O Qatar esta tentando sediar a Copa de 2022. Eu sei que grana nao falta e que eles ja prometeram consturir estadios cobertos e com ar condicionado. Nao, eu nao duvido. Dinheiro no Golfo, jorra do chao, voces se lembram?

Mas como moradora da regiao ( que eu A D O R O), eu nao posso deixar de fazer algumas perguntas vitais:

1- A copa vai ser em julho. O verao aqui chega a 50 graus - estadio ar condicionado e uma coisa, mas como e que as pessoas vao sobreviver antes e depois dos jogos? Nao, eu nao to de sacanagem nao. No verao, quem pode, simplesmente desaparece daqui.

2- Numa regiao que nao prima pela organizacao, e onde uma versao do jeitinho brasileiro prima, como e que eles vao fazer as coisas funcionarem sem solucos?

3 - O mundo arabe pode gostar MUIIITO de futebol - e gosta mesmo, mas ninguem aqui tem time com historico futebolistico...

Chatices a parte, vamos ver no que vai dar, ne?

Qatar is on the race to host the 2022 World Cup. We all know money is not an issue and they promised to even build air conditioned, totally covered stadiums. No doubt they will, but I keep asking some other questions:

1 - The World Cup is in July - right on Summer. We reach 50 degrees easily. And it is humid. It is simply unbearable to walk 20 meters outdoors. How is everyone going to get around? Where is everyone going to stay before and after the games? In their hotel suites? Locals and expats run from the Gulf Summer. the country is deserted - how are they going to attract that many people to a boiling pan?

2 - In the whole region, people do not respect queues, traffic rules or rules in general. Who you know is a very strong card to play - and it works. How are they going to host a huge event with such poor mentality ?

3 - Arabs do love football, but none of these countries have a team that is good enough, Doesn't it matter?

Let's see what will happen.

Qatar

 

Como eu tirei mais de 300 fotos do Qatar, to achando injusto nao dividir isso com voces. Como assim, voces nao querem ver?

Ah, ve, vai...

Essa e a Aspire Tower. Linda. Bem ao lado do estadio. A noite, ela fica toda iluminada. Um show! ( sim, sim, vou botar fotos dela iluminadinha num outro post - esse Qatar vai render historia)

And because I am obsessive compulsive and took over 300 pics of Qatar, I want to share them with you. What do you mean you are not interested?

Come on, you may like them...

This is the Aspire Tower. It is right next to the Stadium and at night it lit up, in a show of color and exuberance. Just amazing!!

 

O Estadio do Qatar, onde a Argentina deu um pau nojogou contra o Brasil. 

Qatar Footbal Stadium, where we were beaten by  played against Argentina.

 

This images are all from the vicinities of the stadium ( walking distance from the Villagio Mall)

Essas fotos sao todas das proximidades do Estadio, que fica ao lado do Villagio.

 

Can you see the Qatar flag design on the roof of this building?

It is amazing how Bahrain and Qatar have very, very similar flags. The only differences are the slight darker red on the Qatar flag, and the number of spikes they have. ( yeah, another post about flags. You may abandon my blog soon if i don't behave myself)

Ta vendo a reproducao da bandeira do Qatar no telhado desse predio?

E incrivel como as bandeiras do Qatar e Bahrain sao parecidas. As unicas diferencas sao a tonalidade um pouco mais escura da bandeira Qatari e o numero de zig zags que elas tem ( um dia desses eu escrevo sobre as duas bandeiras - ai, ai, ai, um dia ainda mato vcs de tedio)

 Aspire Tower and a family posing for pics. Oh, wait, it is us...what a coincidence!!

Uma familia posando para fotos na frente da Torre. Nossa, que incrivel coincidencia - somos NOS!!

 

And again

Outra veeezz!!

 

I have no clue what this metalic structure represents, but it was so cool, I could not resist!!

Nem imagino o que essa bola represente, mas achei tao fofa que nao resisti e sapequei uma foto...

 

Isso aqui ja sao outros 500. A organizacao dos jogos foi um tanto baranga. Nos compramos os tickets online, mas tinhamos que ir a um stand com um voucher para pegar os tickets originais. Claro que deixar cada comprador imprimir o ticket seria simples demais, ne nao?

Acontece que o tal stand fechou um dia antes do jogo, e nos ( alem de outras centenas de pessoas) chegamos na manha do jogo.

AHA! Anda, que anda e anda, finalmente descobrimos onde fazer a tal troca. Mas so as 3 da tarde, por que os tickets nao estavam impressos.

Junto ao bando de gente que queria trocar os vouchers, havia um outro batalhaod e gente que estava doido pra conseguir tickets de ultima hora. Claro que os tickets ja haviam esgotado ha tempos.

E vontade de virar cambista...

Can you see all the people in the park. Easy explanation:

We bought our tickets online (as so many others did), but the organizers decided not to let us print the tickets at home. Instead, we were given vouchers that had to be redeemed for real tickets. They had a booth in the mall, doing only that, until the day before the game, when they up sticks and left.

