Travel and places

Shortly before it caught fire, I visited the Villagio mall, one of the three largest in Doha. As far as I understand, it is a copy of a place in Las Vegas that intends to give the visitor the impression that you are in an "Italian village", including Gucci stores, a Venetian channel with gondoliers, etc.

I also had the opportunity to meet the (admirable) crazy cat ladies from "Cats in Qatar". Doha is full of abandoned cats. One of them is in this picture; we found her in the -3 parking of Tornado Tower, the maintenance people from the building took care of her for a few days and for now I am taking care of her.

Fortunately my immigration paperwork is done. This is a record. In Italy my resident permit took 7 months. In Spain it took 3 months, without considering the time when they expelled me from the country. Here it was only 5 weeks.

It is evident that the Qatar Foundation as an employer has a lot of influence. They put us in front of the queues at every step, and that saves entire days of paperwork. Queues are never well arranged, and often, you can not trust they will be respected.. In my medical checkup my queue was reversible. You could be at the beginning or at the end, depending on the decision of the security guard.

Through all the city you can hear the speakers of the mosques calling to prayer. SpeakerS, mosqueS, plural. From here I can hear at least three. To me it sounds like a cacophony of Gregorian singing..

Being without Fabiola is weird, I have had some critical days in which I don't even want to eat, specially on weekends. My work mates are practically all foreigners, many from Egypt and India. We hang out together a lot. I have gone a couple of times to the movies ... in sex scenes, they blank the screen and you can hear only the audio.

A little problem derived from the local customs is that in shopping malls and restaurants there are areas for "families". The meaning of this is that men alone can not enter these areas. This discriminates obviously against the poorer immigrants, because to bring your family here you have to have a well-paid job.

* * *

I met my neighbors, a British couple absolutely lovely, who believing I was not at home took my garden furniture. But they gave it back ;-) They are very nice, we went for a brunch to the Ritz-Carlton, where there is a free buffet and a free bar of sparkling white wine if you want -- meaning, the perfect place for getting drunk on a Friday noon (!) Here people work from Sunday to Thursday and Friday, specially Friday morning, is the most relaxed time of the week.

* * *

To get my driver license I have to do a mini-course of 12 sessions. I did not like the idea much at the beginning, I had hoped to just exchange my Chilean license for a Qatari one and maybe if I had insisted enough I would have done that. But the course has not been bad. The first two classes are in a simulator, which is fun because in the simulator everybody is very imprudent, they don't respect traffic lights, etc. I killed a guy in the simulator, who practically waited for me to get closer to throw himself to the street. But I saved a camel in the "country" scenario.

Then there are the practical lessons where you get ready for the exam (traffic signs and practical exam with L-parking, parking in a tight spot, and on-the-road test). I think I will get a PhD in L-parking. I am also practicing a lot defensive driving.

It is worth doing it. People are very aggressive when driving and they do stuff I haven't seen elsewhere. For instance, back from work a colleague who was giving me a ride cut in front of a Land Cruiser, unwillingly. Later the Land Cruiser came in front of his car and stopped suddenly, to make us crash against him. Fortunately, the other people in the car warned my colleague that this would happen, because Qataris know that in a trial between them and a foreigner, the foreigner always looses.

The instructors in the driving school work 10 hours a day and I think mine is always about to throw himself out of the car window out of boredom. When instructors are not giving lessons, they wait in a room with air conditioning and watch wrestling matches.

* * *

Last week one of my colleagues was speaking with the son of someone from the office, who was complaining about bullies in school. My colleague told the kid that he had to do like Napoleon, who studied a lot in school to be better than the bullies. His answer:

-- I am sorry sir, that is a bad example. I don't want to be like Napoleon.
-- Why?
-- Because I am Egyptian.

Less than a week ago I moved for work to Doha, Qatar. I was rather worried, I have to say. The reaction from my colleagues was mostly negative: affectionate, but negative. The reaction from my friends was mixed: some found it excellent, other congratulate me, others said they'll miss us (and me to them!)

