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My last weekend in Doha began yesterday, and I was determined to make the most of it, despite the fact the the usual crew I hang with is out of the country. So since John and Mike were not around, I decided it was time for a trip on my own - something that I hadn't done until this point becauase, well, because I'm a wimp.

I called Fox Transport at noon and they got there a little after 12:30, and it was on to City Center Mall. It took us about a half an hour to get there, which actually wasn't too bad. Usually the amount of traffic makes it take nearly an hour! So, I got there, paid the driver and went in around 1:00pm. Unfortunately, I forgot (or didn't know) that most of the stores don't open until 4pm (though some open earlier). When I arrived the only things open were Carre-Four (a european version of Wal-Mart), Burger King, and Starbucks. So, I went into Carre-Four and bought a couple of little things while I was there, and headed over to Burger King for lunch.

That's right. I came all the way to the Middle East to have lunch at Burger King.

After lunch I decided to just go walking around a bit. I headed toward the indoor hockey arena, and they happened to be having what I can only equate as "Open Skate." I rented some really horrible skates and proceeded to skate around on the god-aweful ice. One of the major problems here is that it has a glass roof, so in the mid-day desert sun, the ice doesn't really freeze all that well. It was slow going, and open skate just isn't that much fun when you are by yourself, and used to playing hockey. I didn't skate for long.

After that it was only about 2:30pm, so after exchanging a few text messages with John, who was in Amman, Jordan, I decided to just walk around and window shop until the stores opened. I ended up at one end of the mall where there was a Starbucks, so I decided to have a Grande Cafe Mocha while I waited. In the process, I got yelled at because I took the cup to the table myself (and didn't let someone take it for me - oops). Anyway, it drank my "coffee" for a while and just kind of people-watched.

That's right. I came all the way to the Middle East to drink coffee at Starbucks.

After coffee it was about 3:15, and some of the stores had started to open, though it was mostly just the "Qatar Optics" stores - that only sell sunglasses and the like. So, I browsed those until 4, when I was able to start going in some of the stores. I purchased a few more items at a variety of different stores, though I wasn't able to find a Qatari football (soccer) jersey for Tom, like I'd hoped.They had some in the Qatari colors, but nothing with a flag or "Qatar" or even any arabic on them. So I struck out on that one. I'll find something else for him. I finished shopping at about 7pm and decided to go have some dinner. My establishment of choice? Applebees.

That's right. I came all the way to the Middle East to have dinner at Applebees.

After my salad that had way too much caeser dressing on it, and my strawberry lemonade that had way too much sugar in it, It was time to head home. I went down to the Fox Transport booth, and no one was there. Uh-oh. I called them and they told me all their cars were busy until around 9:30pm. Double uh-oh. So, I had to go stand in the queue for the cabs - either Karwa (blue and white) or the Orange and White.... Luckily, I got a Karwa (the orange and whites are a little, oh.... gross?). I was hoping, inshallah, that I would get a driver who knew where either my apartment complex or Doha College was. I wasn't lucky. So then I had the pleasant time of trying to explain to my driver where I lived. He got me to the basic area of Al Samriya Gardens, and luckily I was able to direct him from there. I thought John was a crazy driver, until I drove in that cab. Wow. So, I made it back ok.

After that it was time to head to the pool. There was no one there at all. So I swam for a bit and then got out, ordered a juice and some shisha. I decided to try the "Lemon with Mint" juice that I've seen John have before. That was not a good experiment. It tasted like crap. Ah well, at least I tried it. The shisha wasn't bad - I ordered Apple, which I could taste - but I could also taste a definite Mint flavoras well, which leads me to believe it had been used for Mint in the recent past and possibly not cleaned very well. I enjoyed my shisha and headed back to the apartment. It was a full day, and definitely worth venturing out on my own. I should have done it sooner.

The plan for today? Workout, swim, tan, and later on head to the souq with Maya. Hopefully that all goes smoothly. I'm sure it will. But only three more days here - all of which I'll be working. The time flew by, and I had a great time. I'm sure these last few days will be similar.