Sint en sigaretten

Dear friends, I’m going to write this in Dutch as it is about such a typical Dutch subject it will not make sense to any other nationality.

Van een van de Nederlandse dames hier kreeg ik drie pakjes chocolade sigaretten voor onze jongens. Want natuurlijk wordt ook hier in Houston de schoen gezet! Elke ochtend gaat er een groot gejuich op als ze hun kadootjes openmaken. De ochtend dat de sint de sigaretten in de schoen had gestopt bleef het echter angstvallig stil. Toen ik ging kijken zag ik drie beteuterde jongetjes. “Wat is dit?” vroeg Nils. “Chocolade sigaretten” antwoordde ik. “Dat dacht ik al”, zei Olav verbijsted. “En je moet ze bewaren tot je zestien bent, dan mag je ze oproken”, voegde ik er aan toe. Oh man, je had die gezichten moeten zien. Totale verdwazing! Snel heb ik uitgelegd dat ze ze konden opeten, maar ze konden er de lol niet van inzien, en slechts een van hen heeft ze allemaal opgegeten.

Inderdaad rookt er niemand in onze vriendenkring. Ze hebben alleen wel eens iemand sigaretten zien roken buiten een restaurant of op een terrasje. Uiteraard maakte de shisha pijp in Doha wel deel uit van het dagelijkse straatbeeld.

Sinterklaas is ook aangekomen in Houston, hij kwam in een mooie witte limo (net als een keer in Praag). Zwarte Pieten zijn hier blijkbaar wel toegestaan, want er kropen ook een paar Pieten uit. Eenmaal weer binnen (wat was het wachten buiten KOUD, het leek wel Nederland!) werden er wat liedjes gezongen, de Pieten deden een dansje en Sint deed wat algemene uitspraken. Kadootjes hadden we zelf gekocht en ingeleverd, de jongens waren er erg blij mee. Een geslaagde middag.

Sint komt ook nog op school, tijdens de Nederlandse lessen. Olav mag voor het eerst een surprise en gedicht maken.

En als we dan toch op de Nederlandse toer zijn: Er is hier een winkeltje in Houston dat Nederlandse produkten verkoopt, het heet: The little Dutch girl. Oke, het is een klein uur rijden van ons huis, maar dan kan je ook wel echte hagelslag kopen (voor 5,20 euro per pak!) en vruchtenhartjes en pepermunt en oliebollenmix en kruidnootjes en nog een heleboel meer. Gelukkig hebben we een creditcard!

First 1 1/2 week in the US.

We were severely jetlagged, first time in our lives! We never have a jetlag, we always adjust very easy. But usually it is a time difference of 7 or 8 hours, now it was 12 hours… We had a fabulous holiday in Singapore (more about that later) and flew back to Doha (about 7 hours). The flight was delayed, so we checked in in the hotel in Doha around 1.30 am local time, and left at 6.30 am local time back to the airport. (quite an expensive 4 hours sleep) Luckily we flew business to Houston, because that was our relocation trip (about 16 hours flight).

Houston airport was well organized. Because two of the kids are American we could enter the much shorter “citizens” line and soon we were in our rental car (with dvd player much to the joy of the boys) on our way to the service apartment. The apartment has two bedrooms, the 3 boys sleep together in two beds, as they have done for our holiday in Singapore as well, they are used to it. The living room is spacious and there’s a washer and dryer in the kitchen.

Poor Romke went straight to work, and after a couple of days the boys went to school in their new school uniforms. They were happy to start school, and all of them like the teachers and class mates. They make friends easily, and it is a seamless change from Doha to Houston. The teachers told me “if I didn’t know any better, I would think he was in this school for years”.

We have done a lot of shopping. And with “a lot” I mean really “a lot”. It is nice we know our way around already, we know what shops to go to, even the layout of the big DIY stores are the same as a couple of years ago. But there is so much to buy… Cars, lamps, ceiling fans, telephones, desks, bed, washing machine, dryer, vacuum cleaner, iron everything with a plug (tooth brush, hair dryer, water kettle, citrus press…) We are not even half way there. It is nice to pick new things, but it doesn’t feel right to have to buy it all in one week time. I would feel better if I had more time to look around and do some more comparing.

Also, it is so hard to find nice things here. The taste of the average American is still about 50 years behind with Europe. It literally is like walking in your grand mother’s house when you enter a furniture store. Enormous stores, and not one piece comes even remote enough to our taste to buy. So you have to settle for a ceiling fan or desk or bed that is “ok” instead of “nice”. And you keep thinking: “maybe there’s a store that we haven’t visited yet that has nice stuff”.

Luckily Romke had spotted a lighting store with quite some contemporary light fixtures when he was in Houston on his own. So we bought a gorgeous light fixture for the two-storey foyer, and also in the kitchen and dining room. When it hangs properly I will post pictures, it will be quite a sight. Because the foyer is that high, they have to build scaffolding. Just hoping the halogen bulbs will never burn out, because there’s no way to change them myself…

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the last couple of days in Doha

Only a few more days here in Doha. Most of  the items on my “things I have to do before leaving Doha” list have been done. Like going to the hair dresser with the boys and for myself, last time going to the souq, last time going to the camel races, getting the cars thoroughly cleaned before delivering them to the new owners, making sure all the library books are returned to school, finishing all the food in our fridge and pantry, getting medical records from the hospitals (that was a nightmare!), getting my US visa (another huge nightmare), having a garage sale, selling all the 220V electrical appliances (iron, vacuum cleaner, washing machine, hair dryer, citrus press, waffle maker, blender, clock radio, mobile phones etc etc etc)

