Adventures with Isoms: Al Garrafa- our local football team

As luck would have it we were in the store the other night and wandered by a promo tent- I stopped as this one had soccer balls, a goal for the kids to shoot at, jerseys hanging up. It ended up being a promotion for the season opening weekend of the Qatar Stars league (local version of the premier league) and when they asked "would you like some free tickets to the games?" I knew I was in business. I did get a quizzical look when I answered 4 as the number of my family (4 is considered to be a very small family over here.) But maybe they then thought I was just taking my sons. So holding on to a fistful of what were surely the hottest ticket in town I eagerly awaited the friday night lights. Al Garrafa is the local sports complex- they have football, volleyball, and basketball teams. The teams include the top level all the way down to their youth teams- it would be like the rockies hosting a pee wee baseball team. The mascot is the cheetah which to be honest I have not seen at all since we moved here. Last year they finished 2nd in the league after 2 straight years at 1st. (Thanks Nate for the research) As I'm sure all of the other Al Garrafa fans were I was hungry to get back that title.
But first we had to eat. We took a taxi to a place called Katara. This is were we will take you when you come to visit us. It is absolutely beautiful. We walked along the Corniche (a boulevard along the sea), we toured the open air amphitheater, and we found a Lebanese restaurant. As the saying goes: When in Qatar eat Lebanese food. We decided on the sample platter: "a little taste of everything" the waiter told us. Soon many many plates began to appear and it was good, very good. Just as we sat back and began to wonder about dessert more plates began to appear, then yet again more- this time with the announcement "these are your appetizers". Wait- you mean more will come after this? My little food baby was already a bit uncomfortable and now I would have to eat more- I had to -really- it was so tasty. We honestly had to turn down dessert as we, to quote Monty P. "couldn't eat another bite". So we waddled back to the taxi and went to the game. We could see the lights from a few kilometers away but could feel the energy from... well from even further away. We were greeted by 3 very excited scarf salesmen- maybe business was slow? We entered the stadium and found our seats along with the cheering crowd of about 300. I guess the whole of Doha was not feeling the fever like I was- 300? seriously? Well the 300 that were there made up for it- there was a drum section pounding away non stop with a guy chanting into a megaphone so large he had 2 small boys holding it up. We had no idea what we were chanting but sure did enjoy clapping along. A few minutes in Lisa leans over and whispers "I am the only woman here". She was right- absolutely not another female cheetah in sight- not even working! It was great fun- I would love to say the Homeboys won but we left at halftime with a 1-0 lead. So if you want to know you'll have to watch the highlights on TV- and chances are you will see us- we are the lone group of white faces wrapped in yellow and Blue Al Garrafa scarves- It's Fantastic.