Fri., 11-Jan-2013 Kelli Drives

Yep, you guessed correctly - I tried my hand at driving this morning!  Everyone is correct in that no one is on the road on early Friday mornings which really works out well for us newbies.  However, I think all newbies venture out at this time because no one stays in their lanes and when you enter a roundabout, you never know what the person next to you is going to do and yes, that includes me as well.  I think I might have incorrectly crossed a lane or two while in a roundabout this morning but hey - I'm learning!  Now I get to the be the Nascar driver.  It was also interesting hearing John's thoughts now that he was the passenger and was able to just take in the scenery.  He did have the comment of the day which was "this is just like Lubbock"!

So where did we go this morning?  Well, let's see.  We made 2 stops.  The first stop was at the Qatar Tennis Federation (QTF) courts to drop off my membership registration and entry into the upcoming tennis tournament.  Unfortunately, I may not get into the tournament because the people needed to process my federation membership won't be back until Sunday so I wasn't assigned a QTF ID which is required for the tournament entry which is due tomorrow.  The lady at the desk was doubtful but she said they would let me know!

After stopping at QTF, we made our first visit to "Mega Mart".  I liked this store!  They had a bakery in one of the corners and it actually smelled a bit like home.  All the other grocery stores have an "odd" smell about them but this one smelled good with the bread baking.  So needless to say we ventured over to see what goodies we could partake in and came away with 2 rounds of flatbread with spices and cheese on them and then John got a cheese thing of some sort.  We tried them once we got back to the car and they were DELICIOUS and really cheap!  We cannot make that a habit or else we'll double our size in no time!  After getting a few more of the basics, we left Mega Mart and came home to realize that we did not have a can opener which makes it incredibly difficult to open cans especially since we decided to make homemade chili and tomatoe sauce is a key ingredient.  Luckily for us, the Mahlmann's came to our rescue once again! So you may be asking, why are we making chili?  A cold front came through late yesterday evening.  I guess our version and your version of cold front may be a bit different.  A cold front here puts the temperatures in the low 60's but it is REALLY windy and very dusty.  We are supposed to play our first tennis match this evening but with the wind blowing as it is, it may not be much of a match!  Plus, we learned that our stuff will be delivered Sunday afternoon - "Inshallah" - God willing! We've been told by several couples not to expect everything to arrive - there's a really high probability that things will be missing!  I'll keep you posted.  So getting back to my point, John has no tennis racket and I only have one and the strings are really thin so there are many variables stacked against us for this first match. We will see what happens!

In other news, there's nothing really to report at this time.  We got tickets to the annual "Boot Scoot" in February which is an annual fundraising event and it means that we will actually be able to dance to country music here in the Middle East! Wow, we danced at New Year's and now we get to dance again in February!  For those who may be reading who joined us at Round Top hall for New Year's, I promise to be a bit more "subdued" at the Boot Scoot than I was at New Year's - and that's all I have to say about that! :)  I guess the only other thing is to say that we are still hunting for a bed.  The one we are sleeping on HAS TO GO!  John looked into shipping over a sleep number bed.  Even though it will be really expensive, I'm getting more on board with the idea after each passing night!  Finally, school starts on Sunday and we've still got a few things to work on but for the most part, we are ready!  Well, that's it for now.  Take care and Arrivederci!