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 cafete
ria 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!
(
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
Visit the Islamic Arts Museum- Meet a student from every other school in Education City
VCU- Cornell
CMU-QTexas 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...)
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!
ria in LAS to do something for dinner.
