Graduation, or Day 121 in Doha

I feel surrounded by love around here. I've met all sorts of people, from CMU faculty to CDAs, from Cornell freshmen to VCU exchange students. And, in these droves of people, I've gotten to know a couple dozen, and in those dozens, I've made connections that, insha'allah, will last far beyond my time here in Qatar.

Enough of the philosophizing. The day started with many, many errands, to get rid of as much of my stuff as possible and to be able to leave the country. I ran into Kaleem as I was heading home, and we shared some tuna sandwiches (in my last ditch effort to clean out my kitchen of food as well).

After lunch, I ran into Tina, who I then spent the next few hours with, making an unforgettable heart cookie. Just when it was perfectly positioned for a picture, it slid off the plate, cracking, like our hearts, into a bunch of chocolate-y, chunky pieces. With a bit of elbow grease, we turned it back into a heart-like shape. (Appearances are a bit deceiving, because it was still very delicious.)

A group of CS majors from CMU was headed out to Nando's at City Center, so I hopped into Rishav's car with Samreen and we enjoyed a bite with Tessa and Swapnil as well. Since, of course, Nando's is Tessa's favorite restaurant.

I went home to sleep off a bit of the food (and the fact that I had to wake up early to talk to my parents this morning), then headed over to the grand production of CMU-Q graduation.

The ceremony was less than 80 minutes, the speaker had a clear agenda for her talk to keep it fairly brief, the Dean and President were eloquent as always, and the bagpiper reminded me of Pittsburgh.

For over three hours, we ate and talked and celebrated the graduates. There were hugs, but no tears, and promises of future meet-ups for those coming to Pittsburgh this year. There were also the few people that I congratulated that I might never see again... but one never knows who those people are.

It was the last day of finals for most of the Texas A&M students, so after the seniors (graduates) had gone home so they could be up for the Qatar Foundation convocation in the morning, Abdalla and I went to see those students.

We caught them right as the restaurant was closing, and we weren't allowed to pull up chairs next to Ziad or Kelsey, but we stood and talked for nearly two hours. The boys were doing riddles, a few different groups ventured off to return with ice cream, and sheesha smoke was in the air. I left before the mass exit, but it looked like they weren't heading anywhere anytime soon.

Unlike me. Very soon, I'll be in Bahrain/Jordan/Egypt/Turkey/USA. Very, very soon.

Guys in Dresses, or Day 103 in Doha

Happy International Day, everyone!

I got in the spirit by wearing "traditional" Pittsburgh clothing - a fleece, a hat, a scarf, and gloves... not many people noticed, in the sea of beautiful, multicolored traditional dress. The great part is, people weren't necessarily even wearing their own country's!

KayKay in Singaporean and Urmila in Indian garb (I think).

Varun, his Desi self.

The Student Affairs staff (in random travel wear)

Tessa in something I'm assuming is from Brunei.

My beautiful Sudanese girls!

Boys from the subcontinent (and Shaza still looking gorgeous). (Note Allen's wrap! Knees!)

Arash in eastern Iranian wear (because apparently they differ... and I'm not sure if I got the east versus west thing right; it actually might be western Iran).

Samreen in her pantsuit (and I'm wearing pant I got in India)!

Mathew just wore a dress shirt (boring) but Shahriar (front left) got in the spirit with his Bangladeshi clothes.

Jimmy wore something from a Middle Eastern country... can't remember which one, but he didn't have anything from Kenya to wear.

Some of my favorite traditional costumes, though, were the ones where the guys were allowed to wear shorter skirts than I am!

Besides just wandering around and taking pictures with people (and eating food), there was the International Day show that Fatima and Maria put together. Being on "Arabic Standard time", it was scheduled to start at 5:30. At 8:00pm, the first act (Mridula doing an awesome traditional Indian dance) was just finishing up.

There were other Indian dances, a Dominican song (sung by Melissa, our study abroad coordinator), an African dance, a Bangladeshi anthem, an English poem, a presentation about Azerbaijan, an impromptu salsa/latin dance session, more dabkeh, an Iranian dance (that was also performed at Coffeehouse), and I'm sure there are other performance I'm forgetting.

What I won't forget, though, it how people reacted to those performances. For a few of the dances, instead of just sitting and watching, people from the crowd stood up and joined in! The final dance, an encore performance of the "Desi Dancers", turned into a giant jumping mob. It was a bunch of fun.

As if that wasn't enough for a day, Abdalla gave me a ride to Ezadin Towers (yet another fancy hotel!) where Kelsey was throwing Ziad a surprise party! We weren't there for the actual surprising, but we were there for the cake.

When the cake was getting lit, the manager was having a hard time lighting them... so another guy with a lighter came up and started helping him. Then another guy. There were eventually half a dozen people gathered around these 20 candles trying to get them lit!

We sang "Happy Birthday" in English and Arabic, then he blew out the candles.

Then, the photo shoot started. Ziad was wearing a striped shirt, as were another two or three guys at the party. So after the group picture, all of them jumped in together... someone yelled "Arab picture", and all of a sudden the photo shoot got "racist."

They didn't leave anyone out... there was the Africans, the East Asians, those from the subcontinent, the Khaleejes, the "white people"... Just goes to show how diverse this place is!

After the final photos, a few of us ended up at the souq, enjoying some karak and sheesha. They kept flipping channels on the TV we could see, but on every channel, Fred knew exactly what was going on. And I think Ziad (the birthday boy) had a good time.

If it looks like I'm blowing away... I am! It was super windy and actually sprinkled a bit. (The waiters broke one of the large umbrellas trying to take it down, and some of the sheesha stands - that weren't being used thankfully - got knocked over.)

Arabic Arabic Numerals, or Day 5 in Doha

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 crying 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.