Countdown to Qatar: One week!

It hardly seems real that a week from tomorrow we will be on our direct flight to Qatar from Philadelphia. We had some friends over last night for dinner, one of whom is from Jordan. He told us to expect a lot of heat! Which we knew of course, but he emphasized it...Just as it is cooling off here in the north it will be very hot in the Persian Gulf. Can't quite imagine that but I can imagine we will be indoors a lot; I hope to sit on a beach for a bit at our hotel! It looks like I may be giving a presentation to an art class at Virginia Commonwealth University which has a branch in Doha. This is going to be so exciting and different, I just can't wait for the trip to be underway and to meet Dana Shell Smith, our recently appointed US Ambassador to Qatar.