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 w
as 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!
Warning: today was one of those days were a million things happened and all of them are interesting!
First off, today was a very weird day for weather. After spending the morning Skyping and cleaning, I went outside and the first thing I see is a group of East Asians with dust masks on. I was immediately freaked out, thinking there was some crazy pathogen in the air that was making them wear the masks.
Thankfully, they were anomalies, though it was very windy and dusty, as you can see. The funny smog affected my mood more here than clouds do back in Pittsburgh and Seattle. I'm getting too used to the constant sunshine!
I spent the afternoon and evening around CMU: celebrating the new club space (by eating cake), working on a project, celebrating a birthday (by eating cake), and took a drive around
EC with some girls I met at a Women Leadership Program lunch on Tuesday. As they invited me outside on the drive, one of the girls said, "Your life is so random."
You have no idea.
Anyway, they were explaining the licensing process around here. You hire a personal instructor, then take a much more intense test that we Americans go through. In fact, I think males are required to learn and test on a manual; us gentler sex are allowed an automatic**.
After the drive, I attend the finale of the "
EC for Haiti" campaign. We had a goal of 20,000 riyals; we actually hit over 22,000 (over $6,000)! After a presentation about Haiti, a student band played (with my stunning roommate Khadeejah singing) while we wrote messages of hope to Haiti.
Next was the BAM football (soccer) game. "BAM" stands for "Body and Mind", and they are an EC-wide student club. This team included Rolando and David, two of the Texas A&M students, and a few others I knew (including the coach), so it was a lot of fun supporting them. 
Especially when they won against Cornell, 4-1, putting them in the quarter-finals!
Abdalla and I got a call from Zaid and Sidra, two friends we went out to dinner with before. I had connected with Sidra during the Haiti event and mentioned that we needed to go out again... I just hadn't realized it would be this soon!
After the shwarmas were gone, it was time for my first movie-in-a-cinema in Doha! Abdalla 
took me to see "The Men Who Stare At Goats", which has a whole slew of Hollywood actors. Half of the movie took place in Kuwait and Iraq, so it was fun sitting with someone who knew Arabic.
In the movie, Ewan McGregor's character is a reporter who wants to show his chops, so goes to the "war zone" of Kuwait (at least, that's how he describes it to his estranged wife). Now that I'm up on my Middle Eastern countries, I saw the humor in that; I also saw the similar grand hotels and impressive landscaping of a typical Gulf country.
Did I also mention that Ewan McGregor eventually begins reporting on these "psychic Jedi's" that the U.S. Army is secretly training. Well, Mr. McGregor (*cough* Obi-Wan Kenobi *cough*), you would know about Jedi's...
Well, I seriously thought my evening was over after that. I went home, felt the few raindrops outside, and started writing this.
Much to my surprise, I get a call just before midnight asking if I want to go for a drive. 
Apparently, it is traditional for Shakir and two of his friends, Aditya and "FeFe", to drive around when it is raining and sing Enrique. Since it was a thunderstorm, I guess they had to invite me, Fatima, and Maria along?
We ended up at bandar. I'm sure you are just shocked. And I got tea. Again, you must be in disbelief.
New to bandar was the lightning over the bay. Tonight's rain was fun to play around in; it never got too heavy, but my feet did get a little chilly.
We ended the night with a game of Charades... let's just say that it was better than all of the lame jokes we told in the half hour before that.
I feel you need a taste of it, so here's one from Fatima, the queen of the lame jokes: "What did the daddy tomato say to the baby tomato?" "Ketchup!"
I'm still listening to the thunder rumbling around outside. Different than the typical night sounds of the round-the-clock construction work... and much rarer as well!
**Correction by Rana: "Women can drive manual , and men can choose to do either automatic or manual :D :D :D Its not based on gender... But it makes more sense that we would choose automatic , its easier and any ways nearly most of the cars in Qatar are automatic, few manuals :D"
My, I'm just working through that bucket list like there is no tomorrow! I mean, the lack of classes and enthusiasm of other exchange students might also be helping...
I mentioned to Shaza yesterday that I wanted to walk the cornish, and, in her great friendship and initiative, called a cab for us to take. But then two became three, then four, then six... and fate smiled on us and sent us another cab from the heavens. (It was actually dropping someone else off at the dorm, so perfectly timed for us to steal it.)
