Eid Day 6: Last Day!

I totally forgot to write about Yad Vashem yesterday.  That's the Israeli Holocaust museum.  It has much of the same stuff as the DC one, but it's built like a prism and overlooks the beautiful Jerusalem countryside.  It also has a few more extra exhibitions like a children's memorial, but I didn't get a chance to go to that one.  I walked through a little faster than I would have liked, but I've seen much of it before.

Yad Vashem

Anywho, today I'm in Tel Aviv, and it is absolutely beautiful! My hostel is on the beach, and though I froze taking a dip in the Mediterranean, it was nice to lay out and read Pride and Prejudice.  I took a long stroll along the beach before dinner - gee don't I sound romantic? The weather was perfect, and I felt like a typical tourist in my linen pants, sweater, mojito, and carefree attitude. Alas, no tall, dark, handsome man wanted to walk in the moonlight, but I had my Mr. Darcy...guess I can't complain too much ;)
 

I swam in the Mediterranean here. Obviously this is posted after I got back, but you see that barrier of rock in the background? A mortar sent by Hamas landed just on the other side of it. Just a bit too close for comfort.

Beautiful beachfront view :)

Eid Day 6: Back to Where it All Began

Israel is not a good place for me, or rather, not a good place for my bank account! I kept making spontaneous decisions!! I decided to stay a couple extra days in Israel because the girl I was going to couch surf with lost her job and moved out of her apartment, and I never heard back, so..... Anywho, there happened to be a day tour to Bethlehem on Wednesday, so I changed my flight plans and stayed in Jerusalem one day and then will spend my last in Tel Aviv.

Our tour guide was a Palestinian Christian and one of the sweetest guys I've ever met! He spoke to me almost exclusively in Arabic, which was fun, but I only really understood him about 40% of the time.  That's ok...I at least knew the topic since he was explaining Luke 2 to us. The owner of the shop we went in gave me a better price and some free Palestine gifts, too, because I spoke Arabic with him.  Our conversation did actually make sense to me the whole time lol.

Our tour guide in the caves

The first place we went in Bethlehem was the fields where the shepherds lived and worked.  The coolest part about this place was that for the most part nothing has changed.  There are still caves, still olive trees, and still rocks and hills as there were in Bible times. We went into one of the caves and saw just how a. small the places were where the shepherds lived and b. how protected they and their flocks were from danger.

We headed to the Church of the Nativity next where a group of Koreans and Spaniards were singing O Holy Night and Silent Night. I joined in, realizing how much I'm going to miss singing Christmas hymns in church this year.  Even though it was 80* outside and October, it was nice to get to sing with fellow Christians. :)

Nativity scene in the church in the Field of the Shepherds

We headed up to where the shepherds saw the star and where the manger was.  Both are now in churches, just like Golgotha, but what surprised me is that the manger was in a cave! All this time I thought the stable was a barn, but the stable would have been in a large cave back then.  I also learned that the Persians spared the church where the star was seen when they came conquering because they saw pictures on the wall of the Magi carrying their gifts and thought they were Persians.

On the way out of Bethlehem, we stopped to see the wall of political graffiti on the borders of Palestine.  Some of the stories told on those panels were devastating, yet the art was so beautiful.  I obviously didn't experience any of the violence or occupation or fighting or whatever you choose to call it for myself, but I got to see people's feelings displayed in their paintings on the wall.  Just 100 yards of art told two generations worth of stories.

Eid Day 5: Path of Jesus

Well, I finally figured out why I had missed the initial tour.  Apparently Israel is special and runs on its own time, changing the clock back when it feels like it. So, if I'm not mistaken, the time was different from Qatar which was different from Jordan which was different from Israel. I'm not entirely sure why, but whatever.  At least I went on the tour today!

