Isn't it Dangerous Over There?-Part II

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You "say" it's safe over there now, but what about down the road?"

I know what you are thinking. I know what is going through your head when I tell you where we are going and you are trying to be polite and not tell me that I am certifiably crazy to send my family to the Middle East. Our family may be a little unconventional but we do our homework. The biggest research that we have had is our test subject, one of my best friends from college, who has been living there for 3 years. If it were not for him, we would not be making this move.

My friend also shared with us a report that was helpful in deciding to make the leap. Follow the article below and the video about unrest in the Middle East and notice where Qatar falls in the list. I hope this puts your mind to rest as much it did ours.

The Shoe Throwers Guide to The Middle East

http://www.economist.com/node/21016164

Now, It's Real!!

Well, today was a significant day in our process of moving to Doha. After filling out paperwork, sending documents to be authenticated, getting our plane tickets, and arranging for the remainder of personal belongings to be somewhere else (sold, donated, trashed), we had the shipping agency come today to ship our 500lbs of "stuff" we want to be there when we arrive. We knew it was going to be therapeutic paring all of our things down to the essentials and extricating all the junk that has been hanging on all these years. But I don't think we realized how much "junk" we had. After the shippers came and went, and we waved goodbye to our things in hope we would see them on the other side of the world, we still had a house full of crap. So begins the next phase of the plan. Tossing, donating, and selling the leftovers.

The most significant thing about today was the reality of our move overseas. It has been very exciting reading other people's blogs, getting answers to our questions from people already there, and receiving info from the school about the intricacies of living in Doha. We even had a video sent to us from the family that is moving out of our villa so that we can better plan what to bring. Nothing can probably prepare us for a 13 hour flight to somewhere we have never been to live and work for the foreseeable future. Let's just say it's a bit surreal.

Our family has never done things conventionally and thus continues the trend...and I wouldn't have it any other way. Life is too short to be bored and uninspired. There is so much to see and learn and we want to be able to take it all in, not when we are 65 - but now, and to expose our family to the diverse world in which we live.

So another step to the day we make the next leap in our family's life!! Exciting!!

Whirlwind of Activity

The past few months have been crazy. The amount of paperwork and logistics involved to get one's family overseas is unbelievable. If it weren't for the help of my beautiful wife(BW, from now on), I would not even have a prayer.

In addition to getting passports, shipping straight, health forms, school recommendations and all we had to do something this year that is new to outsiders moving to Doha. All of our documents(degree, certifications) had to be authenticated by 4(count them!!) four organizations. Let's take my degree as an example:

First, I had to request my transcripts from UMASS. No big deal, right? Except that it had to be notarized. Okay, I can live with that. They have that readily available at the university. Upon receiving the transcripts, I would have to mail them back to Massachusetts and have the Secretary of State authenticate them. Once those are sent back to me I would need to send them(in this case take them) to Washington D.C. and have them authenticated by the Secretary of the State there. Afterwards, I would need to take them to the Qatari Embassy in D.C. and have them authenticated one more time.

Whew..more traveling for the document than I have done in years!! These steps would have to be repeated for my certifications and all of BW's documents.

In spite of all of this, the excitement of moving and the regular welcoming emails from ASD keep us motivated and uplifted. The folks there are so nice and accommodating. I cannot wait for our family to join the ASD family there in Doha. The days are ticking.

Isn't it Dangerous Over There?

This is the question Wendy and I have been getting as we start to inform our friends and family of where we will be headed to this summer. I have spent time talking with my old college buddy(who's job I am filling) about the stability in Doha. He has assured me that everyone is very happy in Qatar and that it is a "benevolent" country. I haven't been able to dig up any information that would make me feel otherwise. None the less, my American friends raise their eyebrows at the mere fact that we would head to ANYWHERE in the Middle East

It has become more of an issue as Bahrain gets into the protests. This is a bit unnerving considering Bahrain is just a hop, skip and a jump away. I came across a blog post that put my mind at rest.

The blogger did something I would have done. Tapped the opinion of the people. Living in Doha and having many Qatari twitter followers, she posted the question to her people. The result have once again confirmed any worries we may have about making the move.

Check out her blog, Sybil and Kristi's Qatari Adventures. They have some great posts about their time in Qatar. Especially helpful is their post on the current state of the middle east, here

When it Rains, It Snows!

That is how this adventure officially began. Waking up at 5 am to get to go to work(school), I checked my email for what we have been waiting for for several months. Four interviews and much discussion have led to the arrival of contracts in my email. These are contracts for our new positions as teachers at The American School of Doha in Qatar (ASD). Shortly after reading the email the phone rang notifying us of a day off of school for a Snow Day!! What a perfect day to hit the ground running. The stars must have been aligned just right since UPS delivered all of our "official" birth certificates which allowed us to go into town and get our passport photos done and our applications in to the post office. We had a minor hiccup when we found out that Wendy's drivers license had expired. This meant going going to DMV and renewing her license before proceeding with the passport process.

ASD needs our passport numbers for our contracts as well as to begin the process of getting our visas, so we are expediting our passport requests.

What started out as a quiet snow day turned out to be a hot and heavy day beginning the process of getting the Kulpa family from our little house in Virginia to a villa in Doha, Qatar.