The Good Old Days, or Day 122 in Doha and Bahrain

I finally got to see Sheikha Mozah today (with Aysha in the background of this picture)! Her Highness attended the Qatar Foundation Convocation ceremony tonight, where all of the graduates of all six of the Education City universities came together to be presented rings.

I've also officially figured out all seven universities. The one I always forget is the newest one to EC, the Faculty of Islamic Studies, which gives out Masters degrees; the other five with graduating classes are (in order of appearance to Education City) VCU, Cornell, Texas A&M, CMU, and Georgetown. Northwestern is the new kid on the block. It is funny, because around EC you can tell who has been here the longest by their building. (VCU's is currently being renovated, Georgetown is getting a building, and Northwestern is currently in CMU's upstairs.)

With six of the universities graduating students, there were still only 193 students. That's not many (and I was kinda glad, since listening to a bunch of names being read off a list is sometimes not all that exciting.)

It started with a reading from the Quran, then recitation of a poem, then presentation of the rings and an address by Her Highness. After a final group picture, they all proceeded through the Gate of Graduation (I don't know the real name of the bab they went through, but that's close enough...)

Before this evening's festivities, I had lunch with Jill and Cindy, from Student Affairs. They quizzed me on my time here, what could be better, what made my semester so great. In a lot of ways, I was just lucky; can't really ask for the friends I had around here. The experience I got can't be bottled up and handed to every student that comes over. Someone was clearly looking out for me.

After first lunch came second lunch. Rishav took Samreen, Kaleem, and I to Landmark, and we ran into Khaled and Saleh. Small world around here, and I pretty much love it. We also got to see Shakir, Tessa, and Swapnil that were in the mall too and stopped by.

After the ceremony tonight (and after the food), Abdalla gave me a ride to the airport, and I hopped on a (huge, empty, British Airlines) flight to Bahrain. I must've been randomly sleeping, because I remember the announcement saying that we were quite to the gate yet. Then, next thing I knew, some flight attendants were asking me my name. They wanted to make sure I got off the plane instead of going on to London with it!

So I made it to Bahrain and my CouchSurfing host easily. Another country, and two days of fun!

This afternoon, W=while we were eating at TGI Fridays, there was a quote on the wall that I saw... "Here's to the good old days that we are having right now." Well, here's to them!