This is it. My final day in Doha. And today is going to be unusual, because this first post is going to be about leaving and goodbyes and things, where as today's second post is going to be telling you about the May Trip (as it has come to be called)!
People keep asking me if I'll come back to Doha. The world is pretty big, and, though I pretend, I haven't seen that much of it. If I do come back, I'd love to come back this time next year for graduations... wouldn't that be great, CMU? (hint hint, nudge nudge) But looking beyond next year, what I would want to come back to are the people, and, like most university students and staff and faculty, the don't stay in one place very long! This is a very dynamic community, and you can never come back to the same one you left. I'm sure I'll experience that when I'm back in Pittsburgh too.
(Was it Pocahontas that said you can never step in the same river twice?)
So what did I do on my final day?
I stayed pretty secluded to start with, getting this and that finished up and packed. I found another bag of things to have a friend take back to Pittsburgh for me, as well as food and things to give away to people sticking around a little longer than I am.
In some ways, packing isn't hard: basically everything has to go in. I did manage to make another little goodie bag for myself that Rishav will deliver to Pittsburgh for me.
But I'm was detached from it.
My semester ended ending this evening.
First was a "dinner" at Maya's, the chocolate restaurant, with a few of the CS people. Samreen, ever the chocolate lover, was present, as well as Rishav, and Nasreem and Amal, two other CMU students. We ate a lot, we laugh a lot, and it was a heart-warming goodbye with a card and some good hugs and promises to see each other in the future.
Afterward, it was another few, quick goodbyes to Zaid and others, then an hour of printing and finalizing plans for the "Epic May Trip." Then, Abdalla and I got news of a gathering over at Cornell with another of my favorite groups of people.
Sabrina convinced a group of Cornellians (and us) to come with her to Star of India. There was a lot of laughs (especially for the guys... don't know what it is about those kind of jokes that just set them off) and then, it was time again to say goodbye. Sabrina was making me teary-eyed; it is very hard saying goodbye to people that I may never see in person again.
And here I say, God bless the Internet.
After we got back, Abdalla scurried away to finish his errands, and I cleaned out the rest of my stuff from my apartment. Food went to Tina, trash went to the dumpster (I'm such a good roommate), and extra toiletries went to the social room with "Free" on them. Somehow, my apartment, which still has at least two girls still actively living there, didn't look that much emptier.
It was in the taxi, leaving Education City for the airport, that I realized that this was it. Having Abdalla along is delaying the shock of leaving all these people, but my last Doha skyline fading into the distance... that was real.
I've promised a few people some reflective blogposts, but this isn't one of them. The airport in Dubai is not quite a reflective place. Amman in a few hours!
I finally got to see Sheikha Mozah today (with Aysha in the background of this picture)! Her Highness attended the Qatar Foundation Convocation ceremony tonight, where all of the graduates of all six of the Education City universities came together to be presented rings.
I've also officially figured out all seven universities. The one I always forget is the newest one to EC, the Faculty of Islamic Studies, which gives out Masters degrees; the other five with graduating classes are (in order of appearance to Education City) VCU, Cornell, Texas A&M, CMU, and Georgetown. Northwestern is the new kid on the block. It is funny, because around EC you can tell who has been here the longest by their building. (VCU's is currently being renovated, Georgetown is getting a building, and Northwestern is currently in CMU's upstairs.) With six of the universities graduating students, there were still only 193 students. That's not many (and I was kinda glad, since listening to a bunch of names being read off a list is sometimes not all that exciting.)
It started with a reading from the Quran, then recitation of a poem, then presentation of the rings and an address by Her Highness. After a final group picture, they all proceeded through the Gate of Graduation (I don't know the real name of the bab they went through, but that's close enough...)
Before this evening's festivities, I had lunch with Jill and Cindy, from Student Affairs. They quizzed me on my time here, what could be better, what made my semester so great. In a lot of ways, I was just lucky; can't really ask for the friends I had around here. The experience I got can't be bottled up and handed to every student that comes over. Someone was clearly looking out for me.
