We arrived one week ago today in Doha, Qatar. The first class flight from Dallas to Doha felt more like and experience, rather than travel. You have a someone that waits on you the whole flight and gives you pretty much whatever you want. The seats fold down to beds and you choose whatever movie/TV show you want. Unfortunately, I was so tired and I slept 10 of the 16 hours of flight. I missed breakfast, which is a seven course fancy meal that you don't want to miss.
We were soon thrust back into the cold world when we got into the immigration line. The girls has eyes as big as saucers, looking around at all the different cultures. To ladies wearing the burkas reviewed our passports and visas. Sophie and Remy were trying to look as un-suspicious as possible.
After that, we went straight to collect our bags, only to find that one was missing. The supervisor helped us find it after a 30 minute search, but we were very happy to have made it. If felt like we just won a mini-marathon, having successfully arrived with all five of us and all 20 bags. Weeks of preparation went into getting to that moment.
Coming out of the airport, John McEntire, Matt Von Trap (from the Doha ward), their daughters and 2 drivers were there to greet us. They had been waiting for over an hour, but we were very glad to see them. They helped orient us and get our bags on the hotel. It made a big difference in knowing we had people we could reach out to so soon.
Our taxi driver couldn't find our hotel. Doha has three million people, thousands of multi-million building, but very few street names (an no one really knows the street names for the streets that have names). Everyone just knows landmarks, like "the Tornado building" or "the W". If you ask for directions, they just say it is by something else. That doesn't work so well for newbies.
We arrived at our hotel and checked in. The girls were, for the first time, a little culture shocked by all the traditional Qatari dress and all the different cultures. Nearly everyone here has an accent, depending on where they come from. We were all very tired (eveyone but me), so we checked in an went straight to our apartment on the 23rd floor. First impressions- beautiful view, bigger than I thought it would be, unique fragrance, three bedrooms, and two baths (there are actually three, but we didn't even realize that until a few days later).
Although I had to be at work the next day, I spend most of the evening unpacking. I even set up the ol' xbox one and skyped Andrew (my brother). It was good to know that I had established a link to the homefront already.
A drive came to take me to work at 8:00 a.m. to my on-boarding meeting. He took every back road imaginable. I walked in and someone took me to a room with 6 others- two Qatari's wearing white robes and the head dress, a nuclear physicist from France, an HR specialist from England- from what I remember. I didn't know what the meeting was about- but once I broke the ice and asked what was going on the everyone said they were new as well. I signed some things, completed paperwork, talked with the Director, ect. From there they took me to my main office in the Tornado tower.
I'm getting tired of writing now, so I'll provide details later about the rest of the week.
We were soon thrust back into the cold world when we got into the immigration line. The girls has eyes as big as saucers, looking around at all the different cultures. To ladies wearing the burkas reviewed our passports and visas. Sophie and Remy were trying to look as un-suspicious as possible.
After that, we went straight to collect our bags, only to find that one was missing. The supervisor helped us find it after a 30 minute search, but we were very happy to have made it. If felt like we just won a mini-marathon, having successfully arrived with all five of us and all 20 bags. Weeks of preparation went into getting to that moment.
Coming out of the airport, John McEntire, Matt Von Trap (from the Doha ward), their daughters and 2 drivers were there to greet us. They had been waiting for over an hour, but we were very glad to see them. They helped orient us and get our bags on the hotel. It made a big difference in knowing we had people we could reach out to so soon.
Our taxi driver couldn't find our hotel. Doha has three million people, thousands of multi-million building, but very few street names (an no one really knows the street names for the streets that have names). Everyone just knows landmarks, like "the Tornado building" or "the W". If you ask for directions, they just say it is by something else. That doesn't work so well for newbies.
We arrived at our hotel and checked in. The girls were, for the first time, a little culture shocked by all the traditional Qatari dress and all the different cultures. Nearly everyone here has an accent, depending on where they come from. We were all very tired (eveyone but me), so we checked in an went straight to our apartment on the 23rd floor. First impressions- beautiful view, bigger than I thought it would be, unique fragrance, three bedrooms, and two baths (there are actually three, but we didn't even realize that until a few days later).
Although I had to be at work the next day, I spend most of the evening unpacking. I even set up the ol' xbox one and skyped Andrew (my brother). It was good to know that I had established a link to the homefront already.
A drive came to take me to work at 8:00 a.m. to my on-boarding meeting. He took every back road imaginable. I walked in and someone took me to a room with 6 others- two Qatari's wearing white robes and the head dress, a nuclear physicist from France, an HR specialist from England- from what I remember. I didn't know what the meeting was about- but once I broke the ice and asked what was going on the everyone said they were new as well. I signed some things, completed paperwork, talked with the Director, ect. From there they took me to my main office in the Tornado tower.
I'm getting tired of writing now, so I'll provide details later about the rest of the week.
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