Dinner For Two?

For those of you who know William, you know he is a storyteller. For those who don't, he's a storyteller. Here's an example.

I get an email at home from William, saying that he just finished a parent-teacher conference with one of his students, and that the parents want to have dinner to show their appreciation. I think his exact words were "They're pretty high up." Great. Immediately I'm consumed with a rash of thoughts: Is it at their house? Do we bring our kids? Cause I don't want to bring the kids, they'll only embarrass me. Who's gonna watch Zophia? What if I don't like what they serve? Am I supposed to bring a gift? What do I wear? He tells me that they'll get back to us with the details.

The details were dinner at some restaurant in The Pearl at 6. William didn't know the name of the restaurant, as the guy had a thick accent and they spoke on the phone. He said it sounded like Maze and was supposedly French. At least he got directions.  I felt better that we weren't eating at their house. That solved the problem of not liking the food and whether or not to bring a gift.

Throughout the day, William kept texting me that he was nervous, that I would have to talk more, that I needed to find something to wear, blah, blah, blah.  He said he talked with some people at school about it and said it was common for Muslims to take their children's teachers to dinner. Luckily, we've made some great friends whom William forced to watch our children for the night. Yes, even Zophia. We did split them up though. Conor, Raini & Kii with one family and Zophia with another.

The next call William got was to tell us that we weren't going to Maze anymore, now we were going to Opal. Looking back, I didn't even question it, but I guess you learn not to question a lot of things in Doha:)

The night of,  we made the dropoffs and headed out to meet...hmm, didn't even know their names...should've asked. William got there without a problem. The restaurant was in the St Regis Hotel. As we pulled up, looking for somewhere to park, we realized that valet was the only way to go.  So we get out, drop our car off, and in we go. Apparently, we were supposed to get a table and they would find us. Seemed odd that this "high up" Muslim couple wouldn't reserve their own table.





I didn't take this one, but this is the front of the St Regis Hotel.

The hotel was gorgeous of course.  We had to ask for directions to the restaurant and the people inside were very welcoming.  We walked up to the desk and the lady says, "William?" Hmm.  Odd that they knew his name.  I honestly thought it was just because they were obviously told by the Muslim couple who their guests were.  We walked through the restaurant to an outside dining area.  William asked if I wanted to eat outside.  It was actually really nice out, now that the weather's cooling down, so we sat outside. 


William, with the Doha skyline in the background.

 

 

 

After taking some pictures, we sat down and William handed me a card.  He laughs and says, "My student's parents made him write me a card to say thank you." I open it to read what this kid wrote and it says, "SURPRISE! Happy 15th Anniversary! Love, William." Really? So we're not having dinner with some kid's parents? You made the whole thing up? It's been a long time since William has really surprised me.  I take after my dad in that I'm very aware and logical. But something about Doha and it's people makes you roll a little more with the flow, rather than question.

So, here we were, at Opal, which William tells me is Chef Gordon Ramsay's restaurant. Here's the front of the menu, in case you were doubtful.



 The menu was simple, as one would expect from Gordon Ramsay:) There was a list of pizzas on the back too.

 

The drink menu was practically a short story!  I never thought I'd go to a restaurant that had a 25000 QR bottle of wine (that's about $6800)! I got a Passionate. It was only 35 QR (almost $10).  It was yummy.  William ate the passion fruit since it looked like a rotten orange.

The bread was served in a little towel bowl so the heat stayed in.  Our bread was actually HOT!  The butter melted to liquid, even on the last one!  The appetizer was tamarind chicken wings.  William was in heaven.

William got the tenderloin, I got the fat burger.  I don't normally choose a burger when we go out, but I didn't regret it.  It was as gooey as it looks:)  And believe it or not, I forgot to take a picture of our dessert, that's what happens when you put sweets in front of me!

We got the vanilla profiterole, it's like a cream puff. Very good way to end the meal:p

The bathroom was so nice, I had to take a picture. After I washed my hands, I was looking for the paper towels.  Took me a minute to figure out that I was supposed to use the actual cloth towels by the sinks.

Yes, that's almost $200 for the two of us!



 

Even a fancy take home bag!

The inside was dim and hard to photograph, but definitely
the most beautiful restaurant I've ever been in.

View of the courtyard from our table, with a pool in the background.

You walk through this room to get to the rest of the restaurant.



Here's to 15 amazing years together 

with my high school sweet heart!

 

An eventful Saturday

The day started as it often does, with William and I discussing the game plan for the day. We knew we wanted to go to Zaks uniform store to get Conor and Raini their uniforms and we knew we wanted to get there early. We had heard about the infamous Salwa Road, so William studied the maps and says (as he often does), "It doesn't look too bad!" We left the house at 9:30 am.

It's a pretty straight shot, at least according to the map. But one must understand Doha maps. Doha is under construction. And I don't mean Spokane, or even Seattle construction. I mean "redesigning a city" kind of construction, "just when you learn the route and the landmarks to your destination, it changes" kind of construction, "the day a map is printed, it becomes outdated" kind of construction. And no, we don't use Google maps because we don't have a data plan and why would we need a data plan when we have a map of Doha in our car?! Well, today we found out...

At some point, we take a wrong turn. I suggest to William that we u-turn somewhere and get back on the straight path to Salwa Road....or...we'll just turn on a side road. That works too. Except it didn't. Eventually we turn so many times, we lose sense of any direction, and just start following the flow of traffic.  And just when we're sure that we know where we are on the map, we spot one of the VERY few street signs that indicates that we are on the completely opposite side of town than we think. But it's ok, because at least we were still in Doha and not on our way to Saudi Arabia! Haha, not funny. 

