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.

It's Like Secret Santa for Marriage, or Day 10 in Doha

This morning, I finally cleared the health inspection. My picture (of me) showed up! As you might remember in Day 4, me and a few of the others all had to return because of photo mess-ups.

The system was a bit different this time; we had to pull numbers, which meant that we couldn't routinely skip lines like some did last time. Beside just the system, we had a completely full minibus (so about 20 people) that all had to do a similar process. So those that got little VIP passes (*cough* Adam and Spencer *cough*) had to wait a few hours for those that don't.

The good news is that Jessica (who's blog can be read here) and a few others with the picture missing/broken/whatever, we able to get it fixed or re-taken then.

While sitting on the bus for quite a while, some of the other CMUers and I started talking about travel. Flying isn't awful around here, but it would be so much nicer if getting to Dubai was less that $300. Driving, though, especially with females and especially especially with young unmarried students through Saudi Arabia (the only bordering country) is risky. Women must be covered, and Spencer mentioned that you can't be in a car with a male that you aren't married to. So, of course, there are two options: the professor turns polygamous and marries all his female students (which, I'm positive, would be completely ok with his current wife) or the four male architecture students would draw lots for the four female architecture students so they could take their field trip. As Spencer put it, it would be like "secret Santa for marriage."

So, 4.5 hours later, finally got home and got some food.

Now, I didn't do much today. There was an ice cream social to welcome people back to the dorms, and if I had been smarter, I would've taken some pictures of that.

But instead, I'm resorting to wandering around my dorm room (ok, ok, apartment castle) and taking pictures of a few things I brought and a few I bought that have some meaning. Pardon me for my girlishness, but two of the pictures are of shoes.

So, first up is the oldest thing I brought along, and the rattiest, but also one of the things I use the most. I got these sweatpants in 7th or 8th grade (which is about 7 years ago now) and wear them at night. Our team name was the Hawks. I think the fact that the letters are peeling off to spell "AWK" is very appropriate though.

My next item of interest is, of course, my love, my Rick Steves' guide. All through Europe a year and a half ago (and if you want more details, there are plenty on our blog) I used a Rick Steves' guide, and he didn't disappoint me in Istanbul either.

Next up has a great story attached to it, and now it is attached to me daily. As I was leaving Seattle, my parents dropped me off. Well, attempted to drop me off. My flight was delayed by two hours, yet I could still make my connection. With a bit of time to kill, we stopped at a mall nearby, where they bought me this watch. I've gotten compliments on it, and, after I started putting my phone on 24-hour time to see if I could get used to it, the 12-hour clock face came in pretty handy.

Next comes my first picture of shoes. In Doha, they do dress up more in general, but many people (including me) just get away with jeans and a cardigan. Which of course means I had to get a cute cardigan or two. But, when more is called for, such as the dressier Doha Debates yesterday, the perfect black pumps that Grandma bought me for Christmas (and that I agonized over for like 30 minutes) a not too long ago.

This next element is dedicated to Courtmew, one of the most generous people I know. When my phone was on its last legs (because I had *cough* accidentally put it in the washer *cough*), she came to my rescue with this one. Now, I unlocked it and am using the wonderful thing around here. Might I also mention she gave me two of the identical phone, so when the keypad on one stopped working, I simply switched it out. I think the pedometer in it is my favourite feature.

(Note, favourite is spelled British because my spell check is checking for British, apparently. And it is nice than to fight with that squiggly red line.)

My final item in this blogpost is those other shoes I was telling you about. I bought them over here for 50 riyals (which seems like a lot, but is actually less than $17) and have been wearing this red sandals for a few days now. Of course, they are fire-engine red at the advice of Daedri, my VCU fashion design friend.

Well, that was a little peek into my closet. I was thinking of having my camera be the final image on here, but that would be a little too meta (and a bit tricky to set up the shot I'd want) to try to take a picture of what is taking the picture. So I'll just have to say that my pocket-sized Canon wonder is high on my list of wonderful things in my closet.

This post feels like it should have a sign-off, but I don't think I've done that before... well, never late to start! Have a good day/night! *Insert "goodbye" in Arabic here*

Hmmm... maybe it's because I posted this one hours earlier than I normally do? Someone can psycho-analyse that if they want.

Feeling Domestic, or Day 6 in Doha

I went to the biggest mall in Qatar today. I haven't been able to find any proof of that fact, but it is said that this 5-story monstrosity tops all the others.

An ice skating rink, a Toyota dealership, and a Carrefour (a Wal-mart-like everything store), and I'd believe it.

So we called a taxi and I, for the first time, didn't feel like I was getting ripped off! Mostly because I made him turn on the meter. This confidence in how to do things is nice.

We got there, had lunch with the group of ten of us exchange students (who fit in two taxis...), then split up to do miscellaneous tasks of the shopping variety. Daedri and I have similar price cut-offs (and did I mention she's in doing a major in fashion design?), so shopping with her made it easy to pass the time.

