Bring me a day full of honest work and a roof that never leaks and I’ll be satisfied

When we learned that we’d be moving, we couldn’t go online to get any information about the country, because at that time we didn’t have internet access (and as a result almost lost our minds). We had to satisfy our curiosity with the only book in our home that mentioned Qatar: a crummy Altas Illustré de la Terre.

(Oh, believe me, I have been acquainted with Qatar in the past. My memories of the place are not fond at all. Read this and you’ll understand.)

After much straining, (it’s really not a good sign when, trying to find a country in an atlas, you have to hold the map directly under a hundred-watt light bulb and still go “Where is it?”) I found it: appendaged to Saudi Arabia, right smack in the Gulf, surrounded by the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait, and facing Iran.

My soon to be neighbors.

But Qatar, it seems, is a very open country compared to its neighbors. Sure, there’s no pork, and being a Muslim country you aren’t in for any random public displays of affection (I guess condom machines in subways and street corners, a sight I’ve gotten used to in France, is a thing of the past), but from the sites I’ve been visiting people can get away with shorts and sleeveless shirts, something I am thankful for considering the temperatures rise up to 50°C in the summer. It doesn’t sound so bad. In fact, it seems exotic.

My Arabian Peninsula Lonely Planet arrived in the mail the other day, and I’ve been reading all about the country. I cannot really put into words how excited I am to leave. I keep on thinking about how great it will be to discover a new culture, to meet new people, to live out a portion of life in a place so foreign, to see a bit of the world, especially while we’re still young and reckless. Okay, very reckless.

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Finally, this big blue metallic container, which has been a dominating presence in our living room for the past few weeks, has been taken away and is hopefully being shipped as I write this.

I had a very hard time wondering what to put in there. I mean, how do you decide what to take when you know you’ll be gone for the next 2 years? My first instinct was to fill the malle with my clothes, but since it’s winter here, I still need most of my clothes. So, I put in the most important items I could think of: my rollerblades, my tennis racket, 2 cans of tennis balls, and my cocktail shaker (thanks, Makis).

Gradually I threw in some other stuff in there – some shirts, bande dessinées, video games, music, our Egon Schiele poster, dvds, and books. Lots and lots of books.

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I need book-music-and-dvd suggestions. I need to keep myself occupied once the Discovery Phase is over and during the job-hunting period. Any interesting books you think I should read? Any interesting movies you think I should see? Any good albums you think I should hear? (Nuts – this is where you come in!!!) Leave me some comments and suggestions whydontcha, people, please, so I can get them while I’m still here. So far, Lonely Planet mentions 2 bookstores in Doha, and the phrase “limited selection” keeps on popping up after “English books“.