The Dome of the Rock from an Austrian church

Our first stops were at the tomb of King David and the room of the Last Supper.  They are in the same building, as least as far as tradition goes, with the Last Supper being in the upper room and the tomb below.  As I walked in, I heard a Canadian group singing "I Surrender All" and joined in in the last verse. It felt so good to sing hymns again, and it brought me back to when John West used to end his sermons with that song on Sunday nights.

Jesus' tomb

The next place we went was down the Via Dolorosa. Now, I had never heard of the stations before, but we stopped at most of them. In Catholic tradition, there are 14 (I think) stations that have to do with the road to crucifixion.  A handprint here, a miracle there, and certain stops in between that are mentioned in the Gospels.  I didn't understand what a lot of them were, but I stopped to get pictures anyway.  On our way down, we passed a group with a man carrying a cross.  Apparently it is tradition for certain orthodox groups to have someone take the path Jesus took carrying a much lighter cross on wheels to experience the toil.

Candles at Golgotha

Our last sights were at Golgotha and Jesus' tomb.  I thought Golgotha was some giant hill in Jerusalem, and it turns out it's a. really small and b. in the middle of a church! His tomb, too, is several feet away and down a steep flight of stairs! I was not expecting that at all. I definitely got emotional at the site of Jesus' crucifixion, realizing that every sin that has ever been committed and will ever be committed was thrown onto an innocent man in that very spot, and especially that several thousands of those who walk by that sacred place have no idea the magnitude of such an action. My entire group stopped long enough to take a picture and walk on, all of whom (save one) were in Jerusalem just to understand "history."

This small piece of step is very contested because it is unknown whether Armenians or Catholics should be washing it. Is it part of the stairs? Is it part of the platform? They seriously argue over it to this day...

Wailing Wall

Eid Day 4: Sunrise Edition!

Found this in the cistern I climbed down into!

Words cannot explain the day I had. I woke up at 315 - that's a.m. not p.m. - to hike up Mount Masada.  I tried to get a full 8 hours of sleep knowing I'd have a long day ahead of me, but my German roommate insisted on debating American politics until 1030. *sigh*  Anyway, a group of 10 of us troopers headed out in pitch black to Masada, the place in the mountains where King Herod built his fortress.  The Romans amazingly conquered the area in 73AD and found nothing but ruins.  The Jews had committed suicide to avoid being massacred by the Romans.  We headed up this mountain - more like a really rocky hill - and got to watch the sunrise as we hiked.  Quite possibly one of the coolest and most spontaneous things I have ever done.  I had my own little worship service at various points on the mountain since it was Sunday for me.  Y'all. Singing hymns. In Israel. Watching God's majesty in the background.....Ain't nothin' like it.

It fit me perfectly!

After we got back down, we headed to Ein Gedi, a nature preserve on the way back toward Jerusalem.  Nothing extremely exciting there, but we did see several oryxes and beautiful waterfalls.  We figured after climbing Mount Masada, why not hike a little while longer? We were rewarded with a secluded waterfall area with freaking cold water and bright sunshine.

 

Mount Masada overlooking the Dead Sea

Last part of this tour took us to the Dead Sea. They really are serious when they say you just float.  I mean, I tried swimming...and I kept ending up on my back. Getting into the water itself should be an Olympic sport.  I sank into mud up to my hip - which I know is not very high for most of you but just go along with it - and kept slipping and sliding til I made it to the sea.  I picked up a few salt crystals, too, to take with me as souvenirs.  Sadly, there were too many people on the beach for me to feel comfortable taking out my camera and leaving it on the beach while we floated. All of us slapped the mud all over ourselves until we blended in with the water.  It felt really nice on the sunburns we were developing, so I can see why people used to flock here to be healed.

Party at the beach!

Day 3: Al-Quds!

Day 3 was basically me taking five hours to go about 150 miles because my passport got taken six times in that span, so I made the afternoon a walking tour to get a feel of the city. So, that's what I'm going to do for you. Enjoy.

Looking downtown from Jaffa Road

Old City wall by Jaffa Gate

Ethiopian wedding celebration

Welcome to Jerusalem!