The boys are getting ready as well. While I am writing this they have their very last swim training with the swim squad they joined at the beginning of the school year. For all the people who do not have facebook (BTW: please sign up so we can keep in contact!): Olav set 4 (!!!) new club records in his age group for boys. With the fifth stroke he came in second. All in all pretty impressive. It is a shame we have to leave this (Scottish) swim club…

Many people ask how the boys feel about moving. Olav’s first response was quite neutral. He didn’t like it, but he knows moving is part of our life, so it is like it is and he didn’t complain. Now he is a bit more looking forward to it, but still neutral. Lars doesn’t like it at all, he is the one who doesn’t like changes. He will not talk about it, but when asked he will tell you he is going to miss his friends. Nils can’t wait to move, his very first question was: “are we going to visit Disney Land?” and when we told him we would some day he started whooping. He tells every one he is going home (he was born in the US, but he doesn’t remember anything, he was only two years old when we moved to the Czech Republic).

I had my “farewell coffee morning” two days ago with all my girlfriends. It was nice to have them all around me for the last time and I took many pictures.

Tomorrow is the farewell party for the boys, they each invited 5 other children. We will go bowling and after that making our own pizza in a pizzeria in the same mall. For Olav and Lars it is also their birthday party. Their birthdays are in the last week of November. As every parent knows: (birthday) parties are the most important thing in a child’s life and so they are talking constantly about it. When that is finished they will be mentally ready to leave.

Romke will come back to Qatar on the 29^th. It has been a terrible long six weeks. Absolutely NO fun to be alone for so long, and to organize the packing and so on on your own.

On Nov 2nd we will fly to Singapore, we are very much looking forward to that holiday, and to being together again.

loading the container

Today they loaded up the container. I set aside the bare necessities to survive the next couple of weeks (4 plates, 4 cups, 4 sets of cutlery, 2 pots, 1 frying pan, some towels and a couple of pencils so the boys can make their homework) and made sure they did not pack those items.

It took 3 days to pack everything. The house was a mess, floors dirty and us trying to live there between all the boxes… Loading took only 3 hours, but they came with a big crew of 7 men today. I’m glad it is over, and tonight I will spend my evening mopping floors. The movers placed back most of the furniture we had stored in the one bedroom (see post 28 sept 2010). Oh my, I forgot we had 5 sofa’s, 10 dining chairs, 5 big armchairs and about a million side tables. Some items I just left in the “storage bedroom”, the house is full enough as it is now.

All our worldly possessions are now in that container, hope it has a safe trip to the US!

The boys were pretty relaxed about all the packing. Of course the Wii is still connected, that’s always a welcome distraction. But all in all they took it really well. I’m sure in the next weeks they will start missing their bikes, green machines and all other toys. They can’t wait till tomorrow, they asked for some empty boxes so they can make a train, a house and all other things you can do with empty boxes and are very excited about that.

first day of school 2011

Of course I took the famous “first day of school” picture. Back into their school uniform, back into the rhythm. For me that means getting up at 5.30 to set the breakfast table and make three lunchboxes. We wake up the boys just before 6.00 and are in the car just before 7.00. All three liked to see their old friends, and to make new friends. Olav again has a male teacher, just like last year and again from New Zealand. Lars has a female teacher from England. Nils has the same teacher as Lars had last year what makes us all very happy because she’s a lovely lady from England as well. They all got back into the groove immediately, and now we’re doing homework every day.

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school in Houston

We gave a lot of thought to the school that we should pick for the boys. Both in Prague and Doha we picked the schools just from the website and made one phone call. The best known international school in Houston is based on the French system but they have a waiting list for a year. There is also a British school in Houston, and they had space for all 3 boys and also a Dutch language program (!!!!). Then there are’s the public schools and a whole bunch of private schools.

As said, we don’t know how long we will live in Houston. If it is only for 3 years, and we move on to London/Brussels/Djakarta/??? We would like to stay with the British system. It is much closer to the Dutch system (you count in the metric system instead of feet and miles, ounces and pounds and fluid ounces and all that stuff that you can not just add together. But also the topics they teach and the way they teach). Also, from a British school you can enter the Dutch or English universities, while coming from an American system that is very difficult as the standard is lower. But if we stay in Houston for 6 years or maybe longer, it would make sense to change to the American system, because by then it is most likely the boys will go to an American university. Ahhh, sometimes you just wish you have a crystal ball to have a peek in the future…

To make a long story short, we took a tour in the British school (still holiday so no kids around) and it made a good impression. Together with the fact they have a Dutch language program and they follow the same international teaching program they use in the school they are currently in and the school they have been to in Prague, we signed up for the British school.

 

our house in Houston

Houston is big, very big. I think I expected something like Rotterdam with the satellite - towns that are attached to it. But for the Dutch : it is as big as when you draw a line between the cities: Amsterdam, Haarlem, Den Haag, Rotterdam and Utrecht.  That’s about 25% of the Netherlands? It has 5 million inhabitants. Almost nobody lives in apartments like in the Netherlands, but everybody lives in a house with a garden, that’s why it is so stretched out.

Everybody I spoke to was complaining about the heat wave, it had been above 100F = 40C for 9 days in a row. I found it quite pleasant, was not even sweating when walking for 15 min in the full sun in long trousers and long sleeves.  Funny how your body adjusts to temp. In winter it can be around zero, but snow is very rare. A bigger problem are the hurricanes… And it is very humid and there are lots of mosquitos. Except for the mosquitos (who always like Olav’ and my blood the best) a climate I am going to like I think.

