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!

Abu Dhabi Time, or Day 85 in Doha

Today dawned bright and early, though my attempt at getting up to do work failed.

Well, sort of. When I arrived at uni, I looked at my watch... 8:30, that was strange. My class started at 9:30.

My alarms on my phone were still on Abu Dhabi time, which is an hour later. So my "plan" to get up early failed; actually getting up early succeeded.

A day of school, TAing, homework, and I got a bit of a break.

Cornell was hosting "Coffeehouse VI", an EC-wide talent show. Jessica showed off her singing chops, the CMU freshman band played, and then I had to leave for a meeting.

When I got back, I got a chance to nibble at the left-overs and watch a great rock cover band from Cornell.

The rest of the evening was spent coding.

Juggling, or Day 50 in Dubai and Doha

I was walking around today with a mental list chock to the brim of this paperwork, that meeting, this programming assignment, that person to talk to.

In the midst of all this, I sadly let more than a few balls drop today. I accidentally missed the recitation I was supposed to led, I didn't get research done for a group project, and I squeaked in some readings for a class somehow between other classes.

I guess that's what a weekend in Dubai will do.

Overall, I'm not delighted with my overall Dubai experience, but that is mostly my fault. I like to have plans and back-up plans and a segment of everyday for everything. So when this weekend we went in with school work piling up, there wasn't much time for planning.

It also taught me the value of a good guidebook. Ours were 3 to 4 years old, so missing such monumental elements at the Burj Khalifa. Also, neither had deep background on any of the sites (or sights) we went to; my Rick Steves guides often have self-guided tours.

Now, Dubai in general is much larger than I thought. It stretches up and down the coast, and much of the glitzy stuff was along these many sea lines. Because the Metro was slightly inland, we stayed by the malls and the skyscrapes when we took it. Our hotel was in a very good location that we could've taken greater advantage of, if we weren't so dead tired at night. Budgeting time for a nap (especially when we didn't have anything to do anyways) probably would've been more effective, so the carnival happening two streets away would've been more attractive at 9pm.

Another thing to mention is our path; we were often bouncing between the far ends of Dubai without good regard for a daily plan. I think we missed out on some other sites along the Creek because we were walking so much that we just wanted to relax at a place (like we did at the Bastakiya district, in the picture).

In a bit of a "duh" statement, Dubai was really nice because it was so much bigger than Doha. There were a good variety of people in all the places we went... the most diverse place in the world, so brochures claim. Around the souks at night, we saw a lot of Indians, which just made me more excited for my spring break India trip. Around "The Walk at Jumeira Beach Resort", there were a large variety of khadeeji people (from the other Gulf states), Europeans, and Asians.

Looking back on it, there were quite a few really good experiences nestled among the sunburn and blisters (on the feet, not the burn, thankfully). The Bastakiya district, the fountain at the base of the Burj Khalifa, the Heritage Village at the Walk, bargaining for my (not very comfortable) shoes at the souk, all of these were more pleasant if plucked out of their original context.

It was travel, which is enriching and enlightening at the best of times, and tiring and harassing at the worst of times, but in the end, it is another experience through which my lens is tinted. Jessica, as well, has a few experiences that she really treasured and a few that missed the mark a bit.

Lastly, did I mention they have 1 dirham ice cream cones at McDonald's?

Walk the Catwalk, or Day 49 in Dubai

This morning was a relaxing one. I filled myself up with a poached egg sandwich late in the morning, and we were off to the Dubai Museum.

My guide book praised the museum as being one that focuses on “interpretive displays.” As I was walking around the museum, I kept bumping into and apologizing to all the manikins—the displays were very interpretive. I learned a little about everything; Dubai history stretches back much longer than Doha’s, with people here over 7000 years ago. They have been digging up artifacts from the Bronze Age, including burials and village sites.

One of my favorite facts, though, was about the five daily prayers that Muslims do. I knew that three were at dawn, noon, and sunset, but I didn’t realize that the other two were at last dusk and when an objects shadow is as long as the object is tall (roughly 15:00). Jessica has been guessing the time whenever we can hear the call to prayer, and she’s pretty accurate.