All good, all fun, but hundreds of people came from other countries ( hellooooo, we are a simple example). After going from gate to gate at the stadium, to figure out where to redeem our tickets, we were sent to the right place. And we only had to wait for 30 minutes until they figured out how to actually print them.

The chaos was worse because with us ( legit ticket owners) were hundreds of people trying to buy last minute tickets, who had ended over a week ago.

I even thought about staring a small black market business...

 

At least the girls were fine. Or sort of fine. No screams, no tears. Yet.

Pelo menos as meninas estavam na paz. Nada de reclamacoes, gritos e choramingos!

 

They soon figured out they needed lots of guards - the Argentinians were coming...kkk

da uma olhada no grupinho de policiais que eles mandaram pro estadio, pra ter certeza que os Argentinos nao iam aprontar nenhuma... kkk

 

Pode  ser que eu seja suspeita, mas eu acho esse povo ai LIIIINDO!!!!

Well, maybe i am not the most impartial person, but I find these guys just GORGEOUSSS!!!

In front of the stadium, they had this cute mosque, so people could easily pray.

Na frente do estadio, tem essa mesquita super charmosinha, assim os muculmanos podem rezar sem nenhuma dificuldade

ABOUT CONCEPTION

Anita was about 5 when her friend's mum got pregnant again. Anita knew all too well how babies are made, we always never told our kids any tales. You ask a question, you get an answer. Simple as that.

But when her friend told her how her baby brother or sister was conceived, Anita came home furious:

- Mum, you lied to me. My friend told me how the baby ended up inside her mums belly and it had nothing to do with the story you told me.

- Oh... and what did she say?

- She told me her mother fell asleep and her dad put the seed in her belly while she was sleeping. She did not even noticed!


Who am I to discuss people's sexual preferences?

SOBRE A CONCEPCAO

A Anita tinha 5 anos quando a mae da amiguinha ficou gravida. Aqui em casa eu sempre expliquei tudo o que elas me perguntavam, entao o papo da cegonha, do repolho nunca tiveram muito espaco. O problema e que ela voltou da escola, indignada, por que eu nao tinha explicado direito de onde e que vem os bebes.

- Mae, voce mentiu pra mim. A mae da fulaninha ta gravida e ela me explicou como e que o bebe foi parar la na barriga dela. e e diferente do que voce me disse.

- Jura, Anita, e como e que o bebe foi parar na barriga da mae da sua amiguinha?

- Ela me disse que a mae dele dormiu e enquanto ela estav dormindo, o pai dela foi e botou a sementinha na barriga dela...sem ela perceber!


Rolei de rir. Cada um com as suas preferencias sexuais, ne nao??

TORCEDORES POR TODOS OS LADOS/ BRAZILIAN SUPPORTERS EVERYWHERE

Nao da pra ver direito, mas a camiseta da Anita tem uma bandeira do Brasil desenhada com strass. E a da Lia,e  obviamente brasileira. 

Entao as duas andavam pelo shopping de Doha ( Qatar) e os arabes ( aqueles que nao podiam estar sozinhos no shopping, lembra? nao lembra? olha aqui) gritavam histericos cada vez que passavam por elas:

BRASIL!! BRASIL!!!

Era grito, pulo, gente levantando os bracos, numa devocao de emocionar qualquer um!

O mais intrigante e que ate os fulanos com a camiseta da Argentina subitamente se convertiam a brasilidade. Nao entendi bem o porque. Alguem consegue pensar em algum motivo?

I am not sure how clear it is, but Anita's top has a Brazilian flag in strass. Lia is obviously showing her country support. And that's how they were walking along at the mall in Doha ( Qatar). The arabs ( yeah, those who were not supposed to be alone in malls, remember?? can't remember? here it is) were screaming their unconditional love to the Brazilian team, every time they passed by them.

BRAZIL!! BRAZIL!!

They yelled, jumped and threw their arms in the air. So passionate it would bring tears to one eyes.

The most intriguing part was to see Arabs wearing Argentinian T shirts going through the same passionate demonstrations. I could not figure out their reason. Can you?

ATENDENDO A PEDIDOS, EU LHES APRESENTO O QATAR / DUE TO AN OVERWELMING NUMBER OF REQUESTS, WITH YOU, QATAR!!!

Primeiro ja vou logo avisando que nao tenho carteirinha Qatariana, fui la uma unica vez, e passei tres dias - o que nao me qualifica para nada do que eu prometi no titulo desse post, mas como eu adoro um melo drama, nao resisti, ne!!

Aqui estao as minhas impressoes sobre o Qatar!!!

Before anyone asks me for my Qatarian qualifications or expertise, I should explain I only went there once, spent three days and came home. Here, all you will see is a picture ( or 243) of my views of this amazing country.

Yeah, yeah - sue me. I lied on the title. I implied I knew what I would be talking about...

Eu ouvi muitas historias sobre o Qatar ser mais conservativo que Bahrain, mas so quando eu cheguei ao Villagio, um dos shopping centres mais conhecidos da cidade e vi esse papelzinho pregado na porta de entrada, eu comecei a entender a extensao da caretice...

