What a find!!

So one thing I have learned here is that everything is imported in, so if you are looking for something specific and you find it then you better buy it and a lot of it! When we first got here it was Hannah's birthday and I searched and searched for frosting and couldn't find it! So I had to resort to making it from scratch and let me just tell you making frosting is not for me. Their powdered sugar here is different so it came out very sugary! So a few weeks later I walked into one of the stores and look what I found! You better believe I stocked up on this find. I even introduced it to my neighbor who was amazed that this came already prepared!!



A few other things about Doha is that they place these stickers in Arabic on the products and most of the time it's right over the instructions!



Notice the price this is a pack of 16 slices of American cheese, it cost about $5.00! Things are so much more expensive here, because they have to import it all. Our grocery bill has tripled.

We are stocked

So there is only 1 liquor store in the city of Doha. You have to purchase a liquor license to just get anything here and the store is always packed with people who will have carts full of liquor. We were running low so we stocked because Ramadan was going to begin soon and it would be closed for a month..what would I do without my wine, do you think this is enough?? :)

Helpers

The kiddos were so excited to get to help Antionette (our maid) rake the leaves in the backyard, we haven't had to rake since then!

Our Villa

Here are some pics of our villa, we moved to a new villa that had grass in the backyard with some trees and it's closer to the little park we have within the compound.












This is the washer/dryer somebody thought it was a genius idea to combine the two! This person obviously doesn't have children!

Villagio Mall

The Villagio Mall is one of our most frequented places to visit, especially with the weather being so warm. They have wonderful shopping for mom, a gondola river, a ice skating rink and a indoor amusement park for the kids. There is also a place called Gympanzee that will watch your kids while you shop (mommy loves it). Carrefour which is equal to our Wal-Mart is inside here as well and that is where we do most of our grocery shopping. You will notice in the parking lot the parking spaces are covered to keep your car out of the sun. The men in the red will wash your car while you are shopping (since the dust here is crazy).

The Corniche

There is a walkway along the Persian Gulf which is called the Corniche. It has a wonderful park for the kids and plenty of sidewalk to take a stroll or a jog with a beautiful view. It was a little warm this day, the kids got a little overheated from running around, but it was worth seeing.


The Persian Gulf behind them!


The architecture is really cool here, but unfortunately most of the buildings are empty.





The princess of Doha!!



The kiddos enjoying running on some green grass, which is hard to come by in the desert!

The Souq Waqif

The Souq Waqif is such a amazing place. They torn down the old souq and built a new one to look just like the old one. It really feels like you are walking through something that was built years and years ago. You can find almost anything at the Souq and you can bargin with the merchants. There even is a animal section which the kids just loved and a area where you can see a Falcon! We were able to have dinner outside as well at a restaurant down there.











Mike smoking his strawberry shisha!