First Impression

Trip Start Aug 12, 2005

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Qatar Doha, Qatar
Saturday, August 13, 2005

Arrived in a strange city and being picked up in the airport with a limousine, having a five star treatment was a new experience for me.... I was told that the company will paid for my accommodation in the hotel for at least one month, after that I should find my own accommodation or the company will move me to their own temporary housing facility, where I may stay there temporarily. This is an impressive facility; I think I had never expecting something like this.

To my humble experience, this is a luxury. Anyway, this is maybe another lifestyle, which I have to adopt. After all, this is my new life as an expatriate in Qatar.
It was Saturday, the next morning after breakfast; I was picked up again by the company's driver to send me to the site office. There, directly I met my big boss, the one who brought me to Qatar. I was glad to see him. And then his secretary was also very nice and warm; some hospitality that I had never encounter before.

Another new experience to me was the fact that the weekend was on Friday, instead of Sunday as I always known. If I worked in the main office, then Saturday is also a holiday, instead of Saturday and Sunday. Nevertheless, since I worked in the site office, Saturday was just another working day. Anyway, to me this is good to work 6 days a week, so this could distracted me from being lonely and miserable in a foreign country.

Mid August is the middle of summer season in the Middle East, and I was brought here in the middle of the desert at the very same time of the year. No body on the street at this time I guess, as the temperature was as high as 50慢, I guess they melt on the street if they do so.

Now I understand why there is a lot of sun glasses shop in the mall.

To my surprise, the biggest mall in town was empty, but huge. The architecture was tent architecture, where they try to cover up the glaring sun by a tent after they put glazing underneath.

Nevertheless, the question remains, "how long will I last here...?"