Israeli flag

Flinging green and gold afar!

This speaks for itself, let's be honest

Palm trees!!!

I mean, why wouldn't you want to get shekels and a tattoo in the same place?

Fall of Berlin Wall + Alcohol = besties?

Eid Days One and Two: Amman, Jordan

Get ready for an installment of several blog posts!! I'm finally home safe and sound in my own bed in Qatar, a long story that I will bore you with much later.  I spent two days in Amman, one full day more than I actually wanted to, but I was unaware the border would be closed for Eid.  I had been told it would be open half day, but apparently they decided to close it the whole day.  Although I was frustrated, I made the best of my situation.  The hotel manager of the hostel I was staying in was one of the sweetest men I've ever met, and I wish I had taken a picture of him to put on here! I will never forget his generosity.

I got scammed out of several dollars while in Jordan, so it left a bad taste in my mouth and made me want to change my flight to stay a little longer in Israel.  The taxi driver charged me more than he should have, and there were no seat belts in the car, so I was slightly frightened for my life.  I've gotten better at having conversations in Arabic, though, so I guess that's a plus.

I bought a few things in one of the local shops, again getting scammed, but oh well.  I came out with a lovely scarf and a cross for my apartment, as well as free coffee and dates from the Tunisian who owned the store.  I took to roaming the streets and happened upon a large amphitheater from the Roman days.  The top gave a beautiful sight of the city - however dirty the city may be - and I could see other Roman ruins around the area.  It was quite the hike up the steps, so I'm thinking these Romans were slightly taller than me...shocker, I know.

The boys pictured below were...interesting.  I was climbing around the top of the amphitheater, kind of like I would the Castle Park back home, and they started yelling at me in Arabic.  All I can assume they were saying was, "Careful! It's dangerous!" because they kept pointing at me.  I tried to run away just because I wasn't sure who they were, but naturally they followed me to the ruins and ran into me on the stairs. I told them I had no idea what they were saying, since my Arabic is not fantastic, so we spoke in English a little.  I took a picture of them, per their strange request, and as I was leaving, they asked me if I thought one of their crew was cute. I told the guy who asked, "Inta majnoon," which means, "You're crazy," and they got a huge kick out of that as I went back down the stairs.

I got to stay in the hotel for free on Friday since I was so out of luck on getting across the border, and the manager fed me lunch, dinner, and about seven cups of tea.  Apparently for this Eid, it is tradition to slaughter a lamb for you and your family, and then give what you will not eat to the poor.  So, I was taken in as family and ate with him, his son (who he not so subtly tried to push my way), and a friend down the street.  Despite me not liking Amman, or at least downtown Amman, I hope to return one day to at least repay him for his kindness.

Desert Safari

This blog will be relatively short since I'm waiting on pictures from some people *cough cough Daniel*.  We spent Friday in the desert which sounds terrifying, but it really was pretty cool! We were supposed to go dune bashing, but sadly some people weren't allowed to, so we went dune "riding."  Regardless, we went over sand dunes in Land Cruisers in a crazy fashion, blasting Shakira in a fully-ACed vehicle.

Typical picture with camel in the desert

When we got to our camping site, the first thing most of us did was head out to a huge dune west of us.  We took turns hopping on a snowboard to go sandboarding.  I was terrified, to say the least, but I hopped on anyway and took it for a spin. Super smooth sailing until the end...I didn't wipe out, but I didn't land in the most gracious of fashions.  The board rewarded me with a bruise that I'm sure will be quite lovely in the morning.

Lakshmi and me!

A lot of people got stung by jellies (read: boys splashing around haphazardly knowing full well what lie in the water), so we clung to the shore.  I looked around for the nearly invisible little suckers to avoid the welts that many of my friends were getting.  I seriously considered touching the top of one to see if Finding Nemo lied to me or not, but I chickened out at the end.  I decided I didn't want my own little Squishy...he could stay on the beach.

