I've tried to sit down a few times and write about our trip, but jet lag is killing me, and usually when I have time to write it's when Big E and Miss A are asleep at night. I sit down and stop moving and I promptly fall asleep. Right now Big E is watching a movie with two girls I'm watching before their school starts and while both their parents are working. Our shipment hasn't come yet, so I'm very limited on what I can offer them to do. They did spend about 1 1/2 hours making things out of tin foil though.
Steve has already posted about our flight and first day here. I'll just add some things for my own memory and a few people told me they wanted details, so here you go. In Houston, I forgot to set my watch an hour ahead from Utah time. As we walked to get dinner, we passed a money exchange place. We figured we'd have enough time to change money after we ate, but as we walked passed it again after eating it was closed. The sign with the hours said 7:30am-7:30 pm. I thought it was only 6:30 so we missed changing our money in the states. The walk wasn't far so we had plenty of time. They also had us board an hour and 20 min before we took off. I was really dreading the long flight which ended up being 14 hours from Houston to Doha, but it really wasn't too bad. The plane was big and as Steve put it, "it's like a small building on wings". Steve could stand up with no problem and because we got the bulk head row, he could even stretch his legs. We could get up with the kids and walk around or let them play on the floor. We got the bulk head row and at first I was annoyed with this as there isn't a place for bags to be stored near you. But the fact that there was a bassinet that attached to the wall during flight made up for that. Big E loved watching whatever kids show or movie he wanted. So he slept some and watched some. Miss A hardly slept all day and didn't go to sleep until around 11 central time. But after that slept pretty well. I didn't sleep much; it was more like napping.
The airport was different than what I'm used to. The plane was parked more like you would your car in a parking lot. We walked down a flight of stairs and got onto a bus which took us to the main building. We forgot about our stroller, which we gate checked. Getting through immigration was easy. We had to wait for a while for our luggage, though. We had 7 bags (one being a pack and play), two car seats, one stroller, three back packs, a bag, and a carry on suitcase. When our luggage finally arrived, we were still missing the pack and play. Steve went to the customer service desk to ask about it and while he was away, a man brought it to me. I had no phone that worked, and neither did Steve for that matter, so I had no way to tell him that we got the pack and play. We had two carts with luggage and a stroller. So I was stuck. I decided to ask a couple who I saw on the plane (who happen to be here for the same reason as us and are our neighbors) if one of them would go tell Steve that we have it. We didn't have to go through customs. They didn't go through our bags. We just walked out. People from the school were waiting for us to take us to our new house.
One thing that surprised me was that it is humid. Apparently they have "washer days" and "dryer days". So sometimes it's humid with the nights being really muggy from the air coming off the ocean; other times it's dry. So far it's been humid most days. And though it's hot, it hasn't been as hot has some people had said. Right now it's only 105 degrees F with 35% humidity.
The bus ride from the airport to our villa seemed really long, but it was in the dark and so I couldn't get a sense of where we were going. But now that we've driven during the day, I still dont' have much of a sense of where things are. Everything looks pretty much the same, and in some ways it reminds of a Tucson, though Tucson had more palm trees and of course there was cactus.
Steve posted pictures of the trip and of our villa, so to save myself some time sense it has taken me days to finish this post, I'm sending you over there to see them if you haven't already.
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