My first impression of Doha, is that I do not have a first impression ;-) So far I've only picked small clues about how things will be. Probably many of them are wrong. I write them here to laugh about them later.

The first things is that it is ridiculously hot, 40 Celsius during most of the day, and everybody says this is just a small preview of what is about to come in the next months, where it will go to 50 Celsius and "you won't be able to stand in the sun for 5 minutes".

The cats hated to travel. They spent 12 hours in the cages, with 6 of them flying. When they were "delivered" to me, I found them alone next to the luggage belt. The good thing: they still had water in their dishes, meaning they were not moved so much. The cats were weird after the trip, they did not want to eat and were searching for Fabiola, but now they are easier, eating and wanting to go to the backyard. That, I will let them do it later on when they are more used to this place. For now, Panterita and Trufa are a big chunk of my social life.

I was assigned a house in a gated community where there are mostly people related to education/universities, many families with kids. The community has its own pool and gym. The house looks huge compared with what I've experienced in the last years: Rome (a studio of 16 sq m) and Barcelona (flats of 48 and 64 sq m).

* * *

The other part of my social life are conversations with taxi drivers. Kind of groundhog day: soccer, where is Chile, where is Sri Lanka or Ethiopia, how hot it is in summer, etc. Language is a big barrier. At work everybody speaks English, many of them better than I. Outside work people speak little English or the minimum for basic stuff.

And my activity so far has been ... shopping ;-) To get the home ready, to buy food, a cellphone, etc. There is a mini-mall with a medium-size supermarket attached to the community and I've also gone to the City Center which is the largest shopping mall. Prices are similar to the convenience stores in Barcelona. Here is a sample with approximate prices:

• 500g of pasta = 1 eur.
• Colgate toothpaste = 1 eur.
• Two liters of watermelon juice = 2 eur.
• Shampoo HnS = 3 eur.
• Small box of champignon = 1.5 eur
• One cucumber = 2 eur.
• Box of tea bags = 1.5 eur.
• One lettuce = 0.5 eur.
• Taxi from home to airport, 30 min = 10 eur.
• Taxi from home to city center, 20 min = 8 eur.

The bills are quite decorated, and as I mix lila and blue I tend to confuse the bills of 100 qar (20 eur) and 1 qar (0.2 eur).

* * *

Most local women wear the Abaya (it covers the head and the body, but not the face) and about half wears a Niqab (a veil that allows you to see only the eyes). I have not seen any woman in Burqa (the one with the net in front of the eyes). Non-qatari women wear whatever they like: jeans, skirts (below the knee), t-shirts, etc. The only thing I saw was at the entrance of the Islamic Museum a friend of mine was asked to cover her shoulders.

On that count, I have not experienced a "cultural shock". I hope to postpone that as much as possible. Well, I was about to experience it: in the toilet at the shopping mall there was a place that looked like an urinal but it was to wash your feet before praying ... fortunately I was suspicious and did not use it for what I thought it was used ;-)

Besides, in many aspects it is a developing country and in that sense, to a first-class human (I am second class), Qatar may look more strange. For instance: my experience to pass some accompanied cargo through customs was strange: there are written rules, unwritten rules, people asking you for money around, it is not clear immediately what for, and in general something systematically dysfunctional. But it can be understood. The logic is that you elbow your way to the counter and shove your papers in front of an officer, smile, and wait. Finally you have to pay to the guys that asked you for money initially because they are legally part of this business, kind of para-officers of this place.

The good side: rules are flexible. For instance the shuttle bus in the airport stops anywhere.

* * *

In the city center there are very pretty buildings. I work at the Tornado Tower which is a twisted tower. Looking at all the funky buildings I thought they could have built a Sagrada Familia, just replacing animals and people by text and abstract motives.

