Being Here
People ask me if it's good to be back in Doha, or if I'm glad that I'm back. The truth is, it's lonely. I was away for three months, and I had really just started to establish a group of friends when I left. I feel like it has all fallen apart a bit and I'm starting over. That's difficult. I can probably count on one hand the number of times someone here has called me to ask me how I'm doing, or just to check up on me. I'm fully aware of the fact that I'm not twelve, but I think we need comfort and friendship at every age.
My Current Soundtrack
Five songs I can't get out of my head right now are:
Nature and the Wreck - Mates of State
I Feel Like Going Home - Yo La Tengo
Marching Bans of Manhattan - Death Cab for Cutie
Decatur, or Round of Applause for Your Stepmother! - Sufjan Stevens
Wound Up - Office
Doha Sweet? Doha
I've been back in Doha since Tuesday evening. Friends and colleagues have asked me how it feels to be back and honestly, I don't know. It's lonely, it's strange, it's slightly overwhelming.
Tonight one of my friends and his wife invited me over to their place for dinner. Since I'm still not driving, my friend picked me up. on the way, we stopped off at a strip mall across from his housing complex to get a few things for dinner, including some ice cream. While he popped into the supermarket, I ducked into a store promisingly called Ice Cream Plaza.
I walked up to the counter and noticed a glass display case containing pineapples and other fruit. Thoughts of tasty, fresh fruit ice creams popped into my head. I saw two men behind the counter, slicing and preparing things. Three men waited and hung out in the front of the shop.
The glass wall at the counter stretched about a foot over the top of my head, so I poked my head around the counter wall and caught an employee's attention. I asked him what sort of ice cream they had. He told me they don't sell ice cream.
Yes, the Ice Cream Plaza does not sell ice cream.
I walked out of the store, one of the employees shouting, 'Juice, we sell juice' after me. This, I think, is what being in Doha is all about: an Ice Cream Plaza that sells juice.
