Yesterday..., or Day 97 in Doha

Since most of today was spent recovering from last night (no, I didn't drink... the line was too long and the beer was too expensive), I suppose I might as well tell you about David Guetta.

It was sweet. You can stop reading now if you are going to get too jealous...

We headed out around 9pm, checked out the place, dropped one of Abdalla's friends off at the souq, then circled back around. I must say, there was plenty of parking, no problem, which is something I'm always a bit worried about at huge events like these.

And, as I heard many times, "it was like all of EC is going."

Not quite true, but many of the Texas A&M exchange students were partying and dancing along, in addition to the group of 8 or so I went with. Then there was a few more odd pairs here and there that I recognized.

After an ID check, a security check, a ticket check, and a wristband check, we were inside and headed to the stage.

It was literally right on the beach, with the stage built so there was a wonderful cross-breeze from the sea (especially nice when dancing in the middle of the pack).

The first two hours had some good house music from the DJs, getting people moving (and drinking). It was midnight, and I was getting a bit disappointed with the energy and a bit confused about where David Guetta was, when he was finally introduced.

Bam! The lights on the stage started flashing, everyone who had been hanging back pressed forward, and he took to the turntables.

There were glowsticks and people on other people's shoulders, and cigarettes and sweat, and shouting and clapping. I'm not sure if people do this in the states, but some of the crowd started their own soprano line on top of what David Guetta was doing. (A "whoop-whoop" kinda thing was one, and the other was the "wooh, oh oh, woooh, oh oh" that you often hear crowds doing at games.)

And I think he was having a blast with it. He would cut the sound so the crowd could sing during some of the more famous lines, and we never disappointed.

He started with a little less than an hour of good mixes with his less famous stuff, starting with "Castles in the Sky", then "When Love Takes Over" mixed with "Gettin' Over."

He then went into a set of pure house, which allowed for a bit of a break and a wade to cool off the feet. They weren't hurting at all, since we had ditched shoes off to the side much earlier in the evening, and we were walking around barefoot, but after a few hours of dancing, it was very nice to spent 10 minutes looking at West Bay from the north.

It was about 1:30am, so we decided that we would sit on the beach until either a) the party was over or b) another awesome song came on. No sooner had we decided that when he pulled out "Sexy Chick." We looked at each other, stood up, and pushed back into the fray.

It was a great final half hour, and of course he closed with "Memories" and, his most famous, "I've Gotta Feeling."

A run to McDonald's to try my first McArabia and have a chocolate sundae, and that ended a night that was indeed a "good, good night."

Today, like I said, I slept until noon. Then did some final-project-ing and some programming. I had some chicken in my freezer that I needed to use, and no free food event scheduled for tonight, so I made something resembling chicken enchiladas (which I don't have a picture for... the pretty ones on that plate didn't last very long, and the rest are very unattractively shoved into a container in the fridge).

I was supposed to be asleep two hours ago, so I would be awake for tomorrow's adventure... you'll see soon!