That's My Terrorist Pose, or Day 25 in Doha

Today was not very well planned. I was not busy, then for 4 hours straight had 4 different events that I could attend. And now, back to being a lazy night.

I love Thursdays, the only day that I really sleep in. I got up at noon, exercised, ate my camel leftovers, and started the craziness.

First up, the CMU Development Solutions Organization (or something that shortens to DSO) is doing a week-long campaign to raise money for Haiti. I went to the meeting for that, supposedly signed up to get signed up for shifts, then scurried off to...

CMU's Got Talent! The talent show that shows the exchange students (and everyone else in EC who heard there was free food) what people on this campus can do. My apartment-mate sang OneRepublic's "Apologize" with two other freshmen on back-up... and they were really fun to watch! Jessica did a song from "Ragtime" ('m ashamed to say it's one of the musicals I know almost nothing about) that was very powerful. My favourite part was when a group did an encore of a famous Pakistani song that I didn't know... yet almost the entire crowd was singing word for word with her. Now I want to find out what the song was! (Update: Mishab told me it was Aadat. Now you can go memorize it and fit in!)

After the dazzling talent show, I went to Qatari Day/Night, which was taking place just 100 meters from the show. They had taken the middle corridor, set out couches and tables, had "dress-up" clothes for people to try on, and had some great literature that I picked up.

For about half an hour, there was sword dancing... Men were wandering around in thobes with these sabres that they would wave around in time to a dance. I was sure someone was going to get stabbed, since no one was looking where they were going. So in light of all this, I, of course, grabbed a sword and jumped in. Never mind that there weren't any other girls doing it... it is clearly a cultural event where I wouldn't get tramped. As I was posing for this picture, the random guy that is in it came up and goes "This is my terrorist pose" while miming slicing my throat. I'm glad they can poke fun at the incorrect image we Americans have of them.

However, the acceptance there wasn't like my other plans for the evening, which fell through. Tonight was the African Cup semi-final between Algeria and Egypt. I want to go see how intense people get for football around here... being in Austria for the EuroCup a few years ago was really, really cool. However, they apparently get wild and dangerous. One of the places in the souq wasn't going to show the game because they were scared fights were going to break out.

So, in sum, sometimes I hate being a girl in any country where places are too dangerous for me. That happens in the US too, though, so I can't be too harsh. And don't worry, parents, friends, strangers that read this blog... I'm being careful!