Caryl In Qatar

Its weird that its not weird...

2008-07-23T11:22:00.002+03:00

I've been trying to figure out recently why I haven't blogged in such a long time. I could say its because I've been busy or because there's nothing going on in the Middle East to discuss, but both of those would be untrue. Awhile back I was walking with a friend and we were talking about life in Doha and I realized that life just really isn't that strange here. I started the blog to discuss all of these cultural realizations that I had while I was here, but in my second year here, life became just exceedingly normal.

Each day I go to work. After that I go to the gym and then either get dinner with friends or cook and read or watch TV. On the weekends I go to the club or bar, or to see a movie, hang out at the pool, play around on the computer, etc. etc. Doesn't sound too interesting, does it?

That said, every once in awhile I have a moment that reminds me "I live in Doha!" The other day it was a guy in a suit standing outside in the 110 degree heat talking to a guy in a thobe. I see that all the time, but this time it was a reminder that Qatar is in the Middle East (haha, duh).

So, in my last couple days here, I'm going to try to write down all the stuff that isn't quite normal. All the travel. The Qatari wedding. The food. And maybe some random observations of life in the Middle East that I would like to remember for a long time after I leave.

its official...

2008-05-03T21:10:00.002+03:00

I'm moving back to the United States of America on August 1. I'll be moving to DC to work on a Master's of Conflict Resolution at Georgetown. I'm excited. And nervous.

So if anyone out there is still reading this, start planning my homecoming party. I expect booze and bacon.

Ah Multiculturalism

2007-12-09T12:45:00.000+03:00

So I'm sitting here at my desk... listening to Christmas Carols, planning my vacation for the upcoming Muslim Eid holiday, eating a latka that one of my students made for Hanukkah. Its these moments that make me love my life.

I'm addicted...

2007-12-05T10:14:00.000+03:00

... to freerice.com

Basically, you play a multiple-choice vocab game, and for each word you get right, this organization donates 20 grains of rice to the UN program to end hunger. So far my addiction has yielded about 1500 grains of rice, and that's nothing compared to some people I know. Go check it out!

And I'm back...

2007-12-02T10:43:00.000+03:00

I've been neglecting the blog worse than ever before! Lots has happened in the (eek!) two months since I've posted - Ramadan ended, my Mom and I took an Eid trip to the Mediterranean, she visited me here in Doha, my satellite TV went away, and I became a hermit in order to study for the GRE test. Now the test is over, I've got lots of grad school applications to do, and I'm getting ready for my students' semester to end and my dad to visit at the end of the month!

Yeah, so its been crazy and its looking like it will continue until the New Year. Already making plans for next semester when I have my life back - dance lessons, Arabic lessons, and back in the gym. (Yeah now that I write them they don't look super-exciting, but it will be nice to have a routine.) Until then the fun mostly includes holiday toffee nut lattes at Starbucks, So You Think You Can Dance Parties and working with Nalani on our tryout for the Amazing Race.

I'm also going to try (but I've stopped making promises) to update my blog... including (insha'allah) backdated entries of my vacation with mom, my trips to Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain, and other various things that have been going on in Doha.

If anyone is still paying attention to the existence of this blog, I thank you.

Birthday Weekend :-)

2007-10-03T10:21:00.000+03:00

I had the most amazing weekend for my birthday. On Friday afternoon we hung out at the pool for a couple of hours, and that night my friend Andy hosted a wonderful "Happy Ramadan and Caryl's Birthday" party at his incredible house. There was dancing in the upstairs living room, live music on the landing, chill out space on the first floor living room, and plenty of couches and beds for people to crash in when the night finally ended around 4:30am. Andy also decided that the theme would be a black and white party, so everyone came dressed in black and white and we all looked very classy. Nalani made an incredibly delicious chocolate and vanilla layer cake, which Ben was responsible for carrying during the singing because we were all afraid Nalani would drop it. A bunch of my friends came, and they brought their friends, and Andy's friends came... it was awesome. Highlights included Brendan's "black and white" outfit, Andy's maids timidly asking me at 3:00am if they could go home and wishing me a happy birthday, and my wake-up call from Russ the next morning. As people were leaving they requested more parties at Andy's house, and of course we always aim to please.

Pictures, courtesy of Jinnyn...

mmm, I dream of this cake. too bad "Ben" forgot the plates and we had to eat it off of paper towels.

Abir (who missed the black and white memo), Jinnyn (the photographer), me, and Samira (who brought awesome chocolate)

Amanda, Aussie queen of the punch; Charles "I brought you some of my liquor stash, so you know I like you" Nailen; Jinnyn again; Henri (Quebecqois!); Nalani, queen of the birthday cake; and me again!

My actual birthday was a couple of days later on Sunday, which is a work day. Usually our staff has birthday lunches, but since its Ramadan, there's nothing open for lunch. So what did my wonderful team do? They got creative (and generous!) and had a birthday potluck with everyone's specialties. One of my bosses even offered to host it at her home. And Darbi, another queen of birthday cakes, made delicious chocolate, coffee, coconut, walnut goodness with candles on top :-)

That night, I talked with my dad and brother on the phone for a bit and then played squash with Greg, and then Nalani and Ben took me to Chili's for some good old fashioned American (tex-mex) food. And the Chili's staff sang their hearts out for me and gave me free dessert. Overall I would say it was one of my best weekends in Doha yet! I missed my family of course, but my friends did an awesome job. Along the line of Darbi's recent posts - they are my "I'm grateful for..." of today. And most days, really.

Ramadan Resolutions

2007-09-30T11:11:00.000+03:00

For some reasons I've been looking at Ramadan as kind of the new year - a time to make some changes that I think are worthwhile, and set goals for myself that I've been meaning to work on for awhile. So far, my three Ramadan Resolutions were to go to the gym very regularly, study for the GREs, and write in my blog more often. I'm actually 2 for 3. The gym is my new favorite hangout, especially since I've got some friends that I go with, and even more people that I usually see there. There's a 5k charity event in a couple of months and I'll probably actually run it instead of walk. This may not be impressive to many of my friends who are long distance runners, but I'm quite proud of myself.

Ramadan is such a slow time that studying for the GREs is pretty easy, especially now that my satellite subscription ran out and I have no TV. (Originally one of my resolutions was going to be "no TV" but then I realized that with the start of Steelers season I really couldn't give it up completely. Now that the satellite is out I have to find a place to watch the game tonight, if its on - insha'allah.) I took my first practice test a couple of weeks ago and realized that I really suck at 8th grade math. Dividing fractions could not have been harder, I was so frustrated. But just a little bit of studying has really got me back on track.

Doha is really a great place to do these kinds of things, even when its not Ramadan, because we really don't have a ton to do here. I love hanging out with my friends and all that, but for the most part, the work day ends at 5 or 5:30, and then what are you going to do? I'm usually the kind of person that gets depressed if I don't accomplish something every day, and I'm feeling very comfortable in my work-study-gym-friends routine of life here.

And now maybe resolution #3 is back on track... it was kind of short and very rambling, but it was a blog post!!

Ramadan Kareem!!

2007-09-13T16:44:00.001+03:00

Today is the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. This means that all Muslims refrain from eating or drinking anything from sunrise to sunset. Today, in Qatar, those time are approximately 3:58am to 5:41pm. They also avoid smoking, sex, gossip, and negative thoughts during these times. Most get up around 3:30am to eat something, then they nap or just chill in the late afternoon, and then after sunset they visit with family and friends until the wee hours of the morning.

This pretty much changes everything about life in Doha for the next month: traffic patterns change because work hours do. Student programming is practically non-existent because they're exhausted and race home for dinner right after class. There are a lot of charity events to attend because Ramadan is the month to pay special attention to the poor. Meanwhile, the non-Muslims eat covertly in a closed office because all of the restaurants are closed during the day. We dress even more conservatively than usual. All of the bars and the liquor store are closed, and we make up for it by having house parties every weekend from now until Eid (the festival at the end of Ramadan).

That's pretty much Ramadan in a nutshell. Because work slows so much, I'll make more of an effort this month to blog about the things I've learned in the past couple months.

Also, Happy New Year to all of my Jewish friends!! Someone please post an explanation of Rosh Hashanah so I can stop feeling bad about focusing on Ramadan in my post. Unfortunately there's not much learning about Jewish holidays to be done here in Qatar.

Summer Vacation Part 2 - Paris

2007-09-10T12:17:00.000+03:00

My plan for Paris was to see as much as possible in 5 days. I think I was pretty successful in terms of museums, monuments, and such, but unfortunately that exhausted me so much that I didn't get to see much of Parisian nightlife. Although I was there by myself so that may have been a bit awkward anyway.

I also took the Eurostar train through the Chunnel, which was really cool, and it allowed me to see some of the British and French countryside as well. Northern France is really quite beautiful. While in London, I bought a 2-day museum/monument pass, and I had a lot of recommendations from Christi, Marjorie and Justin, and Doug, so I spent my time on the train planning my trip. And the stamp on my passport has a cute little train on it :-)

Overall, I like Paris a lot as a tourist place. I wouldn't say I'm a complete Francophile at this point; I can't see myself living in Paris the way I can see myself in London, but it was certainly a wonderful place to visit, and I think that next time I'd like to see more of the country and not stay in Paris as much. But with only 5 days I couldn't wander too far, so Paris it was for this trip.

The first day was really bad weather, I started to think that I brought the rain with me from London. My plan for the first afternoon, Monday, was a walk along the Champs Elysees, but that was pretty much ruined by the rain. Combined with the fact that I had to walk through the sand and grass because they set up the seats for the last leg of the Tour de France about a week in advance, I was pretty gross by the time I gave up and looked for an indoor tourist attraction. I settled on the Opera Garnier, the Paris Opera House. Two minutes in that place and all my discomfort from the rain had melted away. It was absolutely gorgeous and I got there just in time for an English tour. I could write a whole blog post just about what I learned there, but the coolest thing, and the overall theme, was that the architect (Garnier) won the contest to design the opera house because he embraced the opera as an important social gathering for Paris's high society of the time. So everything is ornate and looks really rich because it was a place for the wealthy to gather.

Garnier's favorite spot in the opera house, where he could see the most of his design

One disappointing thing: no phantom. Apparently the guy that wrote the Phantom of the Opera made up most of the stuff about fires and murders and subterranean lakes. Sad.

The second day was the first of my museum/monument pass, and I started with the Musee d'Orsay, the impressionist museum. The architecture and sculpture there was really interesting, and the collections by Monet, Van Gogh, Pissaro, and all the impressionists are so extensive that it was like a new famous painting was in front of me every time I turned around. I am admittedly not very knowledgeable about art, but the Orsay had more originals of paintings that I recognized than any other museum I've ever been to. My favorites were Monet (cliche, I know, but there's a reason he's so famous!), Sisley, and Pissarro.

my new favorite Monet painting

And, they let you take pictures as long as you don't use the flash! After I left the museum, I got a delicious croque madame from a cafe (mmmm, ham and cheese).

Next I went to the Pantheon, which took quite a bit of time since I exited the very wrong direction out of the metro stop and wandered the streets before finally finding it. Wandering was nice at first, but after awhile I was getting frustrated that I couldn't find a gigantic building with a huge dome built on a hill in an otherwise ordinary Parisian neighborhood. (This was to become a theme in Paris: the metro always lets you out really close to where you want to be, but somehow just out of sight of the huge monument/building that is your destination). Anyway, once I got the Pantheon it was really cool. I went downstairs into the crypt first, and saw the graves of Voltaire, Rousseau, Marie and Pierre Curie, and many other famous minds. When I was little I had a book about Marie Curie - it was one of my favorites in a series of biographies for children - so it was pretty cool to see that. After that I climbed to the top of the dome for a great panoramic view of the city. While I was up there I realized how close Notre Dame was, so I headed there next.

Notre Dame was beautiful inside and out, but there were so many tourists there that it was hard for me to think of it as really spiritual place. I did get the audio guide, so I was able to learn about the cathedral and the history of the church in Paris. I wanted to go to the top and see the bell tower and the view from there, but the line closed just as I got there. I still had a bunch of daylight left, so I walked over to the Place des Vosges, which was very pretty, and I saw the home of Victor Hugo there, but didn't actually go into the museum (gotta save some stuff for the next trip!)

One of the French sculpture squares in the Louvre.

The third day I went to the Louvre. I was intending to spend quite some time there, but I didn't expect it to be as overwhelming as it was. They have art collections and sculpture from every era of history and cultural exhibits on other parts of the world. There were also a couple thousand people there, I think. I had to elbow my way toward the Mona Lisa, which was pretty cool to see but I'm not sure it was worth the crushed toes. My favorites were the squares with French sculpture, the Napoleon Apartments, and the Venus de Milo. And, it was great to see that the Louvre is now offering a "DaVinci Code audioguide tour of the museum." Nice that no one is immune to that bandwagon. After seeing a lot of art and sculpture and the Islamic arts exhibit, I decided I had to get outside for a bit, and by that time I had been in the museum for almost four hours. The Louvre is at one end of the Champs Elysees, and it was a beautiful day, so I decided to walk all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe.
I climbed to the top of the Arc, since it was free with my 2-day museum pass. There were some great views, especially back down the Champs Elysees, from up there.

From there I tried to go to the Eiffel Tower, but the line was about 2 hours long and the top deck wasn't even open, so I went to the Centre Pompidou instead. The modern art museum there is absolutely awesome. The architects built the building with the pipes on the outside, color coded for water, air, and electricity. Inside they have some installation art, some theatres for live and film productions, and more classic sculpture and painting. On the top floor they have a chronology of the world's most famous modern artists, including a bunch by Picasso, the Delaunays, and my favorite - the Matisse room (below). The whole place just has a very unique aura about it. My feet were absolutely killing me by the time I made it through the museum, and it closed pretty late anyway, so I went back to the hotel after that.