When we were walking to the museum in the late morning, we were getting pretty warm, so I made sure to look thoroughly through the collection in the air-conditioned building.

Right by the Museum was the Bastakia Quarter. This renovated district is now full of little artisan shops and guesthouses. The crisp walls, slight breeze, and greenery were a lovely place for an afternoon bite and drink. We wandered through the area, stopping in on an Iranian dealer and a art gallery before going back to the main road.

We had a few hours to kill before our evening plans at Dubai Mall, so we decided to see if we could figure out where the Dubai Fringe Festival was taking place. We managed to confuse a concierge, so we decided just going to the Mall (which was right by Burj Dubai) to hang out for a bit wouldn’t hurt. Thankfully, the concierge did know where the nearest Metro stop was.

We got to the Mall and the Burj and, after some typical tourist picture-taking, walked into the pretty mall I’ve seen in a while. Of course, we walked in on Fashion Avenue; all the big players had their spot, from Armani to D&G. We looked around a bit, then wandered to find ice cream. After a long, hot day, where we had discovered the grand hotel we wanted to see cost over $50 to go inside, so we stuck around the Mall and spent $10 on Coldstone.

We knew that a few fashion shows were scheduled for the evening, so we wandered to the Fashion Catwalk and got a seat to watch the up-and-coming “Haute Pink Couture,” a line done by two Emirati designers. There was a mix of local and Far Eastern influences, with a lot of zany imagination in there too.

I had heard about these “dancing fountains” from a friend and saw the Souk Al Bahar in the brochure, but I didn’t put two and two together until we were outside, the sun was setting, a bunch of people were around, and music started playing. I got a few pictures before the battery died in my camera as well, but the spouts of water were very reminiscent of the sword dancing we saw yesterday at Heritage Village as well as the dancing during Qatari Day.

We went back inside to see another fashion show (this one focused much more on abayas and a few fancy dresses) then we popped back to the souk to find some dinner.

It was pricey by our standards, but we found a pizzeria with some soup for Jessica and some pizza break for me. We also got to see the fountain go off twice more before we went inside for our last fashion show.

I’ve just realized this post is very “and-then-we-did-this-and-then-we-did-this.” I want to get this all down before I hit the sack tonight (since we have an early flight in the morning) and I’ll do some digesting in the next day or two.

So, to finish up my daily details, we went to a final fashion show, then took the Metro back home. We didn’t realize it the first night we were here, but just a few blocks away from us is Al Rigga, one of the locations of the carnivals for the Dubai Shopping Festival. We walked through it on the way here, and we were dazzled by more bright lights, in addition to some sort of Far Eastern dancing, some clowns on stilts, and some booths of crafts, bad DVDs, and carnival food.

Now, we are attempting to turn in for an early night, but getting distracted by the television. Our flight is early so we can still make classes, which means a lovely 04:30 wake-up call. It’ll be good to be back in Doha.

Sand, Sunburn, and Snow, or Day 48 in Dubai

As the title implies, today was quite a diverse day, starting with our hotel's shuttle to Jumeira Beach Park at 9:15 this morning.

We ate breakfast at our hotel, Sadaf, then into the 16-passenger van (or something close to it). We paid 5 dirhams ($1.35) to get into the beach, but amenities were definitely not the sandy, wet, and gross standard at public beaches in the US, so the money was being put to good use.

Now, the second part of my title... sunburn. I'll rationalize it by saying that Jessica had a limited amount of sunscreen, and I didn't want to borrow too much from Jessica, who is a bit more susceptible to sunburn than I am. So my back and shoulders and face were covered. And now, pretty much everything else is a bit red. I’m slightly mad at myself, but that just makes the dichotomies of Dubai all the better.

We weren’t theoretically allowed to take pictures (according to the single sign I stopped to read), however, the beach was filled with tourists from the East, West, and in between, who all had to have their cameras out. So I avoided taking pictures of people and grabbed some shots of the turquoise water, the fine sand, and the palm trees between us and Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world, which is on our list for tomorrow).

