All Quiet on the West Bay Front

Though one could certainly not call me a world traveler - until now, perhaps? - I have lived in or near some of the largest cities in the United States: Chicago, NYC, Houston. Never have I been in a city of so many people where it is so very quiet. Granted, as I mentioned in a previous post, my apartment building sits on the edge of downtown (in an area called West Bay). Still it amazes me that I hear few car horns and see few people walking, even in the evenings. Even the construction seems muted. Maybe the whir of all the air conditioners deadens outside sound?

So, where are many of the 1.3 million people of Doha?

Malls. Massive, multi-level, air-conditioned malls.

It took me less than fifteen minutes to walk to City Center mall from my apartment building. For those who live in or have visited Texas, the size and scope of the malls here will appear less surprising, but there is at least one striking difference.

There is a grocery store inside the mall. No, really. City Center has a Carrefour, a French-based grocery/drugstore (also, notably, the second largest retailer worldwide). As one might expect from a French chain, most of the products come from Europe, but many Arabic products line the shelves as well, in particular lamb, dates, and sweets, sweets, sweets everywhere. I had heard about the legendary Arabic sweet tooth, and it certainly seems to be true. I would compare City Center to a combination of an H.E.B. (one of the new big ones, not a "pantry") and the Houston Galleria. I made the error of not weighing my produce before checking out, but a friendly worker rescued me from trekking half a mile across the store and re-checking out. The only item I wanted but could not locate? Pepper! Why, you ask? I have no idea. Maybe I didn't look in the right place? It certainly was not next to the entire section of salt . . . I found all other manner of spices - cumin, chili powder, chili pepper, mustard seed - but no pepper! Not tragic, of course, but puzzling . . .

Besides my foray to the mall, over the last two days I have finished unpacking and mostly settled into a daily schedule. Tomorrow I begin my orientation and work at the Texas A&M - Qatar campus in Education City. (The work week here begins on Sunday and ends on Thursday, making Friday and Saturday the weekend days.) I have also made some progress on chapter one of my dissertation, working through some final edits before I send it to my advisor later next week.

I leave you with another video of views from my apartment (both inside and out!):

XO,
JZog