovaise's college, who takes care of everything for us and we just lounge in the lounging area drinking juice and eating nuts/dates. All we have to do is sit there and someone comes to serve us. I feel spoiled and think about how different this is from Canada.

After that, we had to find our driver (also a college employee), who would be driving us to the hotel. That took a while, as we didn't initially see him, but about an hour later we are sitting in a huge van, with all our luggage and driving down the streets of Doha. It is beautiful-no snow and beautiful weather! I especially enjoy the drive along the corniche (the waterfront), which is lined with palm trees.


Communication with the driver is limited, but we manage to get by. We arrive at the hotel and are shown to our room, after a little clarification at the front desk. It is a nice hotel, mashaAllah, with a cute little masjid right below our window. By the time we got there, it must have been three o'clock in the morning. We finally fall asleep, only to hear the adhan for fajr a short time later. We pray and go back to sleep. The kids and I are out until about 11 or 12, but Ovaise makes sure to get up and go down to the free breakfast buffet. The rest of us make it in time for the lunch buffet and I don't think I have ever had the luxury of choosing between so many different selections and knowing it is all halaal! Needless to say, we eat until we are stuffed, and then have some dessert.
We do the same thing for the remaining meals over the next two days.

Ibrahim and Ovaise are going to pray salat at the little masjid downstairs, and I love it. I love the fact that the adhan can be heard all the time and that jumah actually feels like a special day-we are finally living in a Muslim country, alhamdulillah!

After our royal treatment at the hotel, we are taken to our villa to look around and start moving in. The college has three compounds and we are placed in the first one. I started to unpack, but then stopped as I am informed that we will be moving into the second compound in a week. So we were living out of our suitcases for a week.

My initial reaction about the villa is amazing! It is a three bedroom house and fully furnished. It is a true blessing from Allah to have everything taken care of when moving to a brand new place.

That same day was hospital day....quite an adventure!