The night ended with a wonderful barbecue and coffee underneath a myriad of stars.  Seriously, I haven't seen such beautiful landscape since our ROTC group went to Lake Whitney (Joshua Vaughan you still owe me a football btw :P).  You had to move away from the tents a little bit to really see the Milky Way, but the pitch black night over the khaleej was magical.  Hopefully I'll get the chance to go again soon so I can pay attention to the sunset this time!

Buh-bye Dubai!

What a great weekend in Dubai! The Study Abroad group decided to go on a spontaneous trip to Dubai for the weekend, just because we could.  I say spontaneous because we really only planned it a little over a week in advance. To say, "I'm gonna hop on over to Dubai for the weekend," really just blows my mind. So. Flippin'. Cool!!

We landed in Dubai a little after midnight with plans to be up and out in the city by 8am, so we got less than four hours of sleep by the time we got to our hotel. Our hotel was super awesome (thanks Corrie!), as we had two bedrooms, three bathrooms, a balcony, a basket of fruit, a super huge TV, and a little kitchenette!

Friday morning we headed out to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure in the world!! It shot us up 126 stories in about 42 seconds, or about as fast as Usain Bolt ran his WR 100-m dash. Slightly insane.  Fortunately, I went up the Empire State Building a few months ago, so I was a little more prepared to be a ridiculously large number of feet up.  We really only went up about 2/3 of the way because the rest of the tower is too narrow to stand on. Still, it was awesome to see Dubai down below and Iran across the sea.

 

Sorry the video is sideways...not sure how to turn it right side up!

After coming back down to earth, the gang split up around the Dubai Mall to see what adventures lied ahead.  Lakshmi and I indulged in some good ole' Canadian Tim Horton's coffee, took pictures of the Texas Roadhouse inside, and headed up to the interior sooq.  The boys later went skiing, as did Corrie, but Lakshmi and I went to an arcade instead.  We found a life-size fishing game akin to what we had as a child!! Lakshmi got a huge turtle as as prize, and we named it dufdah. Much to my chagrin, that actually means "frog." Thanks Wisam...

We headed for the famous Gold Sooq later, where naturally I got a silver cross necklace instead of a gold one. If I had a dirham for every time a guy asked if I wanted to see his assortment of Gucci, Prada, you-name-it bags and wallets, I would have been able to buy the Ferrari across the street.  Okay, so maybe not the Ferrari, but maybe the RR a little ways down.  After the sooq, Allen, Michael, and I headed back to the mall to watch the fountains.  It's a spectacular show similar to the one at the Bellagio in Las Vegas :)

Dang. Guess I'll go throw mine away...

The next day was definitely much more chill.  We all caught up on sleep and headed out to tour the city. Lakshmi and I headed back to the mall for the free WiFi and then made our way toward the renown Atlantis resort.  It was kind of a bummer because we couldn't go to the beach since we weren't staying there, but we did get a tour.  We saw the aquarium inside (COOLEST AQUARIUM EVER), the "super famous coffee shop - Starbucks," and then boarded the Atlantis Monorail.  It took us on a 15 min. tour of the Palm, allowing us to get some beautiful footage of Dubai's most exquisite resort.

Atlantis! That Ziggurat is like the Black Hole at Hurricane Harbor

One more trip to a sooq, wherein we passed two Maseratis, a Bentley, several Porsches, and a couple Ferraris - oh and some Rolls Royces, too. I swear this place is ridiculous.  Lakshmi and I bought the typical touristy Dubai bag, some Italian gelato, and headed back to the airport to meet up with the gang and come home!  Exactly what I needed in a weekend!

What is this wet stuff?

WE. GOT. RAIN. TODAY!!!!

