Saturday, April 24, 2010

Finally an update!

I know I know... I haven't written anything on here in like months... but to be honest we haven't had that much going on here. It's been pretty much the daily grind for the last few months, working hard and playing hard. But now that class is almost over, I thought I would write an update and post some pictures I've taken in 2010.

The first set of pictures is from an Education City coordinated Camel Race. Let me tell you that was definitely a crazy experience! There are roads on both sides of the sand track and all the cars follow along with the camels. We were lucky enough to be able to hop on a bus and catch the last race of the day. You can see the little robots on the backs of the camels. Those robots replaced the children jockeys that they used to use in years past.

Camel Races 2010

The second set of pictures is from a student organized dhow trip. We chaperoned the trip and got to ride on the dhow through the West Bay and over to an Island near the man made island The Pearl. It was lots of fun and if anyone comes to visit, a definite must do!

Student Dhow Trip April 2010

The third set of pictures is from a visit from a friend from Kuwait. He is in Student Affairs at the American University in Kuwait. We took him out to the souq one night and also took some pictures of the Museum, Corniche, and West Bay. It was a great weekend and a great night!

Corniche and Souq at night

Our travel plans over the next couple of months are really about to heat up though with classes being over and the slow and ridiculously hot summer about to start. As of right now, we've got 3 trips planned, 2 big ones and a weekend. We kick it off next weekend by going to Bahrain for the the weekend with some friends. It'll be nice to hangout and relax in a place that isn't Doha! Less than a week later we'll be heading to Morocco for 10 days on an Intrepid tour which should be really interesting and fun. Morocco is one of the places we both couldn't wait to go and experience. It'll be really interesting to travel there after living here in Qatar for 8 months. On a side note, I can't believe we've been here for that long already! It's absolutely flown by. Anyway, our next trip we're definitely going on is to Singapore and Malaysia with another couple in July. It should be a blast as well as relaxing as we're planning on spending plenty of time on the beautiful beaches. We've got a few other possible trips, Nepal at the end of June, but we haven't made a definitive decision on that trip at this point. We're also possibly going to Thailand for one of the Eid's this fall but again nothing is set in stone.

Well, that's about all that we have going on here in Doha. Like always, if you're planning a trip anywhere near by (or with in a couple thousand miles!) let us know and we'll see if we can try to meet up with you! We miss you all!

Tristan and Rachel