From my office (now that I have an office) you can see buildings, cranes, and a piece of the bay. The work looks interesting, I am just starting to decide what exactly I am going to do, but there is a lot of energy, students, engineers, etc. I still don't have a good sense of what to expect of those around me. I don't care if it is much or little, fast or slow. I just want to understand the work rhythm and who are the reliable people.

* * *

What else can I say? I miss Fabiola so much. I have no idea how these two months without her are going to be. And for someone risk-averse as me, this situation is frightening at times. But I also have a lot of curiosity. I expect to satisfy that curiosity in the next months ;-)

Hugs for everyone. I don't tell you "everybody come to Doha!" because it will be a while before I am certain that it is a good idea ;-)

This week I am starting a new adventure in Doha, Qatar :-) I feel very sad about leaving Barcelona, so I started remembering some random things that happened to me during this time:

• I used an entire box of 500 staples.
• I was expelled from Spain with 15 days to leave the country ... thanks to a good lawyer and efforts by other people I was able to solve this.
• While naked I met some people I knew at the beach ... fortunately, in the water.
• I worked in a beautiful train station, in the best job I've had so far.
• I made many friends, and I had time to loose a few ones.
• I went to China, India, Germany, Poland, France, etc.
• I often went to work on a longboard.
• I was able to publish a lot and be very productive.
• I walked four hours a trail of one hour (lost).
• I went to the gym for the first time in my life, and I am still going.
• We went every year at least once to the Netherlands and once to Rome.
• I saw Italy loose some of its brightest people.
• I went from suffering by paper rejections to feel almost indifferent.
• I burned a mother board and I learned that yes, you can plug the power source the wrong way.
• I dropped a speaker on top of my corporate laptop after less than one month of having it, and I payed the mistake.
• I discovered an rsa token can not stand a 5-stories fall.
• I understood sangria is the way Spain punishes turists.
• I drank at least half a cubic meter of beer.
• I had liters of vermouth poured by Robert de Niro.
• I spent great afternoons in Part de la Ciutadella and found out the sun is a luxury.
• I arrived with 29 years and now I am 35.
• I bought for the first time lotion to avoid hair loss and found out how useless it is.
• We adopted three cats and saw one of them die.
• My grandfather died. My grandmother died. My brother in law died.
• I enjoyed having the baker, the guy at the minimarket and at the bar greet me.
• I was surprised when it started to happen at my branch in the bank.
• Colleagues proved me wrong often, but always respectfully.
• I did body pump and aerobics ... in the middle of the Rambla.
• I had dinner at Palau de la Musica.
• I had delicious calcots and artichokes.
• I got addicted to Pimientos del Padrón and Patatas Bravas.
• I removed kilos of tuna fish from green salads.
• I met tons of crazy cat ladies and found out it is marvelous to be married to one.
• I learned to speak much louder than what is comfortable for a Chilean.
• I felt very ashamed about how some Chileans treat Peruvians when I was treated as some Europeans treat Chileans.
• I went to Suede, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Groove Armada, Viva la Fete and Arctic Monkeys.
• I was addressed often in Arabic and people won't believe I was Chilean.
• I learnt Catalan watching Doraemon.

Of course there is lots, lots more than this. Paraphrasing Douglas Adams: "So Long Barcelona, and Thanks for All the Fish!" See you soon, friends! I hope to come back to enjoy this beautiful city and the wonderful people it attracts.

In the year 2008, for the first time in history there is more people living in cities than in rural areas. The number of people living in slums is expected to exceed 1,000,000,000 very soon. The Places We Live by Jonas Bendisksen is an interactive art project that documents life in 4 slums in the cities of Venezuela, India, Jakarta and Nairobi, including photos, interviews and 360-degrees panoramas of people showing their homes.

I was puzzled in Amberes when I saw this musician in the street playing this weird instrument. It has strings and it is played like a violin, but it has a kind of amplifier like a trumpet.

Do you know which instrument is this?