I was watching HIMYM today when I saw a lightning flash.  Naturally, it was raining in the scene, too, so I thought that was all I had seen.  It took a few more lightning bolts and light rumbles of thunder to realize that a storm was in fact moving through Doha!! There was nothing on the radar or anywhere in the forecast to suggest that rain would be coming, so no one was expecting it.  I immediately jumped out of my chair and ran outside to make sure I wasn't dreaming!  My smile brought on by the impending rain quickly turned to a gasp when I realized it wasn't actually a thunderstorm that was coming...it was a sandstorm! All of us  expats outside quickly ran inside or under our breezeways to avoid the sand. It was such a cool sight to see it coming up toward the compound, but I didn't think to bring my camera out.  Thankfully after the sand was gone we did actually get rain, and it rained for almost an hour! I jumped around in it, as did the other kids, relishing in the cooler temperatures and much needed moisture.

The Qataris, however, had a different idea of what to do in the rain. Enjoy:

This whole weekend has honestly been fantastic :)  Thursday we went to the Grand Mosque with Qatar Foundation.  We had the incredible opportunity to walk around inside and take pictures of the absolutely beautiful house of worship.  It was a nice surprise to see my friend Kyla there, since it had been a couple of weeks.  We took pictures modeling the abayas they gave us (mine was bedazzled in pink rhinestones and gold trim) and the hijabs we brought so as to show reverence for Islam. I had an Indonesian friend do my hijab for me at school since I had no idea what I was doing, and you would have thought the world was ending.  Everyone just stared at me. I had to announce that I was going to the Grand Mosque so they asked us to wear a hijab. Out of everything that I have worn here, that got me the strangest looks...go figure. 

Inside the Grand Mosque

Grand Mosque minaret

The study abroad kids booked flights to Dubai for next weekend...can't wait! It took forever to actually get my ticket booked since flydubai is epically awful online, but everything is taken care of now :)  Who knows what awaits us there...dolphins? skiing? marriage proposal from a prince? Okay, so that last one is out there, but hey, a girl can dream ;) 

One month down!

I can't believe I've already been here a month! Just last week I was saying it felt like forever that I had been here, but now that I actually think about it, I realize I only have three months left!  The busier I get, the faster everything flies by.  I finally got all parts of my schedule set today, and boy will I be left tired a lot!  I'm only taking 9 hours of classes a week, but I'm tutoring English and writing for 14 hours, doing research as part of my internship about 10 hours, and tutoring Spanish on the weekends. That doesn't even include all the time I'm spending on my Arabic homework...this class is easily the hardest one I've taken since calculus my freshman year!

Souq Waqif at dusk

Thankfully, though, I was spoiled this week to make up for my exhausting week.  My host mom is in Singapore, so I stayed with a friend this week in a swanky high rise downtown. It's soooooooooooo nice! We were minutes away from fancy hotels and restaurants, the downtown mall with skating rink, and the corniche - a cultural walkway in and of itself! Thursday we finished off the week at a really nice Italian restaurant to indulge in pumpkin week, a bottle of Italian wine, and great company.  Just what all of us needed after the week we had.

Downtown Doha at night!

The study abroad kids were treated last night to a dinner by our asst. dean and my research faculty at their home downtown.  Good ole homemade Mexican food...finally! :)  We all dressed up and just sat around the table relaxing and watching American football.  Delicious tacos, warm brownies, and fresh ground coffee made the night absolutely perfect. I also got to show some of the kids upstairs to see the view from the top of the high rise. It really is breathtaking here.

With that, I will leave you til next time! And btw, I'm taking suggestions for where I should go the 2nd week of December before we all head home! Leave a comment for me!

I RODE A CAMEL

I know the whole blog is not going to be about my title, but I really just had to put that out there. Sorry I have been distant for a few days...I have been battling my semi-annual sickness. Yay.  8000 miles away from the allergy capital of the world and I still catch something.  Thankfully the good people at the pharmacy took pity on me and gave me the medicine I needed with neither a dr. appt. or a prescription.

