Site Visit to Doha
In case you missed the announcement, we are moving to Doha. Jason headed there at the end of January and we got a chance to visit him towards the end of February. We had just over a week there to visit schools, houses, and have some fun exploring the city we get to call home soon.
We timed the visit to attend school assessments and y'all - this whole process is intense. We actually missed a lot of the deadlines for schools (for the 2018/2019 academic year) because they were in December...and some schools wouldn't even consider the twins for enrollment without previous school experience so I am thankful they started at Bumblebee this year! You also have to do one to two hours assessments (for all ages...) before you are either rejected, accepted, or waitlisted.
Thankfully we visited two wonderful schools and got acceptance into both making it difficult for us to decide which to attend (and you only have like one week to decide after you're notified!).
In addition to visiting schools we decided to go ahead and view houses during the visit even though we don't need one until we move at the end of June. We were able to find one compound that we know is a great fit for our family and good location. There was only one house available and while we were tempted to go ahead and secure it now, we knew it didn't make sense to start paying for an empty house now. We prayed about it and got an email the following day saying that there was one which would become available at the beginning of July which works perfectly for us!
Once we got the serious stuff out of the way (school and houses), we had some fun. Jason was working during the day so we took advantage by visiting some of the malls, playgrounds, and of course swimming pool to pass the time. In the evening we enjoyed some American treats with PF Changs, The Cheesecake Factory, and Arby's!
Overall it was a wonderful trip and Doha seems like a lovely city. It's definitely going to be a weird adjustment moving to such a big city and not having much outdoor scenery (this Colorado girl is going to miss her mountains!), but we are looking forward to the move and having just one flight to visit friends and family in the US.
There was a beautiful park and playground near our hotel that we spent most of the day at after arriving.
We finally caved and let the girls ride these animals at the mall after they'd been asking most of the week.
One of the malls has a small canal imitating Venice and we enjoyed taking a ride after dinner.
Taking a break from the pool for Nutella sandwiches. So glad Olivia can have it since clearly she is a fan. ;-)
Enjoying a family brunch before heading back to Baku.