Yeah, today hasn't been very adventureful. After the trip back from the mall (even easier, because we just had to hail a cab instead of calling for one), the exchange students were meeting at the cafeteria in LAS to do something for dinner.

Some people, actually most, weren't hungry, so the original plan of ordering out was ditched in favor of me making pasta for a group. I puttered in the kitchen with Daedri then served the piping hot pasta (macaroni and shells) on my best china (plastic storage containers) on gold serving platters (some plastic trays I found in one of my cabinets). It was delicious, and, according to the archies, by feeding Sam (who has been sick) and making him feel better I am also feeding his delightful condescending attitude.

Apparently, though, while I put the dishes back upstairs, Gabby and Sophie came out with cake (their addition to the smorgasbord). Disappointing, but it wasn't frosted, so I can forgive them.

We went on a quick Education City (EC) tour, and then ended up back in the CMU-Q Student Affairs lounge for an hour-long discussion about resident life, Campus Life (the Qatar Foundation's unifying effort for all the campuses), and cultural information. Some good information (such as how to take out the trash) and some repeated. But A for effort.

Good discoveries I made though: the Texas A&M kids have a travel stipend. Have I found follow adventurers?

Bad discoveries (or more like realizations): Classes start tomorrow.

Good realization: I get to make more friends!

Bad realization: Daedri has pictures of the mall, but I need to get them from her. Then, you too will be able to witness the glory of capitalism in the Middle East!

Narcoleptic Pigeon, or Day 4 in Doha

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It was a sunny (who would have guessed) 07:00 wake-up for a 07:30 bus to the Qatar Ministry of Health (or something along those lines) to get our visas all finished up so we can be temporary citizens.

But doesn't fate always smile on bureaucracy.

We arrived, and got off the bus. We gave our passports to Melissa earlier in the week, so we had copies that we were carrying around. All we saw were signs to the male and female entrances, so we split up.

At the entrance, a guard checked passports and visas. I didn't have a copy of mine; so he asked me for a phone number instead (phone number = visa? OK, Qatar...) Since I had gotten my phone (and so had all the others), we were let in. But once we were there, we attempted to wait in two different lines until Spencer called me:

Me: Hello?
Spencer: So the guy with our passports is here, and has your passports, too.
Me: What?
S: A Qatar Foundation guy gave us our passports back.
Me: OK, where is he?
S: We're over in the guy's side.
Me: Like, should we come over there?
S: I guess?
Me: Ok, we're heading outside now and going over there.
S: Wait, he just left.
Me: Left?
S: Yeah.
Me: So, should we still come over?
S: I don't know?
Me: Should we meet him outside?
S: He's cutting through the inside of the building with the other girls and the passports.
Me: Ok, so we are going back inside and waiting for him?
S: I guess?
Me: Ok, sounds better than nothing.

And we indeed were met by some guy in a thobe, who handed us all our passports, with some paperwork inside. Well, all but me.

My receipt had printed with Spencer's name on it, so I got led around to about three different waiting areas by this guy until it was sorted out. Then, somehow, I ended up in the company of Adam, Spencer, and some guys from Texas A&M. The guys from Texas had their pictures in the system swapped. Spencer had made friends with an admissions guy from CMU, and his picture didn't show up for the medical attendant who was going to take his chest x-ray (even though, according to him, he "had my shirt off and everything"), so his friend was trying to get that fixed. And Adam just drolly counted the times he was sent back and forth between two desks as his picture showed up in the system at the reception area, but not at the blood testing site. I figured out, about 15 minutes into this "adventure," that my picture was also not showing up (now that I had my receipt).

So, the five of us hung around waiting areas, rode some elevators in pursuit of our liaisons, and met another QF researcher, who was (thankfully) able to translate some of the chaos that was going around us in Arabic. Did I mention this was all happening in Arabic? (The researcher had joined our group when his picture was exchanged from some Egyptian females.)

We had arrived at the lovely hour of 08:00. We departed around 10:30, with the five of us (plus the researcher) having our problems unresolved. Did I mention that Arlie didn't even get an appointment today due to the computer problems as well, and so didn't come with us?

Speaking of Arlie, here's her blog. Might tell a bit of a different story. :)

So after the red tape of the morning, it was a relaxing pizza lunch and city tour with the other exchange students from the other campuses. Our lovely Moroccan tour guide, Jamal, showed us a few things from my bucket list, and a few things that would have been on there had I know about them, primarily:

• See trained falcons
• Tour an Olympic-level equestrian park
• Visit Sport City, and the Advance complex

Things that were already on my bucket list:

• Visit the Islamic Arts Museum
• Meet a student from every other school in Education City
  • VCU
  • Cornell
  • CMU-Q
  • Texas A&M
  • Georgetown
  • Northwestern
• See the souk

The, of course, memorable experience was seeing this pigeon-hen-bird, standing up, but with its head laying on the ground. The first time the group saw it, we were convinced it was dying, or maybe sleeping. When Jamal saw it, he goes, "It is drunk!" After he poked it, it staggered over to the water bowl on sea legs, then tried very hard to stay upright before... before... before its head got to heavy for it, and back down on the ground it went.