I have seen 27 houses in two days, and it went like this: 10 minutes in a house, look around and take notes, and in the car again on our way to the next house. In the States the realtors have a really clever system for the keys of the houses, usually the owners are not home so it is just you and your realtor.

All houses are big in the US, but some are bigger than others, and the real big houses I haven’t even seen. We did select on criteria as: 4 bedrooms, not older then 7 years, must have swimming pool or space enough to put pool in the garden, contemporary (=modern) and price. Via excellent websites we (mainly Romke) made a selection, and emailed that list to the realtor, so we really could focus from the first minute I met with the realtors on visiting the houses.

There are almost no houses for rent, that’s why we made the decision to buy, despite the fact that we don’t know for how long we will be in Houston. It is totally our risk, so we hope to live there at least 3 years. Houses in Houston are much cheaper than in Holland, but for American standards more expensive than in some other parts of the US. Houston is booming, and the realtors were complaining there were so few houses for sale.

When I saw this house I knew immediately it would be perfect for us. The pool has a slide, and a little cave behind the waterfall where the kids can hide. The garden is huge, a big grass field where the boys can run around. The former owners left a play structure in the garden with swings/slide etc. The house itself is bright (one of my biggest criteria) only the kitchen is dark. But we can fix that partly by painting a wall white. When you get upstairs there’s a big open area where the kids can play, I like that a lot. There’s also a media room, where the boys are really excited about (including Romke). You will see it on the pics, and yes, the chairs belong to the house! Also the owners had reduced the price three times, it was on the market for already 3 months (which is very long by Houston standards).

On day nr 3 Romke used his extended lunch break to see the three best houses that I had selected, but this one really stood out and we made an offer.

So, have a look for yourself and if we made the right choice.

http://www.har.com/HomeValue/dispSoldDetail.cfm?MLNUM=89949448

On the move II

I’ll pick up again where I left off last blog post.

We decided it was important to go to Holland with the boys this summer, and not to cancel. It is very good for their language development, and maybe even more important, for their “sense of belonging”. As they have lived in so many countries, they have a problem with the question “where do you come from?” Depending on who asks they come up with an answer. Thus, staying with friends and family in Holland is a good way to get them a bit rooted in the country that  at least Romke and I call home.

The boys and I flew to Brussels, Romke stayed in Doha and traveled a bit later to Houston. My parents were extremely brave, they took our wild boys for 4,5 days (remember, they only raised girls, and they will confirm that boys are a totally different species). And I hopped on a plane to Houston (luckily I could use Romke’s points, and flew business!!). I saw 27 houses in 2 days and then Romke looked at my top 3 during his lunch break on day 3. We made an offer on one of those three and completed all the paperwork in a hurry and flew back to Amsterdam together. Almost missed our flight, it really got me worried. Some people complain about jetlags. Well I can tell you, even if I wanted to have a jetlag there was just no time. Probably 2,5 day high on adrenalin. The offer was accepted the next day when we were back in the Netherlands. Oh and both nights we also had dinner appointments, one time with Romke’s boss, and one time with a colleague and his family. They have kids at the same school. Oh and we also visited a school. Looking back I don’t know how we cramped it all in such a short time.

Back in Holland Romke stayed for a couple of days, flew to Argentina for a training, came back for 2 days to Holland, and we all flew back to Doha. Poor Romke has hardly had any holiday.

In the next post I will write about the house (mansion).

On the move again

Sometimes 5 weeks of your life feels like 5 years, because so many things are happening. As everybody knows by now (thanks to facebook, if you don’t have an account yet I can strongly recommend to get one to stay better connected) we have to move again.

Around 15 July Romke was told his next job is Exploration Treasurer in Houston, Texas. Starting date: August 1!!! Quite shocking as we arrived in Doha only early August of last year. Romke is going to love his new job, he is back in treasury, big promotion, dream job.

For me it took me a day to get used to the idea. We both liked living in Doha. Believe it or not, I like the heat (ok, summers are too hot, even I admit), people are so much more friendly and helpful than in the Czech Republic, I don’t mind too much the extreme crazy driving of the Qatari nor the dress code rules, the food is much better, supermarkets are huge and very well stocked (again: comparing to Cz), hospitals well organized, kids attend a school with a special integrated Dutch program so I don’t need to homeschool anymore, lots of kids from school in the compound so the boys can go to their friends by themselves, tennis and swimming lessons for the kids and sport classes for me on the compound (no travel time), excellent pool on the compound that you can use about 9 months a year, carpool to school with my neighbor Marlies, shopping trips and “discover Doha trips” together with my good friend Donna…

But it is like it is, so now it is time to make big decisions. When do we move, do we go on our planned holiday to Holland or skip it/shorten it, do we buy or rent a house, will we send the kids to a British or an American school, if an American school: public or private, when do we go and pick the school/house, when do we pack up the house (shipping the container will take about 6 weeks), we have to sell the BMW’s, and most important of all: WE HAVE TO SELL OUR (7 week old) BOAT!!!

I guess that hurts the most, we were so tremendously enjoying our little boat. Going for a ride and swim is so totally de-stressing. If you go for only two hours it feels like a mini holiday. We went out every single Friday and Saturday.

But, like I said: it is like it is, and I’m happy to let you know we sold already one car and we’ve signed the kids up for a school, bought a house and Romke loves his new job. I’ll tell about that another time as it is quite emotionally draining to write everything down.

Nils’ birthday party

For the people who start to think they missed something: Nils’ real birthday is not before the end of July. We thought it better to celebrate before the holiday, because you’re never sure how many friends will still be here in the beginning of the next school year.