Believe it or not, we do find our way to Salwa Road, which is under massive construction, so we were stop and go. But this was a good thing, it allowed us time to find landmarks and make sure we didn't miss any more turns! Now, by this time, it was about 11:15 am, Zophia hadn't eaten for 3 hours, kids were restless, and the whole "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" was in full swing. We were ecstatic to start passing some of the landmarks on our map, and we eventually arrived at our intended destination, about an hour and a half late. Surprisingly, it wasn't busy in the store and we finished up in about half an hour, $250 less in our pockets. 

As William checked out, I headed out to the Galloper to feed Zophia before we attempted the trip back home. Except when I put the key in and turn, it's dead.  Nice.  Back inside.  Luckily, we have a mechanic's number who just so happens to be the same mechanic who rebuilt the engine in this very Galloper:) Unfortunately, he had never heard of Zaks uniform store and despite 5 or 6 calls to explain where exactly we were stranded, it took an hour before help arrived.

At that point, we were almost hoping that he wouldn't fix the car and just take us all home.  We were done.  And that's exactly what happened.  So into his little car we packed, William in front and Conor, Kii, Raini and me (holding Zophia) in the back.  Nope, no car seat, no seatbelts even. Before we even get out of the parking lot, we almost side swipe 2 cars. Our mechanic chuckles and says, "I must drive like Qatari or we get no where!" Then William says, "Yep, close your eyes hun!" And off we go...

Let me tell you, when you combine fast cars and roundabouts with no seatbelts, you get a pretty scary (more like awesome, if you were to ask the kids) roller coaster ride! Especially when Raini bumped the door handle and just about opened the door. So being on the opposite side, holding Zophia, I still managed to reach across and pull the door tight...phew, almost there!

Now for the cool part...

While driving in one of the roundabouts, we're blocked by a black suv cop car. Our mechanic explained that they were blocking the way to allow the Emir through to his palace.  So sure enough, a parade of all black vehicles drove through.  And I already knew the Emir's palace was pretty close to our development thanks to Google maps.  Conor thought that was pretty cool.

Finally...we were home. It was 1:30 pm and we were physically and mentally exhausted. Take out anyone?

Starting School

Well today is the day I dropped off half of my crew at Qatar Community School.  With my two oldest  out of the house, I must say it was a lot more quiet.  I think Zophia would agree, seems how she took her longest nap in a long time! What's a baby to do without the seemingly constant fighting and screaming from her brother and sisters? Sleep, of course!

On the eve of the first day of first grade, Conor smiled his shy smile and whispered to me as I kissed him goodnight, "Mom, I don't think I'm ready for school." Of course I reminded him how beyond bored he's been here at home and reassurd him that his new buddy Drew from 2 houses down would be in his class and, like I knew it would, that made him feel better!

Raini, on the other hand, was ready for this new chapter in her big kid life. She was busy picking out her clothes (as we have yet to buy their uniforms) and laying them out on the stairs. And as William told her she was gonna cry and miss Kii, she laughed and said "No I'm not!" We soon shall see...

As all three kids piled in the Galloper (pics to follow) with their backpacks, yes even Kii, we headed out on our short trip to school. I have to admit, my nerves were kicking in, only because that meant that in a short time, I would be driving for the first time in the Galloper, as well as on the crazy streets of Doha in rush hour...

The school was beautiful, as are most things in Doha.  It is only the temporary, however, as the actual Qatar Community School is still in construction. But I was still surprised by how welcoming everyone was. A group of teachers met us at the entrance and assigned us to a man, who ended up being Conor's PE teacher, who showed us to Conor and Raini's classrooms.  Conor's was upstairs and of course, once he found his chair and saw that Drew would be sitting at his table, he was all smiles! Raini's was next, and she was a little more reserved. For those who know Raini's shy personality, you'll know that the hands went straight to her mouth. A nice lady came to greet her and give her a name tag, then she was off playing with a group of girls.  Luckily I spotted another boy who wasn't wearing a uniform so she wasn't the only one! William and I braced ourselves for the tears as we left, but they didn't come...that's my big girl:)

Before we even got out of the school, Kii realized she was not going to be staying.  "I miss Conor and Raini!" but once home (yes, I made it home, piece of cake once I got the e-brake off!) she was enjoying having the run of the house!

And after a movie, some snacks and coloring, it was time to go pick up Raini...or so I thought. I had two different people tell me that Raini's class got out at 12:30 so that's when I showed up, only to find out that her class gets out at 1:40, same as Conor's, so back to the house we went, ate lunch and drove back to the school.

As soon as I spot Raini, she smiles and says "No! I don't want to go home!" She was reading a book with her new friend:) Her teacher told me that she was a great helper and that she volunteered to help her clean up the toys. I told her she was my helper too and that I missed her today. After all, she's the only one who will hold Zophia so I can have a potty break!

Before I even got to Conor's classroom, he was down the stairs and yelling "Mom! Come look what I did today!" His teacher said that she can tell he likes to read because he read a lot for the class. I asked him if he talked with anyone besides Drew and he said no, he couldn't understand the kids at his table! Give it time bud:)

So on the way home, I heard all about their day.  Raini colored and played with PlayDough, had snacks and took a nap. Conor drew pictures, went to art class, and read. Oh, and only had a sandwich and a pear for lunch.  He said he was so hungry but he didn't want to ask for more because first graders don't do that!

In the end, both had a great day and can hardly wait for tomorrow! And me and Kii will do our own little home preschool, assuming the baby continues her long naps:) and soon hopefully, we'll go get their uniforms and I will post pics of them! I say hopefully because it will cost close to $500 for them...yay...and that's only for 2 outfits and PE clothes!!

Day one is a success!!

This is the pretty paper they sent home in Raini's backpack...wish I could read Arabic, especially since they didn't send the English version!