Okay, so I got back from Qatar on November 3.  Sue me, okay? You read this blog, you get what you pay for.

Anyhow.  Qatar, yes.  A couple of coworkers and I were sent to our campus in Doha to meet with some researchers face-to-face prior to a big proposal deadline.  And I am here to tell you that lo, it was awesome.

First of all, I love air travel.  I don’t really care about the destination as long as it involves taking a plane.  I love everything about it.  Waking up early to get to the airport.  Searching for a magazine at an over-priced newsstand.  Hauling ass through the terminal to make a connection.  I don’t even mind taking off my shoes and pulling out my laptop to get through security.  I just really enjoy the entire experience, especially the actual flight.  There’s nothing quite like knowing you have absolutely nowhere else to be, so you may as well relax and enjoy the ride.  (And the free champagne.)

Now.  That being said, it turns out that around hour ten of an international flight is when I start to get restless and starting thinking things like OH MY GOD this flight will never END and I am going to be ON THIS PLANE for the rest of my LIFE.  Because at that point we still had over five hours to go and well, that can start to feel a little dire.  When you have enough time to watch SEVEN ENTIRE MOVIES on one flight, you know it is a long one.

But we did eventually land, although it was in Dubai and we had to make a connection into Doha from there.  Fortunately that flight was only an hour and we were literally the only people in business class (HELLS YEAH, business class, BTW – I definitely would have died had I been stuck in coach for fifteen hours) so it wasn’t bad at all.

And upon leaving the airport, I immediately decided that I love Doha even more than air travel.  While I do realize that it can get up to a horrifying 120 degrees in the summer, the weather is merely pleasantly warm this time of year.  Everything is clean and shiny new (SO MUCH construction – there are cranes in the background of almost every photo), the people are pleasant and overall it was a phenomenal experience.  Doha is a very international city.  Only about 20% of the residents are native Qatari, everyone else is an expat.  Australia, Britain, the US, you name it and someone of that nationality lives in Doha.  Arabic is the official language but English is very widely spoken so there’s no trouble whatsoever in terms of getting around.  Not even for this central Texas gal.

Okay, enough blathering.  On to the photos!  You can find the full set here, should you be interested in such things.

So to sum up:  Doha = AWESOME.  Air travel = also awesome, though admittedly less so after 15 hours on a single flight.  Whether you’re in business class or not.