The day, like all days I've experienced here, was beautiful. The air wasn't as crisp as it could have been (a bit of smog/dust on the horizon) but I am never going to complain.
Now, the taxis all think that we are tourists (and we are for a bit), but they are taking every chance to stretch out our pockets a little further. The cabdriver turned off the meter sometime during our trip, and just charged us a fare at the end that was about 10 riyals ($3) more than we should have had to pay, but we accepted it.
However, on the way back, some of the VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) students were "taken for a ride" by a guy with a car who probably wasn't even a cabdriver.
But enough of that nonsense and back to the beautiful scenery and wonderful weather we got to experience on the cornish.
We started on East Bay, by Souk Waqif ("the souk") and the Islamic Arts Museum. We began to walk and chat along the fairly well-used boardwalk. A few people were fishing, but what gladdened me the most was the number of families out. Zane and Brent were getting jealous of all the tricycles, scooters, plastic riding cars, balls, and miscellaneous toys that were being used all up and down the waterline. Each family had a picnic, with some lawn chairs even, and were content to sit and enjoy.
About halfway around the bay that Doha lies on, we reached a park. I know I was starving by this point, and I think that Afaf was too. We poked around to find many cultural arts stores closed (since it was Friday, the Muslim day of community prayer and rest) and a pool-like feature that wound around them.
We followed the hollers of children to find a polished cement "slide." I dared to go down, and, after trying to walk back up the polished surface, had renewed respect for the 7-year-old right next to me who was down then up again in a flash.
With my stomach still grumbling, I followed the paper cups of tea to the "Yes Cafeteria." Can you just imagine the questions they get? And I'm sure they can only answer "yes."
Well, we said "yes" to six Mega Hotdogs, some chips, and some french fries (the other kind of chips). They undercharged us, so all of our food was obtained for something like $10. And I know I was ready for the feast.
At this point, we were about halfway around the bay, and I had every intention of continuing to follow it to reach my goal (you remember, "Walk the Corniche", even though I spelled it wrong). Soon after we finished our meal and resumed walking, a man started advertising his dhow to sail us around the bay.
40 riyals per person, he said.
We said no.
15 riyals per person.
Then I perked up. Because, as you are aware, "Ride a dhow" was on my list too. And for $5 a person?
But we still had more of the cornish to walk, so a final refusal.
10 riyals. Final price.
I was hooked. $20 for all of us? But I was going to try to be clever one last time. I countered with 50 riyals for the 6 of us, but he wouldn't budge. Poor Brent, who I fear has a phobia of bartering, was slowly shying away from this whole encounter.
This refusal was actually well-fated, since we decided to walk to East Bay (by the skyscrapers), then have a dhow take us back to the souk area. Though we had to pay 17 a piece, it was worth it for me to not have to walk around the bend again. And, riding a dhow is crossed off my list too!
During our meander along the bay, we became showing off our "knowledge" of Arabic, which is really just the Arabic numerals learned from license plates. Arabic doesn't actually use the "Arabic numerals" that we are used to. Instead, it uses the Indian set. We were reciting off our knowledge until we realized that the only way we could describe some of them was using our own numbers. So,
Zero: a dot
One: like our "1", a line
Two: a backwards "7"
Three: a backwards "7" with an extra bump
Four: a backwards "3"
Five: a "0" or circle
Six: a "7"
Seven: a "V"
Eight: an upside-down "V", or "A" with the crossbar missing
Nine: like our "9"!
We had heard people planning on going to the souk at about 5 for dinner and wandering, so we were on the lookout for the Texas A&M people, and ran into some shortly. They kindly allowed us to add to their dinner party, and we ate at the glitziest, gaudiest restaurant I have ever laid eyes on. The Iranian (Persian) fare was ok, but it was the green chile peppers masuarading as green beans that stole the show (and taste buds from four of the males sitting at my table). They were c
rying tears of pain, and Daedri and I were crying tears of laughter.
Michael is the only one I really feel sorry for. He seriously thought it was a green bean, but spit it out only after it left a painful mark. Ziad, Brent, and David did it to themselves, each trying to outdo the other. When Sophie joined in... we were all in tears.
After wandering the souk and sitting and talking at a sheesha place, it was time for Shakir and I to pick up the last of the CMU crew from the airport. Jessica was in a lively mood, ready to get back to a city she loved last spring on her IMPAQT trip, and we packed her off to the dorms in a jiffy.
as 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.
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.)
