Fingerprints...

Today is the 3rd day of school and the 3rd day I didn't get home until close to 5 or after.  What may have been amusing yesterday, was NOT today.  After work we walked 3/4 of a mile in the blistering heat (or rather jogged, since Saheer only has one pace--Quickly!!!) because the bus went to the wrong building.  We were smushed into a bus to claustrophobic proportions and headed for a 30 minute drive to the office of criminal investigations.  We were late (as usual) and Saheer had to deal with the screaming Qatari man who was in charge.  Again, the men and women were separated, and the men were done in 15 minutes.  The women waited for well over an hour, while 2 ladies tried to process about 50 of us (from 3 QF schools).  Then it was prayer time, so they had to take a break to go and pray.  FINALLY, the manager or whatever got fed up and grabbed about 15 women to be fingerprinted in the men's area.  You see, this is Haram (strictly forbidden) here, for a man to touch a women's fingers, even if he's wearing gloves and it's only to scan finger prints!!  Then, there was a big fiasco about how we were going to get home because the bus was to drop everyone off at the school, and none of us have cars....we ended up bribing the driver to take us home, and he ended up with a very large tip.  Oddly, he didn't understand why we were paying him....I was the last one off the bus---lovely---and tried to explain that we were all very grateful that he was so kind to take all of us home.  (and we all live in different areas).  I believe this is the last part of the Resident Permit formalities.  I feel like crap, have been up since 5, and am rather cranky.  Today I did not feel like dealing with Middle Eastern customs and Insha'allah crap.  Plus, Sergey is still not in a proper school, and so is home alone all day, and I don't want him to start hating it here because of the sickness and me getting home late and being exhausted.  It will end soon, but it's hard for him to conceptualize time. 
On the bright side...the cleaning man came today, so I came home to a beautifully clean home. :-)
Now, it is time for bed. 
I sooo hope there is not surprise after school outing tomorrow!!  Sorry for the rant, but the good and bad are all part of the adventure.  Tomorrow's a new day. :-)