A New Dawn, or Day 75 in Doha

Today was a great day!

Yes, having a wonderful, wonderful full night of sleep with no classes helped... (not only did I get 9 hours during the night, but I took a one hour nap as well)... but it would have been a good Thursday however it came.

For my Service Design class, I had to do some research on what people want in their libraries. I grabbed a bunch of random pictures off the internet, of chairs, desks, bookshelves, and computers as well as some of a DDR machine, a coffee maker, a hammock, and a soccer goal. Then I had a few people (Swapnil being one) arrange them for me. I got some good results, and some interesting layouts. Swapnil had an interesting idea of putting the

That was enough work for the day. There was a DSO get-together on the Green Spine, with some blindfold game that Shaza led and Varun owned. Free pizza, and I was off to see Sabrina!

My Sabrina has been holed up in EC for days working, and having tests and homeworks and being a second-year engineering student. So some Haagen-Daaz and juice with her and Abdalla was a great break from EC for all of us. I got off-campus just because the first time in a while. (I went off-campus yesterday to the Reach Out To Asia English learning classes I have to do every week, but that hardly counts.)

Tonight was a super lucky night, too. There was clearly something going on at the ceremonial court, since the traffic police were out and loud Arabic music was playing.

I dare Abdalla to go see it, and we got it, very easily. We had to get searched (which meant that these very kinda Qatari women were plucking my phone out of my pocket, then putting it back in with a pat and a smile). Then, we sat, got served some juice, and watched what Abdalla translated at "A New Dawn" (the program was all in Arabic).

It was amazing. There was at least a 60-person cast (I think closer to 70), which dancers and singers, amazing costumes, glittery lights... just awesome. It was also that random thing I saw rehearsing a few days ago.

We came in "close" to the end. It was 8:30 when we got there, and it had been going on since at least 7, probably earlier. We left at 9:40.

With the longer productions, it is amazing how show etiquette changes. There were people leaving and coming, having brief conversations on their cellphones, getting served juice, and in general being much different that the typical musical-going crowd in America.

The script was something about the fight between the native Tunisians and the occupying Italians, with the wrap-up being the Tunisian anthem. (There's one way to guarantee a standing ovation.)

The music was loud enough to drown out pretty much everything, except Abdalla's translations, which is the only way I knew anything. We were just talking earlier in the day about how he feels bad talking in another language around me... well, being able to understand and tell me what's going on in another language makes up for it.

And yes, that is a woman who popped out of an oyster shell. Very "Little Mermaid." And just over-the-top like the whole production. That woman is one of the ones who represented "the new dawn" of the title.

The night ended with a chill viewing of "7 Pounds" (which is quite good) and an actual blogpost (as you can see)! I'm so happy to be back and happy again.