One Short Day, or Day 116 in Doha

I look back on today, and I guess I did a lot... but it wasn't broken up by classes, so it just felt like time was slipping away... (And I had the song from Wicked stuck in my head all day.)

This morning was my last final of my junior year and my last final in Qatar. It has a most impressive title: "Formal Languages, Automata, and Complexity Theory" or FLAC for short. I've learned a lot of this stuff before (though I always forget whether to reduce B to A or A to B...) and the final went smoothly. Especially since it had 120 points, but is graded out of 100.

I got the fabulous news that Keghani was going to Pittsburgh for graduation yesterday, and I convinced her (somehow) to take my suitcase with her to Pittsburgh. So we packed that up.

Today was also my last day at the RAEL (Reach Out to Asia Adult English Literacy) program. We gave them their final tests, then got to sit and chat for a bit. I taught them a new word, "pen-pal", and we'll see if they ever e-mail me. And, finally, I have my own pictures of me and the RAEL gang (well, what's left of it). We have an Egyptian, a Moroccan, an Indian... I do stand out a bit, don't I? Abid (center back), Arti, and I have been working with these guys for seven weeks now. Next week will be their in-class celebration (while I'm in Bahrain) and then they have a Al Jaedah Company certificate ceremony as well.

After class, Tessa and I went to have dinner with Profs. Nael and Khaled, who both teach networks, which she TAs for. I TA for Nael and Andreas (who couldn't make it) for Technical Communications for Computer Scientists. So basically, they were taking out the Pittsburgh CS TAs. And at the fancy InterCon Fish Market as well! We got to pick out our fish (I finally tried hammour, the local catch), and I ate way too much.

I'm headed out in just a few hours (well, four to be exact) to get to the airport, fly to Dubai, then take a bus to Oman. Jessica did this just a few days ago, so I got all the details from her. I just need to throw a few things in my backpack (including some books I borrowed... I'm excited to read on the bus!) and I'll be ready to grab a cab to the airport at 0630. Wish me luck, and I'll talk to you tomorrow from a (supposedly) beautiful Oman!

May versus Can, or Day 67 in Doha

Sometimes I feel like I'm running out of things to say about my time here. I'm experiencing some new things, but not nearly at the rate I was before.

Also, my perchance for taking pictures has gone down. So here's a simple post with text (ok, and a picture of the cookies I made yesterday... not so burnt and very delicious!).

These days I've been less energetic, mostly due to constant school work. This weekend (which starts now!) should help revive me, but the week after Spring Break is a tough one.

My new experience for today was volunteering with Reach Out To Asia and my Community Service Learning class at the Jaidah Group, a company that brings in foreign workers. We are teaching an English class to a group of about ten men from India, Jordan, Egypt, and a few other places in the Arab World.

It is similar to many things in Qatar in that communication isn't high, so flexibility is at its peak. We were late because of traffic, and then Abid and I were put with the intermediate language learners instead of the beginners. So our plans went out the window. Thankfully Arti, a teacher from India, was another volunteer. We went through the lesson, with her introducing the topics and all of us helping in the smaller groups.

The subject for part of the lesson, slightly ironically, was the use of "may" versus "can." I'm American; we never use "may"! Even in restaurants, it's "Can I help you?" So at the end of the class, as we were wrapping up, I announced, "Can I have your attention?"

Yeah, so much for modelling good grammar.

The learners were very energetic and willing to be there. We would ask them to do something, and they would not turn us down. Their skill level was also much higher than I expected.

That changed after break, when the very large beginner class had some of their better students come over and join us. We spent the last hour with the "old" students teaching the "new" students, which was a circus in itself.

We left to go back to campus, took some random cut-throughs, and I finished the evening by - what else - meeting with Khaled to do some networks. I was not a very productive partner.

Isn't it sad that I used to end my days with shawarma and ice cream, and now I end them with programming?**

**After Abdalla read this, he took me out for ice cream. So I guess my life isn't so bad after all...

Uni, or Day 15 in Doha

Today was probably my first real crunch day for school.

In America, we say "I'm at college"; in most other parts, I hear, "I'm at uni." Uni, as in university, but I often chuckle to myself as I think unitard, unicorn, uni-brow...

Since it was my first real crunch day, I think it was also the first day that I haven't taken any pictures around here.

I mean, I didn't just stay on campus and study (like I should have). I played Monday volleyball with some people (the tradition of CS volleyball lives on here, too, apparently); I went out for some sort of juice drink with avocado, mango, and coconut; I went running; I took a nap; I made my first exercises for the recitation section I am leading tomorrow.

And best of all, I got to have more social, cultural, and just heart-warming experiences with the other residents of Education City. Isn't that just warm and fuzzy?

Here's a retro-photo care of Arlie: from Day 4, when we found a majlis (seating area) around the souq to rest our feet.