Nils invited boys and girls, we did a lot of games like mummy wrapping, tug of war and much more, ate chocolate cake, muffins and pizza/French fries. We are lucky to have a clubhouse on our compound, with a large hall you can use for things like birthday parties. They did a lot of just running around in the hall, and we didn’t have any mess at home. Quite ideal isn’t it?

On Friday he played with all his new toys, and shared generously with his brothers. It was a lovely relaxed day. (and yes, in the afternoon we did go out with the boat again)

boat

We bought a boat last week! It is a bayliner 175 and I have been trying to take pics, but so far you have to do with a link to the website : http://www.bayliner.com/_usca/index.php?content_id=5367&boat_id=2 

We have been thinking about buying a boat here, but there’s always the: “what if we are moving in 6 months’ time”. We decided to take our (big) loss if that’s the case, and just go for it. So far we absolutely love it. It has a 139 pk engine, strong enough for water skiing and pulling a tube. Not strong enough to go out on the sea when there’s a strong wind as we found out last week. The sea was too choppy and we decided to go back for safety reasons. Navigating on the sea is very different from navigating on Dutch lakes!  

We bought a berth in the marina close by. Water here is very salty and barnacles grow very fast. Thus the downside from leaving the boat in the water is that it will do no good to the engine. You have to take the boat out the water at least 4 times a year to service the engine and clean the hull. That’s why most people have their boat on a trailer, so the engine can be rinsed with fresh water after every use.  But the absolute upside is that it is sooooo easy. You just throw in your cooler, swim gear, the boys and off you go! Now you can just go for two hours, whereas you wouldn’t go through all the hassle when it was on a trailer.

We have a tube, all 3 boys fit on it, lots of fun!  We’re thinking about buying a kneeboard in the near future.

Lars again in the hospital

Finally he was back to normal, and he was allowed to swim again. Yesterday we all went to the pool, and had a great time. Until Lars tripped over a drinking glass someone left at the pool side. He cut his foot, and blood was everywhere.  He did not allow me to have a look at it, luckily my neighbor Marlies was more convincing and she pulled out a big piece of glass. She stayed with him while Romke ran off to find a first aid kid, and I ran home to change in long pants and long sleeves. I quickly took clothes for Romke as well, a bottle of water (it is 45 C, never go anywhere without water) and drove to the pool. Romke lifted Lars in the car, and changed into long pants while I was ignoring all speed limits and drove like a real Qatari. Luckily by now we knew the hospital system.

In the ER they took out 5 more pieces of glass. The biggest cut was right between the big toe and the toe next to it. It kept bleeding profusely, and it was not a pleasant sight to see the doctor fishing around in the big hole for more pieces of glass. At one point (after it was over and the adrenaline levels had gone down) Romke had to sit down in the hallway, head between his knees to keep from fainting. They stitched him up, and made an x-ray to make sure nothing was left behind.

He is on antibiotics now, is in too much pain to walk and can’t go to school again (and no football and no swimming)… This is 18 days after his surgery, poor guy.

Thanks Marlies for helping and taking care of the other two boys while we were in hospital!

Lars’ surgery (short version)

Because I know not everybody likes to read long stories: here’s the short version.

Lars had an undescended testis, and needed surgery. We had to show up at the hospital at 6.00 (AM!) and had to wait till 14.00 till it finally was his turn. He had not had food or a drink since the night before at 19.00, so he was constantly asking for water, which we had to deny him. Poor guy.

All went well, but the recovery took longer than anticipated. He had to stay home for a week because he couldn’t walk and he had a lot of pain. He couldn’t ride his bike or do any sports for 2 weeks. 

Lars’ surgery (long version)

In every country it takes some time to figure out how the medical system works. Here in Qatar you have private hospitals, and one big state hospital. Medical care in the state hospital is almost free, but usually you have to wait two, three hours before it is your turn. The care in the state hospital is high quality, and the private clinics send the more difficult cases to this hospital because they have specialists in every division. But everyone who can afford it goes to private clinics because there doctors take more time to answer your questions, nurses are friendlier, it is possible to make an appointment on a time that suits you and the buildings are friendlier, with windows and the pediatric department has colorful walls and chairs.

So when the pediatrician told me he referred Lars for surgery to the state hospital, I had an “uh oh” feeling. Lars had an undecended testis. Usually this is discovered by birth, quite often nature repairs it itself, and if not surgery is usually done when the boy is around 1 year old.

I went to the hospital to make an appointment (no you can not do that over the phone, you have to physically go there…) I discovered it is almost impossible to find a parking spot, so I parked illegally somewhere.  I entered the hospital through the female entrance, and luckily there was an information desk so I could ask for directions. Making the appointment at the pediatric desk was an adventure in itself. Only women of course, as you know men and women are strictly separated. Nobody lines up, there’s just a lot of women waving their appointment cards, talking loudly. I was dressed in black long trousers, and a black long sleeved shirt buttoned up till my chin. But still I was the only one without an abaya, scarf and a veil, and that makes you feel uncomfortable, almost as if you are naked.  So I just waited with a smile until finally a lady at the desk waved me through and gave me a surgery date for Lars.

Lars had to come in for a check first, and blood tests. (everytime it took me at least 30 min to find a parking spot) The surgery was the second of May. He was not allowed to eat or drink since the night before, and we had to come in at 6.00 (Yes, AM!). Romke had taken the day off, so we took turns reading to Lars and play games with him. It was a long, long wait, he went in for surgery at 14.00 h. He was very thirsty, and was not even allowed to drink water. He hadn’t had food or a drink since the night before at 19.00 h! Poor guy was so hydrated he only wanted to sleep the last couple of hours before surgery. It surprised me they could find a vein to put in the IV.

