Corniche

Doha is shaped like a horseshoe, with the Persian Gulf filling the interior to form Doha Bay. Around the edge of the horseshoe is the corniche, a 9km walkable beach park. Arabs seem to love parks just as much as Americans, and this is a great one. It was packed Friday morning.

Gary Porter and the Mystery of J. Lo

My Chechen student had some trenchant things to say about the latest celebrity news. We were flipping through 7DAYS, Dubai's trashiest little rag, and he sees a picture of Julia Roberts.

"Do you know who that is?" I ask.

"Angelina Jolie," he answers promptly. As his teacher, this irritates me. Angelina?? It's obviously Julia!

Next to Julia is Brad Pitt. "What about that, do you know who that guy is?" I ask.

"Uhhhh... Bobby," he says. "Bobby... Beautiful." He has unintentionally created the finest nickname for Brad Pitt in history.

We turn the page and read an article about J. Lo, who has announced that she no longer wishes to be known as J. Lo. Evidently that was all a big joke that we, the public, just never really got. Now it's "Jennifer Anthony." She's not a diva, OK? It's time for the "real Jennifer" to take the spotlight, she says. Don't be fooled by the rocks that she's got, people.

M absorbs the article quietly and then offers an almost Buddha-like wisdom. He points at her picture and says, "Eric. She wery, wery... wery stupid."

Jessica Simpson news

If you search "Jessica Simpson" on FemaleFirst.co.uk, here is the list of articles that pops up:

• Jessica Simpson Mocked Over Buffalo Wings Comments
  
• Jessica Simpson cringes when watching 'Newlyweds'
  
• Jessica Simpson Kept Telling Herself: I'm Beautiful
  
• Jessica Simpson Hospitalised After Collapse During Oprah
  
• Jessica Simpson trusts Nick Lachey completely
  
• Jessica Simpson frightened of dolphins
  
• Jessica Simpson Feels For Pitt And Anistons Relationship
  
• Jessica Simpson spent years trying to stretch legs!
  
• Jessica Simpson’s mum used to stretch her legs every night
  
• Jessica Simpson's Dad Joe Has Sold His Soul To The Devil Say Critics
  
• Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's Marraige On The Rocks
  
• Jessica Simpson's bully hell
  
• Jessica Simpson 'to renew vovs' [sic]
  
• Jessica Simpson urges 'be role models'
  
• Jessica Simpson 'wants to run round the house naked!'
  
• Jessica Simpson boosts S. American economy
  
• Jessica Simpson 'I'm addicted to sex!'
  
• Jessica Simpson: Bond girl?
  
• Simpson confesses to picking nose
  
• Jessica Simpson cancels tour dates
  
• Jessica Simpson toning up as Daisy Duke

How am I supposed to get any work done when there's this much fascinating material to get through on the Internet?

Doha II

The architecture in Doha is fascinating. In Dubai, architects do ultra-modern. In Doha, they've made an effort to meld the modern and the traditional. The style here is western words set to an Arabic tune.













A close-up on the dome:










Close-up:






A villa:


More roundabout art:






The Qatar post office:


And my favorite building:

East of East

I had one very dizzy moment a few weeks ago while exploring a new neighborhood near my office. I saw four men kneeling towards Mecca, but my mental compass started spinning when I realized that east was not the direction I thought it was. I got very lost before finally realizing my mistake: In Dubai, Mecca is to the west.

I got my bearings, but it provoked a few hours of that sensation I wrote about a few weeks ago: the feeling of being very, very far from home.

A Doha parking lot

Our hotel in Doha had a balcony, and when we stumbled out onto it on Friday morning, we were greeted by one of the most interesting sights I've ever seen.



It's very common to see small groups of men at prayer in public. But as a non-Muslim, it's very, very difficult – impossible, really – to catch a view like this. Most mosques in Dubai are walled off and the privacy of the grounds is jealously guarded.

This is an overflow crowd, though you wouldn't know it by the perfect rows the men fashioned. An ordinary parking lot, with dumpsters and cars strewn about, was utterly transformed.



They spilled deep into the back lot.



Every man has his own prayer rug.



In perfect, almost startling unison, the men bowed…





…and then knelt.