The fourth day I went to Versailles all day. It actually is a pretty short train ride from downtown Paris. I went to the Chateau first, and saw the apartments of the Kings, Queens, and Princesses. They also had a beautiful chapel, since the French kings at that time believed in Divine Right to rule, and wanted to thank God every day for their power. Oh the things that money buys - besides the gigantic building itself, there were paintings commissioned from the most famous artists of the day, stained glass windows, furniture, and the beautiful hall of mirrors. I also spent a long time walking through the gardens, appreciating the naturally-occurring green :-) I actually just sat in the grass for awhile and just breathed, it was awesome. I also saw Marie Antionette's estate, which is on the ground of Versailles but a bit separate. The "summer palace" was there, along with her peasant village. Basically, she saw a painting that depicted life in a peasant village, and she thought that the painting was cute and made peasant life look charming. So she had them build a little village for her to use. (I'm not sure if she caught the irony of telling a bunch of poor people to build her a village because she thought it was cute, but whatever...) I stayed in Versailles pretty late and then still had to take the train back, so I didn't do any Paris touristy stuff that day but it was totally worth it.

Marie's peasant village

um, I don't think this picture really needs a caption

On the very last day I finally made it to the Eiffel Tower, after a week of seeing it everywhere I finally took the elevator up! There's not much to it, its mostly just a big tower, but the views are amazing (and how could I go to Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower??). Afterwards I went to Montmartre, a neighborhood built on the highest hill in Paris which also serves as the artsy area of town and the red light district. Many of the impressionist painters that I saw at the Orsay were inspired by scenes in Montmartre, so it was very cool to then go there. I also saw the Moulin Rouge. I had been hoping to go inside but didn't realize that it was still a working theatre, so I checked out the chronology that they had outside, which was pretty well done and quite informative, actually. Then I went to Sacre Cour, which ended up being one of my favorite things in Paris. Its a Catholic church built on the highest point in Paris, and I happened to walk in just as mass was starting. If I could go to church here, I would go every day. It was so peaceful and welcoming, even though there were tourists all over and the mass was in French. This time that I spent in Montmartre was really the only time that I really felt like I could live in Paris. It was very comfortable, in a way.

A street carousel in Montmartre, with Sacre Cour in the background.

My last stop in France was the Pere Lachaise cemetery, where I saw the graves of Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and (the primary reason for the visit) Jim Morrison. I don't know how Chopin, Wilde, and all of the other famous people buried there would feel about the fact that Morrison's grave is the busiest one in the entire cemetery. Mostly people wearing Doors shirts. I took pictures for my Dad :-) Wilde's grave attracts a crowd, too, but its entirely different kind of "cool" crowd. Wilde admirers kiss his grave while wearing lipstick to show their appreciation of his work. There's a sign that says "please do not graffiti the graves" but somehow I think that Wilde would be ok with the kisses.

After that my five short days in Paris were over and it was time to head back to London, then the next day back to Qatar. And that's the story of my summer vacation. I wish I could have blogged it sooner, but in a way it was kind of nice to be able to go back a couple of weeks later and think about it again. Life gets so hectic sometimes that its good to be able to take a couple of minutes to remember stress-free holidays :-)

quick update

2007-08-26T09:41:00.000+03:00

The Paris post is coming along slowly but surely.

All of the new Student Affairs people have arrived. Its shaping up to be a great year. The new freshmen were oriented last week and today is the first day of class!

I'm taking a group of students to Jordan this weekend to do a three-day Habitat for Humanity project. Very excited not only to work on Habitat again myself, but to get a chance to take the students on another service learning trip.

That's pretty much it. Time to work again... its a new semester :-)

2007-08-06T08:48:00.001+03:00

My new office is almost completely decorated and organized, although its still freezing. Darbi arrives to Doha tonight, and Greg and Jarrod on Wednesday! Yay, the new semester is almost here :-)

And today is my brother's birthday... happy birthday, Drew!

Summer Vacation Part 1 - London

2007-08-04T11:39:00.001+03:00

After a lot of debate on where to go for my summer vacation, I finally decided that spending five days in London and five in Paris sounded like a pretty solid idea. Its really too hot to travel in the region, and I wanted to see Bryan before he moved out of London, and I had never been to Paris before... so that was what I decided.

London was awesome once I got there. Travel out of Doha was an adventure which shall be documented in a separate entry at some point in the near future.

When I finally got to downtown London, my high school friend Bryan came to meet me at the station and take me to his home! It is in central London, super-convenient location, and such a great apartment. We (Bryan, Manuel, and myself) immediately went off to meet their friends at an outdoor reggae concert by Tower Bridge. We danced and enjoyed the weather and it was so much fun. The sun isn't setting until about 10pm in London these days, so after waking up at 4:00am in Doha, flying all day, and then being in London during the middle of summer, my body had been awake for about 20 hours and the sun had been up the whole time. It was very confused and sleepy, but I pulled it together enough to have a couple drinks with their friends at an outdoor cafe, then we went home and crashed.

My plan for London had been to just hang out, since I had been there and done most of the touristy stuff before. Bryan was working my first full day there, so I decided just to walk around the Knightsbridge area and go to Harrods. I also went to Harvey Nichols, just 'cause I like people-watching in fancy stores. The one thing I said I wanted in London: rain. I hadn't seen any since December! Oh well I got it. That first morning, London got more rain in one hour than it does in an average month, and that's a lot of rain for that city! There was so much that it flooded out some bus lines and tube stations, and yours truly was caught in the deluge. Lesson learned: be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Bryan and Manuel's back porch in the rainstorm.

I did make it to Harrods, bought some tea and went to the bookstore. In the main staircase they had a woman singing opera live, and I thought that this was pretty cool, since your average person is much more likely to go to Harrods than to the opera on their London vacation. I walked around Knightsbridge some more and looked at all the pretty window displays, then headed back to Bryan's flat. He wasn't home yet, so I took a walk around Battersea Park, which is right next to his place and overlooks the Thames.

The view from Battersea Park

That night we went out with two of Bryan and Manuel's friends from the arts festival in Zimbabwe - two Welsh lighting designers who were quite entertaining. After drinks we got some food at this place called Wagamama which was pretty delicious, then we went to Waterstone's Bookstore at Piccadilly Circus to look at all the people in line for the Harry Potter release at midnight. Oh lord it was crazy. The line went all the way to the Ritz hotel, almost a kilometer I'd say. And there were news crews and other madness.

The next day was Saturday, and I walked around St. James Park and the surrounding neighborhoods (still in the rain) and took these very touristy pictures:

I then met up with Bryan and Manuel for some coffee and grocery shopping to stock up for their drinks party that evening. They have very nice and very entertaining friends. The party went pretty late but I think a good time was had by all.

The next day I woke up and went to the National Gallery, and Trafalgar Square, where there was a steel drum band competition going on and it had finally stopped raining! Then I met up with Bryan and Manuel to go to the Tate Modern for the Dali exhibit that included his paintings, movies, and sculptures (in general I try not to say this about artists, but wow, he was a strange guy...). There was also an exhibit on urbanization and cities of the world that Bryan wanted to see that turned out to be really cool. After the museum we went to get dinner and then we just hung out for the rest of the evening. I woke up very early the next morning to catch my train to Paris!

Overall the best thing about London was being with Bryan and Manuel. I did do some touristy things, but for the most part it was a chance for me to see what its like to actually live there. Aside from the astronomical price of everything, I think I would love living there. Its really a great city, with lots to do and lots of people to meet, fun random events... and even though I complained about it by the end of this trip, I really do love the rain.

Stay tuned for Part 2 - Paris. It will have more pretty pictures :-)

Its really really hot

2007-07-17T15:10:00.000+03:00

July is almost the hottest month of the year here. August is worse because its more humid, but the weather has been steady around 110 F (42 C), and these temperatures will probably continue through August and September.

The temperature itself isn't really blog-worthy. Anyone can find out the current temperature in Doha just by looking online. So I'll try to explain to you some of the consequences of living in this climate, so you can see why I'm so excited at the possibility of rain while I'm on vacation next week.

The silver lining on the cloud of 110-plus temperatures is that I can't stand to be outside too long, so I haven't gotten sunburned yet, yay!

Its not very often in Pennsylvania that the weather outside is hotter than your body temperature. It can feel hot, but its nothing compared to when the wind hitting you is hotter than your skin. My pool is chilled, thank goodness, because the ones that aren't feel like bathwater. [Wow, how spoiled do I sound in that last sentence?]

The "cold" water containers are also on the roof of the apartment. With the 4:30am sunrise, that means that all your cold water is scalding by about 8:00am (think putting a bottle of water in your car in the middle of summer). The water usually cools off around 9:00pm, but don't even think about taking a shower in the middle of the day. Brushing your teeth can be done, but its pretty gross.

Forget about parking my black car outside.

The worst part of the summer temperatures is that my office is FREEZING. Apparently, someone decided that the hotter it gets outside, the colder they should make it inside. I think I'm down to about 55 degrees F in this damn office. Not only is it uncomfortable and inconvenient, let alone the fact that extreme temperature shifts can't be good for you, but we all look like jackasses sitting in our offices wrapped in blankets and sweaters.

So for those of you who have recently arrived in Doha or are due to get here soon, don't worry. Stick it out for awhile. October will be tolerable :-)

Travel and Leisure Magazine says you should visit me

2007-07-15T12:15:00.000+03:00

Here's the article on all the cool stuff that Doha has (or will have) for tourists. It talks about the new museums and all the shopping, and then it also has pictures and mentions Education City and the new libraries, and other cultural stuff they're building.

2007-07-04T09:02:00.000+03:00

Happy 4th of July! Enjoy your barbecues, baseball, fireworks, and all that other good American stuff :-)

"Caryl's Kennel" continues

2007-07-03T14:50:00.000+03:00

Don't worry, Marjorie and Justin. Tribble the cat is in good (and increasingly qualified) hands while you're in Gabon.

In other news, I finally planned a vacation! Which means if I had a pet, I would need someone else to take care of it. Well, I suppose I will need to find someone who can feed Mr. Fish. Any of the people I've been pet-sitting for want to step up?? :-)

In case you're wondering, my vacation is to London for a weekend, and then Paris for the week. Yay!

Last on the Bandwagons

2007-06-30T14:00:00.000+03:00

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

2007-06-21T12:10:00.000+03:00

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.

2007-06-20T09:44:00.000+03:00

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

2007-06-17T09:08:00.001+03:00

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

2007-06-06T11:21:00.000+03:00

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.

Summer Plans

2007-05-13T12:31:00.000+03:00

With most of the students, faculty, and TAs gone, its time to think about what I'll be doing this summer to keep myself entertained. So here are my ideas so far. Kind of like new year's resolutions, but for summer.

~ Work projects that I was too busy to finish while the students were here, mostly assessment stuff and looking further into the primary and secondary education in Qatar
~ Entertain the intern from the Pittsburgh campus that will be here for three weeks (and living with me)
~ Orientation 2007!
~ Actually learn Arabic - insha'allah
~ Study for the GREs (just bought some study books!)
~ Work out lots
~ Read lots
~ Vacation (insha'allah again! - I have the time, but need to find places that are far enough to be less than 100 degrees, but close enough to afford)

Back down to Earth

2007-05-09T11:28:00.000+03:00

The other day, a bunch of us were all in the pool at my compound. Now, its been quite hot out recently, and usually they chill the pool in the summer, but for some reason the chiller wasn't working and the pool felt like bathwater by the middle of the afternoon. At one point, I even said, "If this is the biggest complaint in our lives right now guys, that our pool is too hot, then I think we're all doin' ok." Everyone agreed.

A few days later, I realized that my nails looked like crap, and I hadn't been feeling well, so I decided to make a manicure-pedicure appointment at my normal place. The woman doing my pedicure asked me if I was from America, how long I had been in Doha and why I was here, and I asked her the same. I asked her if she was from the Philippines, even though I already knew she was. I knew because everyone in the service industry in Qatar is Filipino. They work the registers and the floor at every chain store and most small shops; they bring tea to employees at work, patients at the hospital, and everywhere in between; they are drivers, nannies, maids, secretaries, security, waiters, and manicurists... the list goes on. To be honest, not once have I had a bad interaction with a Filipino employee, but neither have I really had a chance to talk with any. Our CMU employees are always too busy working, and I, alas, do not have a nanny, maid, personal driver, etc. But manicures are long and there's really not much to do but chat, so I figured this would be a good chance.

Turns out that this particular woman has only been in Doha for three weeks. She said that all of the employees of the spa live together, within walking distance of work. She seemed ok with that, but had a lot of questions for me about what it was like to work at the university, and the benefits of being an American ex-pat. Then she told me that she left her 6 year old daughter and 11 year old son in the Philippines. I couldn't bring myself to ask what circumstances led her to leave her kids and come to work in Doha. I think that's a second manicure conversation.

Everyone is leaving :-(

2007-05-06T16:02:00.000+03:00

I'm discovering one of the more unfortunate parts of ex-pat reality. Make new friends, then they leave. And being that I associate mostly with people from universities, they all leave at the same time. Tim left a week ago, Ramzi on Thursday, Erik and Silvia on Friday, Ryan yesterday, and I took Andrew to the airport this morning. Mollie and Gregg leave at the end of the month. Lauren will be here until June and Drew until July but they're still leaving.