The last few days have been very dicey here.  Everyone is keeping on their toes due to the recent violence, and we will probably be practicing our evacaution routine in a few days.  Nothing to worry about...they test it once every month or so.  Really the only country on this entire peninsula that has even had violence is Yemen - and that's not entirely surprising.  My Yemeni friend is just sick of all the violence and chaos, ranting that everyone is yelling and destroying things for the simple pleasure of yelling and destroying things.  He has friends that work in our embassy and obviously wants no harm to come to them.  We had our own protest Friday after mosque, but it was as peaceful as a coherent, logical demonstration should be.  A couple thousand gathered across the street and yelled "Praise be to God," and "Allah is one," with some holding signs I couldn't read, and that was about it.  No one yelled that they hate America.  No one yelled, "Obama, Obama, we're all Osama."  They voiced their anger and went home to be with family.

Qatar has Froyo! Granted it was $.80/oz but that's okay

My Friday was pretty flippin fantastic though, outside of being sick of course. Adrian and I lounged around and watched movies and then headed to the sooq (marketplace) to buy gifts and such for people back home.  I got a new purse and sunglasses, so I can fit in with the oh-so-stylish Qatari people.  Well...I can at least try. The best part was the freaking camel that I got to ride for free because the guy is awesome!!!  This is kind of how the conversation went:

Me: (taking pictures) Ooh. Aah. It's camels.

Adrian: I know, right?

Bedouin guy who keeps looking at me:  *whistles and points inside*

Me: Uhh...no. I'm good.

Guy: Yes yes. You. Come in.

Me: La. La la la la la. (No, I'm not singing. That means no.)

Guy: Don't be scared.

Me: Fine. *crawls through* (Adrian snaps picture and I walk off)

This is Shabat. His name means "young." Or "February." They're close, right?

Guy: *more whistles* Hey. You want on?

Me: La. Shukran. (No. Thanks though)

Guy: Why you scared?

Me: (So I've gotten called a scaredy cat twice now...fantastic). Ana labsah tanoorah. (I'm in a skirt dude.)

Guy: Get on.

So I do. And he says, again, "Don't be scared."  At this point, I'm not scared, I'm terrified.  I am waaaaaaaay past just concerned that I'm getting on a camel bareback and will soon be about 8 feet in the air. Guy held my arm and kept me safe, but I definitely felt weird being on the back of a camel in a skirt. 

Me: Shukran jazilan. Bikaam? (Thanks so much! How much?)

Guy: La. La.

Me: La la la. Min fadlak. *hand over heart*  Min fadlak. Bikaam? (No no no. Please, how much?)

Guy: You know me now. No money.

Somewhat creepy I suppose, but totally awesome that a random guy in the middle of a sooq let me ride a camel spontaneously and refused to let me pay him for it.

Me and Shabat :)

Life is short

I feel that being here in the Middle East means I should comment on the attacks today.  Praise be to God that I am in neither Libya nor Egypt, but that does not mean that I am not affected by it here.  On the contrary, when I found out that Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans were brutally murdered, I almost broke down in tears.  I'm not sure if it was the loss of life, the utter exhaustion from this week, or being in this region that made me so upset, but everything became very real for me today.

We all heard about the attacks before most of you were awake today, but we heard only slight details.  It wasn't until this afternoon that we learned the ambassador was killed, or really that more than one death had occurred at all. The reaction to these attacks has been most profound for the Americans, obviously, but everyone I have talked to here - Egyptian, Yemeni, Qatari, etc. - has been just as upset and confused.  The South African I talked with was livid, denouncing the radical Islamists and just frustrated at all the violence.  The Arabs were upset and felt bad for our country, but they almost seemed unfazed at the actual event.  The Yemeni guy I talked to showed me pictures of the body of one of the bodyguards in the attempted assassination of his defense minister a few days ago.  The graphic, crispy body of this innocent man was blasted all over Facebook in Yemen; nothing was censored.  Something I did not realize until this morning was how protected we are in America.  As someone put it, our news is sanitized.  We get so upset at North Korea and China and Russia for not allowing free speech and censorship of media, but we do it, too, and we don't even realize it.  You don't find pictures of burning bodies or slaughtered kids in Syria or bomb victims on Facebook in America.  For better or for worse that's just how it is.  These college students are used to seeing pictures like this.  It honestly makes me less surprised that revolutions and riots happen so frequently here.  If I saw that on my FB in the morning and had to see children dying in the streets, I would do something about it, too.  Somehow the government is not doing its job.

