settling in

Well it's just over two weeks since I've been in Doha. I am settling into my apartment and have had one week of classes. I have only one class of chemistry which amounts to four 2-hour lectures per week and two 2-hour labs. Not a bad workload!!! And to top it off, the labs are prepared, run, and marked by a lab tech. I'm just there for support. The campus is very nice as I indicated, but the city dirty. That's because there is so much dust in the air almost all the time. First it is a desert city, and secondly there is so much construction going on in the city, and there is a lot of dust from that source. It really is amazing to see the amount of construction. It seems that about 50% of the city is being built. There are about 16 very tall buildings or skyscrapers being build in the downtown section alone. And the buildings aren't just plain tall boxes, but have unique designs and features. Amazing. I haven't had a chance to get good pictures of them yet but will post some when I get them. I have made friends with a number of guys in the apartment building and we often go walking to the stores, or for coffee, or just sightseeing. That is the nice thing about my apartment. It is in the centre of the city, whereas some of the instructors are staying in walled compounds out near the edges and can't just walk to a store or shop. All in all, I'm having a great experience so far. The pics are of my apartment building, and my living room.