Last on the Bandwagons

My satellite TV in Doha just started showing "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Entourage," and I know that I'm a little late in realizing this, but they're both awesome. Although Studio 60 is hilarious, it actually makes me a bit sad to watch because I already know that its been canceled. And one of my students promised to lend me the first season on Entourage so I can catch up. The remainder of the summer looks promising :-)

Syriana

Last night Marjorie and I decided to watch Syriana, since she had never seen it and when I saw it I didn't know yet that I was moving to Qatar. The first time the complexity of the story line had me very focused on the plot. This time I was noticing all of the tiny little details that they got exactly right. Those of you living in Qatar should watch it, if you haven't since you've lived here.

The workers in blue jumpsuits, going to work on a TATA bus (the cheapest car manufacturer in the world) looking like the wheels are going to fall off any second, getting deported when they lose their job because their work visas are through the company.

At the cafe, George Clooney's character orders a club sandwich and french fries, a super-popular lunch dish (and what I eat on a very regular basis).

The compliment on the fresh strawberry juice in the unnamed Persian Gulf country.

The Prince's motorcade consists of: Land Cruisars painted in matte sand color for the military, a Range Rover for the Prince himself, and white Land Cruisars for everyone else.

The Prince flying his falcon in the desert during a business meeting.

The younger prince's yacht party and general attitude. Also, when he is named Emir, he says "hamdulillah" - "thanks be to God" and this is EXACTLY what an Arab would say in that situation.

The entire speech that Matt Damon's character gives when he arrives in the Middle East, he says: "There's an arrow on the ceiling pointing the direction of Mecca... women are covered head to foot... its humid. 125 degrees and humid. I walked out of the airport and it was like a wall fell on me. All of the Arabs in white sheets. It says, it's hot and I don't have to work."

I can see why they chose not to name the Persian Gulf country - its definitely filmed mostly outside of Dubai so it looks like the Emirates; they reference a country with 10,000 American soldiers, which would be Qatar or Kuwait; the Prince's wife is wearing pants with her shayla which which probably be Bahrain; and the men are wearing Saudi-style thobes. Anyway, it doesn't matter much, because they all have oil, spoiled heirs, hot weather, Land Cruisars, strawberry juice, bad labor systems, and club sandwiches.

Today is the United Nations World Refugee Day. The numbers of refugees increased this year, for the first time in five years, due largely to the worsening situation in Iraq, which has caused 1.5 million Iraqis to cross the borders into Syria and Jordan.

I'm tempted to go on a rant about the plight of refugees worldwide. But I won't because it will take up a lot of time and be a very long entry.

Just look at these, please:
UN High Commissioner for Refugees

UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East


today's CNN article

The past month

Happy Father's Day, Dad! Look, I got you a blog post!

Well the most important event of the past few weeks is that Gloria informed me that my job responsibilities will be changing for the next year! I'm pretty excited about this, not because I wasn't interested in what I was doing in Student Activities, but because I think my talents are more applicable to my two new offices... The Office of International Education, which organizes study abroad for our students and helps our international students here in Doha; and the office of Professional Development, which does internships, and this year will actually be helping our first graduating class to get jobs :-)

Relatedly, we are getting six new people in the Carnegie Mellon Qatar Student Affairs Office. Three new Student Development Coordinators (like me!), a new Administrative Assistant, and new Directors of International Education and Health and Wellness. This means that on a team of 11 people, 6 of them will be new. I like my old team. But I also like new people. So we'll see how it goes.

Ramzi visited! He went back to his family's place in Saudi after graduation and before his move to NYC, so he came over to Doha for a couple of days. He was working with the business club most of the time, but I got to see him in the evenings. It was great to have him back, even if it did mostly involve driving him back and forth to his hotel and to the Qatar Airways office. Then it was sad again when he left. He showed me pictures of his place in New York, though, and it looks awesome, and he said I'm welcome any time. With a direct flight from Doha to Newark starting, I might take him up on that offer.

