Moving In, Membership Station, and Personal Storytime

We got the keys to our apartment yesterday and to celebrate we went and got gelato. Both Benjamin and Alexander chose the black vanilla flavour (coloured with activated charcoal). It was rather horrifying to watch them eat it, but they said it tasted just fine (and, in fact, I think most of us sampled a little bit from their dishes).

Apparently it only takes a little charcoal to colour the ice cream black, so it shouldn't be dangerous to their bodies (it can block the absorption of some nutrients and medications in large doses). Their lips were very black when they were finished.

It reminded me of the time (toddler) Auntie Josie and her friend Charissa got into the fireplace and played in all the leftover charcoal. Those girls were just covered in soot. I'm pretty sure we were constantly telling them not to eat charcoal. And now here are my boys...eating charcoal.

Tonight, after a very long day of doing so many exhausting moving-in, our neighbourhood celebrated us...with a dazzling display of fireworks! 

I actually have no idea why there were fireworks today, but they were a fun surprise! Phoebe was so excited to see fireworks "for my very first time!"

"You've seen firework before," I told her. 

"For my very first time in Qatar!" she clarified, and that qualifier makes it true. 

I'll bet it would have been even better from the roof of our apartment! Alas, we had already come down to the street to catch an uber to take to the metro to come back to our hotel. We're not quite moved in so we're still sleeping at the hotel and, honestly, I'm a little bit sad about moving so far away from the metro line.

And by "so far" I mean...like a three-minute drive. 

There is a free taxi service on the island that will take us anywhere we want to go...on the island...for free. But it won't take us to the metro, unfortunately. 

So we've been taking ubers to fill that transportation gap (Andrew called it "The Final Mile Problem").

My sadness fueled some curiosity and I found...the Metro Express! I have seen these little vans around but haven't really investigated them (since we have been living above a metro station). They will pick you up from anywhere within a designated zone and drop you off at the metro station or they will pick you up at the metro station and drop you off wherever within a designated zone. 

And our new apartment happens to be in that zone! 

Riding the Metro Express costs 2 QAR, per person, per way...unless you then tap into the metro station (or have just tapped out of the metro station). If your tap-ins and tap-outs prove that you're using it to solve the final mile problem then you ride for free (which I think is awesome, and makes me feel so much better about this move). 

They have smart ways of calculating these things. The last few days have been very busy metro days for me, so I was a little flummoxed when I tapped in for my fourth ride of the day and saw my card total drop—because there is a 3-fare cap per day (any ride over three rides should be free). But when I tapped back out, my fare went back up...so the ride really was free. The same thing happened on my "journeys after three journeys" today.

I'm sure some incredible background magic happens to track our tap ins and outs to calculate our Metro Express fares. 

We're excited to try it!

(There is also a bus that runs around the island that I think has the same fare deal as the Metro Express...but it only comes around every 15 minutes or something...and still leaves many, including us, with a smaller, but no less real, final mile problem.)

Anyway, today. Today was long and full and frustrating and productive. 

Andrew went to the apartment early this morning to receive all the various deliveries and services we arranged for today. Internet was installed, windows were measured for curtains, furniture was delivered (from three separate places), etc. It was a frantic day for him.

I stayed at the hotel, worked with the kids on their lessons, did some laundry, and communicated with Andrew about delivery details. There was so much to coordinate. I completely missed sending the kids to their friends' house for art and history! I had even asked if it would be alright this week if they came without me because we were just...swamped...and then I forgot to even send them! 

Well, technically I remembered that I needed to send them, I just was an hour late in doing so (but I've fixed my calendar events to reflect the correct arrival hour, so hopefully I won't make that mistake again...but, honestly? I wouldn't rule it out entirely).

And then I had to head out with Phoebe to take some money to a person we bought some furniture from. His family went back to India because they have an autistic child (among other children) and his wife needed more support from her family. So he was downsizing to move from a family-sized apartment to a studio apartment. We bought a bed and a rug from him. 

I took Benjamin with me when we went to look at things yesterday, and then I brought Phoebe with me when we went to pay him today. Just before we left, I asked Phoebe to use the potty and she did...and accidentally got some pee on her pants. So she had to change her pants and underwear. 

But in the meantime, our "shifters" (movers) had arrived early to pick up the bed from this apartment. So they texted Andrew to say they were there, Andrew texted me to say they were there, and I texted the guy to say that they were there (because only Andrew was in communication with the "shifters" while only I was in communication with "the guy"). So we were texting things back and forth and I wasn't really paying much attention to Phoebe when we headed out the door. 

"Is it okay if I wear my tunic in the metro?" she asked. 

"Of course," I said, still texting. 

It wasn't until we got to the very bottom of the elevator and walked out into the lobby that I realized she had asked that question because...she had neglected to put pants on at all!! She had put on fresh underwear and then just...forgot about the pants part.

So we had to head back up to the 40th floor so she could put on some pants. 

Her tunic seems long in this picture, but if she bends over it definitely shows off her bum, so pants are quite necessary with it, in my opinion. Fresh pants in possession (and properly put on) we were off again, only a few minutes later than before. 