I took a dip or two into the Arabian Sea; it was colder than I expected but refreshing after lying around in the upper-80s to lower-90s Fahrenheit weather (that’s about the low 30s for you Celsius people). Also scuttling around were these zebra fish, their stripes blending in with the striations in the sand. Jessica was convinced they were robot fish, put in the water by the Dubai government, so as not to alarm tourists with their advanced sampling equipment to warn of a possible salination attack by Qatar. All this we derived from the fact that they were apparently “following” her while she was wading.

We were planning on taking the afternoon shuttle to the Mall of the Emirates, but one thing led to another led to a delicious lunch at an Indian place (chili and palau chicken with naan… yum) led to us missing the shuttle and just taking the Metro instead.

I definitely miss public transportation in Doha. There is a single bus loop that I’ve been warned away from taking. Here, on the other hand, they are building a system that goes up and down the sprawling coast, and, while not completely open, it has already proved its usefulness to us.

The big draw at Mall of the Emirates is SkiDubai, an indoor ski slope and snow play area. For just $25, you too could have a day of fun in a few inches of powder! I mean, unless you can go outside and play in it for free.

I’m glad Jessica came along and convinced me to go in. It was really just spending money on an opposite experience to this morning’s sunshine and sea. So my sunburn was getting chafed by a snow jacket, and my gloves were in the same bag my swimsuit occupied this morning. What opposites…

Next on the list was heading to “The Walk at Jumeira Beach Resort,” a section along the sea with lots of glitz and glam.

Now, on the map, we only had about a mile walk to get to the Resort from a Metro stop. Getting off the Metro stop, there were these large power lines blocking the way to the sea, so, like a trooper, Jessica humored me as we started walking through a deserted area, which led to a maze of streets which never turned quite the right direction.

A long walk later, we finally arrived at “The Walk.” From our vantage, we could see a carnival and a row of well-lit road with restaurants and a diverse crowd. But our feet were complaining, so we each got a tall glass of frozen mint lemonade.

This is probably the third time I’ve had a mint drink over here, and each time I regret it a little bit. I like mint, but with chocolate, please. It is always good, but never quite what I want.

After enough of a lounge to give us energy to begin again, we wander and find the “Heritage Village.” The loud Arabic music tipped us off.

Inside the walls were different tents set-up with a tour company, a camel burger place, and miscellaneous traders. I quickly found the traditional food-makers, and began to wait for a khameer. And wait while two little Arab boys push in front of me. And wait while a mother in an abaya orders ahead of me too. And finally, after forcing my money on the maker, she made me the large dough bun covered in soft cheese.

It was cooked by being stuck to a pan, then the pan was flipped over some coals, then, when sufficiently risen, removed and covered in a cream-cheese-like sauce. Delicious, and worth it, I just wish there had been a little less racial bias on the cook’s part.


The rest of the evening (or night) was spent wandering the well-populated streets and watching the carnival. We decided against trying to get back to the Metro (and it was closed at that point, too), so took a long, slightly pricey cab ride back to the hotel.

I think we made a dent in our Dubai to-do list, which is good since tomorrow is our last day here!

Abra like Cadabra, or Day 47 from Doha to Dubai

Well, I'm sorry to report that without wireless internet, these blogs are going to be picture-less until future notice. This desktop at the hotel doesn't have an SD card slot. Don't worry, I'll give you such complex visual imagery, you won't even notice.

We can start with this morning. It was the wee hours of 4am, and I got up to pack before Abdalla came at 5:30 to drive Jessica and I to the airport. Tiptoeing around my room while my roommate was sleeping wasn't the easiest way to pack. I haven't forgotten anything crucial, though that camera adapter might have been nice, to get some pictures on here.

Well, guess "crucial" is subjective. When we were in the car, we realized the neither of us had printed out our hotel confirmation or its location, and we didn't remember its name. Both of us felt like it started with an "s" and was about 6 letters and was by the Union Station Metro.

If you could gather from the blog post yesterday and my early wake-up today, I didn't get much sleep last night. So once we got to the airport, I napped in the all-flights waiting area, I napped in the flydubai (our airline) waiting area, Jessica warned me not to nap standing up on the bus to the airplane, but then I napped right up until we were within sight of Dubai.

