Twitter That, or the Day 29 in Doha

The follow few paragraphs are a pensive departure from my normal posts. But don't worry, I'll tell you about my day in a minute.

So this blogging thing has been really interesting to do, since I originally started it as a way for me to remember everything and my parents to make sure I still had a pulse. (What they don't know is that a crazy, blog-writing robot took over my body weeks ago...)

Then came the fact that quite a few of the exchange students have blogs; though they aren't always based on their experiences here, they are certainly being influenced by them.

Then, today, while I was searching for a place to watch the Superbowl (at 1:30am), I came across some blogs of Education City staff members, which was kind of weird, since one is my boss. Shows that this "blogosphere" is big enough for the all of us, I suppose.

However, since I've been blogging out here, I think I've picked up a Doha contingent to my audience: namely, the people that I hang out with who want to know what I think of them. When I sit down to write before I go to bed, I'm always thinking of them.

Resume normal blogging:

It's "EC for Haiti" week! I was sitting at the table, and someone (who I will assume is a professor) came up, letting me know that he just Twittered the fact that I was there. He also told me about his experiences with the a different emergency response NGO. Very nice guy, but the Twitter intro was a bit much.

(Speaking of Twitter, don't use it much, but here's mine if you want it.)

The day resumed its normalcy with a free lunch and talk about mobile networking, classes (and getting droopy-eyed in them) and some homework. Though I did get another lovely chance to catch up with my good friend Rosie, who's in Singapore for the semester! And maybe, just maybe, we'll meet each other halfway in Mumbai for Spring Break!

It was studying CMU-style after my afternoon snack and Community Service Learning group meeting. Which means that I did my homework, Rishav talked to anyone that would listen, Samreen was off somewhere grading, Aysha was procrastinating going home, and Shahriar was waiting for me to catch up to him. Oh, and we ordered food.

Now, I had soda today for the first time in a few months, and therefore the first time in Doha. Jessica was telling me when she got her first can of Sprite around here, she got frustrated because it wouldn't open correctly! So here is a tutorial for the Middle Eastern pop can:

Grasp by the tab.

Pull upwards!

Voila! And weird-looking but open can of the Pepsi we all know and love.

After such a challenging meal, I was rewarded with an ice cream outing. In my first week here, the weather was beautiful (as it still is), and I was just dying for ice cream. However, it is hard to ship scoop-able ice cream, which makes it quite the luxury item around here. All the Coldstones, Haagen Daaz's, Baskin-Robbins, and TCBYs were selling ice cream... for nearly $5 a scoop. I was heartbroken that I wouldn't be able to enjoy any sort of tasty treat regularly.

Well, if you'll remember back to the end of that first week, and the first day that I met Abdalla, I found the joy of 1 riyal ($.30) soft serve from, where else, McDonald's. Three weeks of classes later, I'm already forming traditions and bonds that, Insha'Allah, will last all semester. Besides, who can say no to a late night trip to get ice cream with a guy like that?