Medical Clearance

I just got an e-mail from my Immigration rep at HR, and my medical clearance came through today without any problems. I'm glad, as once at the medical commission was quite enough. So unless I have some outstanding criminal record I don't know about, I get to stay in Doha. (^^)

My last step is getting fingerprinted, which is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Then I will wait for my Residence Permit to clear. There will be a bigger delay than usual since Ramadan should, in theory, end next week sometime. It depends on the moon. Most places get a 3-day holiday; the government takes 5. So obviously this will place another weeks' delay on my RP processing.

Eid will still be fun, though, as bars and nightclubs will open back up. Also, restaurants should be open during the day. I've also been told there is 3 days' worth of festival. I've enjoyed the dancing at night across the street in the City Center.

I had been holding off on really getting settled in until I knew for sure that everything would go through, in case something went wrong.

Time to go buy a coffee pot, and a wall clock.

New Car

I received delivery of my lease car last Wednesday. I am choosing to lease for now, and may keep doing so for the convenience. If I would want something bigger, I could upgrade without problems.

This is a 2007 Mitsubishi Lancer, 4-door, 4-cylinder. It drives pretty well, and doesn't have many kilometers on it (only about 10,500). I filled my car last Friday with super petrol for 29 riyals (about USD $8.00). I used super because I was told to by the lease company, and I can see the difference in performance too with the 4 cylinder. My friend/colleague Alice also drives a Lancer, but she only puts regular petrol in, and it seems that I get better performance. It may be the gasoline grade.

It doesn't matter, though. Regular petrol is about 89 dirhams a liter. Super is about 97 dirhams. For USD $8 for my gas, I won't make a fuss either way. There are 100 dirhams to a Riyal, and 3.6 Riyals to a dollar (set rate). However, you rarely use dirhams. If you go to the grocery store, the dirhams are either rounded up or down to the next Riyal, and you pay in Riyals, and get your change in Riyals. Or that's how the big markets work anyway.

Gas is cheaper than water here. I paid 97 dirhams a liter for gas, but if you go to the Carrefour and buy water in bulk, 1 riyal for a liter is cheap. I buy 5 liter bottles for 5 riyals.

The TVillaggio

The Villaggio is a Venetian-themed shopping mall which is about a 20-minute drive from my house, but close to Education City. Doha, and Qatar, are obviously flat desertscape, but Doha is a relatively easy city to drive in. If you go toward Education City, the tower showing in the first photo is a reliable landmark (in fact, I can see it from my apartment window now). And, if you go in the opposite direction, you can see the West Bay, which is the downtown area where I live.

The Villaggio and surrounding area were all constructed and used for the 2006 Asian Games. Doha had the distinction of being the first city outside Asia to host the games, and you can see that they pulled out all the stops with building. Roads got widened and new housing complexes were constructed, among other things. You can clearly tell which parts of Doha are old or new. Newer parts have traffic signals and wide roads, and older parts have roundabouts.

As Doha seems to be in competition with Dubai to become the 'premier' city of the GCC or even the Middle East, winning the 2006 games was really a feather in the city's cap. I don't know if Dubai even applied or not, but it's still a feat held in distinction.

The inside of The Villaggio replicates Venice, with Ventian houses above the shops, a blue sky with clouds for the ceiling, street lamps used for lighting, and the piece de resistance, a canal.

You can take a gondola ride in the canal, just like in Venice. However, with it being Ramadan, you can't during the day. All entertainment is closed during daylight hours.

This kind of strikes me as something you'd find in Japan.

Barzan Tower

Each highrise building in Doha has a unique design. This is Barzan Tower, near my house. The architects took a regular steel-cased highrise and placed a traditional Qatari house 'cutout' on the bottom. The building signifies the direction both Doha and Qatar have taken, evolving from a relatively uninhabited desert peninsula to rapidly becoming one of the premier cities in the Middle East.

Medical Check, etc.

So yesterday I endured the medical check I have to have in order to get my Qatari Residence Permit. It was, well, interesting.

First and foremost, as I've explained earlier, a lot of places have shorter working hours. Particularly the government. The reason for this, of course, is because it's Ramadan. So if you need to accomplish anything, it has to be done in the morning.