Then, I could see the sea become land, and the impressive Burj Khalifa came into view (which is still under maintenance, so we won't be able to go up it). Picture a slightly foggy skyline, with a few boat wakes visible right before the extensive set of breakers that protect the harbors of Dubai.

We had heard the visas were available upon arrival, we went to the "visa" desk, who told us to go to the "passport control" room, who told us to go straight through the "passport control" desks. We got quizzed a bit on where we were staying (which was a bit of a problem, since we couldn't remember the name) but stamped and let through. I thought we would've had to pay at least a little, but nope. I'm sure we'll spend enough here to make up for it.

We were hoping our puzzle of information would enable us to find the hotel without looking online, but our hopes were dashed when there was no information desk at our terminal.
Sadly, this information didn't get us as far as we wanted. We took a taxi to the Union Station Metro, found a map that showed where some hotels were, guessed at one, and started walking.

We were distracted by food. We popped into a cafeteria with breaded everything and had chicken sandwiches for lunch. As we were walking out, Jessica mentioned that we were the only women, only Caucasians, and only young people in the store; to be honest, none of that triggered for me. Maybe it was my tiredness still rearing its head.

So we attempted to find wireless, got pointed to a Starbucks, and turned on my computer. Half an hour of frustrating attempts to get my credit card to go through, I gave up and called Daedri (internationally, so a bit expensive), who found the e-mail and got us in the right direction... finally.

We got back to the hotel, and after a bit of brainstorming, we decided it was too hot to do anything, so I feel asleep. When I woke up, we made some plans... then I fell asleep again. By the third section of my nap, our plans had changed again.

The iterations were something like, go to the souks or go to the beach. When we realized there was a shuttle that took us to the beach from the hotel tomorrow, we started walking to "the creek."

Dubai Creek is this weird water feature that Jessica and I were debating on the naturalness of it. It looks like an inlet, is treated like a river, and is just superb to walk along. We attempted to find the souqs on the south side of the creek, but instead puttered around until sunset, when we hopped aboard an abra (water taxi) to see the Burj Dubai side.

We had a bit more success finding the souqs there; the textile souq was the closest. We went into a shop with bulk hair accessories, and one of the workers started chatting me up. His English was good, but his pace and accent made it hard for me to understand whether his children were studying in Canada, or wanted to study in Canada, or just liked Canada. He, like most people, recognized the power of money and talked about how it affected his life. I didn't want to leave without buying anything, but I think I ended up purchasing some of the samples on accident because I didn't need 30 little hair clips.

After the textile souq, we wandered past the Dubai Museum (which we will probably find our way back to it in the next two days) and the Birkani quarter (same, since it was all closed).

Jessica had been craving sugar all day, so she found a Baskin-Robbins to grab a chocolate cone. I wanted something a little more exotic, so a block later, I saw a bakery and we peeked in. I started pointing at the different Indian sweets, and the shopkeeper just had us take a seat and made us up a plate of a variety of different kinds. There was a gulab jamun, another two or three that were also honey-soaked deliciousness, and two that were some sort of flaky half-pastry-half-fudge consistency. All of them were sugary and all of them were delicious.

After sitting there for quite a while to let our stomaches settle, we decided to head back across the creek to see if we could find the souqs we passed up in the afternoon. The first was the spice souq, with brightly colored stalls. Then, the gold souq (where my favorite line by a storekeeper trying to get us to come in was "I have silver"). Then, the "covered" souq, which, if we were even in the right place, was a cross between a mall and a market. The result of all this was two pairs of shoes for me. I was very proud of my bargaining, but the worker did his job too. I have a bit of buyer's remorse, even though both pairs are lovely!

It was a full day, and a slightly frustrating one (especially when the walk home keep being blocked by construction work), but now I have figured out how to add pictures to the blog, since Jessica has the cable for her camera that works on these computers. This is one I stole from her, but a promise of more later this weekend (or when I get back to Doha).

Scrumpdelicious, or Day 37 in Doha

You thought this was going to be another post about how after my day of coding was...

