A storm, a museum, and threading....

 Remember how I said I'd never seen a cloud in Doha?  Well, that changed yesterday.  We went to the Islamic Museum of Art which is downtown Doha.  We were early and went to our favorite juice bar.  When we came out, the sky looked like this.

 Above is the Museum, by I. M. Pei, the sky was quite ominous and the wind, sand, and salty Persian water were flying about, making it difficult to see.

 Above and to the left I tried to capture the trees, which normally do not move at all, whipping around.

 This is my new friend, Bernice.  She's a ton of fun.  She is from London, and mostly took the tube there, plus Doha drives on the same side of the street at the US (and opposite the UK), so driving was an adventure.  We went out on a Friday morning so the streets wouldn't be too busy.

The is a photo from inside the museum.  It's 4 floors, and the exhibits are in hidden little rooms all around the perimeter.  It's pretty incredible to see pottery, tiles, jewelry, and daggers from the 8th century.  The museum starts with the 8th century and go out to the 18th century.  A lot of the stuff is Persian. (Iran for my not so geographical friends)  Central Asia was represented as well, which Sergey thought was cool as that is where he is from.

The mosque on the right, with the curly roof allows non-muslims to come visit, learn about Islam, wear traditional clothing, and eat a traditional meal.  It's definitely on our list of things to do.  Well, mine.  Sergey, not so much, but if some male friends of mine come, he'll be into it, as males and females will be separated.






OK so when we returned, after going to Lulu Hypermart...I really wish I had pics of the insanity that was both inside and outside that store.  One could spend hours there.  It's like a super Walmart or Super Target, but double in size as it had an entire second floor.  I was thrilled to find organic Australian beef, as I've been afraid to buy anything local.  They also have veggie nuggets instead of chicken nuggets...I'll give that a try.  Sergey was thrilled to find Rice Krispies.  You really don't know what you might miss until you don't have it.

So that was all yesterday.  Today, I spent the entire day trying to find rides for Sergey to and from school.  Ultimately, my cleaner, Rajan, came through with his cousin who is going to charge a very reasonable price.  Sunil stopped by this evening, as he wanted to meet Sergey prior to picking him up.  Sunil will pick him up in the mornings and Luis (another friend) will drop him in the afternoons.  They have another child-grade 2-that they pick up as well, so they knew all about the green cards the driver must have to pick up a child, etc.  It will cost about $300/month, but that is a LOT cheaper than anyone else was offering.  Plus, these guys have been in the country for over 10 years from Sri Lanka.  Nice guys and very safe.

Also today, I walked to the small Lulu Express...it was only 98 and 90% humidity...no problem.  Only a mile or so.  I needed a few things to make dinner that I had forgotten.  There is also a women's salon, so I decided to have my eyebrows waxed.  No wax, only threading.  I know a lot about threading from all of the memoirs and books I've read about Iran and Afghanistan and Iraq, etc. but I had no idea how much it would HURT!  Tears were running down my face from the pain.  Wow.  Like anything else, it will likely hurt less next time. 

So Sergey officially starts 8th grade at ACS Doha tomorrow.  Let's all cross his fingers that it's a good fit for him. :-)