The flip side is that there are new people coming in all the time. And its a small ex-pat world in Doha. Side story: The other day I met a girl named Jinynn, who has only been here a few weeks, and we were just chatting about her work and other stuff. Turns out she knows Jen, the first friend to leave this semester (way back in March) because she is now doing the job that Jen had at Qatar University. I went to put her name and number in my phone, and she says, "oh I'll spell my name 'cause it has a weird 'y' in it." I was like, "no way, my name has a weird 'y' in it too, its c-a-r-y-l." And she goes, "wait! you're c-a-r-y-l! you're in my phone already!" So it turns out that she has Jen's phone, and Jen left some numbers in there and instructed Jinynn to call Mollie, who would introduce her to the rest of the people in the phone. So she's already gotten together with Mollie, Drew, and some other people, and she and I decided that we're destined to become friends. Yay!

I like it when my happy side stories become longer than my sad main entry.

Thobe and Abaya Day

2007-05-01T16:30:00.000+03:00

Yesterday a bunch of us decided to wear traditional Qatari clothes to work and around Doha. It was interesting, especially since I went to the grocery store, a small Arabic shop that doesn't get much traffic from Westerners, and a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Most people knew that I wasn't Arab, but a few thought that my pale skin and light hair (what little of my hair could be seen) meant that I was Syrian or Iranian or something.

Anyway, thought you might like to see the results.

Group shot: Dave, 'Funke, Nikki, Lily, me, Marjorie, and Ryan

Jinanne lent me an abaya (the actual robe), a shayla (the head scarf), and the sunglasses to anchor the shayla 'cause I was having trouble keeping it on my head. Jinnane is wearing hejab instead of shayla - hejab would be the head covering that shows absolutely no hair, and that is what religious women wear in Islam. The shayla is more cultural to the gulf area.

Dave models the Qatari dress for men - the thobe (the white robe), the ghutra (the white head covering), and the aghal (the black ropes on the head), along with the traditional accessories - worry beads, sunglasses, and cell phone.

Nikki, Marjorie, Dave, me, and Lily

Ryan gets a little too close for thobes and abayas.

Ryan models the casual look of the young Qatari men - thobe and baseball cap.

I managed to get a bit of work done on abaya day. The fact that yesterday was payday also led to more than one joke about "put on Qatari dress for just one day, and all of a sudden you have a couple thousand dollars more than you used to - how appropriate!"

Woohoo weekend!

2007-04-29T17:52:00.000+03:00

In an effort to update my blog more often, I risk boring you with the little details that you don't really care about. Eh, we'll see how this blog blitz goes and then maybe over the summer I'll try to find a happy medium :-)

The weekend was so good. I should mention that the weekend was destined to go well, since last Tuesday I finally got my lazy butt to Qatar Distribution Company to renew my liquor permit. Thursday night we went to the Intercontinental Hotel for our faculty and staff party, then I sat on Ramzi's couch and watched a movie - super chill way to end the craziness that was last week.

On Friday, I found cute cheap patio furniture at Carrefour (if you need a comparison, its like Super-Duper Walmart) and spent the afternoon watching Love Actually while putting it together. Also while putting it together, I realized that my Jeep came with a whole set of tools that I never knew about - how cool is that?! That night I had people over to drink my newly purchased booze and sit around my newly purchased patio table. Then we went downstairs to Silvia's apartment for the most ridiculous party. There are pictures but I would need permission from people to post them. And possibly risk having my blog censored by Q-Tel. But - here's a good one from the party. Tim, myself, Ramzi, and Ryan...

I'm gonna miss my boys so much!

Anyway, after finally getting to bed around 3:30am, Ryan and I woke up at 6:30 on Saturday to go to campus and proctor the ACT test for a group of 200 high school boys. They were not taking the test seriously at all (I don't even know why mobile phones are allowed in the room!), but it was worth the getting up early - I got QR300, free starbucks, and the chance to teach a couple of Qatari boys why its a bad idea to mess with white women.

After the test we went to the mall, where I picked up my ring from the jewelry cleaners - now, not only does it sparkle, but they bent it back into a proper ring shape! Then Ryan and I went to the high school botball competition that is sponsored by CMU-Q, but alas we had no idea what was going on and were both pretty much asleep. I went home, took a nap, and woke up just in time for the NFL draft to start!

I watched until the Steelers pick, which happened around 10:30pm Doha time, and then had to go to sleep. I liked the draft - it caught me up on all the NFL and college news of the past year in just 4 hours. On another note, for those of you who saw it, how impressive was Brady Quinn? Poised, articulate, and good-natured in each of the three interviews over the course of the first 21, even though after the Dolphins at #9 he had to be some combination of worried and pissed. It is so unfortunate that he finally went to Cleveland, 'cause now I have to hate him for the rest of the year. Oh well, it was a nice couple of hours.

Pittsburgh trip!

2007-04-19T14:40:00.000+03:00

I know, I know, I seriously suck at this "updating blog in a timely manner" thing. Work has been busy since I got back and although I have work to do right now, I've chosen, um, not to do it. Blog post instead. Also, in my defense, I've been writing this post for about 3 weeks now, for about 5 minutes at a time.

In a way the blog post is kind of like work, since its about the trip I took to Pittsburgh with the students! Yes, lots of work, but in a fun way. And I got to see some of my favorite-est people in the world. Chronologically is the easiest way to do this post, I'm thinking.

We left Doha, flew through Amsterdam and Detroit and finally to Pittsburgh. Note: 1.5 hour layovers are not enough time to get eight Middle Eastern students through EU security and U.S. immigration. Thankfully we did actually make it to Pittsburgh, with two bags still in Amsterdam, and two bags still in Detroit. Upon registering all lost baggage, we finally left the airport, made a stop at Target for the half of our students that were missing all of their luggage, and went to the hotel (approximately 28 hours after leaving Doha). Forty five minutes later, most of us were back on the bus headed for one of my favorite events of the CMU year - Greek Sing! Too bad the students were too exhausted to enjoy it. I did though!

After returning the students to the hotel, I got a chance to see Paloma and Justin, Allie and Ben, Josh, Lacey, Little, Jack, Eugene, and BHirsch - all at good ol' PHI. Mmmmm, my first Yuengling in 8 months was soooo good.

On Sunday we took the students (all Muslim) to the Southern Baptist church in East Liberty. I had so much fun - singing and dancing makes church way better - and the students LOVED it. I thought they would like it, but I had no idea it would be such a hit. It helped that the preacher was an awesome speaker with a universal message, and that they got a standing ovation when our presence was announced. After church we had Sunday brunch at the Grand Concourse where I ate lots of bacon and pork roast (yay!) and so did some of the students (oops! - but its ok, its not haram if you didn't know it was pork).

After that I left the students for their tour of the city and met up with my dad, brother, and stepmom. We went to the Science Center, since none of us had ever been, and then got dinner at Monterey Bay, where (as expected) restaurant turnover has claimed all but two of the people that I worked with. Unfortunately I felt really ill and exhausted, but my family had to get back on the road home anyway, so they just took me back to the hotel.

One of the students' photos from their trip up the incline :-)

On Monday, the students took a tour of campus and participated in a leadership workshop while Jumana and I did work for our jobs in Qatar. I took a break to stop by Tridelt and get some truck food for lunch. Then we all went shopping in Shadyside, where I bought a bunch of stuff in about a half hour, then sat at the coffee shop with the boys, waiting for the other girls to finish exploring.

On Tuesday, we started the first of three days of community service in Carnegie, PA, which was devastated by the flooding in Allegheny County in 2004. My memory of this flood is being at a Pitt-Nebraska game, in the stands behind the endzone, and seeing an entire marina float by the stadium and get stuck near the fountain at the Point (all of which was underwater). Somehow it escaped the CMU community that entire towns in the suburbs were completely destroyed - Carnegie was one of those towns. We first took a tour of the area that had been flooded, which included most of the businesses on Main Street, and met the group of Seventh Day Adventist volunteers that we worked with for the week.

Main Street in Carnegie, which was underwater during the flooding in 2004

At that point I left to go back to campus to give a presentation to people who are interested in doing my job in Qatar in the future. It was fun showing pictures and answering questions. While I was gone, the students put together a business plan for an internet cafe that the non-profit group will use to generate revenue for their community projects.

Wednesday was hard labor day! We cleaned out a basement of flood silt, then painted the room with waterproof paint to protect it in case of future flooding. At lunch, we also were able to meet the Turkish man who owns the business, which was enough to give the students the energy to keep working.

Mehrunissa uses her newfound skills with a hammer to attack some stubborn nails in the basement

Oh that's right, the chaperone did her part!

Even though I was exhausted that night, I managed to make it out to half price at La Fiesta with Paloma and Justin, Little, and GA.

On Thursday we also did hard labor, at the Carnegie Carnegie. That would be the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall in Carnegie, PA. The library is actually the reason that the town got its name. We cleaned out the storage room in the music hall, and repaired the 100 year old seats. We also reorganized the children's section of the library. For me, it was like my entire childhood was in this 10 square foot area - they had the Berenstein Bears, Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Boxcar Children - everything I used to read when I was little. And just being in a Carnegie Library is enough to make me nostalgic, of course.

Maha and Nasreen figure out what nuts and bolts are, then repair the loose and missing ones in the Carnegie Carnegie Music Hall.

After the work, we had a reception at the library with people from Carnegie, including the people who had organized all of the community service. The rabbi from the synagogue in Carnegie was there also, and even gave one of our students a yamika, which the student now keeps in his dorm room on campus. Later that night we also went to a performance called campus superstar, which gave a scholarship to the winner and raised money for Hillel. Although it was the end of the trip and the students were exhausted (I've used that word a lot in this post), I think they really enjoyed it. They clapped a lot when the CMU person won :-)

group shot (with Renee and Jim) from the last day

The trip home was uneventful. Some of the students wanted to leave the airport and go into the city of Amsterdam, but thankfully we only had a three hour layover so they couldn't. The last thing I needed was to bring a group of students back to Doha after letting them loose in Amsterdam for a couple of hours. One more piece of lost luggage to deal with, and then thankfully Ramzi was at the airport to pick up his brothers, so I didn't have to spend time, money, and effort getting a cab back home. I finally made it back to my apartment around 11:30pm on Saturday night. And I was at work around 9:30 the next morning. Ick.

Being in Pittsburgh did make me nostalgic, it was great to see my family and friends, and the trip to the CVS and hairdresser were key. I think that my favorite part was watching the students see these things for the first time, because I really wanted them to like my hometown. But I really did realize when I got back to Doha that I was happy to be home then. No hotel, no knowing that I had to be back on a plane in a week. Just back to my job and my compound and the routine of my life here. With the regular nonstop flights to D.C. and New York starting soon, it will be a lot easier to visit the U.S., and that makes me happy, but for now I think I'll stick to travel that doesn't require flying over an ocean.

Important Travel Information

2007-04-02T15:08:00.000+03:00

For those of you in Qatar:
They are tearing up D-Ring way faster than they are putting it back down. From Landmark to Salwa flyover, you can't use any of it, and then one lane is closed from the flyover to the Roundabout with the light. Allow an extra 15 minutes for all trips in the general area of D-ring. Which is most of Doha.

For those of you not in Qatar:
Qatar Airways is starting non-stop flights (daily) to Washington Dulles this summer, and Newark (4 flights/week) on June 28th. Book now! But don't actually come in the summer - wait til the weather is nice, like November.

Political Ideology Test

2007-03-19T16:58:00.000+03:00

I got this test from Steph's blog - I like it because it doesn't stick to the Democrat and Republican labels.

You are a
Social Liberal
(75% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(13% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

In my case, however, it definitely tests ideology. My brain tells me that socialism isn't practical, at least not in the United States. But when these tests give you specific "I believe" statements and ask you to qualify yourself in regards to those statements (no neutral response is available), then I always end up in the socialist category. I at least consider myself lucky to have my beliefs line up with one political party in the States; I consider capitalist-social conservatives to be equally lucky. We are probably much less conflicted when election day comes around. I wonder how the libertarians make their voting decisions. I'll ask Steph. Her political tests come out the same every time, too.

Airbus A380

2007-03-18T22:53:00.000+03:00

As I was watching EuroNews this morning, a story came on about the launch of the Airbus A380. Apparently all of the airlines that have ordered one got their logo painted on the side of the new plane, and sure enough, there was Qatar Airways, home of my not-so-many but ever-increasing frequent flyer miles. Apparently QA is planning on nearly tripling the size of their fleet, which currently has 54 planes and orders for 94 more (including two A380s). They are also starting non-stop flights this summer to Newark and Washington Dulles. This is good news for a travel-holic such as myself.

Pittsburgh girl

2007-03-18T10:16:00.000+03:00

I was looking for something in old emails and found this from Christi. And since I'm returning to the 'burgh in less than a week, I figure now is a good time for it :-)

"A Pittsburgh girl knows just as much about football as her guy friends, in some cases, even more. She drinks beer b/c it tastes good but knows when to be classy and drink something more sophisticated. She owns a Steelers jersey not just b/c it's cute but because she supports her team and understands the game.

She loves Kennywood and isn't afraid to order cheese fries from the Potato Patch b/c let's face it - Pgh girls wear winter coats and scarves a lot more than bikinis and flip flops.

A Pgh girl loves St. Patrick's Day, even if she's not Irish b/c green beer is good for the soul.

Pgh girls don't have a funny accent. They just speak a different language. The word yinz is dear to her heart, even if she would never say it herself.

A Pgh girl bleeds black and gold and knows how to have a great time. She's stylish and sweet, has a great education, and loves her friends and family.

A Pgh girl goes to church on Sunday hung over, only to be let out by the priest early b/c the Steelers kick off at 1.

A Pgh girl might not live by the beach, but The Three Rivers are just as good!

She has seen all 4 seasons and has a reason to love and hate each of them. She's the type of girl you can call late and night and spill your heart to. She's the type you can take home to Mom and Dad w/o worrying they won't like her. B/c everyone loves a Pgh girl.

If you need a girl to take to the game, she'll be there. If you need a friend to help you out, she's there. If you need a drinking buddy, she'll be there with her IC Light in hand.