Aren't you glad you are wrong. I have, not one, but two super exciting things to share with you today.

First, I know someone famous! Mathew is in my Design for Service group (we're working on re-designing the library). When I first heard, I had to ask around because I didn't know him yet. The common answer: "He's the guy who's picture is everywhere around CMU-Q." And it is! He deigned himself to take a picture with me.


(And you're right, that is a fleece jacket I'm wearing. It's been hovering around 60 F, or 15 C, which is pretty chilly for these tropical people. I got asked today why I was wearing sandals with it being so cold outside!)

My second exciting feature is the first (and probably only) episode of "Cooking with Corinne"! You thought that cookies were fun... check this out.



As a final note, the mac and cheese turned out brownish, which might be better than the neon orange-yellow that I've had in the past. And I'm still alive, so can't be as bad as the milk powder in China.

Ok, ok, ok. I know I said that I wasn't going to complain about coding, but because it has been a huge part of my week (like 20+ hours and counting), I had to decide what I wanted out of this semester. I had a few conversations with my professor, my TA, my classmate, my future networks partner (Khaled... I'm sure you'll hear a lot more about him once we have huge assignments that we have to do together), and I decided that I'm really enjoying the people, the professor, and the class, so I'll commit to taking it. Even if it means that I'm not jaunting off to Dubai every weekend.

Speaking of Dubai, did you hear that the tallest building (the Burj Khalifa) is closed for maintenance? Jessica and I might not get to see it in a week. This article thinks it'll be open by Sunday; others have said it is closed 'indefinitely.' I hope it is open, though. I want to see the view from the top!

Might As Well Be Snowed In, or Day 35 in Doha

It probably would have been better today if I was snowed in like all the Pittsburgh and East Coast folk today. Maybe I would've gotten more work done on this giant program due soon.

But people around here were already complaining at the sub-70 F (sub-20 C) temperatures. And it's true, without my jacket it was cold walking (the 300 meters) home from classes.

I did get outside for a bit. I met up with Salman and Ehab for a minute (and might have driven Salman's car for a hundred meters...), saw a few other friends, then sequestered myself in my room for the remainder of the evening.

However, in this day and age, even that doesn't work! My grandma IMed me about the snow they were getting, my mom sent me some messages via Skype, and then Alisa and I talked through Google Video for quite a while.

Even Jessica stopped by so we could buy our tickets and our hotel room for visiting Dubai in two weekends! So, yes, I was in my room all night. But no... I sadly was not working as hard as I need to for this project.

Back to being to my ears in code! The life of a CS major... (Maybe I'll figure out if and where they might be streaming the Super Bowl at 2am around here.)

Thirty-One, or Day 31 in Doha

It's official! I've been here an entire month. January 3rd, my flight came in from Istanbul; I didn't know anything or anyone. Now look, a month later and I feel right at home.

So the number of days that I've been here is the first appearance of 31. The second was at the CMU-Q versus TAMU-Q girls basketball game.

I've been meaning to go to one for some time now, but I didn't know the location, and often had another thing going on. But tonight, I turned down two other events to cheer on our girls team, which includes Jessica (#42), another exchange student.

So, I get there a bit late, and we are down by about 5 points, which shortly turns into 7. However, the rest of the cheering section (two staff members) and I quickly got us back in the game... and then we were winning! We were up by one or two points all through the second half, right up until... we started fouling the other team.

The TAMU team's weakness was their rough play, but we had had enough, so started answering back. A few free-throws and a few bobbled balls later, and we were down by two points. Fifteen seconds before final buzzer, a nice pass and shoot tied it at 30-30!

Five minutes of overtime were added, and again, we exchanged fouls. They made 2, then we made 1, then they made a final free-throw for an end score of Tartans 31, Aggies 33. That "31" was not as nice as the first occurrence, but we had good hustle and good teamwork and sportsmanship. I'm proud of you, ladies!

I had invited Sara, a friend from CMU main campus who transferred to Georgetown-Q this year, over for dinner, but I was late due to the overtime. We still made a delicious pasta dinner and chatted about life as a student and what I have and haven't done in the region.

