Hello, Sister, or how I made it to Qatar, Doha, and Education City

My plane landed last night (if you couldn't tell from the hurried post), and now, I'm sitting on a lab computer in the CMU building in Education City, freezing!

Why? The over-air condition everything.

So, getting here. I headed out from Agora (my Istanbul hostel) at about 10, during a wonderful break in the rain. As we had headed back from hookah the night before, my shoes and pants got soaked, and so I just put the same damp stuff on for my trip to the airport, expecting to get wet. I brought extra clothes to change into.

After a quick half hour walk-tram-light rail transport, I made it to the airport with about 3 hours until my flight. In this airport, I had to send my luggage through a scanner to get into the airport (remember when I had to do that when I arrived and left the airport without getting money? Yeah, it's a bit of a hassle, but makes some sense.) Then, the counters aren't labeled at all, so I had to ask at information which of the A-F numbers 1-18 counters I should go to.

I got to the Etihad counter (remember how hard it was to get this flight? Yeah, thankfully it was all settled by this point.) There, I was informed I could only have one carry-on that was 7kg. Seven kilos is nothing! My laptop weighs 3! But I didn't want to pay for an extra bag, so I used that extra time wisely: sticking everything that into my hiking backpack, including my other backpack. The attendant was incredulous, but ten minutes later, I had one bag that was 110kg to be check, and one that was 8 (she let it pass... I think she just felt sorry for me at that point).

I went through the passport check, then got to my gate area, which had the final screening. I found a great Turkish newspaper with some awesome puzzles in it. There was a Samurai soduku (which kept me occupied for at least an hour over the course of the day), a word search and one of those crosswords where you just have to make all the given words fit into them (Deanne, you like those). They were in Turkish, but I got them!

On my first flight, from Istanbul to Abu Dhabi, I decided to be friendly and chat up the Canadian I was sitting next to. An urban planner, he gave me all sorts of information about the UAE and his work. We also got nice little entertainment systems that I enjoyed too.

The Abu Dhabi airport had this gorgeous mushroom ceiling mosaic (the ceiling was shaped like a mushroom) but awful water pressure in the bathrooms, which meant they were pretty bad.

I have been on four flights now (the last being from Abu Dhabi to Doha, which was only 40 minutes), and 3 of the 4 have given me food! I was not expecting it! I got ravioli, and a delicious eggplant stuffed with beef, and then a sandwich on that final, 40 minute flight. We hardly had our seltbelts off and had a breadroll with cheese and tomatoes.

I landed in Doha, got through immigration and customs breezily, and started looking for a sign, since I thought there would be a driver waiting for me to get me to my dorm.

There were actually two students that greeted me, and a driver to take us back. After some confusing calling to get a CDA (their version of an RA) to let me in, me, Alini, and Shakir went out for some delicious juice smoothies. Then, I poked around my large living area enough to see that no one else was there, and fell asleep.

This morning, I was awake and puttering around by... you know... 11. It was great to sleep in. there was a ringing at my door and a maid? helper? some woman said, "Hello, sister. I have some welcome items for you." I was told I would get a little bit of food to tide me over until I could go shopping, so here it was!

I have linens and towels and food, and internet, but no converter for my room yet. There is a giant TV, and large kitchen, and two bedrooms with two beds each. There is a full bath and a half bath, and a laundry room... It is pretty impressive. The bedroom, though, is a bit tight. But I'm not complaining! I'm not sure if they roommate they told me online is my actual roommate though... I thought she was already living there, but the room I'm in was empty.

I met Melissa, my coordinator, and began figuring out the giant and beautiful building that is CMU here. She's the one that hooked me up with this computer. Let me just say, while I'm freezing sitting here, the weather outside is a toasty... 90 degrees F maybe? Ahhhh...

Well, off to read, watch TV, finish laundry, and have more adventures today (maybe).

It's good to be "home."

(I'll probably walk around now and take some pictures to add to this post. Look for them later!)