You can take the girl out of Pittsburgh, but you can never take the Pittsburgh out of the girl!"

Insha'allah

2007-03-09T09:24:00.000+03:00

If I ever write an anthropology paper or book about Qatar and the Gulf, its going to be called simply "Insha'allah."

Literally, insha'allah means "God willing" or "if God intends it." Basically, any time Westerners say the word "hopefully," someone in the Gulf could substitute "Insha'allah." The origin comes from the belief in Islam that God controls all aspects of our everyday life. Not only an all-powerful God but an extremely involved one as well.

Here are some common examples:

It can mean that another person will try to keep a commitment, but something could come up (a family situation, traffic, etc.) that will keep them from it. For example, when I say "let's meet tomorrow at 2:00pm," a student is very likely to respond "Insha'allah" - which means "probably I'll be here, unless something else happens."

Or it could indicate desire with doubt, for example the management at my compound once told me, "the part to fix your air conditioner will be here by the end of the week insha'allah." Yeah, my AC wasn't going to be working anytime within the next month, and we all knew it.

It can also indicate desire with uncertainty, for example I could also say "I will return to India one day insha'allah." I personally think this is the best use of the phrase, because it doesn't frustrate me so much as the others.

Not surprisingly, the excessive use of "insha'allah" frustrates Westerners because we come from a culture in which structuring our time and actions is just what we do. The structure is an effective stress-relief mechanism in the West. In Islam, the ultimate faith in God is the stress management mechanism, and so structure is unnecessary.

More surprisingly, I know many very pious Muslims who also get frustrated by the excessive use of "insha'allah." In my first example, in their minds, it is acceptable to use it if you think that you may miss your meeting because a family member is seriously ill, but unacceptable if you simply think that there might be more traffic than you accounted for. This comes from a belief among more devout Muslims that you should only use God's name when it is truly something that is in His hands, not when you are trying only to avoid responsibility for a situation.

Anyway, I mostly put this concept out there because I often find myself wanting to type "insha'allah" in my blog posts, but not being able to because I haven't explained what it means.

H&M opening in Doha :-)

2007-03-07T16:05:00.000+03:00

Today, the first H&M store in Doha opens. Last night there was an invitation-only, 20% off party at the store. The "who's who of Doha's bargain hunters" were there, as Ryan put it. I dropped QR550 (US$150) on 9 items at the opening, and every riyal was worth it.

The Coolest Picture I've Ever Taken

2007-03-04T14:45:00.000+03:00

As part of the "Tim Jumps Over Caryl" photo series (which so far has had locations around Qatar and Dubai), I decided that I wanted a picture from the perspective of Caryl. This was the first and only attempt at the photo. And it is awesome.

Dubai

2007-03-04T13:01:00.000+03:00

So I just got back from a weekend in Dubai. Very interesting city. A little overhyped, I think, but the group that I went with - CMUQ faculty and staff - was pretty cool. (I know I still owe a vacation post about Hong Kong, but its taking me much longer!)

We covered most of the Dubai basics in the three days we were there - the first day we took a boat ride on the river that cuts the city in half, and then we wandered around the souq (market) area for awhile before eventually going to Jumeirah, a famous beach and shopping area. We hung out on the beach until sunset and then went back to the hotel and crashed.
from the boat cruise, the Dubai business district and the old-style fishing dhows - a pretty common sight all over the Gulf, actually.

the gold souqs :-) the middle necklace can be yours for the low low price of $12,000USD

On Friday, we went back to the public beach at Jumeirah, where we relaxed in the sun and I didn't get sunburned! That afternoon we went to Wild Wadi ("wadi" is Arabic for "seasonal riverbed"), a waterpark that has a decent number of slides and a wave pool. We had a good time running around the park, and floating on the lazy river. It's also in the shadow of the Burj al-Arab hotel, probably the most luxury hotel in the world, which definitely provides a nice background to the lazy river.
The Jumeirah mosque

Andrew and Ryan have a "how much sand can you hold in your hands" contest

On Saturday before our plane left, we went to the Mall of the Emirates - most ridiculous shopping experience I've ever seen. Super expensive stores, moderately priced shops, world famous brand names and locally famous Arabic designers. Multiple food courts, a toy store with gigantic stuffed mammoths and camels, a huge arcade area, and to top it all off - an indoor ski slope. Yeah. Crazy. Tim and I even rode an indoor rollercoaster simulator in the arcade at the mall!
The interior of the mall of the Emirates.

The stuffed mammoths

Ski Dubai, the indoor ski slope in the Middle East

Obviously I had to go to Dubai, because I'm so close. Now that I've seen it, I could definitely go back on a weekend when I want to just get out of Doha and relax. Go to the beach, maybe back to Wild Wadi... if I ever make a huge amount of money, then the Mall of the Emirates. Doha could definitely learn something in the way of highway construction and quality English language bookstores. But in the end it was pretty much more of the same. The common complaints about Doha were only compounded in Dubai - traffic is awful, the "money can buy happiness" mentality, and the lack of real cultural opportunities such as quality theatre. I'd rather live in Doha and visit Dubai. But for a relaxing mini-vacation, really it has everything you could ask for. I did hear a rumor that you could get real bacon there, too, but didn't manage to get my hands on any...

New Year's Resolutions Assessment:

2007-02-10T10:28:00.000+03:00

Overwhelming failure.

I have managed to save a bit more money. I have not been working out, but that should change since the CMU Fitness Challenge starts this week. I have been eating healthier, I suppose, and managed to find some vegetables that don't cost a small fortune. I have been eating in restaurants pretty much every meal, because when I did a bit of math I realized that it is so cheap to eat out here (provided one knows where to go) and the grocery stores are so expensive (especially any Western products) that it actually can be more expensive to cook for yourself.

Blog updating... well I guess we all know how much of a failure that has been. It remains a "February Resolution."

Unexpectedly, without even making it a New Year's Resolution, I found a Catholic mass that I like. Being a Jesuit university, Georgetown has a priest teaching at the school, and he says mass every Sunday after work. Its a small group, and only about a half hour long, but I like it. Also, the Catholic guilt of not going when its that close and that short would really be overwhelming. Perhaps I should retroactively make "Go to church" a resolution so I could feel like I was accomplishing something on that list.

Work has been crazy-busy! I'm so happy that Ryan is here to work with myself and Dave, because we would be drowning if it weren't for him. And the random dance parties really make the office more fun :-)

2006/2007

2007-01-03T12:12:00.000+03:00

Happy New Year!!!

I realized that I didn't really make New Year's Resolutions at the beginning of 2006. The most I can remember is "Get a Real Job," which luckily I accomplished. I think that 2006 was an important year for me, but that may be because I'm at that age when life is moving so fast that a thousand things happen every year. In 2005, I graduated and moved to D.C. and had my first real important relationship, and that was all great. But in 2006, I actually had time to process what 2005 meant to me. Yes, I moved back out of D.C. and I ended that first serious relationship, but in a way I feel like things actually came together this past year. I was able to take the time to reflect on what I had accomplished since graduation, and my relationship with Mike changed how I view many things. I also had (and maybe am still having) a serious "know thyself" phase, with some interesting results.

I accepted this job in Qatar in February. January and February were miserable, not necessarily because I was in Mechanicsburg, but just because I realized how much I hate boredom. I am not someone who can sit around and do nothing for a day, let alone two whole months.

The time I spent in Pittsburgh was wonderful, living and reconnecting with Josh, meeting new people, seeing old friends... the job at the restaurant was fun, but a really great reminder of why I got that college degree. The job at the campaign was a good experience because everyone should understand what it takes to get a candidate elected, but it was also a reminder of why I want to do policy, and not politics. My visit to D.C. in July, although only one weekend, made me realize that if I am going to live in the U.S. for the rest of my life, it will be there. My highest goals are only achievable if I am living there or internationally, and besides that I just love the atmosphere of the city.

Moving to Qatar was a life-changing experience, as I knew it would be, and as I know it will continue to be. In the grand scheme of things, I have only had a little amount of time to process my time here, and the affect that this country has on me will probably be lifelong. I feel like I could spend all my time here writing letters to the editor of various American newspapers, trying to counteract all of the misconceptions about this part of the world that make it into print. Not only has Qatar itself opened my eyes, but the opportunities that I've had to travel from here to other parts of the world is probably the most significant aspect of living here.

Those recent travels... India, Oman, and Hong Kong. Three extremely different places, all with their own blog post (or, forthcoming blog post), so I'm not going to get into each one now. So, what is the one common factor in all three places? Unfortunately, that "stupid American" is an embarrassingly accurate description of so many U.S. citizens that I have encountered internationally. I cringe every time I hear my own accent, because I never know what words are going to come with it. I would love to make a New Years Resolution to single-handedly change the behavior of vacationing Americans, but that's probably not the most realistic goal.

And if that's not my New Years Resolution... here they are, somewhat more realistic, I think.
1) Save more money: Everyone here is done with grad school, or for some reason not at all worried about paying for it. Not this girl. I'm already behind on what I had planned to save, so even if I don't get caught up, its time to get back on track. This means controlling my spending in Doha and budget travel only. The Lonely Planet guides are my new best friend. Notice I don't say that I'm cutting out travel, although it is absolutely my biggest expense. The experiences of travelling are well worth the few more months of loan payments (and its good that I put that in writing, so I can go back to it when I'm paying off those loans in a couple of years!)

2) Healthy living: seriously, I make this resolution every year, and it always works for about 3 months, and then goes to hell. Its harder in Doha because vegetables are impossible to get in restaurants and expensive in the grocery stores. This resolution also includes working out, but I'm much more committed to that than I am to healthy foods. What can I say, I really like Dunkin' Donuts and Chicken McNuggets. But I've been ill too often since I've been in Doha (including currently), and it needs to stop.

3) Grocery stores, not restaurants!: This is a very important part of Resolutions 1 and 2, so it gets its own bullet.

3) The blog: I haven't been very good about updating, and as much as this is for my friends and family at home, its also kind of my journal while I'm here. I've observed a lot of cultural things while I've been here and most of it just hasn't made it into my blog, possibly because I'm afraid that my anthropological ramblings will bore the rest of you (well, some of you). But no more. You can skip something if its boring to you, I promise I won't be offended :-) And now that I have my own digital camera, I can keep up much better with the posts that require photos.

4) Continue the "know thyself" phase that I mentioned: I kind of like the introspective me. When I was in college, I loved my life, but I didn't have time to reflect on it. In between college and moving to Qatar, I had tons of time, but I didn't want to reflect on myself in the context of not having a job and struggling with whether or not to stay with Mike. Now that I'm here, I have the time and I'm secure enough in my job, living situation, friendships, etc. that I really enjoy thinking about what motivates me, and how I got to be the person I am. I hope that doesn't sound arrogant, its certainly not meant to.

5) More books, less TV: I think this one's pretty self-explanatory. Besides, there's not much on TV in English anyway.

Arabic Language confusion

2006-12-22T23:12:00.000+03:00

I got a piece of mail today from my auto insurance agency. It was addressed to Kareail Narey Toma. As we told our Arabic teacher many times, it is not easy to translate English into Arabic and vice versa. There are a few sounds in Arabic that don't exist in English, and some English sounds, such as "p" or the short "e" don't exist in Arabic. For example, when the brand Pepsi is written in Arabic, it literally comes out being pronounced Beebsi. Also, the K and the C like in cat become the same letter "Kaf" and the S and the C like in certain become the Arabic letter "Sa." Likewise, the Arabic letters Sa and Sod both become English S. There are many examples of such problematic translations.

Anyway, I explain all of this because my name has apparently caused everyone some confusion, because they see the "y" in Caryl and don't realize that its pronounced as the "o" in Carol. My first name, written in Arabic looks like this (remember to read from right to left):

My middle name Marie looks like this:

And my last name Tuma looks like this:

Apparently when you look at that in Arabic and translate it all back into English, it becomes Kareail Narey Toma. The lack of distinction between "m" and "n" is something that I don't really understand, because both letters do exist in Arabic, the mim and the noon. You can see in my middle name that the mim was translated to N, but they got it right in my last name. Unfortunately, the Qatari government did not get it right in my last name, and every single one of my government documents is issued to Caryl Marie Tuna. Grrrrrr.

And for those of you who actually speak Arabic... Yes I do know that my handwriting looks like a two-year old's. I've only been doing this for three months. When it comes to Arabic... I am a two year old!

Asian Games Opening Ceremonies

2006-12-20T14:03:00.000+03:00

Jumana, Dave, Lisa, Karen and I in front of the Asian Games Torch tower.

The Asian Games is definitely the largest event that Doha has ever hosted. They've been preparing for about three years, and took place from December 1-15th. There were a decent amount of tourists in, and thousands of athletes and media from all over Asia. Since this is the first time that the Middle East has hosted, everyone wanted it to go well. Many expats fled the country, others planned to hide in our apartments, and some brave souls decided that they wanted to actually try to attend the games. Tickets were expensive for the opening ceremony, but we decided it would be worth it, so we had planned all along to do that. When we realized how cheap the tickets for most of the games were, we couldn't really resist seeing other sports, too.

The opening ceremonies were most impressive. Luckily our seats were under cover, because it poured all day long. The rain let up for the actual ceremony, and then started coming down in buckets again on my walk home.

The beginning of the ceremony featured hundreds (maybe thousands) of men in thobe with torches spelling out "Peace be upon you" in English ("Al-salaam alaykum" in Arabic).

The East Asia Silk Road sequence had hundreds of performers, dancers, and people moving these massive caravans.

The City of the Future segment focused on education, technology, and natural resources (and had some pretty sweet pyro). Interestingly, there was a pretty long section on science, and most people couldn't figure out the purpose of that. After some discussion, we wondered if maybe, since this is the first Asian Games from the Middle East, they wanted to do something to subtley refute the idea that everything is always focused on Allah. It could be much simpler, like they are trying to show another part of their history here, but anyway we thought it was interesting.

