Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Shopping Tour
Hello everyone! It is now January 31st and we will be home in 8 days. We leave in 7, but whose counting. I can tell you Mike is and he cheats by a day all the time. I guess he thinks it will come quicker if he cheats by a day. I am just hoping he gets Friday off this week. It has been almost 3 weeks since he has had a day off. We need to start getting organized, so I can get things packed slowly but surely. Got to keep things equal in all suitcases, so you don't get one overweight. We seem to have a habit of doing that.
Day before yesterday we had a cultural shopping tour with the SSA. We had a good time. I thought there would be more shopping than there was, but it was ok this way too. We started out with going to the wholesale markets. We went to the meat market first. We went in and watched them slaughter a goat, then our guide explained how and why they do it this way. It is the Muslim way. Everything is bled out and then it is clean. Then we went to where the camels were. They don't sell them to eat there. Some people do eat them tough. This is where they breed them mainly. The females are the fastest and they are the ones that race. If you eat them the young males are the best. Of course, they also use the milk. It is in cans in the stores here. We went from there to the whole sale vegetable market. The vegetables are much nicer there than in the stores. They are also cleaner. They even have seedless grapes there. That is a first for me here. There are several vegetable markets. We went to the most popular one from what most women say. It was much cheaper than in the stores. From there we went to the fish market. When you walk up there men in green shirts with boxes in their hands. They go in to the market with you and you pick out your fish, lobster, crabs, whatever kind of seafood you want. They will take it and clean and skin it for you. It then comes back in and they will cut it up the way you want it done. If you want it whole you can have it that way too. We left there and then went by a few other souqs. Then we headed back to the old souqs. That is where I wanted to do a bit of shopping, but by then everyone was just about ready to go. Most people have to pick up kids and things like that. We invited everyone to come and eat with us at a Lebanese restaurant. Some ended up just going home or getting their kids and some went to eat Indonesian food. I think 5 of us ended up eating Lebanese food. We had a great time. One of the new girls ate with us. I am sure she was the youngest at the table by far. She is in her early 20s. We all had a nice visit. We ordered a bunch of appetizers so that Moo could try everything and then had one entree and a salad to share. Most of the appetizers were salad things too. Moo was the only one who had never had Lebanese food. This the same thing Penny did for me when she took me for the first time. It makes it nice, because you have about 8 things to try and choose from. Normally you like at least one of the things out of that. We must have been there for 2 hours at least. We had a really nice time. We then went and picked up Penny's youngest daughter from preschool and two other people home and then we came home. We didn't get home till about 3:00. Fun was had by all.
Yesterday was cloudy and very windy. Kind of dreary. I liked it. Some of sat outside and watch the kids play and visited. Today has been very cloudy all day long, but not near as much wind. Supposedly we are going to have a chance for rain tomorrow and the next few days.
Mike is just about through with the acid dock. He has been going to Ras Laffan for 2 weeks straight now. He should go off shore tomorrow to check something out and then hopefully he will get his day off. We can start thinking about what all we need to take back home and make a list of things to bring back.
We have our monthly SSA breakfast on Monday. It will be the last thing I get to do with everyone before we come home. I wish it was eating lunch out instead of breakfast. Breakfast is good, but lunch is much better as far as I am concerned. Our little group is growing. We almost have 30 people now.
Well, I am guessing that is about all of the news for now. Our temperature has been gradually rising, but for the next couple of days we are supposed to have highs back in the 60s, so it will be a little bit cooler. We will probably freezing in the house for a few days. We will just get the blankets back out. LOL!
Hope to see everyone soon!
Debbie
Day before yesterday we had a cultural shopping tour with the SSA. We had a good time. I thought there would be more shopping than there was, but it was ok this way too. We started out with going to the wholesale markets. We went to the meat market first. We went in and watched them slaughter a goat, then our guide explained how and why they do it this way. It is the Muslim way. Everything is bled out and then it is clean. Then we went to where the camels were. They don't sell them to eat there. Some people do eat them tough. This is where they breed them mainly. The females are the fastest and they are the ones that race. If you eat them the young males are the best. Of course, they also use the milk. It is in cans in the stores here. We went from there to the whole sale vegetable market. The vegetables are much nicer there than in the stores. They are also cleaner. They even have seedless grapes there. That is a first for me here. There are several vegetable markets. We went to the most popular one from what most women say. It was much cheaper than in the stores. From there we went to the fish market. When you walk up there men in green shirts with boxes in their hands. They go in to the market with you and you pick out your fish, lobster, crabs, whatever kind of seafood you want. They will take it and clean and skin it for you. It then comes back in and they will cut it up the way you want it done. If you want it whole you can have it that way too. We left there and then went by a few other souqs. Then we headed back to the old souqs. That is where I wanted to do a bit of shopping, but by then everyone was just about ready to go. Most people have to pick up kids and things like that. We invited everyone to come and eat with us at a Lebanese restaurant. Some ended up just going home or getting their kids and some went to eat Indonesian food. I think 5 of us ended up eating Lebanese food. We had a great time. One of the new girls ate with us. I am sure she was the youngest at the table by far. She is in her early 20s. We all had a nice visit. We ordered a bunch of appetizers so that Moo could try everything and then had one entree and a salad to share. Most of the appetizers were salad things too. Moo was the only one who had never had Lebanese food. This the same thing Penny did for me when she took me for the first time. It makes it nice, because you have about 8 things to try and choose from. Normally you like at least one of the things out of that. We must have been there for 2 hours at least. We had a really nice time. We then went and picked up Penny's youngest daughter from preschool and two other people home and then we came home. We didn't get home till about 3:00. Fun was had by all.
Yesterday was cloudy and very windy. Kind of dreary. I liked it. Some of sat outside and watch the kids play and visited. Today has been very cloudy all day long, but not near as much wind. Supposedly we are going to have a chance for rain tomorrow and the next few days.
Mike is just about through with the acid dock. He has been going to Ras Laffan for 2 weeks straight now. He should go off shore tomorrow to check something out and then hopefully he will get his day off. We can start thinking about what all we need to take back home and make a list of things to bring back.
We have our monthly SSA breakfast on Monday. It will be the last thing I get to do with everyone before we come home. I wish it was eating lunch out instead of breakfast. Breakfast is good, but lunch is much better as far as I am concerned. Our little group is growing. We almost have 30 people now.
Well, I am guessing that is about all of the news for now. Our temperature has been gradually rising, but for the next couple of days we are supposed to have highs back in the 60s, so it will be a little bit cooler. We will probably freezing in the house for a few days. We will just get the blankets back out. LOL!
Hope to see everyone soon!
Debbie
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finally a new post. jon was just here and we were commenting how you probably wouldn't update before you left. see you soon.
ahhh, shopping...sounds like my kind of day! Of course, I don't think I've ever seen a goat slaughtered during one of my shopping trips. Ewwww! Interesting though!
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