We also had an intern in student affairs for the past three weeks! Megan is from the Pittsburgh campus, and was living in my compound. She's really cool, but unfortunately her time here was too too short. Luckily for everyone, she's coming back to study here in the fall, as our first Pittsburgh-Doha exchange student, which will be awesome.













Ben, Drew, me, and Megan. (Mollie's behind the camera). Georgetown cooked, Carnegie Mellon baked. It worked out well :-)

We've been to three beaches around Qatar in the past couple of weeks. The first was all the way at the north and had some good snorkeling. The second two were both on the west coast, one just north of Dukhan and one a bit more south in Umm Bab (that's right, say it outloud. Then sing.) Its getting rediculously hot here, so I'm thinking that was the last beach trip until September or October. We also attempted to go to Bahrain, but it was expensive for just a weekend. Rumor still has it that they are working on the bridge from Qatar to Bahrain, but I'm sure I'll be gone way before that actually opens. For now its the airport, or just don't leave Qatar.

I'm pretty much running a kennel this week for my friends' animals. I have Nikki's dog Athena with me for the month. Kathryn's three cats are staying in her place but I'm feeding them for the week. And tonight Drew is dropping off a plant that I'm supposed to keep alive for a month until Ben gets home. (Drew and Ben share this plant, and while they are both out of the country - Drew for good and Ben for a month - I have the responsibility to keep it alive. While I realize that a plant is not a "pet" per se, I fear that this will be the most difficult for me to keep alive. For those of you who have seen "How to lose a guy in 10 days", if I kill Ben and Drew's love fern, I'm gonna feel really bad...)

I bought the Mika CD. Megan tells me that Mika is not as popular in the States and this is a shame. He's Lebanese-British, pure pop, and awesome. The album is "Life in Cartoon Motion" and for downloads, I recommend the songs Grace Kelly, Relax (Take It Easy), Love Today, Stuck in the Middle, and My Interpretation. "Grace Kelly" was Number 1 on the World Charts a couple of months ago. Check it out.

We had a trivial pursuit night last Friday. Boys vs. girls. The boys won, but it was tied at the end and they got their last question right first. The girls also had less people, so we did well (especially considering that we got more than one sports question right, and I hate to be stereotypical, but those sports questions are really obscure).

People continue to leave, either for vacation or to go back to the States forever. Next week is probably going to be the emptiest Doha has been in awhile. NIkki, Marjorie, Dave, Karen, Megan, Ben, Drew, and Kathryn are all gone, and Mollie will be too if she gets her visa to Iran. I have the dog to keep me company, but she's not quite as good as people. I have been reading a good book, "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk. Its really good, but I took it to the pool and the sun melted the glue in the binding so now some of the pages are falling out. Anyway, if you have more book suggestions, send them my way!

See, Caryl... that post wasn't so hard... you should do it more often.

Placeholder post

Post of substance coming shortly! Until then, enjoy this, copied from marjorie's blog, which she in turn took from a facebook group for Cornell TAs in Doha.

You know you've been a TA in Doha when...

• You've spent an entire conversation explaining how safe Doha is and how much you love it there, only to have the conversation conclude with "Stay safe" or "I'm praying for you."


• You think tank tops are for whores.


• The first day of school you could pronounce 1-2 students' names correctly; the last day of school, you knew all the names, but could still only pronounce 1-2 correctly.


• A 5-hour flight is no big deal, and a 30-hour one is ok for the weekend.


• If you pay more than $10 for a huge meal you think it's too expensive.


• It's ok to pay $10 for a box of cereal.


• You are ok with water costing more than gas.


• You're upset when there is a new conflict in the Middle East because it means you can't go to that country for vacation.


• You miss the color green, and long for a rainy day.


• Driving in the States scares you because people use turn signals and don't cut you off.


• You refer to certain liquids as "reagents" and know that they can only be procured at a certain "distribution center," aka the "b**$ souq"


• You know at least 5 different ways to pronounce "Qatar" -- and know that all of them are wrong.


• You don't speak Arabic, except for the words habibi, yallah, inshallah, and khalas -- which you use in every other sentence.