The jet lag is here

The night I arrived, I went to bed at 22:30 and foolishly assumed that because I woke up at 5:00 that I was not going to suffer any jet lag.

HA!!!

The jet lag kicked in yesterday when I sat down with a cup of tea. I woke up much later, to a cup of cold swampwater with skin on it. :) Today I got up at a more decent time, although I will have to leave my window open again tonight so I can hear the call to prayer because I don't want to be getting up at 9:00 any more. That's a little late.

My coffee and crochet buddy

I have a little friend, whose photo I have shared in various places around the web. She is a little feral cat that comes in and sits with me while I drink my morning coffee and read the paper. In the afternoon when I sit in the courtyard and crochet, she returns and curls up under the fig tree, napping and purring. There are feral cats all over the city, brought in specifically to help keep the port vermin free. People seem to be OK with their presence. This little one certainly seems to be happy

My phone is not working here, and I was under the impression when I bought the damned thing, that it would. Not a major upset, but I'd like to unlock it so that I can make use of the SIM card and time that I bought yesterday. Hopefully TELUS support gets back to me. It is frustrating to be 8 hours ahead of home for things like this. For those of you reading this who will helpfully send me more websites that show me how to do it myself, thank you. I tried a few last night and they did not work, so before I do something bad to my phone, I will just wait for TELUS, suck it up, and pay whatever fee they want to extract from me. I have learned, since searching online, that Canada and the US really get the crappy end of the stick when it comes to mobile services, compared to the rest of the world. If I had the money, I would just get an unlocked phone out here and keep buying data cards from the local mobile provider. My parents do this when they are home in Canada and they don't pay nearly as much as I do, and they are roaming yet!!! AND their phones work. 0_o

Really, I suppose it isn't an issue....hahaha.....I have become one of those hyper-connected uber princesses that I used to laugh at. I feel more discombobulated that I do not have access to push-button blogging on the fly than I do because I am on the other side of the world.

The lifestyle is very different here. I was thinking about this last night as I drifted off to sleep. People in Doha still leave their doors unlocked. My parents do this, and to be honest, it freaked the hell out of me when I was puttering around the house yesterday and realized that they had just walked off to work and left everything open. People just come and go, like they did in The Maritimes when I was small.

I live in Winnipeg now, I have for nearly 7 years, and there is no way on earth you could pay me to walk out the door in the morning leaving everything wide open for the criminals to take for themselves. Such is the difference in perception here. I live in the violent crime capital of Canada and I do not feel safe. It is familiar, but it is not safe, and I am always on guard. Here, it is completely unfamiliar (not all of it, but enough of it) but I do not feel unsafe. There is a tremendous load of stress that is off me here in Doha, as my jaw and shoulders have not been hurting, in spite of sitting in front of my father's laptop to blog daily, or crocheting all afternoon. It is enough to tell Winnipeggers that I have worked downtown for 5 years and they usually look at me with that special expression reserved for those who also like to go bungee jumping over fire pits.

People here are very nice. Everyone is happy. They want you to be happy.....I wonder if I will become #6, hahaha. Like I said, not used to this. After years of living in Peg City, I am accustomed to clouds of obscenity, impatience, rudeness, no customer service, doors being slammed in my face, and lots of push/shove/getouttamyway. Despite this place being the commercial and cultural heart of the area, Doha is amazingly relaxed. For those of you who are reading this and not aware, I am not living artificially in a resort where people are being paid to be nice to the Canadian Tourist. I am living out on the economy here, where people are themselves.

Jobs are everywhere and it is tempting to look for one. No, it is damned difficult not to start schlepping the link to my nail site to the big beauty salons here, especially when I see that they can get 300 Riyals or more for a set of gel nails (close to 100 CAD) I haven't seen that kind of paycheque since I moved to Winnipeg. At home I charge significantly less and even then, people snort like I'm trying to rip them off. Very, very difficult, let me tell you. I am almost starting to feel bad that I promised my family that I would not look for work while I was here.

I was going to do my mother's nails and I smoked my UV light last night. Lesson learned, plug adapters and converters are not the same thing; one does not imply the other. Even if the plug fits, 120V hooking into an outlet that pumps out 240V is never a good thing. I will be shopping today to look for a lamp that works here because I really want to do mom's nails. She has a friend who has made me some presents over the years, and I would like to do her nails, too, while I am here.

In the chaos that was present before I left, there was no time to get summery shoes. Bless my father, he came home from a store last night with really NICE black wedge sandals. Way to go dad!!! I didn't think a straight man could shop for shoes.

So that is today's entry. Not a lot to show so far. My parents wanted to let me get used to the schedule before they start with the schedule of events. My official tourist trips start this weekend, when the photos shall be getting uploaded at a geometric rate :)