Art Bazaar in MIA Park

This weekend I talked Zach into doing something that I have been long interested in checking out.

The first Saturday of every month (while the weather is still tolerable) MIA Park hosts a big Art Bazaar where tons of local artists and vendors set up shop and sell their custom creations. 

The park is down by the Islamic Museum of Art which is about four and a half miles from us down the Corniche. Since it was such a beautiful day, I was able to talk my trooper of a husband into going for a run/walk down to it with me. 

The best thing about going for long walks or runs around Doha is that they never come without some spectacular views!

After breaking through the city you pop out on the Corniche and get to enjoy the contrast of perfect blue water with intense and imaginative architecture.

You may notice that the Corniche and even the sky for that matter look rather.. Well dusty. That is because just a day ago we had a HUGE sand storm! 

Now I don't know about you but I have never been in a sand storm before so I didn't really know what to expect but when we went to bed at night we could hear he winds whipping hard against our window. In the morning instead of seeing our usual view, this is all that could be seen. 

Wild!!!

The city was literally ( and still kind of is) in a huge fog of sand and dust! 

(News photo)

That afternoon when I was walking around outside, the wind would blow and I could literally feel grains of sand hitting my face. Which seriously sucks when you have contacts and I do so I was not a happy camper because those grains got in my eyes like nothing else.

Many people even where face masks to assure they don't breathe it all in. 

(Nice pinky ring bro)

Luckily the city goes to great lengths to clean up-- our building literally made it rain all around then had tons of workers washing it all away. 

Welcome to life in the desert! 

OKAY BACK TO MY STORY

So we jogged down the Corniche until we finally got to the Islamic Museum

We went just past that..

And BAM ! Tons of vendors all set up in the beautiful, huge, green park!

There was art work, pottery, handmade wooden-- things?? Lol it was so cool! 

Jewelry

Shoes

Clothes

Even these sweet little Qatari figurines! Haha! 

So cool! 

But seriously the best part (this is going to sound so weird) was that no one haggles you!!! They simply let you look, touch and walk on by without bombarding you and trying to make the sale. I cannot tell you how pleasant it was!!! Especially after our experience in Cacun where people literally chased us around trying to sell. 

It was like a modern Souk. 

One area even had food vendors!

Now I must give a disclaimer that none of this food could EVER compare to the Lebanse dinner Myriam and Firas prepared for us Friday night. Seriously. It was ridiculous. 

Lebanese food is like my new favorite thing ever!!

Not to mention the never ending game of UNO that seriously lasted like two/three? hours!!

(Love them!)    okay back to MIA PARK!

All (clearly) homemade food!

Which honestly is cool but also seriously scary because you have no idea who these people are or what kind of sanitary lengths they went to to produce the food. Not to mention that almost none of it was recognizable to us lol 

Like what exactly is this lady making? 

Hey at least she has on gloves?? 

There were tons of these food vendors and each made dishes that were unique to their culture. 

We entrusted our fate to this lady 

She made some chicken on a stick for us and poured a bit of her homemade spicy dressing on top. 

We wanted to find a quiet spot to escape the crowd and enjoy our food so we went back to the other side of the museum. 

Dinner and a view!! All for just 17 QR or $4.66   WHAT A DEAL!

This little girl loves Zach :)

Then once we finished our chicken I just had to go back for desert!

I know that I mentioned our regimented nutrition plan but any plan that doesn't include cholotae just isn't a plan for me! Lol 

We chose homemade potato-donuts from two awesome women who had a whole table of goodies

Omg it was heaven 

Even though you can't tell Zach liked it too! Lol 

I got chocolate he got glazed and we paid just $1.65!! Heck yes!

Instead of sitting with these though, it was getting dark so we decided to take them to go.

It was perfect because as we walked (and munched) we got to see the sunset and the city light up. 

Once we finished our treat we jogged back down the Corniche.

My silly husband is one of those that as we run loves to jump up things, hop over things and make it more of a game. I however save my endurance and go in as steady and straight of a path as I can. 

When we got close to the city, like always it took our breath away. We slowed down to a walk and Zach took my hand and led my up onto the ledge that separates the water from the walkway.