Surgery took about 30 min, waking up from the anesthetic took longer. We were not allowed to be with him when he went under, and also not to be with him when he woke up… quite unsettling…

It is a routine operation, straight forward, and there were no complications. That’s why I thought he would recover quick and would be back to school in 3 days… But he had a lot of pain, I clearly underestimated the whole procedure. He stayed home for a week, and was not allowed to do any sports for 2 to 3 weeks. (no swimming when it is 45 C)

We have been back for check ups two times, everything is fine, next check up is in 2 mnths. 

Miscellaneous

Last week Romke and I went on a nice dinner together, it was our 18th anniversary.

Yesterday was my birthday. Thanks everybody for all the attention on Facebook! My good friend Donna came to have a coffee with me.

The boys have easter holiday now, I love the holidays. No pressure to make homework, just a lot of play time. The first day we went to a funpark, and the boys had a blast. We were about the only ones, so no lines, and they spent about 45 minutes in the bumper cars only! After 3 hours we headed home, and they all fell asleep in the car. The second day we went geocaching, (http://www.geocaching.com/ ) the first time in Doha! We didn’t find the first one (with all the construction going on here, it was located right where a new road was built) but we found the second one. The third day we went to the pool in the morning with friends. They came to the pool in our compound because we don’t have life guards (their pool has) who tell you not to do cannon balls etc. They took our birds with them, and will take care of them while we are on holiday. Because tomorrow we are leaving for Sri Lanka! Very much looking forward to it.

We also spent two mornings in the hospital for Lars. He has surgery scheduled for the second of May. One of his testis has not descended, and the ultrasound showed it was normal in size and shape, but high up in the belly. Can’t tell you how glad I am we don’t live any more in the Czech Republic. Hospitals and people here are so much better organized, civilized, and everybody speaks English. I felt like an outsider though, in the state hospital I was the only one without an abaya , head scarf and veil. I was wearing black long trousers and a black long sleeve blouse to fit in a little bit.

Olav is wearing braces now. He has an enormous overbite (like me) and this braces are to force his lower jaw to a more forward position. That way the bone and muscles will grow in that position, so it will stay there naturally. Later he will get the regular braces because his teeth are a mess. There is absolutely no space for his adult teeth to come through, so several milk teeth are pulled already to create (temporary) space. The braces he is wearing now will hopefully (but not guaranteed) prevent adult teeth to be pulled. He has to wear them for about two years, day and night.

Now I’m going to throw the last couple of things in my suitcase, and hope I haven’t forgotten anything…

Easter egg hunt 2

Our kids love to do an easter egg hunt. Around January they start to ask if they can have an easter egg hunt, and I have a hard time to convince them they have to wait till at least the first of April. This year I was able to put it off till the second week of April, but ever since we have had an easter egg hunt every day. I fill the plastic eggs with sweets and hide them. Sometimes in the garden, sometimes downstairs, sometimes upstairs. I have colour coded the eggs, so they all have to find one blue one, one pink one, one orange one and so on. If they find a second blue one they have to leave it there for their brothers. After 5 minutes they decide it is “helping time” and they give each other clues where they have seen other eggs. Usually I have to help with the last two or three.  When they have found all of them, they head to the kitchen table to open them up (check if they really all have the same amount of sweets) and eat their snack. I can’t believe they get so excited every day again. This will continue the whole month of May as well, although in the end I can skip some days without too much protest.

Oman

The boys had a week school holiday, so time to hit the road again! This time we went to Oman, by plane. You can drive, it is about 9 to 10 hours, but you have to drive trough Saudi Arabia. I am not allowed to drive there, and have to wear an abaya. Also it is quite a hassle at the border to get a visa for Saudi, usually it is a long wait. So we took the easy option and flew.

We rented a big LandCruiser and drove around to several different places. (Muscat, Nizwa, desert, Sur and Muscat again). Roads are new and well maintained in Oman, and people drive much more careful and slower than in Qatar.

The weather was excellent, sunny and about 26 C/ 79 F. A nice change from Doha where it was cold (yes, I was wearing winter clothes, at 22 C/ 71 F you have to wear a sweater and boots) and overcast. It still is overcast by the way, temperature is ok, but Olav and Romke tried the swimming pool this weekend and were back in 20 min because it was too cold. People who have been here a couple of years say it is very unusual.

So what did we do?

We visited a huge cave with at the end a lake. (behind that lake the cave went on for about another 5 km) In the lake there were little fishies, but they had no eyes. They don’t need to because it is pitch dark 24/7, but from an ophthalmologist point of view always interesting…

We did a couple of hikes. Oman has mountains, and boys love rocks. So they had the time of their life climbing over big boulders, looking for interesting stones. Trying to persuade us that it really is not a big stone, and that it is really precious and if we can please please please take it home. Somehow our luggage on our way back was a few kilo’s heavier, and we didn’t buy souvenirs…

One of the hikes was in a surrounding you can best describe as the Grand Canyon, but than smaller. Same feeling, same colours. Very impressive.

 

Another hike was in a Wadi. That is a valley that in rainy season is full with water and dries up in the rest of the year. Now there was some water, and of course there were many trees and other vegetation. That was about the only green place in Oman, for the rest it is as dry as Qatar. Only less sand and more mountains.

We went to see the sea turtles. They come to the beaches of Oman to lay their eggs. It is one of the few places in the world. They lay about 100 eggs, and less than 1 percent will survive to become an adult. It is an endangered species, so you only can go there with a guide, and keep your distance. We had to wake up at 3am as there are tours at 9pm (which was already fully booked) and 4am (which was great as we saw the sunrise). Those turtles are soooooooo slow, and everything they do takes them sooooo much effort. You just want to help them dig that hole for the eggs, and carry them back to sea because it takes them forever.

