Some thoughts as I prepare to leave Doha for London for the Christmas holidays.I watch the NBC and ABC nightly news at 5:00 and 5:30 am the following day.
Our workweek is Sunday through Thursday and I have found that on Wednesday I’ll think 'well Wednesday is the western Thursday and Thursday is our last day of the week so tomorrow I’m off.' I thought only I overcompensated for the dislocation but have found others doing it in the same way.
Despite the fact that Arabic is read right to left, the car license plates, which carry both Arabic and western numerals, read to left to right for both versions. (Sitting in traffic leads to such profound observations.)
On at least two occasions, the cost of something (gas and a sandwich) was quoted backwards: that is, 13 became thirty-one and 42 became twenty-four causing me to question the change I received. (The change was correct.)
Finally, West Bay is off my front balcony but it is in the north direction. So why not North Bay? I assume because most maps of Doha are printed with east at the top, which on normal maps is north. Given that, the part of Doha on the left side of the map has become West Bay.
Whoever said this was going to be easy?