From up there you can see everything and the world slows down. 

You have people walking down below you, a huge glowing city in front of you and cool water all along the side. All you hear is the gentle washing sound of the water and wind in your hair.  

In that moment I was captivated. 

It is like when you love something but you have it so frequently that you loose the sense of wonder you once had then in a moment all of the initial awe comes back to you in a rush.

Have I mentioned that I love this city ? 

In that moment, it was all that I had.

I was completely present and completely engulfed. 

Before I was ready, it was time to exit the Corniche and head into the city to our little home.

It is amazing how a nine mile walk can feel too short.

At the end of the day my shoes (and self) were covered in sand and I had blisters on my feel but all I could feel was the glow of the city pulsing through my veins. 

Doha, you will forever have my heart.

Shokran and Gig Em 

As you can see, we didn't start tracking until we were almost at the park. Counting our missed km though it comes out to be right about 14 total. 

Update on Life: Big Things!

You may have noticed that I have been writing well below my normal frequency, this is because lots of big things have been happening.

This post is not my normal adventure post but more of an update in life and what is going on right now for us. 

To start Zach has finally completely settled into his new role here in Qatar as a Project Controls  Engineer on the new Qatar Rail Line. He is learning a TON and feels beyond privladged to be working on a project of such great scale. He often comes home from work so excited and gushing about new things he has learned about the project and how cool it is going to be. 

I just can't say how much I love that he has worked his way into a career that he loves and is surrounded by some truly incredible people. Not to mention the numerous mentors that he has in his life that have genuinely invested in him. To them I am so grateful. 

Zach is such a harder worker and so passionate that the sky is the limit for him. I am so lucky to be the woman he chose to stand by his side and lift him up as he "conquers the world". 

As for me, I have finally and officially landed a job as well! It is beyond difficult to get plugged in here since almost every position is filled by knowing the right person at the right time. Luckily, I happened to do just that. I will be working for the same company as Zach but on a different project, the Education a City project. I am so excited to finally be getting back into the work place and build up my resume and connections to hopefully, eventually get back into the marketing side of things. My position will be Administation Manager and we will be working on a state of the art Research Facility where scientists will study disease, cancer and other cutting edge sciences. 

We have FINALLY built up the courage to seek out a local church. We found one, visited last Friday ( that is the holy day here) and were absolutely knocked off of our feet!! I will probably be writing an entire post about it soon because the beauty we saw there simply cannot be summed up in a paragraph. ( Not to mention a whole blog post! ) To give you an idea of what it was like, there were over 67 DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES all praising Jesus together. Something I have never ever experienced before. It was beautiful. I think it was the closest I have been to seeing what heaven will be like. 

The last piece of big news I cannot fully share yet. It is still up in he air. There is a chance that something SUPER fun and COMPLETELY exciting could happen soon. I will keep you posted. 

The only hint I can give is that you may be seeing Zach and I through a whole new medium that I have never been seen through before. 

As for daily life we are having the time of our lives. I go nuts every weekend trying to decide the best way to spend our time whether it be going to one of the museums we have yet to visit,a new mall, local events or time with new friends. There is SO MUCH to do here and I just get giddy thinking of it. 

Even more personal- about a month ago Zach and I started to get serious about our fitness and health so our workout routine has gotten pretty regimented and as well as our nutrition. It would be like us to have all of these aspects of life detailed and planned out. What can I say? We love a good plan. 

Since there is only so much that you can excell in in one life I think it is most fundamental to have strong "mentors" or "experts" to have as pillars or guides in life. For us it starts with our faith and Jesus is the beginning and end of all of that we are. He is our fundamental truth that everything hinges on and everything good in our lives flows from. 

  Building on that foundation we have Dave Ramsey for our finances, Kayla Itsines for our fitness and Joel Fuhrman for our nutrition. This is our cabinet of advisors. 

I think we are certainly not your typical 23 year old newly weds and live a pretty atypical life compared anything we could have even dreamt up for ourselves. 

Thanks for being a part of this journey with us! Adventure posts sure to come soon! 