A meal in the LSA Building cafeteria (cheap and delicious... Sodexo in Qatar!), and it was back to the apartment for a productive evening. (Speaking of the apartment, if you want a tour, check out my brand-spanking-new Youtube channel. It's also got some Christmas and Istanbul stuff.)

Back to my productivity, I decided to try to watch some (or at least set up the) TV.

However, that played out similarly to this morning.

Obstacles:

• TV unplugged
• Satellite box unplugged
• TV cord too short to plug in
• Satellite box cord too short to plug in
• Outlets turned off
• Video and audio cables switched around
• Television menus were in Arabic (though that was actually the easiest one to fix. The first time, I went through two random menus and landed on English, very, very luckily.)
• Channels wouldn't display
• Pin number unknown
• Box model unknown
• Channel searching failed on low mode
• Channel searching failed on high mode

So then... I gave up. I moved all of the cables back, and began, again to use the satellite box cable for my computer charger (because apparently that's where it came from). So for the next tenant in the apartment, don't tell them I was the one that erased all of the channels off the TV. (It's not like they were working anyway...)

You Got an A Plus, or Day 3 in Doha

I Skyped with my parents this morning. That's enough to put anybody in a good mood. I was eating my morning cereal, and they were eating their after-dinner ice cream.

An uneventful morning otherwise. First day of orientation and they got a bus to take the 9 of us to get our blood type tests done (and it's true, it is much cheaper around here. 15 riyals = $4.10.) I, of course, aced that bad boy with an A Positive.

I've been cruising the internets, though, especially after I heard about QIA (Qatar International Adventures). I mean, I gotta start looking at how to achieve everything on that list!

Which, of course, means I've also found things to add to the list:

• Visiting the Al Zubarah fort
• Seeing an oryx (actually a native Qatar elk-deer-thing)

I've sent off a few e-mails to see what rates are (looking like about $60 for a day of bashing, seeing the inland sea, and a BBQ, which isn't too bad). Now, to find some fellow adventurers!

After my lunch of tuna sandwiches, we were kept on the go (mostly so the jetlagged people wouldn't sleep). We had a chat about different aspects of being here: the administrative differences, a few of the cultural differences, and, most of all, how to say (our study abroad coordinator) Melissa's last name.

A tour of the CMU "campus" (which is just one building), and we found enough people willing to drive the 9 of us to go to a mall for phones, dinner, and some grocery shopping.

I must say, jetlagged people are some of the most interesting zombies to stumble along. Since all of them were architecture students ("archies"), they all compared it to pulling an all-nighter. I didn't know before, but they are TAing "Architecture for Non-Majors", which is a class I really wanted to take. Stupid conflict with Networks, my one computer science that I need to take...

Speaking of computer science, the CMUB here reminds me a lot of the Gates Center. There are some of the same leather-y chairs with wing arms, the same half glass, half white board office doors, and, most of all, the same ridiculous amount of open space, creative space, and what-was-s/he-thinking space. But I will feel at home there, that's for sure.

At the mall, all of the other students got phones and numbers (that I'm sure they are now hard at work memorizing), so there was the Great Contact Exchange. Everything when swimmingly until Arlie left her cell on her tray at the food court, and subsequently threw it in the garbage. We had only gone about ten meters down the hall when she noticed she didn't have it, and a ringing trash can confirmed her suspicions. Thankfully, it was right near the top, cradled by the paper from the tray and a napkin.

We took a quick jaunt to Carrefour, where I continued stocking up on more things I forgot the first round, and headed back to campus.

Spencer, Shaza, and I were in a car with Sam, Sameera, and Mishab, so arrived back to the dorms at about 8:30. I was glad to hear that Spencer was interested in exploring, and Shaza was more than willing to be our guide.

We started in the Language Arts and Sciences (LAS) Building, which has the same pattern on all the exterior wall, all the interior walls, and even the pavement outside. (It was a little much for something that should have just been an accent.) The security guard was highly suspicious, making Spencer put away his camera and double-checking we were all Education City students. After pretty much ignoring him, we made our way around, then through the back to a playground (with swings!) that entertained us for quite a while.

Then it was off to see the exteriors of the VCU building, the rec center, the Qatar Academy, and possibly climb up some ladders on some light poles that weren't exactly screaming permissibility. We also got to see the stage that (wait for it) Barney, everyone's favorite dinosaur, is going to be on tomorrow afternoon! Wahoo!

A wade in the fountain outside, and we were all set to tuck in. It's an early day tomorrow, full of all sorts of medical tests and a city tour... and hopefully a movie to finish it off!