I Want, or Day 90 in Doha

How time flies! It's been a long time since I got here, and today I had a real discussion about things that are different here and in the US, especially linguistically.

• "tc" or "take care" is a phrase used much more often around here than in the States
• "no problem", when said with a certain emphasis (no problem) is also much more common around here. I more often say "no worries" or "not a problem"... well, I used to.
• Many people are cutting off the modified noun when using transitive verbs. Basically, just leaving off an "it" or something. Common ones are "I want" instead of "I want to" and "I like" instead of "I like it."
• The definition of "meat" is different. It's meat versus chicken. Now, I know of red meat and white meat, and chicken is white meat. Here, chicken is not meat. You can get a chicken X or you can get a meat X... what the meat is, that is for the jury to decide.
• "proper" instead of "good" for describing things that fit in a situation. For example, I have proper walking shoes.
• I have told you about that word "yalla", meaning "come on." The only situation that I don't understand it in is when people say "yalla, bye" at the end of a conversation. I'm not sure a direct translation is actually what it means.
• Using "find" is something I've had to learn to understand. Especially in the first few weeks, everyone wanted to know "how do you find Qatar?" My tongue-in-cheek answer is that the pilot knows how to get there, but they are actually asking "how do you like Qatar?"

I'm going to have to keep up this documentation of the differences. I've started to just blend in with the crowd (at least, I think I am), so having activities or talks about the subject of culture and differences are getting a bit rarer. I'm going to have to make an effort to stick out more! People like Abdalla and Varun still like hearing my stories.

Random picture day, since today was a work session. It's last weekend; I'm in the Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi, posing with some dolphin statue in the room where we think the 3-times-a-day rain shows happen. (I stole the picture from Michael after our trip, which is why it is a bit late in appearing here.)

I suppose in a country where it rarely rains, you have to show it to your kids!