After first lunch came second lunch. Rishav took Samreen, Kaleem, and I to Landmark, and we ran into Khaled and Saleh. Small world around here, and I pretty much love it. We also got to see Shakir, Tessa, and Swapnil that were in the mall too and stopped by.
After the ceremony tonight (and after the food), Abdalla gave me a ride to the airport, and I hopped on a (huge, empty, British Airlines) flight to Bahrain. I must've been randomly sleeping, because I remember the announcement saying that we were quite to the gate yet. Then, next thing I knew, some flight attendants were asking me my name. They wanted to make sure I got off the plane instead of going on to London with it!
So I made it to Bahrain and my CouchSurfing host easily. Another country, and two days of fun!
This afternoon, W=while we were eating at TGI Fridays, there was a quote on the wall that I saw... "Here's to the good old days that we are having right now." Well, here's to them!
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.
Sorry, Madre, this one isn't about you. (Though I did appreciate the e-mail you sent, and I'm glad you and Zoe did well in the talent show.) Carnegie Mellon, here and in Pittsburgh (I think...), lets their students strut their stuff at a poster competition and presentation session called "Meeting of the Minds." Somehow I got roped into doing a poster based on my final project for my Community Service Learning course. Two guys from Cornell, two ladies from Cornell and CMU, and me, we all joined forces on a poster to show our skills. We changed the curriculum of the program to better suit the students' needs, and the girls made a handbook to give to potential teachers telling them about the program. And to be honest, it was a great class and everything, and I'm glad we could share it with people, but it was not a research poster presentation like everyone else's, so when they asked us about our empirical methods... yeah, we only go for the touchy-feely stuff. Anyway, I got to see a bunch of my friends presenting. Over the lunch hour, I saw one of the three senior thesis presentations by Aysha, Rishav, and Kaleem. And, wonder of wonders, I saw them all again at MoM later that day! Speaking of seniors, I met with Tessa and the two professors for Networks this morning to go through my code and talk about the class, and I was very happy when I got praises... but mostly I'm happy to have passed that class! And I was super proud of her this afternoon when she and her partner swept the Meeting of the Minds awards, winning best CS, best poster, and best overall. She had more goody bags than she could carry by the end of it.
And, for those of you who are starting to get sensitive about me leaving (I know I am!), I'm going to talk about goodbyes now, so you should probably stop reading...
I have my last exam and last project tomorrow, then I'll only be in Qatar for four days out of the next nine, so I've been trying to network and find the people I need to say goodbye and thank you to before its too late.
And just in general, thank you! I'm tearing up a bit already, and I still have over a week to go! But soon, my blogposts are going to get re-numbered to "Day 1 of my May Adventure" and then, after that... this blog will be done. It'll be in stasis, for me to come back and read and reminisce, like my Eurotrip blog from two years ago, except a lot more bittersweet. Can you remember the first day I was in Doha? Everything was so new!
So we can ignore that weird middle part of my day... that part where I took a 4-hour nap, ran errands and had a group meeting.
That just leaves the beginning and the end.
The day dawned early. Too early. I was the opposite of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when I got up at 7:30am. (Blurry-eyed and un-bushy-tailed?) Abdalla and I were going to check out the post office, which I've been curious about since I got here, before heading to the Turkish Embassy for a visa.
There is only one post office in Qatar, from what I've been told (though I have seen other ones in strip malls...). Everyone has their own PO box number, so you never actually put a street address on letters and packages going through the post to Qatar. Personally, it doesn't quite seem like there were enough post office boxes for every person in Qatar.
Architecturally, it resembles a pigeon roost, which is what the website says it is supposed to look like. Something about letters being like roosting pigeons or something. It just reminded me of the Pigeonhole Principle. I'm such a nerd.