Enter Salman. He calls me up for a favor, and the three of us end up sitting in the garden, eating the delicious crepes, bananas, and Nutella that Sara had brought.

Now, Sara and I ran into each other a few weeks ago at the "Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets" poetry slam. It was so good to meet someone else around here who cooks and climbs stairs and doesn't litter. Not that I'm generalizing... It's just nice to meet someone else who notices those Qatari quirks.

Salman, like many people, wanted to know what my perception of this place was before I came. What I didn't expect it to be like was Palm Springs, of all places. There is this city surrounded by scrubby, infertile desert, but it pours millions of liters (gallons) of water into the land to make the grass grow and look green. I'm so proud of them for putting down fake grass in some places... it looks just as good (better?) and costs much less, to both the environment and EC.

Well, since I did pretty much end my day with Salman, I'll have to sign out again with a "cool story."

Twitter That, or the Day 29 in Doha

The follow few paragraphs are a pensive departure from my normal posts. But don't worry, I'll tell you about my day in a minute.

So this blogging thing has been really interesting to do, since I originally started it as a way for me to remember everything and my parents to make sure I still had a pulse. (What they don't know is that a crazy, blog-writing robot took over my body weeks ago...)

Then came the fact that quite a few of the exchange students have blogs; though they aren't always based on their experiences here, they are certainly being influenced by them.

Then, today, while I was searching for a place to watch the Superbowl (at 1:30am), I came across some blogs of Education City staff members, which was kind of weird, since one is my boss. Shows that this "blogosphere" is big enough for the all of us, I suppose.

However, since I've been blogging out here, I think I've picked up a Doha contingent to my audience: namely, the people that I hang out with who want to know what I think of them. When I sit down to write before I go to bed, I'm always thinking of them.

Resume normal blogging:

It's "EC for Haiti" week! I was sitting at the table, and someone (who I will assume is a professor) came up, letting me know that he just Twittered the fact that I was there. He also told me about his experiences with the a different emergency response NGO. Very nice guy, but the Twitter intro was a bit much.

(Speaking of Twitter, don't use it much, but here's mine if you want it.)

The day resumed its normalcy with a free lunch and talk about mobile networking, classes (and getting droopy-eyed in them) and some homework. Though I did get another lovely chance to catch up with my good friend Rosie, who's in Singapore for the semester! And maybe, just maybe, we'll meet each other halfway in Mumbai for Spring Break!

It was studying CMU-style after my afternoon snack and Community Service Learning group meeting. Which means that I did my homework, Rishav talked to anyone that would listen, Samreen was off somewhere grading, Aysha was procrastinating going home, and Shahriar was waiting for me to catch up to him. Oh, and we ordered food.

Now, I had soda today for the first time in a few months, and therefore the first time in Doha. Jessica was telling me when she got her first can of Sprite around here, she got frustrated because it wouldn't open correctly! So here is a tutorial for the Middle Eastern pop can:

Grasp by the tab.

Pull upwards!

Voila! And weird-looking but open can of the Pepsi we all know and love.

After such a challenging meal, I was rewarded with an ice cream outing. In my first week here, the weather was beautiful (as it still is), and I was just dying for ice cream. However, it is hard to ship scoop-able ice cream, which makes it quite the luxury item around here. All the Coldstones, Haagen Daaz's, Baskin-Robbins, and TCBYs were selling ice cream... for nearly $5 a scoop. I was heartbroken that I wouldn't be able to enjoy any sort of tasty treat regularly.

Well, if you'll remember back to the end of that first week, and the first day that I met Abdalla, I found the joy of 1 riyal ($.30) soft serve from, where else, McDonald's. Three weeks of classes later, I'm already forming traditions and bonds that, Insha'Allah, will last all semester. Besides, who can say no to a late night trip to get ice cream with a guy like that?

That's My Terrorist Pose, or Day 25 in Doha

Today was not very well planned. I was not busy, then for 4 hours straight had 4 different events that I could attend. And now, back to being a lazy night.

I love Thursdays, the only day that I really sleep in. I got up at noon, exercised, ate my camel leftovers, and started the craziness.

