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Chicago
Chicago is frickin’ cold! So far we’ve been to the Bean, the Field Museum, and I’ve eaten the pizza. Also, I’ve finally met my first and only niece (she’s brand new!) and she’s a cutie. Currently listening to:BattlesMirrored
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Damn the Spam (Plus, Rain!)
Last week it rained for almost a week here in Qatar. Drivers, confused, got into accidents. (”Why is water falling from the sky? How strange. I shall drive faster than usual!”) Endless Doha construction didn’t help either (”I am a pothole and covered in water, therefore I am invisible to man and their cars, cars…
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Myth Takes
For several days now I’ve had the same headache; a terrible pounding behind my eyes. I always wake up with it, and though I want to start the day right — breakfast, work, shower, Jeopardy on tv — I find myself staying much longer in bed than usual, holding my head and willing the pain to stop.…
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Hotel Hunting
In Japan, the first conversation we had was in French. We were in the train coming from Narita Airport, warily checking our guidebook to see which station we were supposed to get off, when a Japanese man in his late twenties approached us and asked us if we needed any help. Naturally he asked us…
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Fake Taxis
Public transportation in Qatar is nonexistent. I exaggerate. Come to think of it… no, I don’t. There are taxis, those once-in-a-blue-moon Karwa taxis, and Mowasalat buses; but they are like apparitions, or desert mirages – gone before you realise they’re there. Poof! Before the Karwa taxis, the National taxis, or “orange” taxis, ruled the streets…
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Scenes from the Country
Julien is in the garden. He has a huge machine for cutting grass strapped across his chest, probably called A Grass Cutter (?) He is sporting gloves and protective goggles and is moving this ghastly machine in a rhythmic sideways motion. Grass is flying about. Beside him is father, who is brandishing a rake and…
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Bloodletting
I can think of hundreds – no, thousands – of other ways I’d rather spend a day in Doha than going to the Medical Commission building for the medical exam, the most dreaded step toward getting a residence permit in Qatar. But since it’s compulsory, I found myself standing in front of the Medical Commission…
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Getting There
By the time my plane rolled down Doha International Airport’s runway, I had been asked 19 times if I were Filipino. 19 times, just at the Bahrain and Qatar airports. 19 times I answered Yes, and the follow-up questions were: 1: “Have you come straight from Manila?”, 2: “Ah, what’s your job in Doha?”, and…