We also saw little turtles hatch and crawl out of the sand. They just emerge from the sand, one after another. Very special. The guide carried them to the sea in his thobe, and released them in the water. Where the sea gulls ate about 50%... Nature is cruel.

We went into the desert, and slept in a “desert camp”. It was a luxurious version, and it really was excellent, all rooms were little houses with a cloth roof to give you a tent idea. It was very well decorated, and it even had aircon. We didn’t need because it was not hot. Food was excellent. At night they lit a campfire, Romke had bought marshmallows so more kids joined us to roast them. The boys had so much fun in the sand. It was very relaxing, for me the best hotel since a long time.

In Muscat we visited a huge mosque, with a very impressive chandelier. The big prayer hall was very nice decorated. It could hold 5000 people.

The last three nights we went to a very very posh hotel in Muscat. The boys did all the swimming they could, we played at the beach, I read a book, food was excellent. So we enjoyed ourselves tremendously. But 2 ½ day is enough, even the boys got tired from swimming. So time to go home again.

The day after we flew back, the unrest started in Oman, and two people were killed. Not many people saw that coming. This blog is not for talking politics, but for people who are concerned about our safety: It is highly unlikely that there will be protests here in Qatar.

The queen will be in Qatar this week, together with Willem Alexander and Maxima. Olav and Lars are going to sing a song to the queen (together with 40 other Dutch kids). I hope they make a good impression. Our 3 boys are about the same age as the 3 princesses, so maybe they can marry them and live happily ever after. The end.

Anniversary

This weekend the two of us went to a very nice Thai restaurant because it was our 10th expat anniversary. During dinner we discussed all the pro’s and con’s about being an expat, and the “how would your ideal life look like” question. Good food, good discussion, next evaluation in 10 years time. Will keep you posted.


We moved 5 times in the past 10 years (not something that quite fits in my “ideal life picture”) and have seen a lot of the world (something that definitely fits in our “ideal life picture”).

So far we lived in
Singapore (Feb 2001 – Sept 2003)
Fairfax, Virginia (Sept 2003 – Feb 2006)
Irving, Texas (Feb 2006 – July 2007)
Prague (July 2007 – Aug 2010)
Doha (Aug 2010 - ?)

We’ll see if we can keep up the pace.

christmas cookies

The boys went to a serious cookie baking class in one of the hotels here. They helped making the dough, but the best part by far was the decorating. They had a lot of fun, each in their own way. (Lars very quick, Olav very precise and Nils somewhere in between) They even got a “cookie baking certificate”. Here a picture with the beautiful cookies.

Washing machine out of moving box

We made a washing machine out of one of the moving boxes. I finally found a store where they sell hobby painting supplies, and I bought 6 huge bottles in all colours. There are some things in life you can not do without… The boys had to pick the colours, so the washing machine is bright red with green. Once painted and finished with temperature knobs (milk bottle caps) , a soap drawer and a door the boys lost interest. They played with it a couple of times (it was a garage for their cars!) and after two weeks I dumped it. But we sure had fun making it!

Winter in Qatar

Winter in Qatar.

Has been a long time since my last post. Working people get a burn-out, non working expat mum’s get blog-tired, LOL.

Anyhow, lots of things to write about: Romke turned 40 and got his beloved Jura espresso machine, my parents came to visit, Romkes parents and his brother came to visit, kids got their school reports, Qatar won the fifa bid 2022, we went to Dubai for a week, I finally unpacked the last moving box (the one with all the lego inside…), we got a terrace and grass in our back yard, we went to the ExxonMobil Qatar Open tennis tournament (we got tickets for the ExxonMobil VIP box one night), Olav received his first mobile phone when he won first prize at a tennis tournament, our first visit to the hospital with Nils because I thought his foot was broken (he’s fine now and what a positive experience to go to a doctor here in this country)…

See, that’s the problem when you don’t write for such a long time, there’s just too many things to write down. So you keep thinking: I’ll do it tomorrow when I have more time and write a proper story. And tomorrow will always be tomorrow…

So, no proper story tonight. Just some talk about the weather. Because it is winter in Qatar. It has rained for 3 days, which is unheard of here. Precipitation per year is 73 mm. (Singapore 2150 mm, The Netherlands 760 mm, Curacao 553 mm, Czech Republic 527 mm). People keep telling us that they lived here for 4 years and never used their wipers. There are no drains, no gutters. It’s a good thing everybody has a 4 wheel drive here (except Romke), all the roundabouts were flooded, often you just had to dive in. The roads were extremely slippery with big areas where you couldn’t see the road anymore, just small lakes. It’s a mystery to me how the Qatari can keep their thobe spotless white, our shoes and trousers were caked with mud. Everything now is caked with mud, they say: “when it rains in Doha, it rains mud”, and it is true.

I tried to find a video that would show you, but came across this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Ml3EqlqfE . You have to see this, this is what the Qatari do at night. This is one of the reasons why we see a new car wreck every day.

At night it is 14 C (57 F) and during daytime it depends if the sun shines or is hiding behind clouds. Last 3 days it was only 18 C (64 F). Remember, houses here have no heating and have tile floors everywhere. The laundry will not dry, there’s condense on the inside of the windows. And I got the “winter clothes Inge” box from a high shelve, and I’m wearing boots and jumpers! Good thing we know it is only for a couple of days, then things will go back to sunshine all day. I can’t wait.

quote of the day 3

Nils: I think I'm wearing a wig. My hair is too yellow.