Second, in spite of the massive number of people relocating to Doha for various reasons--joining family, working, etc.--, the Qatari government doesn't feel compelled to have more than one location in which you can accomplish your tasks.

So there is one small clinic for the medical check, and a whole heap of people who go there every day.

My driver, Abdul, and I arrived at the clinic. Since it is segregated, men and women, all the men waiting for wives,etc. are reduced to staring into the women's reception area, as though we were animals in a zoo.

You walk in, and there are a few workers who are charged to control the masses by keeping them in queue. This is important, as there are a lot of people (a lot of the women I saw were abeyyah-wearing, I'm sorry to say) who feel that queueing doesn't apply to them. So they'll try to cut the queue.

You go through 4 processes. First, you do a pre-registration, where you have to provide a contact number. Then, you go through through an even longer queue to register and pay for the medical. If you wonder, the paperwork was already done for me, and a 100-riyal note tucked into my passport by the HR rep. at Cornell. (since you don't get a receipt, you can't get reimbursed directly)

Then you queue again, for your 'physical exam' (there wasn't one--they just glance at you) and blood drawing. The nurse in the blood drawing was actually quite nice, but they really have to work fast. Then you join another queue for your chest x-ray.

The clinic isn't so sanitary. Gowns are used and reused. Cornell sent a gown with me to change into, which came from the laundry and will be sent out again to the laundry since I've returned it to the HR rep. If I had to choose between the dirty gowns and no gown, I'd rather do no gown.

All in all, the process took longer than usual, at 2.5 hours. It usually only takes 2 hours, but with Ramadan there were a lot more people than usual. If you wonder, I had to defend my place in line a few times. When you would get up to move chairs (this is how they queued you), some women would try to take your chair. I had to be polite but aggressive to keep my spot in line.

Today I will go, along with the wife of a new co-worker, to get my temporary drivers' permit. This consists of an eye exam, and I don't know what else. Surely not traffic rules, as they don't exist here. I'm sure, though, it won't be a 15-minute process. And, unlike the whole 'scam' in Japan, it's a little more straight-forward. Since I have a drivers' license already, and I purchased an International Drivers' License, and I have an American license, I've been told there won't be problems with me getting a license. Unlike Japan. I took the test twice here, but my friend Lee Sean took it 9 times. He is calling racial profiling there (he's Taiwanese).

I've been speaking with the drivers about the driving here, as we go around. The biggest challenge I'll have is roundabouts. Usually, in places like the UK, there is something called "lane discipline", where you have to exit roundabouts based on your lane placement. However, in Qatar, the rules are mere suggestions. Most people are able to drive an approximation of the rules, but there are still people who will cut from the inside lane (next to the circle), across two full lanes of traffic, and exit right. Needless to say, you have to be on your toes. I have been advised by both Cornell drivers to just take the middle lane in roundabouts, as that means I can exit either straight or left. If I want to go clear around, of course, I'll take the left lane, and exit right on the next road I'll take the right lane. But also, in the UK, people signal obsessively. You signal into the roundabout and signal out. Here, though, apparantly only new expats and Cornell drivers do this.

I also had to go have a blood group certificate done. This is for my Qatari ID card, which will also require fingerprinting. If my medical clearance comes through, I'll be fingerprinted next week. I am not sure if the blood type goes directly on the card, but I can see the logic if it does. Blood group typing is extremely easy, inexpensive, relatively painless (they poke your thumb with a lancet and put 3 big drops of blood on a glass piece, to which they add chemical) and can be done in 5 minutes. It only cost me 15 riyals (between USD $4 and 5) to do so, which is reimbursable. I actually think it would be a good required addition for drivers' licenses and ID cards in the States. If you're ever in an accident and need a transfusion but can't communicate your blood type, the medical people would then just have to look at your ID.

Doha--first impressions

City Center Doha-- a 4 story shopping mall across the street from my apartment. They are expanding, with the addition of a twinned-tower 40-story Marriot and Courtyard Marriot (Marriot for people on a $200-a-night budget) on one end and a (don't know)-story Shangra-la (a 5-star hotel) on the other.






Serdal Towers (aka Bilal Suites), my apartment building.



View of the West Bay, where I live. You could swing a stick and hit 5 skyscraper construction jobs.