"The guy" texted to say that he went down to meet "the shifters" and they were now in his apartment disassembling the bed frame. I texted Andrew to say we were all good. I texted "the guy" to tell him that I was on my way with the money. And Andrew texted me to say that he already knew that because "the shifters" had texted him to let him know. 

I don't even want to know how many text messages I sent today.

It was...many.

At least this time I knew precisely how to get to the apartment from the metro. Yesterday Benjamin and I took a good twenty minutes to arrive at the apartment, taking the circuitous route Google recommended (Google is often not very good at directions here). In reality it is a three-minute walk. 

It just looks...a little sketchy. Like walking across sandy/gravel lots...

Past some...janky trailers...and stuff like that.

But we arrived much less sweaty!

We paid for the furniture, looked at it to make sure it was still what we wanted, and then tried to set off. But first "the guy" had to give Phoebe some cookies—a whole package of cookies. And some water. And some Mirinda. And then we left. 

We had just pressed the elevator button when "the guy" opened his door and said, "Wait, wait! Come back! For her...she can come select something for free if she wants a toy!"

"Toys?" Phoebe asked. 

"Yes, toys! Come, take!"

So we went back in and he pulled out a bin of toys and showed Phoebe the merits of several. "Take it, take it, take it!" he insisted. "I have too many toys!"

"This is so great!" I said. "All of our toys have been packed away since June!"

"No toys since June!?" he said. "Take it, please. Take this one! And..."

He ran off and brought out a cardboard trunk and started filling it with toys. 

"And this colouring book! And these Qatar flags—good for national days! And..."

(This picture was taken after storytime when we sat to have a little snack before getting on the metro—but you can see the size of the trunk I was lugging around!)

In reality, he has much less than we do, I'm sure. He is a service worker. We are...white collar. 

However, I have also been in his position of wanting to empty out a living space quickly, and I understood his actions as wanting to clear things out (and I just gave away 90% of what we owned so we really are starting from scratch over here). So we accepted his gifts (which were so very fun to haul through the metro, let me tell you).

Phoebe and I made it to the library for Arabic storytime, but just barely. We sat and read books while we waited for it to start. But...it never did.

Here's Phoebe drawing a fairy (she found a "how to draw fairies and mermaids" book that she thought was so very cool) while we waited:

Eventually—at around 4:35—I went up to the librarian to ask about storytime. 

"Yes," she told me. "Storytime ended at 4:30."

"But...I got here before 4:00," I said. "Storytime...didn't happen. How could storytime have ended if it never began?"

"Oh, I walked around the library at 4:00 but didn't see any children who looked like they speak Arabic, so I didn't call for storytime," she explained.

"Oh," I said. "Well, we came for Arabic storytime..."

She explained that it would be in Arabic. I told her that was the reason for coming—to listen to Arabic. I read to Phoebe in Arabic at home but it is laborious. It's good for both of us to hear Arabic being spoken. 

This sweet librarian said, "Then I will select a story to read to your daughter!"

And she did! She found a board book that she thought would be at Phoebe's level and read it to her and...that was storytime for the day.

I very much appreciate the generosity of the librarian in doing a personal storytime for Phoebe, truly I do. But after such an exhausting day it was a little bit of a letdown because the book was so simple that even I could have read it to Phoebe...so we may as well have just gone home after paying for the furniture instead of heading all the way to Education City.

At least we figured out how to change lines easier! When we were coming home from Education City yesterday (we went to a homeschool picnic event) a very kind girl—from Bangladesh, but born and raised here, attending uni at Qatar University—struck up a conversation with me and asked where we were going. When I said we were changing to the red line at al Bidda she said, "Oh, come with me to Msheireb! You can just walk right across the platform onto the red line. It's backtracking on the map, but you don't have to rush up and down the escalators to switch trains, and there's higher chance of getting a seat since everyone gets off at Msheireb...."

Sold! We followed this girl to Msheireb and the train switch was just that easy!

Today Phoebe asked me if I remembered the "life hack" the girl had taught me at "membership station."

I did! And we used that little "life hack" twice—on the way to the library and the way back to the hotel to pick up Miriam (and some stuff) and head to the new apartment where Andrew was waiting with the kids...who had gotten dropped off (along with Miriam's organ pedals, which we had shipped to our friends' address since we didn't have a permanent address when we ordered them and didn't know when they would arrive) by their friends' dad. 

We had celebratory shawarma for dinner (we still need a few chairs—we wanted to get a bench...one of the main reasons we chose that table...but they were out of stock...thanks to the Straight of Hormuz) while we waited for a few other deliveries (we gave up on the last delivery and got a notification that it was just delivered—at midnight)!

And we set up a few things (though we also paid to have our IKEA delivery people assemble everything they brought so that made set up rather easy for us):

And then we caught an uber to take us to the metro so that we could go home...phew. 

I was telling Andrew about how Phoebe kept reading Msheireb as "membership" and she said, "I don't want to change trains at all! I'm so tired from today!"

(She had also taken many metro rides today and changed stations several times). 

"Good news," I said. "We don't have to switch trains at all! It's just four metro stops down the red line."

"Okay, good!" she said. "My legs are so tired!"

Mine, too, baby girl! Mine, too!