Starting work at CMU-Q

After what felt like an extremely long weekend of just hanging out in Doha, I finally started work on Tuesday. Last week was spent getting acquainted with the Student Affairs department and trying to figure out exactly what my job will be (more on that in a moment.) My boss Gloria, the head Student Affairs, is inspiring. She has such diverse experiences and is extremely committed to this project. And she seems genuinely happy that I am here, so that's always a good thing.

I've started meeting some of the students. The Orientation Counselors were on campus for training on Thursday and I got to meet most of them. Orientation starts tomorrow and you know me - Orientation is my favorite time of the year! I am very impressed with the Students so far. They want their projects to succeed and are really taking ownership of them. The culture here is vastly different (obviously), but those differences are compounded by the small number of students and the fact that most of them live at home with their families in Doha. I'm going to have to hold my opinion on cultural differences until I've really interacted with a lot of the students. While I don't know exactly how they'll play out, I certainly know that I'm going to have to re-learn many things about being a student.

As for the job itself, it is really difficult to be in a job that no one has had before. It is generally agreed that more people were needed in Student Affairs, but the title of "Community Advisor" just doesn't really translate from the Pittsburgh campus to the Qatar one. I will be organizing programming and advising student organizations, helping with larger Student Affairs projects, and doing other "community building" activities. Its that last part that I'm going to have to work out for myself. Step 1, I think, will be trying to figure out what the students need in their non-academic lives, and then I can figure out how CMU can provide that. That's the best I can do for now, but I do like a challenge.

I miss my family and friends, but I'm making really good new friends here as well, and Doha is actually a great city to go out in. The restaurants are wonderful, the shopping is amazing, and most of all, the people are nice. I will be calling home tomorrow to wish Drew a happy 21st birthday. I'm sure he doesn't think I'm going to let that one get by :-)

Well I have to be up early tomorrow for work. It is definitely still strange to work Sunday-Thursday (as if I weren't already confused about what day it is due to only working half a week...) Good night! Oh, and pictures are coming soon, I promise!