Monday, August 17, 2009

Dates and Birthdays!


Want to see how I started my day? Running along this.

And this.


Pretty darn amazing, that's for sure. More than 7k. Ocean. Sun. 5:30am, and a bleary-eyed miss Kathleen Flood kindly dropping me off at one end (although I'm not sure she quite realized what was happening). I arrived at The Sheraton (pictured above, the weird pyramid thing) red-faced and more grinny than usual.

I grin a lot in the mornings. Kath prefers to sleep. Something about 'normal people don't wake up at 5am, you FREAKONATURE, go to BED!' But of course I can't, because my body hates me and loves the sun. I'm like a darn flower.

Not sure Kath is a morning flower.

We're hitting deadline here at ABODE, which is one of my favorite times. It means everything's intense and fast pace. Stories have to be turned in now, now, yesterday, and others are ready for editing, and where are all those photos? I love it. I think the adrenaline junky in me would be perfectly content working for a newspaper where everything is rapid-fire pace... only I love deep stories too much to do that.

Aside from work (with our new crazy work hours, 8-1, 4-7, say goodbye to your day! Only I really actually like it most the time), life is just... well.. Doha. We celebrated Kath's big 22 birthday last week.

Birthday girl in action on a fashion photoshoot.

I was able to pull some PR strings and work a lil magic, ending in a big surprise at The Ritz with Kath's many buddies and delightful cake.


I actually went out (GASP!) dancing at Palomas, a sassy lil club with free drinks all night for ladies.


Dancing was fun.
The next day was not. I think there's a reason I stick to early bedtimes/water/books. Wait, isn't there a name for that? ...nerd. Shoot.


As things heat up, Doha's getting ready for Ramadan. It starts Aug 22 this year (each year it moves back 10 days). During Ramadan, Muslims here only work half days. The government offices do the same. This means things go a lot slower, and much later into the night, since Iftar (the breaking of the fast) starts once the sun goes down. Dates and milk are used to break the fast.

I've been eating a lot of dates lately. They are everywhere. Given as gifts, huge boxes of dates are now popping up at hotels (hello, Sheraton!) and in the corners of our office. I ate seven in an hour the other day, which resulted in one very, very energetic Danae. Note to self: dates = candy = LOTS OF SUGAR.

Then there's Sohour, the second meal during Ramadan. These can go into the wee hours of the morning and are hosted all around town, either in private homes or in large, grand tents. I can't wait to attend a Sohour... even if it will be much, much after my bedtime. During Ramadan, people aren't allowed to eat, drink or smoke in public. Regulations on clothing (no shoulders, no skirts above the knees) have become a lot stricter these past couple weeks. Folks are being fined thousands of dollars.

So I stay covered. It's amazing what you learn to do with layering. All part of living in a strange land.

I'm heading home in two weeks, where I'll lurk for some number of days before waving goodbye bye to Omaha and hello to Cali.

After a week of Leia lei lei family time, I'll be off to Cambridge! My goodness, where did the time go?

I do love living in beautiful, new places. Unfortunately, Cambridge wont be nearly as sunny.


1 comment:

  1. how cool! cambridge is gonna be so fun and cool and I can't wait to hear more about it :)

    ReplyDelete