Amidst all this violence, Doha is an island of peace.  The Qataris, Syrians, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Americans, British...all of us get along with each other.  There are obviously political differences that get people all in a tizzy, but my point is I don't see violence here.  I don't even see crime.  People here are respectful of religion and political thought insofar as they will not rise up against you because of what you believe.  I have found several Christians to hang out with and fellowship with here.  On the flip side, I have met hundreds of Arab Muslims who are just as interested in American culture and my faith as I am in theirs.  There are so many things I take for granted and think others should just know, but then in turn I feel they think the same about me when I have questions.  They are eager to teach me their dialect of Arabic (which btw is causing me migraines) and what the true doctrine of Islam is.  They refuse to label themselves with the radicals and do not mention them when talking about the different beliefs within Islam.  I've come to find the evening/sunset call to prayer as one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.

It's funny/sad that people freak out when they hear I'm in the Middle East because they lump the entire region together as an unstable environment for anyone to live in.  If people would just do their part and go further than watching CNN or Fox or whichever media you prefer, they would see that the Middle East is as much a melting pot as our United States.

One full week down!

So there have been some changes since I wrote that quick blurb about my weekend.  The most important is that it's looking like I actually probably won't move into the dorms here.  Apparently, since the Bush School doesn't have an official contract (working on that when I get back if I can!) with TAMUQ, grad students are provided housing at the discretion of faculty here. The Qatar Foundation, which houses the undergrads that come here, have contracts with the various universities that are here. If I wanted to live in their housing, I would have to shell out 11000QAR, which is the equivalent of a little more than $3000. I'm perfectly happy where I am and have plenty of things to do.  I am being taken care of more than I could have possibly hoped for with a room, a pool, a gym, friendly neighbors, great food...it would have only been a move out of convenience so I'd have more proximity to students. But, that's what a cell phone, car service, and emails are for. :)

Anywho, back to the weekend.  We started off at the Museum of Islamic Art, built by renowned Chinese artist I.M. Pei.  He designed the building so that it itself would be a piece of geometric art, changing with how the sun hit it during the day.  Right downtown along the Corniche, the MIA fits in with the super modern atmosphere of Doha, while ironically housing some of the most classic forms of art the Qataris have acquired.  The museum houses long, exquisite oriental rugs (which we pretended to take for a "magic carpet ride." Not so happy looks from the security guards...), ornate Turkish war masks and helmets, calligraphic Quranic script on everything from bowls to tombstones, and several precious gems.  We even saw one of the smallest Qur'ans I think exists!  Afterwards we headed out to a really nice Middle Eastern restaurant where the Navy boys and some of our guys enjoyed grape shisha.  I had never heard of people smoking shisha in the middle of a nice restaurant, but apparently that's pretty normal here!

Museum of Islamic Art

Yahala was definitely something....different.  Don't get me wrong, it was a blast; it was just nothing what I expected.  I'm not sure what I expected, actually. They told us it would be a welcoming party for all the students from across Education City, but I don't think any of us were prepared for the madness.  For one, the Aggies were not the most obnoxious, most rambunctious group.  That title belongs to Northwestern.  Holy moly those Wildcats could yell.  Before the main event they had a tiny raffle (3 prizes for about 600 people), and there were booths set up all over the student center.  We were given free gourmet cupcakes, free shirts, and free sodas.  I signed up to help Qatar Charity because for only $11 a month, you can help save an orphan! It's an awesome thing they do here, and there are several donation booths on each of the campuses.

