Isabelle in Doha
A French expatriate in Qatar from March 2008 to February 2009Archive for mall
Doha malls
What could you possibly do in a town where the outside temperature is always above 35°C (94°F) even at night, where the walking man is not welcomed in the streets except in special places like parks or the Corniche, where there are building sites wherever you turn?
The City Center
Go to one of the many malls that Doha has this far. The mall is in fact a small town within the town. You can find there whatever you need or want to find, there are shops and brands from all over the world, coffee places and restaurants, playgrounds and attraction or theme parks, ice skating rink.
The Landmark
Each mall has its own decor, simple with several floors – the City Center – small shops in alleys with palm trees – the Landmark – or the italian village with canal and gondolas like Venice – the Villaggio.
The Villaggio
Locals and expatriates come here to shop, eat, walk and spend their leisure time and their riyals…
Summer in Doha or How to survive in this heat and steam ?
That is the main question by mid July. The temperature is now stuck at 42-44°Celsius (107-111°Fahrenheit) by day and go down to 33-34°C (92-93°F) only (!) at night.The humidity rate has grown suddenly and you feel like you are in your bathroom or in a steam bath… Everyone with children has went back home during the school holidays and will not return until early September…
So either i fly back home to spend a sweet but lonely (=without my husband) summer with my 6 months old daughter, stuck every evening on the computer screen skyping with my husband… 
– that i did for only two weeks in July – or i find ways to survive summer in Doha to be with him… 
– that i have been doing since…
I still can go to the malls where i can shop, eat and attend the Doha Summer Festival events, i can meet the rare other women i know are still here, try to go to an open museum, or stay at the apartment where i can take care of and play with Iris, watch movies and shows on tv, blog all day…, start – at last – my first watercolor in years!, find another apartment, write to friends and family and chat and skype with them, prepare our first anniversary party, organize my photographs, print some of them to put them in frames, cook for Iris and both of us with our new steamer, blender and food processor, make scrapbooks of all the stuff we brought back from our trips before the birth, there is plenty of things to do at home!
I regret that i cannot take Iris for nice outside walks, that the only air she is breathing is the conditioning one or the wet and hot one.
In fact, summer in Doha is like spending time waiting for the snow to melt or the thunderstorm to pass.
In the City Center Carrefour’s shelves
Lots of products are the same as those you can find in Europe and others that you discover.
Olives
Local produits like labneh, a fresh thick succulent cheese – a mix between kiri and white cheese, qatari eggs that have yellow or sometimes orange yolks, other products that i would like to taste like mehalabia, a cream dessert that you can eat with crushed pistachios.
Labneh
And many imported products from the United States – the famous Philadelphia that is used for cheesecakes, the Great Britain – cakes and chocolates, the Philippines, India, and even France – our brie!
Brie!
You travel a lot, simply going to Carrefour…