Shokran & Gig 'Em

Bailey 

One last note: There is a Shake Shack in Doha and let me tell you, it is FABULOUS!! 

Date Night in Doha

Since life is so hard here in Doha (kidding) we deicided to give ourselves a break, ditch the kids (also kidding) and go out for a good date night!

Okay who am I kidding?  Practically every night feels like a date night here with Zach 💗 We just needed a good excuse to go see a (mildly) overpriced movie! ;-) 

Luckily for us, there is a movie theatre right across the street from us in a City Center Mall-- yes the same mall that has our grocery store in it. Why do no American malls have these added benefits? Get on Doha's level Gelleria! Jk 

So like always we just went right across the street

Not sure what happened to my camera in these ones-- can I blame it on the humidity? Okay yeah let's go with that! That excuse will also bid well for explaining my fizzy hair hehe 

And yes! This is Zach wearing a jacket in the desert! Even though we are in Spring, evenings and still some afternoons here are pretty chilly!

Is it weird that I am already used to seeing dudes in white dresses everywhere? Haha 

The men here in white are actually all of the Qatari Nationals and quite proud of it. They say only real men wear pink but a dress takes it to a whole new level! Somehow this dress finally looks like a masculine thing to me----- except when you see them lift it to walk through a puddle or mud-- in those moments there is nothing that could make it look manly! 

Such a huge mall!

We got out tickets here at one of at least 6 open counters. The cool thing is they have an iPad where they let you select your seat before you go in. So convenient but also risky because you have no idea who you will be placed next to O_o   

Tickets were right at about $10 which I guess is normal for movie tickets now days -- nothing will ever compare to College Stations $4 tickets though ... Sigh..  

Another cool thing is that they show movies from all across the globe. Leave it to us to see a typical American movie but still! Cool to have the options!

Here are our tickets-- nothing too special there. 

Then when you enter you are immediately greeted by a much different smell than what you get in America! Don't worry, it's a good kind of different!! 

Instead of getting that warm, buttery smell of salty and delicious popcorn-- it smells sweet. And me with my sweet tooth wanted at least a pound of whatever it was I was smelling. 

Turns out, instead of having just your basic everyday butter popcorn, they sold two kinds. One was the classic, the other was the source of that delicious smell! Fresh caramel popcorn!! Mmmm! 

This is not your typical cracker-jack or Christmas bucket caramel popcorn though. It is a very thin layer of dark almost burnt tasting caramel. It sounds weird and no good but holy cow it was delicious!! I am pretty sure that Zach and I finished out whole bucket before the movie even started!!

When we ordered though, we were unsure if we would like the Qatari style popcorn, so we got some "Maltesers" as a back up plan. 

Turns out that they were both good and this date turned from romantic night out to fat slugs pigging out! 

Another cool thing was this room where you can put down all of your shopping bags, strollers etc while you watch the movie. I guess there must have been some sort of number system or something to keep things sorted and safe? Nice feature!

So cool to see movie posters in Arabic! (If this is even Arabic?? I don't even know??)

Zach hates when we ask people to take photos of us -- I don't! :) 

So anyways we went in and the layout was just like any other typical theatre. 

I talked Z into seeing Focus 😊

I always look forward to seeing the previews when I go to the movies so then I can choose what movies to see next. Oddly enough though, here, the only previews shown were of other movies currently playing at the theatre. Maybe they don't know which movies they will get until they actually get them? Not sure but it was definitely different. 

Another interesting thing that I hadn't considered until the movie started were the subtitles. Every movie, all throughout the movie had subtitles in Arabic and French. Another reminder that we are definitely not in America! I am just happy that they played the movie in its original language and that we weren't the ones having to read the subtitles!! 

Focus was a great movie, I would definitely recommend seeing it! After all who doesn't love a good Will Smith movie? 

Once it finished we came right back out the way we had gone in to the front of the mall. 

But not before we had a quick stop by Starbucks of course! 

Everyone look at how handsome my husband is!! <3

Hope you enjoyed our Date Night!

Shokran  & Gig Em!