Smallest. Qur'an. Ever.

The food has been consistently delicious here, but I'm going to have to go to Applebees or Chilis at some point because I'm not sure how much more Middle Eastern food my stomach can handle! It's not used to the richness of the hummus, the curry, the butter chicken, and the dolmas.  About the only thing my stomach has greatly welcomed has been the tabouleh!

Turkish soldier's helmet

I'll leave you with a few things I never actually expected to see or hear in Doha but shockingly have:

• Applebees, Chilis, TGI Fridays, Johnny Rockets, TCBY, and Baskin Robbins
• KFC and Taco Bell DELIVERY
• as many roundabouts as there are mosques
• Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Mercedes a dime a dozen

Labor Day weekend

So we don't actually celebrate Labor Day here, but it was a weekend full of parties and get togethers regardless.  My class starts in about an hour, but I figured I would give a short update on this weekend before the longer post with pictures and such.

Rundown of the weekend:

• Museum of Islamic Art, designed by renowned architect I.M. Pei
• Fabulous Middle Eastern restaurant with enormous buffet and shisha
• Yahalla, a welcome back party for all students at HBK university
• Four hours of orientation for study abroad students, where we learned about 20 different ways we could get thrown in jail for at least three years here
• Booked flight for the Holy Land, with more possible flights to Turkey, Thailand, and Nepal to come!
• Church!!!
• The possibility that I might be able to live on campus with the rest of the students!

Convocation for TAMUQ 2012

Today was definitely an interesting day! I didn't do a single thing until about 11am, but after that I was just going going going! I haven't found out the results from my Arabic test yet, but I'm not expecting anything good.  That test was seriously the hardest test I've ever taken, including the calculus test I made a 54 on freshman year. I had to write my own little notes on there to prove that even though I had no idea what the question was asking, I could at least read part of the story they gave me to read.

I got my research assignment and will be researching the effects of cultural differences on diplomatic negotiations.  There are a lot of little nuances in each culture that affect how officials do business with other foreign officials.  However, not enough research and statistics have been done on the topic to identify these little nuances or even how to prepare for them. We're still negotiating my class, but it looks like I will probably take Politics and Islam, exactly what I was hoping to take.  Both my Arabic class and this potential Poli Sci class are actually at Georgetown, so I'll have to go to a different campus in the mornings before work. 

Tonight we busily ran around getting things ready for convocation, as we introduced over 100 students to TAMUQ and welcomed the rest of our 500 students back to campus.  Y'all, in 2003, TAMUQ only had 29 students, and now there is over 500! That's insane! And we only have one building!  It was a whole new experience attending an A&M convocation in a different country.  For the most part it was segregated; I saw multiple times men coming with their wives or friends and having them sit two or three rows away with other women so they could sit in the men row.  It was the most bizarre thing I have seen because everyone was just getting up and shifting around so as to accommodate this phenomenon.  I promptly stayed where I was, in the middle of the men row, naturally, but only because there was no one sitting within three seats of me.  The little auditorium was only about 2/3 full, so there were plenty of empty seats. 

Terrifying tarantula statue

The speeches were dry, as per usual, though the TAMUQ SBP did a fantastic job with her speech.  It was short and sweet and definitely set the tone for the upcoming year.  They also recognized those making the Dean's Honor Roll in the last full academic year.  If we tried doing that on main campus, we'd be reading names til the cows came home!

Our Turkish dinner!

I finally have a Qatari cell phone! I haven't unlocked my American phone, nor am I sure that I can, so for now I actually only have a Qatari SIM card, but that will change tomorrow. I was basically yelled at by a staff member, who incredulously looked at me as though I was insane for not having gotten one in the four days that I have been here.  Apparently Qataris and ex-pats alike are attached to their phones almost more than Americans are.  And, in case of a sudden evacuation (unlikely to ever happen, so calm down Mom), they need to be able to get a hold of me ASAP.