Cub scouts

Olav has joined the cub scouts this year and is enjoying it very much. Last Saturday he had his first event: the raingutter regatta race. They all made a boat, and had to see which boat was the fastest. Well, Olav’s wasn’t, but he had a lot of fun. Both with making the boat at home and at the day of the race.

Later on in the year they will go camping in the desert and all sorts of exiting things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cub_Scout for the non Americans among us.

It’s raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring

 It’s raining. It started this afternoon with just a few drops, and then it stopped. But now it is a serious downpour. Some years it only rains once in Qatar, so I guess we better enjoy it. But I have to say, I haven’t missed the rain at all. Romke made me take a picture and write this blog. I didn’t think anyone would be interested in a picture of a wet street…

van Dobben

I had heard a rumor that there is a special shop that sells Dutch groceries. So today Romke went there, and sure they had! You have to ask them and then they bring a basket of Dutch products from the back. They don’t put them on the shelves because they don’t have labels in Arab. Romke is over the moon: they had Van Dobben kroketten! Lucky for him they only came in a big, very big box.

He also bought hagelslag. You absolutely don’t want to know what he spent, but that’s why we get our expat allowance, isn’t it?

outdoor plants

Last week I went with my good friend Donna on a plant hunt. We both wanted to try to put something flowery in pots at our front door, and another friend who lives here for some time took us to a very big nursery somewhere far outside of Doha. It was a great place, indoor and outdoor plants, and perennials. There were a couple of big green houses, but you wouldn’t have found it on your own. I bought lovely pink ??? No idea what they are called, but I had two red ones in our frond yard and they survive, so I figured it must be strong type of plant. Well, I certainly hope so. Have you ever planted something in a sandbox? I did. To mask it, I bought some potting soil at Carrefour (Dutch potting soil as it was) and put it on top of the sand to make it look nice. And I hope the nutrition will with the watering find its way to the roots. I quickly took a picture, because I don’t know if they will still be alive next week…

Gazebo

We are the proud owners of a gazebo in our back yard. First week when we arrived here in Doha we saw one at the Carrefour (big supermarket where they also sell non food). But we didn’t buy it right away, and of course the next week it was gone. People told us it was a summer item, and it wouldn’t come in again till next summer. There is only one store in whole Doha that sells outdoor furniture, and even to find out about that store took ages because almost nobody knows it exists. Anyhow, we went there two times and both times it was closed. Through the windows we could see gazebo’s and very nice furniture. We asked the neighboring shops, but they couldn’t give us information, tried the phone nrs on the window (wrong nr), found eventually the website, tried to email (bounced back) and tried more phone nrs…

But luckily, Carrefour has gazebo’s again in autumn! So yesterday we started assembling, and when we were almost finished we found out we made a mistake and had to undo everything and start all over. Turned out it was not symmetrical after all. The Chinese manual didn’t point that out…

Today we disassembled and assembled it again (great family project).

So now we can sit outside in the evenings. At daytime it is still 33-35 C ( 91-95 F), humidity up to 85%. Yes, a lot of drinking water to make up for all the sweating. But the evenings are nice, and we hope there will not be too many flies so we can bring the laptop outside and enjoy.

I love my I-Phone

I really do!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAllFWSl998&feature=player_embedded

driving license

Important day today, I passed my driving license exam and am the proud owner of a Qatari driver license! I have been locked up in the house for 7 ½ weeks, but from now on: FREEDOM.

The normal procedure for the Dutch is to hand over your Dutch license, and they just convert it to a Qatari one within 10 minutes. But… my Dutch one had expired while living in the Czech Republic. Because that’s an EU country, you have to convert your Dutch one into a Czech one. In theory that is possible. In real life not so much. Romke has done it with his license, and it was an utterly long and tedious battle. He had a Work Permit, I only had a Residence Permit, so for me it was even more next to impossible. That’s why I didn’t even start the (at least) 6 month process.

The fact is; a Dutch license doesn’t expire, you just go to the office when time has come and they issue you a new one, valid for the next ten years. Only, I had to convince the Qatari office here of that fact. Even with official letters from Holland, translated in Arab they didn’t buy it. So I had to take the exam after all.

It was absolute not easy. They have one driving school in Doha. You can only buy 10 lessons in one go, and they are not cheap. So I decided to take the test without the lessons. Luckily I have a friend here who took the test (and the driving school) a month ago, and she explained everything to me. But the standard rule is: you don’t pay for the driving school, you will fail your exam. It’s all about the money… Even if you pay for the lessons the standard rule is: you’re a woman, so you fail the first time.

Once a week it is women’s day, and only women take the exam, with only women instructors. And I passed!!!!!! Took a long time though, I was picked up at 5 am, and dropped off at 11.15 am. Nerve wrecking 6 hours. But I got a compliment from the man who handed me my license after I paid. It didn’t happen often someone passes the first time, and without the school, he said.

So now I have a Dutch, a Singaporean, an American and a Qatari license. And yes, for everyone of them I had to take some sort of exam. (Singapore and US were very simple).

The next step is to get used to the crazy traffic here. In my most comfortable BMW X5, 8 cylinder. Finally I can use it. Doha: here I come!

container

Our container arrived Saturday! We were so lucky, they didn’t open the container to check the contents for bibles and porn. So nothing is damaged. Because usually they open several boxes, quite roughly, and it will never fit back in the container like the packers carefully stored it. So they just chunk it back in, push till the door is shut again, and lots of items will be ruined. So far we’re the only ones I’ve heard of they didn’t inspect the contents, everybody has stories about broken this or damaged that.

