Okay,
The big question before I came was "How should I pronounce Qatar?" There were three possible ways and I was using all of them..
We have "Ka-tar" The Ka is like the beginning of the word "CAT" and the tar is pronounced just like "tar" This was the Honduran way and lost steam once we came to the US.
There was "Ku-tar" The Ku is pronounced like the beginning of the word "Cut" and the tar again is pronounced just like "tar"
And finally there is "Cu-ter" This is pronounced just like Cutter.
What was interesting about this argument was that people who seemed to be in the know disagreed about which pronounciation was correct. There was even one Canadian, who will remain nameless, that said to me "It is Ku-tar..not Cu-ter..I swear..You Americans just like giving names to countries!"
So, now that I have spent about 3 weeks here I am surely the expert, right? Wrong! I have heard so many different pronounciations that I am totally perplexed. I honestly believe that the real pronounciation is not possible from a Westerners mouth.
I have heard the local "Qataris" (By the way, there is no disgreement how to say this..it is cutteries...just like I spelt it) pronounce Qatar and then I would say it and they would say "No no no no" It is like this "Qatar" and I would say it and they would say "No no no no" You get the picture I am sure
What is interesting is how confident the people from the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and New Zealand are about how the word is said. I think you could ask one and they will have give a different answer. Of course, to their ears they might think they are saying the same word.
It might not be in an Australian's vocabulary to say "Cu-ter" It might just come out as "Ku-tar" .
In the end, I am going with "Ku-tar" and I will tell you why. When telling someone that I live in "Cu-ter" they have no idea where that is...I mean the word is spelt QATAR. I get a look like "Can't you read?". At least with Ku-tar there is some initial agreement. The Honduran "Ka-tar" doesn't work because there is no "u" in Qatar.
Anyway, I refuse to be one of those people who "KNOWS" how to pronounce Qatar.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Comparison between Honduras and Qatar
At first thought you wouldn't think there would be many similarities between Qatar and Honduras but after almost two weeks here my wife and I have found there are several. This post will point out the similarities and differences between the two countries in a variety of topics.
SAFETY AND SECURITY:
QATAR: I have been pleasantly surprised on how safe and secure we are here in Qatar. Guns are forbidden in this country. The policement don't even have guns...at least not in plain sight. We have felt incredibly safe. I even withdrew money from an ATM at the mall and didn't feel like I was about to get mugged. That was nice.
HONDURAS: It can be a little dangerous. A person just needs to be aware of his or her surroundings at all times and try to act low key to avoid any special attention.
TRAFFIC
QATAR: Wild and crazy! There are these roundabouts everwhere and there doesn't seem to be any rules around the roundabouts at all. People drive fast here and there are a lot of Toyota Landcruisers.
HONDURAS: Wild and crazy but I eventually understood it. I lived in Honduras for 8 years without one accident. I thought that this would prepare me for driving here in Qatar but I don't think it translates.
FOOD
Qatar: I love the food here. There is a lot of lamb and salads. The Indian soups with curry and spices is just amazing! I have had hummus and raw veggies everyday as part of my lunch. YUMMY! The grocery stores have their own YOGURT sections. You can buy a tub of Yogurt here and it is very inexpensive. The downside is that raw veggies and fruits are expensive in the stores.
Honduras: I loved the food there. The fruits and veggies were out of this world and at a fraction of the cost to here.
COMMUNITY
Qatar: We live in the Education City Community Housing. My understanding is that everyone that lives in these two community lots works at Qatar Foundation. It is truly an international community. We have met people from Germany, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Scotland, Pakistan, India, Canada, all over the US, and Lebanon...and this is just in the first 10 days! The community has a recreation center and a social club.
Honduras: We lived in the El Mochito compound. It also was an international community but to a smaller degree. We certainly miss our El Mochito friends!
SCENARY
Qatar: Doha, Qatar is an up and coming city in the Middle East. There is construction EVERYWHERE. If there isn't construction it is basically desert. It actually reminds me of Star Wars and Luke Skywalker's planet that he grew up on......very unscenic
Honduras: In Honduras we lived in one of the most beautiful locations probably on earth. The mountains and the green were everywhere!
The People
Qatar: We have been impressed by how friendly everyone is here. From the workers at the grocery store to the people at the health center....everyone has been very very nice. And everyone has some level of English. It is going to be very very difficult to motivate myself to learn Arabic.