In addition to a bunch of post office boxes, there was also a QNB branch (a bank), a few random windows to purchase stamps or exchange money, and a little food shop where we got breakfast. Carack and a spiced cheese roll...
The Embassy took no time at all (since we were told there was visa-on-arrival for both of us) and I was back home... for my nap. Tonight was a wonderful CMU tradition.
The day before Reading Day (the day with no tests in the middle of finals week), the faculty and staff of the Pittsburgh CMU campus stay up until the ungodly hour of 9:00pm to cook omelets for the students during the annual "Almost Midnight Breakfast."
Rachelle, one of the CMU alums who currently works here in Qatar, has advocated for this event, and I loved it. At CMU-P, it is held in one of the largest spaces on campus, and I don't really know who is making my omelet (if I even decide to get an omelet with the huge lines). Here, I knew every faculty and staff member, at least by face if not by name. In addition, I could wander among all the different groups of people, since I knew most of them too. It's the little things, such as attending an event for two hours and feeling like it breezed by. Also, just to clarify, 9:00pm is not "almost midnight." Not if you've ever had a project due at midnight...
It's definitely not like I didn't do anything today. I had a final test for Networks (that class is officially over!) I had a final presentation for Design for Service (look here to see our beautifully designed slides). I had a final paper for Islamic Feminism (about how activists are not effective... having a bad economy, being in a war, and having a weak government are all ways to forward female rights, however). I had a final project for Community Service Learning (where I made materials to use in the classroom, as well as guides for the teachers).
But, for all of you that weren't in my frantically busy shoes this morning, this blogpost is going to look pretty lame. No picture (sorry... I guess I could do one of those DailyBooth ones where I just look lame, sitting in front of a computer, but that wouldn't be fun for any of us.)
So basically, I feel like I'm done. (There is only a Tuesday group project documentation and a Wednesday test left.)
And I definitely acted like I was done. After turning in the last thing at 6:30pm, I wandered CMU for an hour and a half, checking in on the IPL cricket finals (then leaving, pretty quickly), then chatting with Samreen and Aysha in the undergraduate robotics lab.
When I got home, Sara had the TV turned on. So I sucked my brains out for a few (quite, quite a few) hours, watching movies, putting some things in a box to try to ship tomorrow, and buying yet more tickets for this epic May journey... that isn't quite long enough for everything!
People are trying to get me to stop talking about leaving... but it is what's on my mind these days. Sadly, taking the place of studying and projects that need to get done! Today I spent the day helping Khaled, Samreen, and Keghani with planning the CS End-of-Year Banquet. I sat by a card that people were signing for Dean Thorpe; I got very craft-y and cut out and glued together placecards; and I designed and cut the name tags.
Basically, I sat at a table and had fun while Khaled ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, Keghani kept mentioning things that Khaled needed to do, and Samreen was upstairs exhausting herself with another project.
But, the event was a success! Samreen and I started by making the Computer Science Pictionary words into slips of paper, then attempting to print from the stubbornest printer ever. So I missed the opening, which included a geeky facts quiz about the professors that Keghani put together.
Janahi and Ahmed, a pair of guys that seem attached at the hip, helped with a slideshow of nerdy quotes (including some good Chuck Norris ones) and customized pick-up lines for each professor. These lines might have included jokes about hard- and software, shortest path algorithms, optimizations, and single hops... a computer science love-fest.
We had good food, some music provided by Kaleem... and then the skits.
This is totally something only CMU-Q can do. (I take that back... there are some professors and students at CMU-P that are distinctive enough to do this with.) First go the students: we pick a few professors with some quirks and create skits revolving around them.
My favorite was Khaled-as-Majd, a bipolar, marker-throwing tyrant who cares. Janahi-as-Khaled-Harras (my networks professor) had some nice moments too.