I thought one of the coolest parts was the parade of athletes from all different countries. Aside from Qatar, of course, the countries that got the loudest ovations were Iraq, Iran, Syria, the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain (Middle East countries) and then India and the Philippines (lots of workers from those countries live in Qatar).

The lighting of the Asian Games torch was one of coolest, and definitely the most suspenseful, moment of the ceremonies. They had trained a few of the Emir's horses to be able to make the climb from the stadium floor to the highest part of the stadium, and I guess on the night of, they just picked the one that was least skittish, but the rain had made the ramp slippery and the horse barely made it. Also, the rider of the horse is one of the Emir's sons (but I didn't know which one!) and at some point later that week I said something about that particular son being cute. Then someone from Education City told me he was 19 and goes to Georgetown here - oops! But I felt better when one of the Georgetown staff told me that women all over Georgetown were talking about him too, and they are in their 40s and knew who he was at the time!

Dave and I with part of our audience participation kit, which was so cool. Except we got so mad at the people (Qataris) who weren't following the directions on when to use each part, 'cause there was a whole list of directions, but they just turned their lights on whenever they felt like it, and then as soon as one person did, the whole rest of the stadium joined in. Yeah this is definitely a relationship-based culture, not a process-driven one.

More to come with pics of the actual sporting events!

Disaster strikes Qatar...

2006-12-14T15:45:00.000+03:00

I lost my liquor permit. Seriously, I have no idea where it is. (edit 17 December: I found it! I had forgotten which jeans I wore the last time I went, put on my cute jeans for the club the other night and there it was, yay!) That little card is the only thing that gets me into the Qatari liquor store. Instead of panic, I am trying to focus on the positives. For example, while looking for it, I found: two bobby pins, Uncle Tom's contact info, 150 Indian rupee, 6 riyal worth of Pizza Hut coupons, a DC metro card, a peppermint Cert, and about 82 American cents.

Another positive - I get an opportunity to post in my blog about the complex process of buying alcohol in this semi-conservative Middle Eastern country.

First, you have to get your liquor permit. This requires a letter from your Human Resources Director stating where you work and what your title is, where you live, whether you are single or married, and how much you make per month. You then fill out a form repeating most of that information, and adding your contact information and religion. You take the letter, the form, your passport, and QR1000 ($274.74) to the liquor store, where you have an interview. My interview was pretty much the simplest thing ever - they saw an American passport, and I had put "Catholic" as my religion, so they didn't ask me anything really. Just processed the paperwork. Then they took my picture and gave me a little blue card (this is what I have lost - so sad!) Encoded on this magical card is your permit limit - the amount of money you can spend at the liquor store per month. It is proportional to your salary, for example I get QR2000/month to spend. (Don't worry Mom and Dad, I've never come close to this amount).

Some other interesting facts:
~ There is just the one liquor store in all Qatar. It looks like a duty free shop inside. Apparently, a permit used to come with a specific day that you could shop on, and people without permits could accompany people with them. They now allow those with permits to come any day, but no one else is allowed in the store.

~ The store in closed on Fridays (like Sundays in Pennsylvania) as well as for the whole month of Ramadan. Luckily, they triple your allowance for the month before Ramadan. I didn't have my permit yet then, but from what I hear every expat in Qatar was there the week before Ramadan. We even have new friends because of the hour-long line to check out (Hi Mark!)

~ The store is owned and operated by Qatar Airways, the official Qatari airline. Pretty sure this is how they manage to turn such a sweet profit. Oh wait, that could be also be the US$400 it costs for the half-hour flight to Dubai. But I digress.

~ Judging by how long the Pakinstani guy in front of me was in the office, I think that the interview is much harder if you put "Muslim" as your religion on the form. Also, Qataris aren't allowed to get permits, but this problem is easily solved by giving their Indian driver a letter that says their salary is 30,000 riyal/month.

~ And finally, the Emir recently gave the Catholic church some land on the outskirts of Doha to build a new church. Where is it? About 2 minutes from the liquor store. My first thought: "Now isn't that stereotyping." Second thought: "Actually, how convenient!"

Ok, I feel a bit better...

So excited...

2006-12-13T09:24:00.000+03:00

for the Asian Games football final match!! I have tickets for the gold medal game, and even better, its gonna be Iraq vs. Qatar!

Its been a rough year for Latin American dictators...

2006-12-11T14:23:00.000+03:00

Having taken just one of Professor Borzutzky's classes would have exposed me to General Pinochet's authoritarian rule in Chile... I took five. His death has sparked new discussions over what his real affect on Chile was - while many people abhor the murder and torture of Chileans and non-Chilean opponents, many others are still advocating that he saved Chile from communism and created an economy that today is the strongest in Latin America. To me, the overthrow of a democratically elected government is never justified, and the world doesn't know what would have become of Allende's democratic-socialist administration because the democratic-capitalists of the world decided that he was too dangerous. Apparently a capitalist general with no respect for democracy - who was willing to do anything to stay in power, including killing and torturing his own people while stealing millions of US dollars from them - was a better option. Margaret Thatcher to this day continues her support of Pinochet, and Reagan was one of his strongest allies during his rule. America and Britain even now say they support democracy above all, and we all know that they support capitalism... Allende's overthrow by Pinochet just remains one of the best examples of what happens when democracy and capitalism don't come in the same leader.

On the other side of the political spectrum, but along the same "Latin American dictators get older and sicker" story line, Cuba's leader has been noticably absent from, well, everything in the last 8 months or so. Sources say he's not quite dead yet, but for all practical purposes, his younger (72 year old) brother Raul has taken over. Now is the time for every Latin American specialist in Washington to read After Fidel by CSIS associate Brian Latell. I posted about this book the first time I read it last year, but apparently the second edition is coming out in February. Fidel may have really hated the United States, but Raul was always the more devoted brother when it came to studying Communist ideology. However, being that the Cold War is over, Raul seems much more open to dialogue and *gasp* negotiation with the U.S. The real test, of course, will be what happens when the not-so-young younger brother dies as well, and even the best Cuban specialists don't dare make public speculations about that just yet.

I love having the time to really read and think about the news.

The Jeep Cherokee Sport

2006-12-04T15:01:00.000+03:00

Before I start this post, I'd like to go back a few years to something that Allie told me once when I was working in Central PA. She said: "I can tell how bored you are by your incredibly up-to-date blog." Well get ready, everyone, 'cause December is here, the students are gone, and I've been saving up stuff to say. Now, onto today's post. About....

MY NEW CAR!!!

I bought my wonderful little Jeep about a month ago, and it still has the new car smell :-) I got it because my rental car was a tiny little car, and everytime I entered a roundabout, I was pretty sure I was going to get smushed between a Land Cruisar and a construction vehicle. It can go over construction instead of around it, and now I can get to Dunkin Donuts (and various other places) by going over the dirt and rocks, which is much faster than the road. Also, it is much cheaper to buy than to rent it. So yay, I have a new car!

Unfortunately, I am now driving an SUV in a country that has never even heard of emissions standards, let alone implemented any. I'm gonna be driving a hybrid for the rest of my life to make up for this one.

I also thought this might be a good opportunity to explain some stuff about driving in Qatar. I'll probably get pulled over at least once a week for a month or so when I return to driving in the States. Here goes:

1. The Land Cruisar Phenomenon. The creme de la creme of vehicles in Qatar. The must-have of everyone who is anyone. The only way to start a list of "things to know about driving in Qatar." This Toyota SUV is made for taking on desert dunes and picking up otherwise respectable women. If you aren't driving one, just get out of its way.

2. The roundabout.
One of the bigger roundabouts in Doha, very close to Education City.

These exist instead of intersections at most places, and at first they are very daunting. There are literally hundreds of them all over the city, and you simply pull into them when no one is coming, and then exit at your "turn." Cars on the left (the inside) have the right of way. This is convenient when you don't know your exact road, because you can go around the roundabout until you figure out which to take, but it also causes a lot of accidents because many people forget to yield to the person on their inside, and there are a lot of quick speed ups and slow downs.

3. Left turns. Are impossible to make anywhere in the country, unless you want to take your car over the median that exists in the center of every road. If you want to go left, you either have to make three rights or go to the next intersection and make a U-turn. This is usually ok, but if you are running late or there's traffic, its a huge pain in the butt.

4. Intersections. The intersections that do exist have at least two lanes for going straight, one for going right, and two for going left. There is enough space for this because they all used to be roundabouts. There are two lanes for going left because the one on the far left is actually the U-turn lane (see Number 2.) When making a U-turn, one gets in the far left lane and uses the turn signal. When actually turning left, one gets in the center-left lane and does not use the turn signal, lest someone think that you are trying to make a U-turn from the center-left lane. All of this can be moot, as I have seen many people make U-turns from the far right lane, but its usually your best bet for avoiding accidents.

5. Getting lost. It happens all the time. Doha has possibly the worst urban planning I have ever seen. The concept is ok. The port is a half-circle, and the roads are built in concentric circles around the port, with other intersecting roads appearing as spokes to the wheel. Fine. Unfortunately, as the city got more crowded, they started adding half-circles and partial spokes all over the city and now its a big ol' mess. Take lots of gas with you whenever you go out, especially into the old part of town.

6. Accidents. Qatar has the highest per capita rate of injuries sustained in car accidents in the world. However, because so many of them happen at very low speeds in the roundabouts, the rate of death is much much lower. When you have an accident (and we always say "when," not "if" in Doha) you must first call the police. Even for fender-benders, because shops can't do any repair work without a police order. If you've colided with a Qatari man, just be quiet. Its your fault.
6a. There are a few things you can do to avoid accidents: (a) don't hit the person in front of you, and in turn, the person behind you will try not to hit you, (b) always yield to the bigger or more expensive car, and (c) always be on the lookout for someone behind you speeding and flashing their headlights. when this happens, switch lanes as soon as possible so they can pass you without being inconvenienced by switching lanes. even when in a hurry, don't actually do this yourself... it makes you an asshole.
6b. If one hits a pedestrian or cyclist, the fines are directly proportional to the nationality (i.e. social status) of that individual. In order of most expensive to least, this is: Qatari, other Arab or Western expat, Phillipino service industry employee, Indian skilled worker, Nepali or Indian construction worker.

7. All traffic laws are negotiable if you are a Qatari in a Land Cruisar.

Some stereotypes do turn out to be true

2006-12-03T09:42:00.000+03:00

Last Wednesday I had possibly the strangest day I've had in a long time. It was one odd occurance after another, and my internal schedule for the day was just completely thrown off. By far the strangest occurance within the strangest day was Andrew's arrest by the Qatari police. The story goes something like this:

Background: The Asian Games are coming to Doha, and a few days before the opening ceremony, the Asian Games torch ran all over the city, including through Education City. They closed two of the three security gates to E.C. for the entire afternoon, and the third was to be closed for approximately 15 minutes. People came from all over Qatar to watch the torch in Education City, probably because Her Highness Sheikha Mozah held a ceremony on campus to celebrate. Andrew had to teach an SAT prep class at 4, but we ran out quickly to get lunch, because it was 2:30 and neither of us had eaten yet, due to the aforementioned craziness of the day.

The Misunderstanding: As Andrew and I were pulling up to the Education City campus through the only open security gate, we noticed that they were only allowing people with Education City parking stickers in, they'd blocked the gate to the public. Most people were being forced to make the U-turn in front of the gate and go park somewhere else. The first security officer pointed us forward, the second told us to stop and then pointed to the U-Turn. The third security officer said "No, no... sticker" and pointed us ahead. Since we had already made the U-turn and both of the gates for the exit were open, Andrew and I thought that he was telling us to go through the exit into our parking garage.

The Arrest: As Andrew and I are pulling into the parking garage, we hear sirens entering behind us, and Andrew says he thinks he should get out of their way and pulls off to the side. The police SUV pulls up in front of him and two motorcycles block him in from behind. At this point Andrew says "is this for me?" Four police offers jump out of their cars and start yelling at us in Arabic, and when we don't react because we don't speak Arabic, they open the front door and pull Andrew out, slam him up against the car, and frisk him. They're still shouting in Arabic, Andrew keeps saying "What the fuck?" and I'm staying inside the car but shouting "No Arabic" and "La Arabe" (which means "no Arabic" in Arabic). So eventually they remember the word license, Andrew gives him his driver's license and they determine that there are no weapons on car or person. My first thought is that I need an Arabic speaker, but as soon as I picked up my phone they tell me (or I should say motion to me) to put it down. They manage to get Andrew to understand that they want him to follow them back to the gate guard stand. This all took place at an extremely high volume, but once in the car I finally got a chance to call Dave and told him to call one of our Arabic speaking staff and have him meet us at the gate.

As soon as we reached the gate, they pulled Andrew out of the car again, handcuffed him, and put him for awhile in the back of the cops' SUV, but then moved him inside the guard stand while we waited for Ahmed, our helpful CMU staffer. While waiting, I found the only English speaking policeman and had the following conversation:
Me: Excuse me, can you tell me what is going on with my friend?
Police: No ma'am, nothing wrong, just waiting for torch.
at this exact moment, a Qatari junior high student runs through the gate with the Asian Games torch.
Me: No, no... the police took my friend inside, can you tell me what's happening.
Police: Oh, what nationality your friend?
Me: He's American.
Police: Oh no, no have American
Me: He looks Chinese, but he's American
Police: Oh yes China man, he right there (points through open window at Andrew)
Me: Yes I can see him too, can tell me what they will do with him.
Police: Right there. (points again)
Me: Ok, never mind, shu'kran (thank you).

