Doha, In Limbo

Hi everyone!  I am still working on loading pics from the cruise as we still don't have wi-fi unless we go to the top floor of the building we are in and then it takes 5 min. per picture to upload them to the website....

Anyway, we are doing well although not feeling very settled yet.  When we arrived, we were told that the villa we planned on moving into wasn't going to be ready for 6-7 weeks!   UGH!!  Therefore, we decided to look for another one, but unfortunately, all the fully furnished ones were all rented already.  DOUBLE UGH!  We moved into a 3 bedroom apartment in a high rise near where we will eventually live.  At least we were able to unpack out of the million suitcases that we have been toting everywhere with us!  I have spent 3 straight days doing a trillion loads of laundry!!!

We received great news yesterday that someone backed out of another 4 bedroom villa in the same compound that we want to live in, so it will be ready within the next 1-2 weeks!  YAY!  Hopefully we can get moved in before school starts on Sept. 9th.

I am quite surprised how in general things aren't that much different here.  Avery is fascinated with the fact that all the toilets in the hotels and apartments have bidets and even the public toilets have handheld sprayer to "hose yourself off" I guess.  Needless to say, many a mess of water has been made playing with the sprayer.  Also, everything is crazy expensive here.  Avery convinced me to buy her this small panda stuffed animal today that was $20!!!!  Would have been $5 in the US!

Bad news.....  Avery had another bout of stomach cramping and diarrhea and after talking to our peds MD from Gainesville, she may have either the parasite still, or c-diff infection from all the antibiotics she has been on (for the parasite, then all the foot issues, then the parasite again.)  We are heading to the local hospital on Saturday to try to meet with someone and give them a stool sample to see what is going on......  Apparently, until the stool samples come back negative 3 times in a row, the parasite can't be considered gone.  Wish us luck!

We are ready for school to start, as the kids and I are going a little stir crazy here with no real plans each day.  I am driving around and we have visited 2 of the 3 malls (one has an ice skating rink and bowling alley).  The malls put the Oaks Mall to shame (as most malls do).  We have been out to dinner most of the nights and have been to old favorites like Chili's, TGI Fridays, and an Italian restaurant.  We see lots of Qatari's wearing the black (women) and white (men) robes and head garments especially in the malls but they are friendly for the most part and don't look at us funny or anything.  There are plenty of people just like us everywhere as well.


Love you guys and miss you all!