Really?

Mom and I were talking about all kinds of general observations of the Qatari culture and decided all of you would think it is very interesting, too.  So here goes:

In the big public restrooms (like the mall), there are stalls with toilets like ours and then there are usually a few other stalls that have a hole in the floor and kind of look like a shower stall without the shower.  I occasionally have seen women going in and out of the stall so was really curious about what was going on.  I have asked around and it seems some people think toilets are very nasty/dirty and so they go in there and just squat so they don't touch anything.  Interesting, although I don't think I will be that adventurous yet.

In movies you see Muslims hear a call to prayer at certain times of the day and dropping everything and bowing toward Mecca to pray with prayers being said aloud over speakers in the streets.  After 2 weeks here, I have yet to hear a call to prayer or see anyone stop and pray anywhere.  Maybe that is just the movies (or more strict countries like Saudi Arabia).  I know a call to prayer happens from the mosques, but unless you are standing outside right by one, you can't hear it.  They do have prayer rooms (one for men and one for women) pretty much anywhere there is a public bathroom.  I have seen some people going in and out of there.  They take off their shoes and leave them all piled up outside the door.  Sometimes I have even seen inside the room when someone is coming or going and it smells like incense and is just a big carpeted area.

All the radio stations here are in arabic and have weird music except one which plays some top 40ish music mixed with easy listening/older stuff.  I am hoping that the car I end up with will have the ability to play music from my phone :).  What is funny though, I was shopping at the Gap in the mall for Natalie's birthday and they were playing good music in there.  All of a sudden a Qatari woman came into the store and one of the employees said to another "music" and she went to the back and turned the music off for the duration of the time the Qatari woman was in the store.  Then, we went ice skating yesterday at the mall and they were playing American music loudly the entire time!  I can't quite figure this place out!

All the Qatari women wear the black robe and burka with their eyes only showing all the time but the men wear white robes and either white head scarves or red/white checked headscarves.  We haven't figured out if there is any rhyme or reason to why some wear the red/white vs. the plain white.  The Qatari boys seem to start wearing the white robe really young (like age 6), but the girls wear regular clothes until puberty it seems and don't cover their hair until then also.

Another odd thing is the grocery stores are in the malls so to go grocery shopping you have to park at the mall and then push your cart through the mall when you are finished.  We are finding most food that we want but in various stores.  Unfortunately, the groceries are about twice the price (esp. if you like American brands).  A box of Raisin Bran was $10!!  The bread we are used to eating is called "industrial bread" and can be tricky to find at some stores.  There is always a big bakery section with sliced bread though.  The first grocery trip we made was me and the three kids.  After about 3 hours in the store looking for everything we get to the checkout.  We must have had 10 various bags from the produce section.  Unfortunately, in Qatar, you have to weigh the produce in the produce section and have it priced there.  Whoops!  The poor guy had to run back there 3 different times with our stuff to have it priced.  I felt like such an idiot!

Alcohol-- The 5 star hotels serve alcohol in their restaurants and otherwise, you have to get your residence permit, then a smart card that show how much income you make per month.  You then get a punch card that you can take to the ONLY liquor store in town and can spend a percentage of your salary on alcohol for personal use.  You are legally allowed to drive it home (with a time stamped receipt) but if otherwise are caught with alcohol in the car, you would be sent to jail.  There is a zero drinking and driving tolerance here with a legal limit of 0.000.  If you even have one drink you should call a taxi (which are pretty reasonably priced).  It seems so far that people have access to more than enough alcohol for personal use so the percentage must be pretty reasonable.

Driving in Doha is very different than in the US.  First, the Qataris are always in the right, even if they are obviously in the wrong.  They always have friends in high places to get them off so they drive like maniacs.  Otherwise, if you run a red light or get caught speeding, no one bothers to pull you over and write you a ticket.  They simply take a picture of your license plate and when you decide to leave the country for travel, you don't get your exit visa until all your fines are paid.  Interesting concept in that they don't waste money on traffic cops but unless you check the website periodically, you have no idea if you have fines waiting for you.  The fines for running a red light or parking illegally are huge (like $3000) but speeding is like super cheap.  Weird, huh!  The hardest part about the driving is all these crazy 3 lane roundabouts.  It feels like European Vacation when Chevy Chase is saying "Hey kids, Ben Ben, Parliament".  So far I am navigating around pretty well although I have to drive more defensively and more aggressively than I am used to doing.  Thank goodness for google maps as I have been lost plenty!!

Well, that is all for now.  Mom and I will drop off the kids for their first day of school in the morning and will have some time to drive around and check out some sites that the kids don't really care about.  Look forward to a little free time!!