At this point Ahmed arrived. He's a very religious man, which is easy to see in this culture because of his beard and the way he wears his traditional dress, and as soon as the cops saw him it was like Andrew and I were completely different people. Ahmed asked me what happened, he translated it to them, they did the same with Andrew, they all came to the conclusion that it was a misunderstanding, but they couldn't let him go without telling their supervisor (who was with the Sheikha and obviously we weren't a priority at that point.) They allowed him a phone call to get his backup to teach the SAT prep class, and an hour later, they let him out. He has bruises and cuts on his wrist, but otherwise he's ok. I wish I had pictures, but I think the police would have put me in jail too if I had tried to take pictures of this rediculous scene.

The next day: Andrew had to go to the police station to pick up his license (with Ahmed, our CMU security guy, and Education City's head security officer). At this point we discovered it wasn't the police at all that we were dealing with, it was the Qatari version of the Secret Service.

And that was just the craziest part of the craziest day is a really crazy week. I slept most of the weekend.

Travel Plans!

2006-11-28T15:12:00.000+03:00

December is coming up, the students are gone, most of the faculty and staff are leaving, and I have to work for most of the month. But no worries, I've found myself some vacation days and some places to go!

December 7th-10th I'll be taking a short trip to Oman. Its on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula and apparently is very green and mountainous (the opposite of Qatar). Its just a long weekend but it will be nice to get away, especially because the Asian Games are making the city CRAZY!

I also finally finalized my plans for my trip to Hong Kong to see Chev! I'll be there from December 27th-January 3rd, and I'm gonna sightsee while Chev is at work, and then we're gonna go out for New Year's, and I hear that Chinese New Year is really cool. I'm so excited to see Chev and to finally get to see Hong Kong since I've been wanting to for a few years now.

It rained!!!!

2006-11-22T09:17:00.000+03:00

For almost the whole day. The first precipitation since I've been here. Dave and I walked around the Education City campus as it was drizzling and the construction workers looked at us like we were crazy, but it was so worth it! I'm totally missing fall and winter. The temperature has finally gotten down to 60 degrees at night, and around 80 degrees during the day. This is still a bit too warm for me, but at least the Starbucks are serving pumpkin spice lattes :-)

I've been neglecting the blog recently. I've actually had a decent amount of cultural interactions and somewhat important realizations, I just haven't had any time to process them and write them down. Finals are next week and the students are freaking out. En masse. And their panic is feeding off of one another. Although after next week the halls and lounges will be completely quiet, and that will be a lot worse than the panic.

The Taj Mahal

2006-11-10T17:26:00.000+03:00

My first view of the Taj

An absolutely gorgeous building. It was built by Shah Jahan, the third Mughal (Persian) emperor of India as a monument to his beloved wife, who died giving birth to their 14th child. It was her tomb, and he was intending to build an identical building in black accross the river, as his tomb, so that his soul could eternally see hers. Unfortunately his son was quite power-hungry, and imprisoned Shah Jahan in Agra Fort. Even the son knew how important the Taj was to his father, though, and imprisoned him for many years in a small room in the fort from which Shah Jahan could see his wife's monument. After his death, one of his daughters took his body to the Taj and buried him next to his wife. Their tombs are the only part of the building that is not completely symmetrical. He even built a mosque on the west side of the Taj, and put a completely empty building on the east side to preserve the symmetry. Ah, the crazy things you can do with enough money.

The mosque at the Taj

The carved walls of the Taj

The view east from the steps of the Taj at sunrise

A few thoughts about Tuesday

2006-11-10T16:38:00.000+03:00

I decided that I would take a break from unsuccessfully trying to post more of my India pictures to say a few things about the U.S. elections (especially now that VA and MT are actually decided).

Yay!!! That's my whole initial thought.

I am so extra-glad about Bob Casey beating Santorum (I had thought of about a million insults to use here, but at this point there's no need to call him names *cough "Devil!" cough*) Casey's such a good guy, he'll do great things for PA, and on a more personal note I'm happy for Josh 'cause I know how hard he's been working.

When I interned at the Democratic Foreign Relations Committee last year, the Republican majority had taken away all but four offices, I think. Five if you count that closet that they put the European specialist in. I hope Senator Biden goes in and takes all of their offices and puts them ALL in closets. I know its petty, but that was annoying!

I hope Nancy Pelosi manages not to scare the crap out of the entire midwest. Not sure that's possible.

I hope that the Democrats don't squander this great opportunity that they have. Not only as a policy-making body, but as an example of non-corrupt politicians who actually care about the public that they represent. But in terms of policy -- good lord, balance the budget and fix this mess of land formerly known as the sovereign state of Iraq.

Rumsfeld's resignation could very well be a superficial attempt to convince the Democrats that Bush is willing to work together for the next two years, and I won't be convinced until I actually see substative cooperation from this administration.

Barbara Boxer, as the new chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, has already pledged to have hearings ASAP on global warming and the human impact on climate change!!

The whole world seems happier, at least the people I know here. Even if they don't follow American politics, as soon as you say "Bush's party lost big" they get a huge smile on their face.

Did I mention that Santorum lost!! And yay!!!!

We now return to our regularly-scheduled India pictures. Hopefully. If I can get blogger to work correctly.

Ranthambore Wildlife Park, Rajastan

2006-11-04T13:06:00.000+03:00

Ranthambore is about a 5 hour drive from Jaipur. When we arrived we had lunch at the hotel and went on our first of two wildlife safaris! The big attraction is supposed to be tigers, but we didn't get to see any of those. We did get to see a lot of monkeys and deer though, and a crocodile, and the park itself is absolutely beautiful. The next safari was the next morning at sunrise. Ranthambore was actually my favorite overall place of the trip, for the following reasons:

The mountains and fresh air were awesome, especially after living in a desert. It was so nice to be outside in real autumn weather, and to see real trees!

The little town by the park is not very touristy, and our guide was so cool. He went out of his way to show us a Hindu temple in town, and then took us shopping at a place where actual Indian women would buy the fabric for their clothes. We could tell it was local because the owners didn't even speak enough English to bargain their prices, so the guide helped us bargain in Hindi. Then he took us to a pretty cheap souvenier store that donated a portion of its profits to a children's charity. He also answered every question we had about Hinduism and Indian culture.

women on their way to the temple

Our hotel was awesome. It was an old hunting lodge from British colonial days, and if you've ever seen a movie about the British in India, this is exactly what the hotel looked like. There were little tables with umbrellas next to cricket and croquet fields, big porches on the main building, and a hammock that I laid in and read every free moment I had. It was so peaceful and relaxing, which is totally what we needed in the midst of all the chaos that I mentioned before.

Monkeys are cute!

Jaipur, Rajastan

2006-11-02T16:18:00.000+03:00

cows in india are happy 'cause they can relax on the street without fear of being eaten

The first city we went to in India was Jaipur, which is about 4.5 hours from Delhi in the large state of Rajastan. Its a pretty touristy place, and the primary attractions are the Red Fort (which has elephant rides!) and the palace. Also in Jaipur we did some shopping for carpets, textiles, art, and jewelry. For these first two days, Jumana and I were with her sister Dina and Dina's friends from the Doha Asian Games Organizing Committee: Natalia, Anthony, Khalid and Marlen.

Khalid, Jumana, Marlen, Dina, and Natalia with a Hindu god statue.

The view of the Fort and the Old Treasury building above it from the elephant taxi stand

And the elephant taxis with their drivers. Some of their owners had painted their trunks for the diwali festival that was just finishing when we arrived.

The palace that the Maharaja of Rajastan still lives in. Even though all of his real power has been replaced by the secular, democratic government of today, he still holds symbolic power (sort of like the British monarchy).

Anthony and Khalid check out the snake charmer that was outside of the palace. We all got to hold the snake, which we were assured had been "de-poisoned."

The view of Jaipur from the top of the Fort, and a much closer view of the streets... the chaos is hard to portray in a still photo, it was the craziest driving I've ever seen.

India is...

2006-10-30T14:55:00.000+03:00

There is no one word to describe what India is like. I am getting my pictures developed as we speak, and I'll be getting more from the other people I was with, so I'll be posting those with more specific descriptions within the next few days. But for now some general thoughts...

India is chaotic. I would call it organized chaos because it does somehow work, but I don't think its organized so much as most Indians are used to the chaos and therefore function well in it. Our travels went fairly smoothly, thanks to our Indian driver, and our guides were very hospitable and knowledgeable.

India is crowded. Really crowded. One can definitely see that over a billion people live there. On top of that, there is still a lot of farmland and undeveloped land, which means that the towns are even more densely populated than the numbers would suggest. And the vast majority of people that I saw were extremely poor. Poverty like nothing I have ever seen.

India is cheap. 100 Rupee = $2.20, and I got more than one meal for less than 100 Rupee. It would be cheaper if you didn't have to tip almost every employee that you encounter everywhere, or if the shopkeepers didn't raise their prices as soon as they see a Westerner (but given the levels of poverty that I mentioned before, I really can't complain).

India is beautiful. The mountains and the rest of the land, the old architecture from the Mogul dynasty and the newer buildings from the British empire, the color of the women's saris - everything just makes your eyes light up... especially after living among sand, buildings that match sand, and women who wear only black. Oh, and the Taj Mahal is awesome.

India is historic. I've never been really interested in the history of the country before, but now that I've been, it makes me want to know so much more. There are Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains - all with their history in India - and then there is the time of the British and the current Indian government. I know that I like history more than the average person, but I think its a place that everyone could find something that interests them.

India is big. We went to four towns, each was between 4 and 10 hour drive from the one before it. And we covered the relatively small area of the country that I've put a block around on this map.

All in all, I would definitely go back, but I would probably go to the south or east before I returned to the northwest. I would definitely suggest it if you are a somewhat adventurous and laid-back traveller, and if you appreciate history and architecture. More to follow, with pictures!

I miss Pittsburgh

2006-10-22T10:45:00.000+03:00

I'm starting to write the application for the student exchange trip to Pittsburgh, and I'm realizing how much I love it there. Ok I already knew that, but I'm being reminded. One of the professors has an article from the Economist hanging outside of his office about the new development in the hometown that I'm so proud of. It even says that young professionals are starting to stay there.

I used to think that if I am happy where I am, there is no need to miss the place that I used to be. Maybe that's because the "place I used to be" was Mechanicsburg, and although I love many of the people from there, I don't miss the place itself so much. I was wrong. I do like living in Doha, and I like all of the traveling that I'm going to do from here. But I miss the Steelers, and even the Pens and Pirates. And CMU, and Mt. Washington, and Shaler Township, and even the Restaurant. And Shadyside, and the Strip, and the South Side. And the Carnegie Museums, and Heinz Hall, and the Benedum Center. And Eat 'n' Park, and Primanti's, and Quaker Steak, and the O. And Kennywood! And the people. Mostly the people.

The students here have apparently heard bad things about both Pittsburgh and the CMU campus. I wanna plan the best trip ever, so that they love the city as much as I do.

I wish that there was some way to work in international relations in Pittsburgh. I'd live there in a second.

The Indian Embassy

2006-10-18T07:55:00.000+03:00

Yesterday Jumana and I went to the Indian embassy to get our visas for our trip next week!! It was so exciting, because the last thing that we need to do to prepare is now done! Well, except we still need to pick them up. I'm not that excited about leaving my passport somewhere, especially when that place is a crazy-busy embassy. I'll be happy when I have it back in my hands with the visa inside.

Funny story about the embassy. Jumana, who has a Canadian passport, told me that the visa was going to cost QR150. Her sister, also Canadian, told her this. Sure enough, Jumana paid her 150 Riyal no problem. Then he says to me, "Ok 225 Riyal please." I said, "excuse me why? she just paid 150." He shows me the cover of my passport and just says "American." The guy in line next to us must have seen my face, because he laughs and says, "Americans are rich." I was like, "No America is rich, I'm not!" Then I shut up and gave him my 225 Riyal. The best part is that Ms. Arab-Canadian Jumana has so much more money than I do! Not fair!

I feel better when I think about the fact that my QR225 is getting me a visa for India that I am using on Sunday!! We're going to Dehli, Agra, Jaipur, and a wildlife refuge called Ranthambore. I'm gonna see the Taj Mahal, tigers, old forts, and the old markets! And I'm gonna get my own digital camera working before then so I can take videos of everything.

More Pictures from Birthday Weekend

2006-10-17T13:23:00.000+03:00

I finally got these... I really need to start remembering to take my own pictures! Anyway, we went to the desert a few weekends ago (the day before my birthday) and had so much fun. Basically you take an SUV to the desert and play on the sand dunes. It's like being in a toy car at the beach and an SUV commercial at the same time.

Alan, Shelly, me, Iliano, Marjorie, Andrew, and Doug posing with a bunch of sand, some water, and a nice blue sky.

Our expert driver/tour guide for the day says "Land Cruisar. King of the desert"

It turns out our guide was right. We spent most of the morning sliding down huge sand dunes at about a 45-degree angle.

Then we saw the beautiful inland sea, which is on the border of Qatar... and that land in the distance is Saudi Arabia.

Then our guides cooked us an amazing barbeque while we swam in the ocean. Even nicer of them since it was ramadan, so they couldn't eat the food they had cooked, or drink any water while standing outside cooking it. There was really good shisha (with Andrew) and Arabic coffee (with Eric), too.

Our guide says "Land Cruisar is not king of the ocean." Looks like he was right again, huh?

btw, that's a 2007 model Land Cruisar. Probably a $45,000 car. We never did see if they managed to get it out.

Then that night we had a party at Silvia's house. There aren't too many pictures, which could be a good thing, but if I find some more I'll be sure to post them. This is from Karen, right before she, Dave, and a lot of other people joined me for a happy birthday tequila shot.