An extremely cool teapot sculpture on the Corniche. Tea is an essential part of Qatari culture (Arabic culture, for that matter), and business meetings are often prefaced by the serving of tea.



I've made it to Doha, and am slowly settling into my new apartment. It's quite nice. As part of my job, I get to live in a fully-furnished apartment. The housing department at Cornell was really considerate, and even purchased me some basic foods and toiletries so I had something until I could go to a store. Which isn't hard for me, as I have a Carrefour (A French chain store with food and basic home items) right across the street in the City Center. I went last night and purchased a few more items.


Right now is Ramadan, the Muslim Holy Month. During Ramadan, Muslim people fast during the daylight hours. They don't eat or drink anything, even water. Obviously some people can't or don't fast, like pregnant women, or the sick or elderly. There are some special considerations to think about, though.


First, the Qatari government limits the daytime work hours for Muslim people to no more than 6, spread out over 6 days instead of the usual 5-day work week. Consequently, many places have hours during the day in which they are closed. To make up for this, places are open later at night. The City Center, which is usually open until 11 or 12, is now open until 1 am. Yes, people are still out at 1 am.

Second, it is forbidden to consume food or drink in public in the day during Ramadan, even for non-Muslim people. So, yesterday at Cornell, people were consuming drinks in closed break rooms. Non-Muslims are not required to fast, but they have to eat and drink in private.



A few more photos, of my apartment. It is absolutely identical to the one I toured in July, except for the spare bedroom bedcovers are blue, not orange. I suppose if I wanted to be funny, I could demand the orange bedcovers, and express my disappointment over having not gotten them on the bed to begin with.


The Master Bathroom, complete with bidet.


The guest bathroom, also complete with bidet.


My kitchen, which is quite spacious and fully-furnished with dishes, silverware, pans, etc. I also got a full-sized refrigerator/freezer, unlike the Smurf-sized and colored appliance in my old Japan place.


The living room, from the foyer/genkan.


The swimming pool on the second floor. There is also a fitness room.

Bahamas 2007

The Pirate's Lady, which we lived on for a week.


Photo of me, taken by my dive buddy.

I returned from the Bahamas on Saturday, after spending one week living on a boat for a huge diving trip. I dived 19 times in 6 days, which is really good. If you go on a land-based holiday, you are lucky to get 3 dives a day. With the liveaboard, though, you set up your gear once and then dive a lot. This is really cool, as you don't have to break your gear down after each dive. If you're diving with an integrated weight BCD, where your weights are in the BCD and not on your waist, this becomes even cooler.



I arrived in Freeport, Grand Bahama on Thursday, with no problems. My luggage was delivered promptly, and without any major defects. Thanks Continental!

Those who flew out of Dallas with American Airlines, though, didn't have such a nice time. Two people were unexcusibly delayed. Both had bought tickets beforehand for a specific flight and were not allowed to board their flights in spite of arriving at the airport beforehand, etc. AA wanted to charge one person $900 extra to take the flight he had already paid for. He wasn't even able to arrive in Freeport until Sunday evening.

Be warned. Air travel standards are becoming very low in the United States. I've heard nothing but horror stories from people who travel. I've got some myself.

Anyway. There's not much to do in Freeport, as I learned. When the cruise ships are in, the place is hopping. When they've gone, you can hear the wolves howl for 20 miles.

We had some nice dives. A few night dives, a few wreck dives, a shark dive, and lots in between.

I celebrated my 50th dive during this trip. It was quite a treat, with a whole heap of rays, two huge turtles, small child-eating fish, and warm water.

I saw an octopus for the first time on the first night dive we did.

Blackbeard's itself was a good time. It's not for fussy travelers, as you are in dorm-style accommodation with very little space. You share two showers with 25 people. That's kind of hard when everyone comes up from the night dive at the same time.

The crew, though, is first-class, and works hard to make your trip enjoyable.

I would definitely go again. It's good value for the money. As I found out, they're offering $100 off the cruise price from October--February. This is the off-season. We didn't need wetsuits in the water at all--85 degree water or so. But you would probably wear a 3mil in winter. Or I did in Cozumel, anyway.

T-minus 1 week until I depart the States for Qatar. I'm getting very excited to go.