11 ways to make friends in Doha Be the first to comment 30 January 2012

Most people, before arriving in Doha, probably haven’t actively thought about how to make friends since they were preparing for that first all-important day of school. Toddling into kindergarten, lunchbox clutched in sweaty hand, we wondered: would our Care Bears be enough to make us a lifelong friend, or should we have swiped our sister’s Wonder Twins box instead? Would anyone like us? Would we have someone to eat lunch with? Would our only companions be invisible or the kid who ate paste and wasn’t allowed to use the safety scissors? What if mom was actually wrong about this whole we’re-special-little-snowflakes thing? Why would no one love us? Why?

Flash forward many years later. Getting off that plane in Doha we may as well replace the lunchbox with a wheelie suitcase and the terror of being a friendless loser with . . . the terror of being a friendless loser who will die alone in our apartment, our face eaten by our many, many cats. One thing we wish they’d actually be honest with us back in kindergarten: making friends is hard!

But, thankfully, it doesn’t have to be. With a city that’s even at a conservative estimate 80 per cent expat, most everyone here has arrived friendless, alone, and tempted to curl into a corner in dark despair, over-feeding our cats lest they plot our death. But before you bust out the Sylvia Plath and begin contemplating exactly the right angle to get your head in the oven without getting a cramp, take heart. Sad sacks unite: here are our top ways to make friends and make sure someone checks on that smell creeping from under your apartment door eventually.