Fasting again

2006-10-10T09:19:00.000+03:00

So after my last fasting experience, I had pretty much decided that it wasn't that bad. However, I wouldn't be volunteering to do it again until someone gave me a pretty good reason. Then one of the organizations in Education City tells us that a Qatari company is willing to donate money to Darfur for every hour that non-Muslims fast on October 9. Well, this counts as a pretty good reason. But it wasn't so easy this time.

First, the Steelers played the Sunday night game, which means that I had to get my butt out of bed at 3:00am for the game. Since I had also watched the Chicago game, and had started to watch Eagles-Cowboys before I passed out on the couch, I only got 3 hours of sleep. While this would have been more than enough to function while I was still in college, I am now kind of addicted to getting at least six hours. Also, I had a wicked sore throat yesterday, and all I wanted in my life was a cup of tea. Technically you don't have to fast in Islam if you are ill, but I know that if I hadn't done it yesterday, I never would have made up my fasting day later. So I did it.

Conclusion... being tired and ill and hungry makes you: a) unproductive at work; b) really cranky; and c) sleep so long the next night that you are almost late for work on Tuesday.

Birthday Weekend: Day 1

2006-10-04T15:38:00.000+03:00

So never in my life have I had a birthday that lasted three days. I even said specifically to my friends here: No, I don't want to make a big deal out of my birthday. I would say they ignored my request.

Thursday the 28th was culture day! It was the day I fasted, and we had the university-wide iftar that night. As you will see, it was a recurring theme of the weekend that I was either not paying attention to what was going on around me, or was just extremely naive. Anyway, Student Affairs left during the day to go get a present and flowers for me, and then they marched into my office and started singing. I noticed neither that they were gone, nor Lily yelling to Gloria: We're gonna do it in five minutes!! Five minutes later, I was very confused when Gloria came marching into my office. So nice of them...

My flowers, my new stuffed camel "Oasis McSpits," and a belly dancing music CD!

Lily, me, Dave, Gloria, and Oasis

This next part has nothing to do with my birthday, but one of the Indian students invited us to go to a dance festival that night. Traditionally it is the harvest festival. His mother let me borrow some beautiful clothes. Karen and I had so much fun trying to copy the Ghidrathi dances.

It's much smaller so its hard to see, but my dress is awesome, it was purple with gold thread woven through it, and his mom even gave me jewelry to go with it!

Stay tuned for days 2 and 3, as soon as I collect the pictures from everyone that has them!

Fasting

2006-09-28T10:44:00.000+03:00

The students invited some of the non-Muslim faculty and staff to fast with them for one day during Ramadan. Always being up for a cultural experience, I decided this was a good opportunity. Also, the students complain constantly during Ramadan about being tired and hungry, so if this really isn't that hard, I can now tell them to zip it. Just kidding.

That said, Muslim fasting during Ramadan is pretty strict. During daylight hours, there is no eating or drinking. Dawn (fajr) was at 4:08am today and sunset (magreb) is at 5:27pm. So we got up to eat a large meal (suhoor) around 3:30, and drank lots of water. Its considered cheating to decrease your normal level of activity, but we all have to be at work anyway. And many people, especially a lot of the students, do take naps in the afternoon. Also forbidden during daylight hours are smoking and sex, and many men avoid even touching women. Lying, talking badly of others, and general bad behavior are more heavily frowned upon than normal. The fast is broken at 5:27 by eating a date or dried fruit and drinking some water, followed by the sunset prayer, and then a huge dinner called iftar. After dinner, most people spend much of the night socializing with family and friends, and then sleep a bit before the next suhoor.

Donating food to the poor for their iftar is a huge deal, and almost all of the people who don't recieve that food are donating it. Some of the wealthier families will sponsor an entire mosque in poor neighborhood for a night or a week, to make sure that those people have iftar.

So anyway... I am a few hours into my fast with slightly more than a few to go. I'm kind of thirsty but other than that its business as usual. The best thing is that the students and Muslim faculty get such a kick out of the fact that we are "voluntarily" fasting. I don't know if I'll be repeating this at any point (you all know how much I like food), but it is definitely worth the cultural experience.

Doha Scenery

2006-09-26T10:13:00.000+03:00

I finally got pictures that I took from around Doha! (i've been trying to do this layout for so long, please bear with me if it doesn't look exactly right!)

Doha skyline, taken from the other side of "Al Corniche." Look how green the water is! Also, about 50% of those buildings are still under construction.

The Emiriate Diwan, the working palace of the Emir. This was also taken from "Al Corniche." He lives in a different palace outside of town, which I haven't seen yet.

The apartments at the Four Seasons complex, with a very common sight (construction) in the background. This shot was taken from the marina at the Four Seasons, so Dave could see his apartment balcony on the 17th floor from the water. Yeah he has a pretty sweet view.

The view from my back porch is pretty typical of Doha suburbs... short buildings, desert colors. What's special about mine is that from the back porch you can see the stadium that they are building for the Asian Games in the distance. You can especially see the tower that is going to hold the flame, which I think is pretty cool. Its hard to see in the picture but much easier in real life. I'll be sure to take another pic during the games, when the flame is actually lit!

My living room, with the doors to the back porch, guest bedroom and guest bathroom. I have not yet figured out what the heck I'm gonna do with the second bedroom and bath. I guess this means y'all have to come visit me! What do you think of the burnt orange sofas, pretty sexy, huh? Oh well, as of today, that TV gets ESPN!

The outside of my apartment building. I live on the third floor of the left side (my front porch is behind that left palm tree). Carla lives on the third floor of the right side and Silvia and Erik live on the first floor below me.

My kitchen... with more than enough cabinet space, especially considering that I only cook about twice a week with all of the free food opportunities at University.

And finally... We discovered this on a shopping trip and I had to share. The beauty of marketing the Middle East: Kelloggs has labeled this cereal "ludicrously tasty." I'm not sure exactly how they came up with this, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the "synonym" function in Microsoft Word. Well, I bought it!

Ramadan Kareem

2006-09-24T13:33:00.000+03:00

Today is the first work day since Ramadan started at sundown on Friday night. Pretty much the whole country changes.

No Muslims are allowed to eat, drink, or smoke during sunlight hours. This means that they often eat a big meal right before sunrise and then another large meal just after sunset. This causes schedule shifts and makes for some pretty cranky students toward the late afternoon.

The sunset meal is a big deal almost every night. Its called Iftar and usually involves large groups of people eating together. CMU-Q and other parts of Education City often host Iftars for the students. The first is this Thursday night, and I'm going to try fasting on Thursday, just to see what its like. Except water... I may have to keep drinking water. We'll see.

Non-Muslims are asked not to eat, drink, or smoke in front of Muslims who are fasting. This isn't a rule, exactly, but it is extremely rude to do so. Most of the restaurants are closed during daylight hours, including the student cafeterias. The staff cafeteria is open, but most people who are eating lunch take the food to their office and eat with the door closed.

Most of the shops and offices open early in the morning, close from about noon-7:00pm, and then re-open from 7:00pm-midnight or so. To my joy this morning, traffic patterns had changed so much that my normal 20 minutes of sitting in traffic had turned into 3 minutes of easy driving.

All bars and the liquor store are closed for the entire month. Unfortunately, Ramadan started a day earlier than expected (its based on the phases of the moon) and I was unable to get my liquor permit. Adventures in Liquor Permits is a story for another day, however.

I've been told that this month is a shock to the Westerners who are experiencing it for the first time. So far, so good, even though its only been two days!

Jesus Camp

2006-09-21T14:47:00.000+03:00

I try to keep my posts based on culture and my experiences in Qatar. But sometimes you see something that you just can't ignore. As an American woman living happily in the Middle East, I feel sometimes that I am overwhelmed by discussions of political Islam and terrorism and all of those catchy phrases that may or may not be applicable to the region in which I live (or, more specifically, certain groups within that region). During a discussion on this topic recently, one of my students said, "We need to educate our children about what Islam really is, that its not a violent religion. Islam promotes peace and acceptance, but if we don't teach that to all of our children, then a tiny proportion of them will perpetuate these violent stereotypes."

Everyone at home and everyone here knows that I associate my core values with my Christian background, and although I don't go to church every week I do consider myself a Christian. I cannot believe that we would put our children in a place where they learn that their "enemy" is another religion, and that we are "at war" with them. Scary! Do you think that you were mature enough at age 10 to consider the question "Will you die for Jesus?"

Jesus Camp trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_EKHK1C2IE

Although I would like to withhold judgement on this documentary until I see it, I am not sure that I will get the chance to see it here. Should I see it in the future and change my mind about these camps, I will of course be posting on this blog about how wrong I was.

Please don't think that I am supporting Islamic schools that teach these same concepts to their children - I am certainly not! Its the same message, different religion in the headline. To that message, I respond: Train your children to think for themselves. Anything other than that is irresponsible and dangerous.

To paraphrase a statement by Queen Raina of Jordan, these battles are not between Islam and Christianity, these battles are between peaceful moderates of both religions and the extremists of each who continue violence in the name of their religion. (I encourage anyone who sees quotes from Queen Raina to take note - she is an extremely articulate and interesting woman.)

One final thought: Jews, Muslims, and Christians believe in the same God... what must He be thinking about all of this violence being done in His name?

As promised...

2006-09-19T16:09:00.000+03:00

Dave, Erik, and our tour guides dig in

pictures from lamb brain day...

I should explain that on Saturday some people from CMU-Q got the opportunity to tour a mosque and ask questions about the history, beliefs, and rituals of Islam. The people that gave us the tour are part of a Qatari government organization for the advancement of Arab culture and Islamic scholarship. They are accustomed to dealing with Westerners who are curious but not knowledgable, and I think everyone that went learned a lot. I know I did.

They also gave us a traditional meal afterward. This is usually lamb and rice, and a group of people will eat with their right hand off of one tray while sitting on the floor. Lesson learned: rice is really hard to eat with your hand.

Dave, Karen, and I pose with the tray of rice and lamb:

Dave poses with the skull of a lamb,
before we open it and eat the tounge and brain:

Karen and I hang out on the traditional majlis seating after lunch:

So cute! Rachel makes friends with our tour guide's daughter:

Overheard in New York

2006-09-19T10:02:00.000+03:00

I highly recommend this website whenever you're in need of a laugh. For example...

This Explains Why the Senator Isn't at a Zero-Percent Approval Rating

Dude #1: You know, I kinda like Richie Santorum.
Dude #2: Yeah... he's a pretty good guitarist. Bon Jovi's alright.
Dude #1: Yep.

--7 train

via Overheard in New York, Sep 18, 2006

I ate lamb brain today...

2006-09-16T19:00:00.000+03:00

it was smushy.

Pictures as proof to follow shortly.

Its Pittsburgh Steelers Time!!!

2006-09-10T11:28:00.000+03:00

Did you know that Thursday night football starts at 3:30am (Friday morning) in Doha? Yeah, thank you 7 hour time difference. Luckily Aaron's satellite ESPN out of Australia carries it, because apparently there's nothing else on at that hour of the day. We consider ourselves very lucky that the cricket match didn't go into its third day of overtime.

I napped from midnight until 3:00am, due to a CMU-Q faculty dinner and quality time at the Paloma bar on Thursday night. When considering the following events of the wee hours of the morning, please keep in mind the following things:
Dave Stanfield is the biggest shit-talker fantasy football has ever seen, and I play him this weekend.
Dave has Ward and Brown on his fantasy team and I have Chambers and Heath Miller.
Its f'ing four o'clock in the morning!!!

Beginning of game: Overall I am ok. I am sleepy and that's not good for a defensive battle, as it is. The chicken wings that I am eating help. The only person on the whole field having a good game is Ronnie Brown. I am not entirely happy.

Then...: Ward scores a touchdown! I am happy, even though I wish it was Miller instead of Ward. Whatever, screw fantasy, I'll take the Steelers points. Chris Chambers is noticably absent from every play. Dolphins score, I am sad. I realize Chambers caught it. I am happier. The play gets called back due to penalty. I am torn. Ronnie Brown runs the next ball in for a touchdown. I am pissed.

Halftime: did you know the sun comes up around 4:45am in Doha?

Second half: Dolphins score, blah blah blah, I seriously don't think Chambers is even on the field. Ike Taylor is earning his new contract. So are the Dolphins #2 and #3 recievers. I look up from my chicken wing to see a Steeler running down the field with the football. I jump up and start shouting "Go, go, Go!" I see that it is Heath Miller, I start shouting even louder "Go!" I wake up Aaron's wife. I feel bad. I see the replay and start begging Jeff Reed to "kick the freaking extra point already!" I see the challenge flag. I cry. The next few minutes are a blur. In the end, I am very happy.

The game ends and we go to breakfast at Ric's Country Kitchen (fondly refered to as Texas Land) in our jerseys. The American men there look at us with confusion and admiration. I drink sweet tea and eat cheesy grits and go to sleep at 10:00am. Yay.

I got a new office!!

2006-09-03T11:43:00.000+03:00

I finally get to be on the same hallway as Dave, Gloria, the rest of the student affairs staff, and most importantly the students!!!! Work life is so much easier now that I am close to everyone I work with. I am going take out some of the filing cabinets and drawers and put a table and chairs in there instead, and hopefully there will be room for some comfy armchairs as well. I'm also hoping to get something interesting for the boring white walls.

Also, my Arabic classes start tomorrow, and we are starting to plan a vacation for the Eid holiday in October. Lots of fun things to organize :-)

Yvonne Ridley

2006-08-27T11:07:00.000+03:00

Last week we hosted a speaker at CMU-Q named Yvonne Ridley. This woman used to be a British journalist, she was captured by the Taleban in Afghanistan in late September, 2001. She negotiated her own release 10 days later, and agreed to read the Koran when she returned to Britian. She then converted to Islam and became quite an outspoken advocate of her new religion, especially the role of women. Her basic point was that Muslims need to stand up for themselves and educate the world about the real religion of Islam, not the extreme version that is practiced by fundamentalists, terrorists, etc. What exactly she said was interesting, but more interesting was the reactions that students and faculty had to her.