Next, the professors to get to jab at the students that are perpetually falling asleep in class, that ask a lot of questions, and that are just very distinctive in their walking or talking. "Janahi" and "Ahmed" were in a few different skits; "Khaled" had a in one as well.
We were all cracking up; it was like all of SCS was in one, great joke.
I didn't want to leave! It is an "end-of-year" thing, so everyone was talking about the future or the past. I still can't focus on the "now" of finals next week.
I can, however, focus on the "now" of finding people to hang out with. While on my way out, I ran into Fatima, Maria, Waleed, Hira, Zaid, and others playing charades on the cut with movie titles (a popular game around here). So, of course, I sat and gave my two cents, making Waleed act out John Tucker Must Die. (He didn't succeed, just for the record.)
I saw them again as Abdalla and I were headed out of EC. There were four of them that were very close to jumping into the car and heading to City Center, but they were smarter than we were and went off to prepare for finals week.
So in networks, we got a grand tour of the CMU-Q network by one of the engineers. We first got a diagram basically showing how we connect to the world and to CMU-Pittsburgh.
Then, it was time to visit the one of the rooms that connect part of the building to the server room. It was pretty chilly, pretty stark, but with ropes of wires everywhere. We were also in the presence of equipment that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Then we went downstairs.
It was large and in charge... of all of the internet and telecommunications within the building. The Data Control Room. The wires and switches (of the virtual variety) were pretty cool.
But I guess I'm just not into that stuff, because what I thought was fascinating was the cooling system and the UPS (uninterrupted power supply) system. In the Data Control Room, they had these holes in the ground which made it look like an air hockey table. Cool air circulated up through there, and hot air went out the back. There were also fans in each individual unit, as well as ceiling-based air conditioning.
For the UPS, there were reportedly three full rooms in the basement (that we didn't get to see) that were basically huge batteries.
We looked at a couple million dollars of infrastructure at work. I will never take the Internet for granted again. (Except, that I'm kind of doing that right now...)
Anyway, to finish off a nerdy day, I watched part of the ASCII Star Wars. Don't judge, just click and you'll see why I was pretty amazed and a little disturbed.
Are you ready to get meta? I'm blogging about how I talked about blogging this noon with a group of other like-minded people.
I guess its official. I'm a blogger. The real question is will I be able to (or want to!) wean myself off it once this semester is over?
I feel that my life in Pittsburgh (or Seattle, for that matter) is much more of a personal thing than my life here in Qatar. It is about connecting with people I've known for quite a while and having adventures based on my interactions with them.
Here, it is about having adventures that are so completely different from what I would do back in the U.S. And these adventures seem note-worthy because they are so different (or surprisingly similar)!
Maybe, as we talked about during this discussion today, I'll have to grow into a different theme for a blog. This summer is going to be an experience in itself, working and researching with the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center and Carnegie Learning. Maybe I'll keep track of my interests in how people learn, or my discover of usability studies and products, or just my experiences as an intern.
Did I mention that we also talked about search engine optimization? Yeah, getting people to link to your website bumps it up in the search results.
Enough with the serious side of blogging... let's get on to the ARC appreciation dinner tonight! Marjorie (also a blogger, so one last blog link) is leaving Qatar after her time here with her husband Justin. He has been studying and teaching; she has been a coordinator in the Academic Resource Center where I am a teaching assistant.
She has been a quiet inspiration for me in my time here. I always enjoy my conversations with her, though we've only known each other a short time. I just feel like we have similar ideas about some things.
Such as during the dinner tonight when the faculty sat at one table and the TAs sat at two others. We took the step to desegregate together, and I don't think I've ever had a better conversation about saving yourself from wild animals. And eating silver. (Don't do it. It turns you blue forever.) Clever awards (with the Qatar version of ramen noodles, called Maggi as prizes) were handed out to many of the senior TAs, including Rishav, Varun, and Aamir.