Isso mesmo, durante esse feriado, homens desacompanhados nao podiam entrar no shopping. e eu vi, com os meus olhinhos, um grupo de indianos ser barrado na porta.

I heard many stories about how conservative Qatar was, but only when I arrived at Villagio - one of the most visited shoppings in the city and saw this note fixed on the glass door, I started to understand how conservative they really were.

Yep, you got it right. Unacompanied men could not visit the mall during the holidays. Only couples or families. And I saw a group od indian men being stopped at this very door.

 

Dentro do shopping, eu me senti em Veneza, ou pra ser mais honesta, me senti no Venetian - hotel cassino de Las Vegas...

Inside the mall, I felt I was in Venice, or to be honest, I felt I was at the Venetian Hotel and Cassino in Vegas

 

Tem ate canal, gondola e gondoleiro. nao pensei em dar um passeio, mas deveria, por que um dos gostos amargos que eu trago na boca e nao ter ido passear de gondola, quando estive em Veneza. Eu sei, eu sei... e como ir a Paris e nao visitar a Torre Eiffel, ne? Ne, Fabio??

They even have a gondola and a canal inside the mall. I did not think about going for a ride, but i really should, because I never did when I visited the real deal in Venice. Shame on me. Or on you, Mr Fabio??

Tenho pensado como o Golfo tem se inspirado em Vegas e reproduzido muito das coisas que tem por la. Faz sentido - sao dois grandes parques de diversao...

I could not help but notice how the Gulf is getting it's inspiration from Vegas. Many things are reproduced right here. It makes sense - they are both huge entertainment parks

Gente, que povo bonito e aquele ali?

Ah desculpa, sao so as minhas filhas e o meu marido...kkk

WOW! Who are these gorgeous people?

 

Mae coruuuja!!

Sera que tinha alguem cansado?? naaaaoooo....

Tired? who??

Tem muito mais gente usando abbayas e thobes no Qatar que aqui em Bahrain. Ate eu, que estou acostumada, fiquei meio assustada!!

The ammount of people wearing abbayas and thobes is huge in comparison with Bahrain, where the local women wear the abbaia, but do not cover the face, and many men prefer western clothes.

Imagina a nossa surpresa quando nos demos de cara com o Igor, bem no meio do shopping. O igor, morava aqui em Bahrain e foi um dos grandes amigos das meninas. Quando ele foi embora, elas ficaram arrasadas. Foi otimo encontra-lo por la.

Out of the blue, we met Igor, an old friend of the girls who used to live in Bahrain and is now living in Qatar. Such a nice surprise!

Pista de patinacao no gelo - bem ao lado da praca de alimentacao

Ice skating - right next to the food court

Todo mundo orgulhoso por estar vestindo a roupinha do Brasil!!

Pride in wearing our team's ( and country) T shirts!!

  Anita was keen to have a burger and was furious when she got there and saw this notice! Of course they also had a "mixed" line, but if you really wanted to get away from temptation, this line was the way to go!!

Anita tava doida pra comer um hamburger. Imagina o quanto ela nao ficou P da vida, quando chegou la e deu de cara com esse papelzinho... Sim, tinha uma fila "mista", mas para os rapazotes que quisessem ficar livres da tentacao, a melhor opcao era a fila so para homens!

E pra provar que eu nao estou inventando - uma foto da homarada na fila...kkkk

And to prove I am not lying, here is a picture of the men in line!

And would you believe if I said we met more friends there? Francine & family, all geared up for the game too.

E voces acreditariam se eu dissesse que nos encontramos mais uma familia de amigos nesse mesmo shopping? Francine e Cia estavam la, prontos para o jogo! Da-lhe Brasil!!!

 Essa nos levamos conosco

This one was no coincidence - we just took her with us!

And this one too. Just belong to us!

Essa ai tambem. Levamos na bagagem!

And before the game, we met other friends of ours. I wonder who was left in bahrain - everyone we knew was right there, in Qatar. Please note the Bahraini traitor wearing the enemy's T shirt. Shame on him...

E olha so...encontramos mais amigos no shopping, antes do jogo! Por favor, observem o Baraini traidor, usando a camisa da argentina...

E Por que a Anita esta em fase de crescimento ( ????), ela teve que fazer uma boquinha antes de irmos pro estadio.

And because Anita is growing ( ???) she had to have dinner before we went to the stadium...

WHAT ? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

I was always telling my husband to speak louder, to take his hand away from his mouth, not to talk to me when I wasn't looking. Then one day he decided to say I had selective hearing...

I was so P off, I booked a consultation with an ear specialist and saw the doctor the next day. AHA! That would show him...

The problem was the verdict - my doctor told me I had a genetic disease that impaired my hearing. I was not making it up, I was really hard of hearing. WHAAATTT? For real???

The worst part was to hear from a close friend:

- Ah1 That's why you were always changing the subject, and sometimes did not reply to our questions... I thought it was just you being you

Me being rude, she meant!!!!

Because the thing is genetic, I sent my mother to the doctor too. Guess what? She has the same problem and did not know either.


Come on, it is funny...