Honduras: I do miss the people of Honduras. We really loved our 8 years there and I think a main reason is the people there.
So..there you go..A basic comparison between the Middle East and Latin America. We have had an easy transition and we do think our time in Honduras has helped us prepare ourselves for this move.
Cheers!
Noah
SAFETY AND SECURITY:
QATAR: I have been pleasantly surprised on how safe and secure we are here in Qatar. Guns are forbidden in this country. The policement don't even have guns...at least not in plain sight. We have felt incredibly safe. I even withdrew money from an ATM at the mall and didn't feel like I was about to get mugged. That was nice.
HONDURAS: It can be a little dangerous. A person just needs to be aware of his or her surroundings at all times and try to act low key to avoid any special attention.
TRAFFIC
QATAR: Wild and crazy! There are these roundabouts everwhere and there doesn't seem to be any rules around the roundabouts at all. People drive fast here and there are a lot of Toyota Landcruisers.
HONDURAS: Wild and crazy but I eventually understood it. I lived in Honduras for 8 years without one accident. I thought that this would prepare me for driving here in Qatar but I don't think it translates.
FOOD
Qatar: I love the food here. There is a lot of lamb and salads. The Indian soups with curry and spices is just amazing! I have had hummus and raw veggies everyday as part of my lunch. YUMMY! The grocery stores have their own YOGURT sections. You can buy a tub of Yogurt here and it is very inexpensive. The downside is that raw veggies and fruits are expensive in the stores.
Honduras: I loved the food there. The fruits and veggies were out of this world and at a fraction of the cost to here.
COMMUNITY
Qatar: We live in the Education City Community Housing. My understanding is that everyone that lives in these two community lots works at Qatar Foundation. It is truly an international community. We have met people from Germany, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Scotland, Pakistan, India, Canada, all over the US, and Lebanon...and this is just in the first 10 days! The community has a recreation center and a social club.
Honduras: We lived in the El Mochito compound. It also was an international community but to a smaller degree. We certainly miss our El Mochito friends!
SCENARY
Qatar: Doha, Qatar is an up and coming city in the Middle East. There is construction EVERYWHERE. If there isn't construction it is basically desert. It actually reminds me of Star Wars and Luke Skywalker's planet that he grew up on......very unscenic
Honduras: In Honduras we lived in one of the most beautiful locations probably on earth. The mountains and the green were everywhere!
The People
Qatar: We have been impressed by how friendly everyone is here. From the workers at the grocery store to the people at the health center....everyone has been very very nice. And everyone has some level of English. It is going to be very very difficult to motivate myself to learn Arabic.
Honduras: I do miss the people of Honduras. We really loved our 8 years there and I think a main reason is the people there.
So..there you go..A basic comparison between the Middle East and Latin America. We have had an easy transition and we do think our time in Honduras has helped us prepare ourselves for this move.
Cheers!
Noah
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Grocery Store
We have arrived! The 12 hour flight was not anywhere near as bad as we thought it would be. Our apartment is amazing. It is a 3 bedroom flat located within the Education City Community Housing. And aside from almost getting attacked by a dog last night during a jog, our community is fantastic.
My first post after arrival I wanted to write about grocery items. I love going to a grocery store and looking at prices of items. It is always a good mental exercise to constantly be working money conversions in your head. Here is an amended list of grocery items we bought at our first time out in the grocery store. I have already take the time to do the conversion 1 USD=3.65 Riyals
Loaf of bread-1.64
Yogurt-1.57 for 6 large cups
Wheat cereal from South Africa-3.15
Ground Beef(extra lean)-7.61 for 1 lb
2 small chickens-5.41
Liters of milk-3.15 for 4 liters
yellow onions-1.11 for 3
orange juice-2.12 for 1.75 liters
cucumbers-1.30 for a bag of 8
Seedless dates-2.80 for a bag of 400 grams
Bananas-2.50 for about 14
Head of broccoli-1.87
So after the first trip my first reaction is that we are going to be paying a lot for groceries. One item that we will be doing well in is yogurt. You should have seen the options for yogurt. It was incredible. That had HUGE buckets of yogurt for very cheap.
