The Tooth Genie

Hello everyone! We are still in Doha, Qatar, for a few more days anyway. We leave this Friday to go to the other side of the world. I am traveling with my family o visit Houston and Mexico during my summer vacation. I can hardly believe that I have been gone from Texas for 5 months now.

We have done a lot of great things in Doha. I have been to the beach 3 or 4 times since the weather warmed up. I ca

n actually see the water from my apartment. I went snorkeling last weekend a

nd saw fish and crabs on the bottom of the ocean. The water is crystal clear and blue. Only the Arabian Sea doesn't make many waves so it looks more like a lake. While we were at the beach, the tide came in and surrounded us where we had set up our barbecue. We actually had to drive through a little water in order to get to dry land again. That was funny. I thought we were going to be trapped on a little sand island!

I left my house in Grand Mission for an apartment in Downtown Doha. I live on the 26th floor. When it gets foggy outside, it looks like we live in the clouds. Our pool doesn't have a water park. But it is indoors so that we don't have to worry about the heat.

Another cool thing about Doha is that all of the malls have BIG playgrounds inside. Since it gets so hot in the summer most of the cool things for kids to do is indoors. So you can go to any one of the 5 or 6 malls around town and they have HUGE AREAS filled with roller coasters,

trampolines, ferris wheels, video games, and carnival rides. It's a lot of fun.

We have a really cool park here that has a half-pipe to skate on. I haven't been in a couple of weeks because it has gotten hot outside. But in October when it cools down, we'll hang out again. It fills up with kids and they have a concession stand to get ice cream and snacks.

But it does get hot here. It was 47 degrees the other day. That is almost 120 degrees farenheit! In Houston, the hottest it ever gets is 105. It's not even August.

My school is awesome. I go to the American School of Doha. ASD Dragons! Not everyone is American. In fact, most are from other places. But we all speak English at school. My good friend Qori is Indonesian, but his family is from Australia. We have kids from Venezuela, Pakistan, Turkey, France, and other places. Almost all of the kids speak a couple languages. Arabic, Spanish, French.... Next year, I will get to play sports. They have soccer, basketball, and swimming. I think I like basketball and swimming the most.

I lost a TWO teeth as well. Only the tooth fairy doesn't live in this part of the world. We have the Tooth Genie in the Middle East! The first tooth I lost I got 50 riyals and 5 dollars. The tooth fairy was here for a little while. At first, she was seconded into the local joint venture to help set up the organization and recruit more permanent hires. Her first direct hire was the Tooth Genie. He left me local currency to spend here and I have a few dollars to buy stuff with when I go to the US. AWESOME!

I can't wait to come to Houston. I want to go to the Children's Musuem, the Science Museum and Hermann Park. I hear they built a bridge at Memorial Park. I may have to go and ride bikes there to check it out. Nasa may be a fun trip as well. I can't wait to see my grandma, Nini. She misses me and I miss her.

After we leave Houston, we'll go to Mexico. In Mexico we are going to visit Teotehuacan, which is a large pyramid outside of Mexico City. There is a pyramid of the sun and a pyramid of the moon. It is the second largest pyramid next to the big pyramids in Egypt. I'll have to post photos. The food in Mexico is good too. My abuela and my nana are going to cook a lot! I can't wait to see my family there.

I hope everyone is doing well and has a great summer!

Nico Romero

Where is Doha, Qatar?

My family left Houston after the Christmas Holidays to move to a place called Qatar. Qatar is a peninsula located on the back side of Saudi Arabia.

Since I am now on the other half of the

world, there is a time difference of 9 hours. So when school starts at Juan Seguin at 8:00 AM, it is already 5:00 PM here in Doha. So when you start your day, we are almost finished with ours!

Here is what the Qatari flag looks like.

The City I live in is called Doha. Can you see it on the map? Doha was a small village where people fished for pearls in oysters. Then they discovered natural gas in the sea bed out in the floor of the Arabian Gulf. Now people have come from all over the world to work in Qatar.

There are 1.2 million people who live in Qatar. Compare that with 5.7 million people living in and around Houston and you can see it is a MUCH smaller place than where I used to live.

The primary religion here is Islam, though the Qataris welcome all people of faith. Judaism and Christianity are also practiced here.

The food is good as well. People eat a lot of rice and vegetables. Things like goat an lamb are also served. Since Qatar is surrounded by water, fish and shrimp are also available to cook and enjoy, though no one eats pork here.

The people are very friendly and everyone likes to talk to kids. The mall has an ice skating rink and a movie theater. There is even a rollercoaster inside!

Talk to you soon,

Nico Romero

8-Jan-09