Apartment with a View in Doha, Qatar

This has become almost an annual event - posting a video of our new apartment. Last year was the first year in ten years that we didn't move. This year, the contract our school had with the apartment building expired. So, company housing moved - further away from school, but in a much better location. We love our apartment so much.

Model of our apartment building

Instead of me writing about it, I will just let you watch the video for yourself. Let us know what you think.

Here are pictures of the view from our apartment:

Taking a walk in our neighborhood:

Glamping: Beach on the Arabian Gulf

Way back in the beginning of October, a group of us went glamping (glamorous camping). Instead of writing much about it, I will just share photos and videos. It was a great time with great friends, and I definitely plan on going back!

 

 

 

 

The Sights of Driving Through Cairo

No, I don't drive here in Egypt; I wouldn't want to. It's not a system I understand, and I'm okay with that. The constant honking of the horns doesn't make sense to me. Not staying in designated (or un-designated) lanes doesn't make sense to me. Not stopping at stop signs or stop lights doesn't make sense to me. And that's okay! It doesn't have to make sense. It seems to work, for the most part. I don't HAVE to drive in Egypt, and I am more than okay with that. I'll just leave it up to the "professionals" - the Egyptians.

Our school has provided buses for us to take to and from school everyday. There is one "early" bus that picks people up at 6:00 am. We usually get to school around 6:25 am. The "normal" buses come at 7:00 am and arrive usually no later than 7:35 am. School starts at 8:00 am. Then, for after school, the buses leave at 4:00 pm and the late bus at 5:00 or 5:30 pm. It usually takes about an hour to get home, if not longer.
**It's roughly 16 miles from school to our apartment.**

Before coming to Egypt, I had no idea what it would actually look like to live in a desert. Would I see anything green? Would I see sand for miles? It was just really hard for me to image what it would be like. It's also one of the biggest questions I get asked by people back home. What does living in the desert look like?!

Luckily, being on the bus for long, we get to see some really interesting sights. So, I thought the best way to share with you what living in a desert looks like was to take video of our drive home. I have two videos for you. One is almost 6 minutes long and the other is about 3 minutes long. I hope they don't give you motion sickness like the actual bus rides do sometimes.

Pyramids, The Sphinx, and Camels! Oh My!

As part of our orientation schedule, the new teachers had an option to go to the Pyramids of Giza. Of course we went! The school provided two buses and about 30 of us went. A returning teacher and his wife were extremely knowledgeable in all things relating to the pyramids, and they were our tour guides. There's really nothing I can say to describe how awesome the trip was. I will just leave pictures for you with a few descriptions.

The whole group

I don't even remember what was so funny!

Zach's camel's name was 007 and mine was Michael Jackson.