Photos . ..

Here are just a couple of other pictures from when we were there for interviews. We did very little "sightseeing" - it was mostly interviews and meetings but I thought you might enjoy!

(1) Falcons at the Old Souk

(2) one of the mosques near the Old Souk

(3) Spices in Old Souk

(4) Mosque

The Process

(Spices in the Old Souk)

So Curt and I were in Qatar May 18-23 of 2007. We had our interviews, visited the Old Souk, met people from Qatar Foundation and the branch campuses and then headed home to think about our decision. By Memorial day, we had decided we would take the plunge! Our American contact in Qatar (hereafter referred to as "Q"), Kevin (aka "Qatari Kevin") had called us to see if we were interested in coming to work there. Apparently, in Arab culture, they want to know that you will accept an offer before they will formally give you an offer. A little different than we were used to. Our first lesson in Arab culture became apparent when 2 days later Qatari Kevin called to tell us that Belle's job "was not a position they wanted to have at this point in the strategic plan" but he assured us that "they still want you both to come". Needless to say, we had sold our house by this point, and were freaking a little bit.


Through too many emails, some stressful days/nights, we finally got details worked out for Belle's job (complete with job description!) and were now left to wait for the formal paper offer. In the meantime, Belle had interviewed at Iowa for an advising job in their College of Business and been offered the position. We were now faced with " a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" - after some serious handholding by Qatari Kevin, the Qatar Foundation was able to get our offers to us - and only 3 short weeks after we had returned from our interviews.

(BTW - this is a falcon at the Old Souk - they sell them for hunting in the desert!)
So our master plan is to be done with work the end of June, visit some family and friends in Iowa, finish up moving and closing on the house, visit family in TX and then fly to Doha, Qatar from there. We will hopefully be able to keep this blog updated for people who are interested, or at least for those who are bored at work . . .