As for the other TAs... we were just enjoying the food, like always. There weren't any chocolate desserts for Samreen, but I had my first dragonfruit tart. Not the sweetest of fruits, but in that little pie crust... a yummy end.
The excitement of the day (besides going to bed early and waking up early, which is a rare occurrence) was a fire alarm during my Computer Networking class.
That class is just cursed I guess.
The eight of us went outside (along with the rest of the CMU building), and Professor Khaled started throwing a frisbee around. But we went inside shortly when they gave the all clear.
Later, I did get to see a few minutes of the ECQC (Education City Quiz Challenge) preliminary round. I'm excited to see the finals in a few days. Because, of course, I was the voice of the commercial, so I should represent.
I guess the last thing that happened was my first session with Soliya. It's an interesting bunch of people, but I'm excited to see where the discussions go.
Since I'm taking a red-eye to Delhi, I figured I'd post quickly before I get my ride to the airport from Abdalla. Man, that boy is so useful...
Today was my Networks mid-term, as well as finishing up paperwork, turning in an essay, designing some code, and stressing about everything that is going to catch up with me when I get back.
But sometimes that is why I travel: to get out of the daily mindset of things to do and errands to run. Instead I worry about how to have fun! In the midst of all this, I dropped by the Activities Board's Movie Madness, got some Johnny Rocket's "bacon" cheddar burger (though it tasted like bacon to me), and watched the first fifteen minutes of "Serendipity." The free food attracted many of my other CS friends, most of whom had just taken the Networks midterm with me as well. I'm going to double-check my packing, try to find a scale, then off to airport I go! See you on the sub-continent side...
Just thought I'd mention something. When I was talking to my parents (and I got a chance to talk to my sister yesterday too), my dad mentioned the fact that this blog doesn't really mention the fact that I'm going to school.
Don't worry, guys. I'm going to school... it's cramping my fun! In fact, university was much more exciting today than usual. I got wanded down as I entered the building because Hillary Clinton was visiting! She held a town hall meeting for Al Jazeera in our majlis. I listened to her talk from the second floor. I didn't get a ticket like SOME people that got to sit ten meters from her (*cough* Abdalla *cough*). In discussions afterward, everyone was frustrated because she danced around the issues, especially when it came to Iran (which was discussed a lot), but I think that she did a good job of showing how the ball is currently in Iran's court. I don't think that's what people wanted to hear, but that's what they got. If you are interested, there are manyarticlesabout the subject. Al Jazeera's was the most illuminating for me.
"Secretary Clinton is in the Gulf States, not to lessen America's energy dependence, but rather China's. As one of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, China's support is critical for passing any sanctions against Tehran. But its been reluctant to do so because it is Iran that supplies China with most of its energy, and that's precisely why the US is here -- to get energy-rich Qatar and Saudi Arabia to step forward as alternate energy suppliers."
In addition to the media coverage around the world, there is quite a bit of student media that was going on as well. Sidra, a friend from Northwestern, had her handy notepad out and was snapping pictures left and right. Abdalla and Zaid were interviewing people (such as Khaled, who got an opportunity to ask a question) about their reactions for their radio show "A to Z", which plays on QF Radio. I also got interviewed, but for a completely different reason... they finally got around to asking me about being an exchange student!
Today wasn't all politics. I was the happy organizer of a study break to Maya, the chocolate restaurant that I've been to before. We were happy as clams, chowing down on chocolate cake, chocolate crepes, chocolate pizza, chocolate fondue, chocolate brownie, and probably chocolate something else too.
Only a select few are going to understand the title for today, but I'm going to keep it anyway.
Besides obsessing over the number 42, today was Education City Family Day! As I've mentioned before, I love how of the campuses are interconnected, and so took full advantage of that.
First lunch and dessert were at Texas A&M (and catered by Sharq, a very fancy hotel in Doha), while saying hi to all the A&M exchange students, Abdalla, and Surahji. Second dessert was at CMU, while saying hi to a group of CS professors and all the Student Affairs staff. Snack time was out on the Green Spine, while saying hi to the student representatives at each university.
