The Speed of Life
Whenever I walk outside, my glasses fog up.
No, it's not twenty degrees below zero like we're used to at home, it's fifty degrees above, and the gulf humidity hangs thick on everything. On Sunday the air conditioning was down at work, the closest thing we have to a snow day in Doha, and the very walls themselves were dripping with condensation inside. You know you're in a hot climate when the buildings are sweating.
This city is expanding at a shocking rate. The center of what is now downtown was vacant desert three years before, where now it towers with modern architecture unlike any I have seen before. For every modern tower there are two more being built, shining glass with bases carved of castle-like stone and plaster in traditional Islamic style. A thirty floor office building shaped into a tornado. Towers made to zigzag shapes that appear to be distorted by heat lines in the distance -- though often there really are heat lines to distort them. Yet beside it all there are walled villas of sun bleached concrete, dusty streets and empty dunes. When the sun sets in Doha, it is a perfectly round ball of fire burning into the flat horizon, turning the hazy sky shades of orange and purple and taking with it the sparse few wisps of cloud that can be found in this empty sky.
With hopes of summer heat fading into something tolerable, most of my time here has been spent indoors. I still do not have a permanent home, and I grow tired of living out of my suitcase. Always moving, always calling some new couch my home. With luck I will finally settle into a fine apartment soon and decorate it's walls with art and images of home, choicely located favorite quotes and pictures of my friends. As the temperature drops I will explore the country by land and by sea, with plans for diving and sailing courses fighting for my time with aggressive 4x4 driving on sand dunes and training for the first annual Doha marathon in February.
Although now much of my time is focused on work, the potential of this year for travel and exploration as well as the personal development of new skills and hobbies is vast. Where will my travels take me? I've started making a list, but at the top of it I need to travel to a Camera store, so I can share some of what I see with you, and store them along with my memories.
Here is a link to a rather dry promotional documentary on the College and the city of Doha, but for the curious it might be interesting to have a look at the rather amazing campus where I inhabit a modest second floor office, and it offers some insight on life and the history of the state of Qatar. The College of the North Atlantic - Qatar.
-/\/\
No, it's not twenty degrees below zero like we're used to at home, it's fifty degrees above, and the gulf humidity hangs thick on everything. On Sunday the air conditioning was down at work, the closest thing we have to a snow day in Doha, and the very walls themselves were dripping with condensation inside. You know you're in a hot climate when the buildings are sweating.
This city is expanding at a shocking rate. The center of what is now downtown was vacant desert three years before, where now it towers with modern architecture unlike any I have seen before. For every modern tower there are two more being built, shining glass with bases carved of castle-like stone and plaster in traditional Islamic style. A thirty floor office building shaped into a tornado. Towers made to zigzag shapes that appear to be distorted by heat lines in the distance -- though often there really are heat lines to distort them. Yet beside it all there are walled villas of sun bleached concrete, dusty streets and empty dunes. When the sun sets in Doha, it is a perfectly round ball of fire burning into the flat horizon, turning the hazy sky shades of orange and purple and taking with it the sparse few wisps of cloud that can be found in this empty sky.
With hopes of summer heat fading into something tolerable, most of my time here has been spent indoors. I still do not have a permanent home, and I grow tired of living out of my suitcase. Always moving, always calling some new couch my home. With luck I will finally settle into a fine apartment soon and decorate it's walls with art and images of home, choicely located favorite quotes and pictures of my friends. As the temperature drops I will explore the country by land and by sea, with plans for diving and sailing courses fighting for my time with aggressive 4x4 driving on sand dunes and training for the first annual Doha marathon in February.
Although now much of my time is focused on work, the potential of this year for travel and exploration as well as the personal development of new skills and hobbies is vast. Where will my travels take me? I've started making a list, but at the top of it I need to travel to a Camera store, so I can share some of what I see with you, and store them along with my memories.
Here is a link to a rather dry promotional documentary on the College and the city of Doha, but for the curious it might be interesting to have a look at the rather amazing campus where I inhabit a modest second floor office, and it offers some insight on life and the history of the state of Qatar. The College of the North Atlantic - Qatar.
-/\/\