The movers first had to help us to get rid of the 5 sofa’s, 5 huge arm chairs, 2 double beds, one single bed, 2 desks, about 10 dining chairs, dining table, and about 10 (? Never took the effort to actually count them all) end tables and night stands. They came with 7 men, and amazingly quickly they stored everything in one bedroom. Because that’s the only solution, to sacrifice one bedroom to make it a store room. Big shame, now all 3 boys sleep together in one room and they love it. But what if we will live here for more than a year? Maybe one of them wants to have his own bedroom.

We’ve heard of many families who store it on the balcony. But with close to 50 C (122 F) we don’t feel that’s a respectful way to treat borrowed furniture.

Saturday they assembled the beds, bookshelves etc, and unwrapped the sofa / chairs / dining table etc.

Now we are unpacking twenty million boxes… And with every item you unpack you have to think :”where will we put it, which cupboard or ward robe”. So it all takes ages. And instead of unpacking now, I’m writing a blog…

First day of school

Sunday was the first day of school. For the people who didn’t know, weekend here is Friday and Saturday.

School starts at 7.20, so we have to leave at 6.55, which means getting up at 5.45. That’s quite an adjustment after 12 weeks of holiday, getting up at somewhere between 7.00 and 7.30!

The upside is that school finishes at 13.30, so you have a long afternoon. We will probably enroll them in afterschool programs for a couple of days (Dutch class and some sport activities), which will end at 14.30.

Saturday night was a rough night, at bedtime Nils started sobbing: “I want to go back to Prague”. It was heart breaking and we had a hard time consoling him, it was the first time ever one of the boys spoke about going back to Prague. Later at night Lars woke up several times, he was anxious about not being able to make new friends at his new school.

On Sunday morning, Romke dropped off Olav in his new class room, and he seemed fine. I dropped off Nils and Lars in their class rooms. As soon as they found something to play with, they told me to leave. When I picked them up they were full of stories about how many Dutch children they have in their classes. (Nils 3, Lars 3 and Olav 2)

Now we have 3 days under our belt, and they settle in nicely. No problems whatsoever, Lars doesn’t wake up at night and no talking about Prague anymore. Romke drops them off in the morning, I pick them up by taxi.

The house feels overwhelmingly empty to me without the boys. For 12 weeks I lived with them 24/7, and now I feel very unsettled for the 6 ½ hours that they are gone. Good thing my sailing class will start next week.

This is their new school uniform. Pay special attention to their big ugly shapeless  black British shoes that are mandatory in this school.

This is their new school uniform. Pay special attention to their big ugly shapeless black British shoes that are mandatory in this school.

sudoku

Today I finished my first sudoku ever! I’m very proud of myself, despite the level was “very gentle” in a “sudoko for kids” book. I had never tried it, didn’t even know how it worked other than that you had to fill in numbers. Because I was bored I tried one in the newspaper a couple of days ago. It took me 3 hours before throwing the paper in the bin and shouting: “it’s just impossible, they must have made a mistake”. Maybe I get the hang of it now, and it will go faster from now on. Maybe…

Romke is very happy to have an English language newspaper again in this country. He loves to read newspapers, and is happy to pay for it although to my opinion if you have an internet connection you don’t need one.

We also have the channels CNN, BBC news, Fox news and Bloomberg on television. The rest of the channels is absolute worthless. Although the kids love to watch Arabic spoken Bob the Builder/ Thomas the Tank engine etc. It doesn’t bother them it’s Arabic, just like it didn’t bother them to watch children series in Czech.

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the boys. I still don’t have my driver license, so I have to work with taxi’s. Not very convenient at all… But what can you do…

pool chillers

Since a couple of days they have turned on the chillers in the pool. Everybody seems very content with that, except for me and the boys. We were quite happy with the water of 35 C (95 F). Now it is “only” 32 C (89 F).


The outside temperature is not as high anymore as the first 3 weeks. Now at daytime it is around 38 C (100 F), although I have to say when you walk in full sun it feels much hotter. At night it cools down to 33 C (91 F).

What baffles me every day again, is the time when the sun sets. At 17.40 the street lights are turned on, at 18.00 it is not possible anymore to read your book outside because it is too dark already. And at 18.30 it is pitch dark. So when you go for a swim around 17.00, what we often do, it feels like 20.00. Coming from Holland where you’re used to sitting outside till 23.00 in summer, it feels very unnatural. Everywhere where we lived in the past 10 years, sunset is much earlier than in Holland, but we’re still not used to it. Only in the middle of winter streetlights turn on at 17.40 in Holland. I guess unconsciously you keep using as a standard what you grew up with as a kid.
We bought a boat for in the pool

End of Ramadan

Today is the last day of Ramadan. As most of you know Ramadan lasts a full month, and we arrived when it just started. Everything, except for the big supermarkets, is closed during Ramadan till 20.30. Then it opens till midnight or even later. You can walk through a huge shopping mall without seeing any one, quite a strange feeling. You’re also not allowed to drink or eat (or chew gum) in public. So you literally can not go anywhere because it is at least 42 degrees (108 F) and you’re not allowed to bring a bottle of water with you.
That’s the reason every expat mum picks up the kids and flees Qatar for the month of Ramadan. It’s a shame this year we couldn’t avoid being here, but next year I’m doing most definitely the same.
So for us, we’re locked in on the compound. Nothing to do but swim (most of the time we’re the only ones in the pool) and play with lego. It’s a good thing I do Dutch school with them, they would go brain dead otherwise.
Next week most families will come back, and schools start at Sept 19. Almost 12 weeks of holiday…