Coffee is going to be a problem. In the grocery store they had very limited options and I ended up getting little tiny expensive bags of coffee from Lebanon. And..I don't know if I am doing something wrong but it is perhaps the worst coffee I have ever had! After Ramadan Starbucks will be opening back up and I am going to just have to buy coffee there to make at home..
My first post after arrival I wanted to write about grocery items. I love going to a grocery store and looking at prices of items. It is always a good mental exercise to constantly be working money conversions in your head. Here is an amended list of grocery items we bought at our first time out in the grocery store. I have already take the time to do the conversion 1 USD=3.65 Riyals
Loaf of bread-1.64
Yogurt-1.57 for 6 large cups
Wheat cereal from South Africa-3.15
Ground Beef(extra lean)-7.61 for 1 lb
2 small chickens-5.41
Liters of milk-3.15 for 4 liters
yellow onions-1.11 for 3
orange juice-2.12 for 1.75 liters
cucumbers-1.30 for a bag of 8
Seedless dates-2.80 for a bag of 400 grams
Bananas-2.50 for about 14
Head of broccoli-1.87
So after the first trip my first reaction is that we are going to be paying a lot for groceries. One item that we will be doing well in is yogurt. You should have seen the options for yogurt. It was incredible. That had HUGE buckets of yogurt for very cheap.
Coffee is going to be a problem. In the grocery store they had very limited options and I ended up getting little tiny expensive bags of coffee from Lebanon. And..I don't know if I am doing something wrong but it is perhaps the worst coffee I have ever had! After Ramadan Starbucks will be opening back up and I am going to just have to buy coffee there to make at home..
Sunday, August 16, 2009
First blog post and 2 weeks before departure
Okay,
After pressure from my wife and friends I have decided to start a blog about teaching and living in Doha, Qatar. The final straw was seeing a blog started by my cousin, Jay Dater, about teaching in Hungary. So, here is to you Jay!
My wife and I are currently in Lancaster Pennsylvania visiting friends. Tomorrow we are headed to Washington DC so that I can get my clean background checks notarized by the Qatar Embassy. I hope that will go smoothly and then after my physical on Wednesday we will be all set for departure on September 1st.
Dora and I are very excited about the new adventure that will be coming up for our family. We are enjoying seeing friends and family this summer but we are ready to go.
For those of you who take the time to read this blog let me answer the question that always seems to come up when they hear we are going to the Middle East and Qatar. The reason that we are going to Qatar is "Why not?" When we started looking at teaching opportunities in the world and we saw that there was an opening in Doha, Qatar we looked into it. The more we looked into the country and the school the more we thought that this looked to be like a good oppportunity for me professionally and a great experience for our family. I also have met some fellow educators who have taught in Qatar and they had nothing but the best things to say about the country. For those of you still perplexed with our decision you should check out Qatar Foundation and my school The Learning Center and Marie's school Qatar Academy. There is also a forum entitled qatarliving.com that has a lot of great info.
So, I guess that is it for my first post. Thank you and good night
After pressure from my wife and friends I have decided to start a blog about teaching and living in Doha, Qatar. The final straw was seeing a blog started by my cousin, Jay Dater, about teaching in Hungary. So, here is to you Jay!
My wife and I are currently in Lancaster Pennsylvania visiting friends. Tomorrow we are headed to Washington DC so that I can get my clean background checks notarized by the Qatar Embassy. I hope that will go smoothly and then after my physical on Wednesday we will be all set for departure on September 1st.
Dora and I are very excited about the new adventure that will be coming up for our family. We are enjoying seeing friends and family this summer but we are ready to go.
For those of you who take the time to read this blog let me answer the question that always seems to come up when they hear we are going to the Middle East and Qatar. The reason that we are going to Qatar is "Why not?" When we started looking at teaching opportunities in the world and we saw that there was an opening in Doha, Qatar we looked into it. The more we looked into the country and the school the more we thought that this looked to be like a good oppportunity for me professionally and a great experience for our family. I also have met some fellow educators who have taught in Qatar and they had nothing but the best things to say about the country. For those of you still perplexed with our decision you should check out Qatar Foundation and my school The Learning Center and Marie's school Qatar Academy. There is also a forum entitled qatarliving.com that has a lot of great info.
So, I guess that is it for my first post. Thank you and good night
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