First up, the CMU Development Solutions Organization (or something that shortens to DSO) is doing a week-long campaign to raise money for Haiti. I went to the meeting for that, supposedly signed up to get signed up for shifts, then scurried off to...

CMU's Got Talent! The talent show that shows the exchange students (and everyone else in EC who heard there was free food) what people on this campus can do. My apartment-mate sang OneRepublic's "Apologize" with two other freshmen on back-up... and they were really fun to watch! Jessica did a song from "Ragtime" ('m ashamed to say it's one of the musicals I know almost nothing about) that was very powerful. My favourite part was when a group did an encore of a famous Pakistani song that I didn't know... yet almost the entire crowd was singing word for word with her. Now I want to find out what the song was! (Update: Mishab told me it was Aadat. Now you can go memorize it and fit in!)

After the dazzling talent show, I went to Qatari Day/Night, which was taking place just 100 meters from the show. They had taken the middle corridor, set out couches and tables, had "dress-up" clothes for people to try on, and had some great literature that I picked up.

For about half an hour, there was sword dancing... Men were wandering around in thobes with these sabres that they would wave around in time to a dance. I was sure someone was going to get stabbed, since no one was looking where they were going. So in light of all this, I, of course, grabbed a sword and jumped in. Never mind that there weren't any other girls doing it... it is clearly a cultural event where I wouldn't get tramped. As I was posing for this picture, the random guy that is in it came up and goes "This is my terrorist pose" while miming slicing my throat. I'm glad they can poke fun at the incorrect image we Americans have of them.

However, the acceptance there wasn't like my other plans for the evening, which fell through. Tonight was the African Cup semi-final between Algeria and Egypt. I want to go see how intense people get for football around here... being in Austria for the EuroCup a few years ago was really, really cool. However, they apparently get wild and dangerous. One of the places in the souq wasn't going to show the game because they were scared fights were going to break out.

So, in sum, sometimes I hate being a girl in any country where places are too dangerous for me. That happens in the US too, though, so I can't be too harsh. And don't worry, parents, friends, strangers that read this blog... I'm being careful!

Cat-erwauling, or Day 13 in Doha

Warning: today was not very exciting, so I'm going to spice it up with nerdy things. Sound like a plan?

This morning, bright and early, there were these two tomcats (as I found out later) that had cornered a lady-cat in a tree and were head-butting underneath it. (Ask Jessica for pictures, if you desire.) All I remember is thinking, "That's why they call it 'caterwauling'" as I rolled over and went back to sleep.

I finished my TA training! Not like it was very hard, but there were a few ethical questions that I hadn't thought of before. If you are a teaching assistant for a friend, who calls you up to ask a question, then we were supposed to think if all of the students in the class have the same luxury. If not, that is not treating all students fairly. I hadn't thought of that situation in that way before.

Jessica had mentioned yesterday during training (since she is going to be a writing tutor), that she was looking for a chance to make crepes. I was on board! So today, a few of us girls got together at her place for the delicious French delight.

Have I mentioned recently that I hate the lack of co-ed dorms? I don't even need my living room co-ed. I just want a kitchen to cook for people in!

I met Layal, Jessica's roommate, for the first time today. She lives in Bahrain and tells stories, usually involving her and usually involving her clumsiness, that she just bubbles over in explaining. A reinforcing reminder that laughing at yourself is a good and healthy thing.

The crepes were delicious, and Jessica did an awesome job making them. There was much flipping and... well, just a lot of really cool flipping, actually.

And now, for the moment you've all been waiting for... where I show you what my first homework assignment is for "Formal Languages, Automata, and Computability" ("FLAC" for short).

We are creating automata, which are basically these flow charts that determine whether or not a "string" is accepted in a "language" (where a string is a series of character, and a language is just a bunch of rules).

So, in the spirit of this homework assignment, I made you all an automata that only accepts the language containing "Corinne" and "Cornish." Here it is, in all its glory, as I return to its cousins (which are much more interesting to make).
A final outing for the evening: a drive to bandar, to get shwarma and Moroccan tea and see West Bay all lit up. Those are some of my favorite things in Doha, all wrapped up in one.

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.

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.