Ready to go...

We’ve now got all of our things packed up and they’ll arrive in Doha in about 2 weeks (for a small air shipment) and most everything else will arrive in 6 weeks (on boat). There’s really not too much to report on the move right now. Steve and I are both doing pretty well as far as mental stability although I’m coming down with some sort of cold- hopefully short lived and mild.

In light of that, I’ll briefly explain what I think the mission of our blog is (Steve may think it’s different so he can explain that later). I want to document our day-to-day adventures for two reasons:

• In hope of building bonds and relationships with people we miss dearly. At least if we can’t call and visit as much, having a blog might help us feel more in touch with our friends and family.
• A way to document our day to day adventures- we can look back and laugh over what worried or stressed us and we’ll be able to see how we’ve grown and adjusted.

Steve worries more than I do about us focusing this on ourselves too much- but in light of my purposes for doing this, maybe that’s ok?

Oh yeah, cross cultural training would probably be the highlight of the last week. In a nutshell, we learned that:­

• Culture shock begins about 3 months after we get there and lasts about 6 months. I forget the symptoms, but basically they’re anything as near as I can tell (such as: eating too much, not eating, sleeping too much, not sleeping, fatigue, crying, home-sickness, stress, etc.)
• We’ll probably be tired when we start getting settled because everything we do on “auto-pilot” (grocery shopping, driving, socializing, going out, etc.) will require a lot more thought. I think that’s interesting.
• Other cultures do not value things I assumed everyone valued: directness, punctuality, working hard. Also, they do not identify themselves with their career.
• Other cultures (particularly Arabs) value relationships much more than Americans do (we’ll drink a lot of tea and start with “small talk” during meetings). Family is hugely important in Qatar.
• Saving face is also important. One example used in class: when you ask for directions and they don’t know where it is, they may just give you directions anyways, not wanting to be discredited for not knowing.

We spent 2 days in class and it was very useful- those were just the bits that were remembered. Steve will probably summarize it better at some point. In any case, I expect to have difficulty being less direct and non-confrontational (2 qualities that drive me to madness when I encounter them here).

Back to the hotel now!