Abaya Shopping + Things to be grateful for

I finally broke down and bought an abaya under the immense pressure put on me to buy one... well, actually I really did want to get an abaya and there was added incentive b/c we're now doing Thobe and Abaya days in the office. Dave and Caryl wore theirs last week, Greg has a Thobe, and now I have an abaya that I can wear too! It's got a cool design, but nothing too flashy. A few friends and I went out to the New/Old Souq on Friday night to see the fancy-schmancy upgrades that had happened in the past few months. Even though I'd been there recently in September, the place looks a lot different! All the formerly empty store fronts have now been filled with some additional vendors but mostly coffee shops and restaurants. The formerly expansive pedestrian walkway running through the middle of it is now littered with outdoor majlis seating and coffee tables for no less than a dozen coffee shops now on the main drag. The winding maze on the "inside" of the souq is still as crowded as ever, but the whole thing has had quite a face-lift. We started off the night eating at this great Moroccan place called Tajine (where apparently you can get your after-dinner coffee on the roof!), then headed to the clothing area to buy abayas, and then just walked aimlessly around for a while. I bought some presents for friends we're visiting during eid - some prayer beads and some Arabic sweets at Doha Sweets. The sweets are this weird looking rose-colored jelly substance that has bits of pistachios and almonds on top and throughout. At first I was skeptical, but it was surprisingly delicious... not too sweet but not too bland with a hint of rosewater. Anyway, I think that was probably my most satisfying experience at the souqs yet! I think I might need to start getting coffee there more often once the weather cools down in the evenings.

So keeping with the experiment that I said I was going to start, here's my list of things I'm grateful for. At first I was going to try to list out everything I could think of, but I'm sure nobody wants to read that and it would be extremely long, so I'll just keep it to things pertinent to my day's activities. I'm grateful for: the comaraderie of the group that I cycle with on the weekends (Chuck, Majd, sometimes Iliano, and now Cheryl and Todd and more to come!), the fact that I've been able to connect with so many people here in Doha already, my quaint little apartment (and all of the therapeutic cleaning that goes along with keeping it nice...), Shadyside Presbyterian Church's podcasted sermons (so that I can still listen to and find fulfillment from my favorite minister thousands of miles away), and my loving parents who have always supported me and every decision I've ever made.