The faculty and staff, most of whom are from the West, had reactions ranging from "She's an extremist nutcase" to "She made some interesting points, but at times I thought she went a little too far." (That second one was mine)

The student reactions, however, ranged from "I didn't agree with everything, but she was thought-provoking" to "She truly inspired me."

The disappointing thing was that the faculty and staff were surprised when they heard that the students responded well to Ms. Ridley. They assumed that everyone would have responded the way they did. There just seems to be a cultural disconnect there, and Java programming and calculus might be the same around the world, but if the dialogue about culture doesn't exist, I just wonder how the faculty is truly going to reach the students. Maybe that's a very anthropological viewpoint of mine, but I hope that the staff and faculty here understand that they have a lot they can learn from these students as well as a lot to teach them.

Exciting Opportunities!

2006-08-22T11:39:00.000+03:00

This week has been busy already, and its only halfway done!

First, I signed up for Arabic classes. One is for reading and writing, and one is for conversation. They meet 4 mornings a week (2 mornings/class) before work and they're free! This is one of my highest priority goals for my time in Qatar so I'm glad that I'm starting right away. There are also classes available at the Qatar Council for the Promotion of Islam, so if I want to practice more, I can do so for a relatively cheap price.

Second, I was talking to Fadhel, our Government Relations Officer at CMU-Q, and I mentioned that my grandparents lived in Saudi Arabia a long time ago. I said something like "Its too bad I'm a single woman and I can't go into Saudi." He suggested that I have my father or brother take me, if they ever visit. Now I don't mind going to Saudi with my dad, but I'm not entering any country where they tell Drew that he has legal authority over me! And I told Fadhel that I didn't know exactly when my dad was coming. So he thinks that if a big group of men and women go, and most of the women are married to the men, and we have a guard with us at all times, they might let me go. He's going to talk to the Saudi government and see what he can do. Not many single American women would be excited about going into Saudi Arabia, and I wouldn't say I'm excited so much as intrigued. But I would totally take the opportunity to see what its like there, and it might actually happen!

Paloma memories...

2006-08-20T09:00:00.000+03:00

The Paloma nostalgia of the weekend: On Thursday night, or as my new blogger friend Ryann says, T.A.I.T. (Thank Allah its Thursday), a whole group of CMU-Q staff went to a restaurant/bar at the Intercontinental Hotel. The place was simply called La Paloma Bar, so that didn't take a lot to make me think of my husband. (For those of you who don't know, Paloma and I got "married" during Las Vegas night at CMU sophomore year). Then, on Friday evening I turned on the TV and its Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit!!! Oh it made me want to dance! Also, they can't have Christian websites in this country, but they can have Whoopi Goldberg in a nun costume singing about God... curious...

I also went to a club at the Marriott on Friday night with Silvia, Erik, and Carla. In two nights I have come to the following conclusion: club music is exactly like the radio - techno, Arabic, hip hop, pop, oldies and both nights I heard Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody." Yeah. Halfway through the night at the Marriott I remembered the State Department Travel warning that said "Americans should avoid hotels, bars, and other places frequented by Westerners." For a second I was concerned, then I looked around. FYI, State Department, the bars were overflowing with very non-Westerners. The majority both nights were actually from Lebanon... the Lebanese know how to party.

And here's where the weekend gets surreal... we saw some of our students at La Paloma. Our chain-smoking, beer-drinking, public-affection-displaying students who informed us that they do this every Thursday. I'm still recovering from the shock. Its just something about the name Paloma that makes people want to party :-)

Its the little things...

2006-08-14T10:24:00.000+03:00

When you move to a country with a completely different culture from the one you're used to, initially there is a shock, where the differences seem overwhelming. Then you start to notice some things about your new culture that, even when they're annoying, kind of make you smile because they're just so, well, foreign...

Muslim countries with freedom of speech and religion are particularly interesting. On Friday morning, I left my Christian church service, which took place in an unmarked villa, to hear Arabic prayer being broadcast over the loudspeaker of the large mosque next door. Talk about something that's not likely to occur in the States!

Then a few nights ago I was driving home, listening to the ONLY English radio station. On this station, you can never be sure if you are going to get Frank Sinatra, British techno-pop, bad country western, or Pantera. Imagine my excitement when I heard that the next song was going to be Bohemian Rhapsody, one of my favorites! Imagine my disappointment when it was interrupted during the first verse by the sunset call to prayer.

I'm an easy-going person, and I had studied enough about the culture here that I was prepared for the big things, but every once in awhile (like when Queen gets ruined), you just have to laugh and remind yourself that its the little things that make a culture worth learning.

Starting work at CMU-Q

2006-08-05T21:30:00.000+03:00

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!

Driving in Doha

2006-07-28T19:10:00.000+03:00

This morning I got my car and actually went driving around the city. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean, there were almost zero cars on the road, but still, for my first time learning roundabouts, there were enough cars to keep me on my toes but still accident-free. I went out to where I'm working, down to the corniche to take pictures of the Doha skyline, and just all around really. I need to go out again tomorrow, because I really think the only way to get over my nerves about it is just to do it over and over. The one thing I did do today was run a red light. The yellow lights here are really short, and they give out tickets like crazy for going through reds. Except that they just take pictures and issue the ticket, which outrageously expensive, like QR3000, and then they don't tell you. So you might go to leave the country, and they won't let you get on the plane unless you pay your fine. Isn't that odd?

Anyway, after driving I tried to reward myself with Dunkin' Donuts, but of course the one by my compound was closed. I should have known, almost everything is closed on Friday morning. But I really wanted that donut. By the way, there are more Dunkin' Donuts here than in Pittsburgh. This city really is wonderful.

****
Side-note for those of you who have been so kind as to offer care packages. You can send them to the CMU campus in Pittsburgh and they'll send them to me. You can't send anything with pork product, religious items, alcohol, tobacco, or porn. (I can't imagine why you would be sending those things anyway, but some of you are kinda strange so I thought I'd put it out there. Although I would appreciate alcohol, alas it is not allowed.) CMU will look in the packages and take anything out that can't be imported to Qatar. I can only get five lbs. of shipment per week, and anything over that cuts into my shipment for the next four weeks. I don't know what any of you would be sending that weighs more than 20 lbs., but that's the max. Anyway, here is the address, thank you in advance!
Caryl Tuma
c/o Qatar Office SMC 1070
5032 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15289

Orientation to CMU-Q

2006-07-27T23:26:00.000+03:00

So I'm writing this entry right now on my very own CMU-issued laptop, which works perfectly in my apartment since it was already equipped with wireless when I got here. Very exciting. Next thing on the agenda is to get my digital camera set up on this computer so I can finally post some pics of my place.

On Tuesday I had my Orientation with the Human Resources people, housing and car guys, the business manager, all of those important people. I learned about getting my permanent residency permit, all of the staff procedures. It turns out that one of the women in HR is the mother of one of the students that was visiting Pittsburgh, so she's taking extra good care of me :-) Oh, and if I thought everyone in Doha was nice, everyone at CMU-Qatar is a saint. They treat the new employees so well. We also have another orientation with all of the new employees that will discuss culture shock.

I also got to meet my boss on Tuesday. He is going to be the new director of student activities, who is so nice (and get this, he has a blog named "Dave in Doha!") We got dinner last night and looked at a new apartment for him that is right along the water. We also went to campus today and then to the mall. I am really excited about working with him because he is very genuine about working with the students and really seems to know what he is doing. I think we're going to be able to do really good work. Also, I met Gloria today, the Dean of Student Affairs. Finally, I got to meet the woman who hired me! She seemed very excited to have us there, so they've been making us feel very welcome.

Funny things: so the qatari riyal is divided into dirhams, but anything less that one riyal isn't really worth anything, so none of the stores really keep dirhams. Instead of getting change at the grocery store, they give you candy or gum with your purchase! Also, there is this store here that is like a really big pottery barn, and there is a cafe in it that is supposed to be one of the really good date spots in Doha. So at some point I have to go on a date at the home store :-)

Tomorrow I get my rental car and brave the driving for the first time. Luckily on Friday morning everyone is at mosque, so traffic is really light, and on Saturdays many people go to visit extended family, so it will be a good chance to practice (fingers crossed!)

More to come soon, its after midnight here so I'm going to sleep!

2006-07-24T14:56:00.000+03:00

Finally in Doha!!

I am finally in Qatar, after what seems like forever getting here. This is my fourth day (its taken me awhile to find the computer). I've been out in the city every day and I still have no idea where anything is. The car goes by everything too fast for me to really notice what it was, and normally I would walk around my neighborhood to get my bearings, but its almost too hot to walk to the clubhouse of my apartment complex, let alone around the neighborhood. To recreate the heat in Doha, take your car outside on a sunny day this time of year. Put it in the sun around 10am and return to it about 3pm. Get inside. That is what the outdoors of the whole country feels like. Forntunately, they air condition every building, almost to the point that its too cold indoors!

Also, the entire city of Doha is under construction. The roads, office buildings downtown, housing complexes, everything. They are also redoing a lot of the roads, so what was a road yesterday may be a construction area today, and they are going really fast because they have to be ready for the Asian Games in December, so it could be a road again tomorrow. This does not make it easier to find my way around, but it is really interesting to literally see a capital city being built. I now know the two main roundabouts by my compound, one of which is a road that goes all the way downtown, and the other of which has a dunkin' donuts! Other than that, I know bits and pieces of places but its gonna take me awhile.

The apartment that CMU gave me is gorgeous, and it came fully furnished and even stocked with food! Its in a very nice complex, with a clubhouse that has a pool, gym, billiards room, tennis courts, lounge area, computer room, and outdoor grill. I hope more CMU people move in, though, since I don't know very many people at this point.

The people here are very nice. Everyone is so helpful because new ex-pats move in all the time, and they are trying to represent their country well. The shop owners will let you taste anything before you buy it, and sometimes they'll let you taste stuff even if you tell them you aren't going to buy anything.

Tomorrow I am going in for my Orientation at CMU-Q, and then I will actually start work on August 1. I am still so jet lagged, I'm resisting the urge just to sleep from now until then!

I miss you all, email me!

2006-06-22T18:33:00.000+03:00

Itinerary!!

So I finally got the info for my flight to Qatar. I am leaving Pittsburgh on July 20th, flying through Philadelphia and then I leave for London that night. I have a connection in Heathrow the next morning, and then I fly from London to Doha with one stop in Bahrain. I get into Doha around 9:00pm.

Everything else is going well, the only things I have left to do are get my travel immunizations and get my computer fixed, and then just wait for my visa and plane tickets to arrive, and then I go!

2006-06-02T20:11:00.000+03:00

Quick Update - Two New Things

Of course I'm not actually in Doha yet, but things have been moving along nicely in Pittsburgh. First, all of the practical stuff is actually getting done for my move, things like doctor's appointments and meetings with the CMU-Q people to discuss things like salary and benefits (which makes me feel so adult!) Also, it looks like my departure date is pretty much set at July 20th. I'm sure the time is gonna fly between now and then.

Also, more exciting than meetings and paperwork, is that I got a chance to work with the Qatari students who are studying in Pittsburgh for the first summer session! There are five of them, and at least three of them are returning to the Doha campus in the fall, which will be nice for me since I will certainly be fully disoriented when I get there. I've basically just been helping them out with the little things that are involved in moving to a whole new country, like getting cell phones and learning the public transit system.

My meetings are just making me more and more excited, and I read everything I can find about Qatar. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go through some sort of culture shock, although I'm not sure to what degree. I think it all depends on the people that are there when I move, and how well I adjust to my job as much as the new city and country.

And I'll probably actually be updating this thing more often now that plans are in motion!

2006-05-09T06:10:00.000+03:00

Productive Meetings!

So for awhile nothing was really happening with preparing for my move to Qatar, but now I've finally started to get things done. First, I had an eye appointment to take care of new contacts and glasses, so that was boring but it had to get done. One thing off the checklist, you know.

Last Saturday I went to a pre-departure orientation that dealt with all kinds of study abroad issues. Some of it was aimed at students, so that wasn't as helpful, but the discussions of culture and culture shock were interesting. Looking at myself as a product of American culture was also helpful since I will be living somewhere that is very different from America. The whole thing also made me very nostalgic for Scotland, but that's a tangent I don't want to get into.

Today I had a meeting with Gloria Hill, who is the Vice Provost for the Qatar campus and works full time at the Pittsburgh campus. I got the rough parameters for my official offer, which answered a lot of questions, and I got to talk to her about how CMU-Q is different from Pittsburgh, what she thinks the students need from the student life office, and the student population as a whole. She also answered some logistical questions for me. The only big question left to answer is: When do I leave??!! Gloria said she would try to get that info for me as soon as possible though.

I certainly have enough to do before that day comes, anyway. Doctors, dentist, chiropractor, computer doctor, more Qatar meetings, and work work work at the restaurant. Gotta stay busy so the time goes fast from now until when I leave, 'cause I'm getting really impatient!

2006-04-05T19:50:00.000+03:00

Today I bought a video camera

and found lots of pictures of Doha online. Its so beautiful, I can't wait to see it in person!

To do as soon as I'm only working one job: get my computer working again, or buy a new one, so I have lots of room to store my pictures and videos!

2006-04-03T17:33:00.000+03:00

New Blog!!

So as most of you know, I'm moving to Doha in July. There is a lot of stuff to do before I'm ready to leave, but I am ready to do it and get going!

This blog is so everyone here can keep up with my travels to Doha and throughout the rest of the world. Until I leave, it will keep me organized and excited!