Since each school is pretty small, the likelihood of knowing someone whose picture is on some sort of advertising material increases. So my new favorite picture to take is the one where the person is posing with their own picture. (Remember Mathew?) I was taking a picture of Omer, and Abdalla one-upped him by finding two pictures of himself on advertising brochures.
Also out on the Green Spine were a group of Qatari musicians. They pulled in a few of the students and staff to dance some sort of slow line dance (similar to the sword dance, but without the weapons) while horns and drums were playing.
After the excitement (and deliciousness) of Family Day, I was asked by Varun to star in my own commercial! Well, my voice (and that of another guy) is going to be hear on the Qatar Foundation Radio advertising the Education City Quiz Challenge. (I remembered the website from the commercial.) We attempted some looseness with some improvisation, but let's just say it was funny listening to our gaffs right after we created them.
After the excitement (and silliness) of recording a commercial, I visited my CS buddies up in the Robotics Lab. They were just so full of life... or would have been, had they been a bit less stressed about the fact that the weekend was almost over.
A few hours of procrastinating later, I found myself in the apartment of the one and only Daedri. She is proud of her Jamaican heritage and made me some delicious jerk chicken to prove it. The chicken was a bit spicy, but so moist it just fell apart without a knife. Hats off to Daedri making (an almost midnight) dinner!
Then it was back to university, where I managed run into the exact same people that I saw this morning. In addition, I also checked out the architecture students' space. It looks pretty comfy for them being there 16 hours a day. They are even working their little "non-majors" pretty tough. It's a nice, warm, international feeling of always having work to do.
Props to Rishav for the title. He has been suggesting titles to me every time we hang out, so I decided to throw him a bone. (I wonder what the equivalent phrase would be in Arabic?)
Tonight, after a hard day of programming and snacking, I went to hear the Qatar Philharmonic. The Qatar Foundation sponsored student tickets to the event, so, once there, we ran into CMU, Cornell, QF, and Texas A&M folk. They are a fairly new orchestra, but they have apparently improved a lot since their inception.
The set-up was a bit odd. It was a large hall with (uncomfortable) plastic chairs and a stage with the orchestra. The stage wasn't lit, so the house lights were up the entire performance. Also, it was the "whitest" gathering I've been to in a while; it was the typical symphony audience of retirement-aged Caucasians, even here in Qatar.
With the music, I was impressed. They played quite a few playful works that made the audience happy. Happy enough for a standing ovation at the end!
The program was:
J. Ibert's "Divertissement" F. Poulenc's "Concerto in D Major for 2 pianos + Orchestra" A. Dvorak's "Symphony No.9, op.95, E minor (From the New World)" (which is much better than the demeaning key of F# minor)
Afterward, Abdalla and I were on a mission. I, as a "CIA agent", was out to ruin his life by discovering such things as his PIN number and e-mail password. He was on a mission to review the restaurant we went to.
When typing Arabic with a Latin keyboard, they use numbers in replace of the extra letters that we don't have. For example, a "7" is a breathy "h" sound. So a lot of people have their passwords in Arabic, since it includes both letters and numbers.
As for PIN numbers, they write them down for waiters when paying for a meal, so the waiter can put it in the debit machine. I got asked for my PIN the other day, because apparently signature-only credit cards are rare.
It was getting towards the end of the meal, and we hadn't seen our waitress, Lucky, for a while. In order for Abdalla to fully rate the restaurant, we needed not only cocktails (the virgin kind, still no alcohol) and a starter in addition to our main courses, but dessert and tea as well.
Well, it was 11:15 (past their closing time) before someone approached us. She informed us that the kitchen was closed, so we'd have to take the bill and leave. Well, the survey company needed us to eat dessert too, so we ended up being those customers that the staff glare at because we stayed way past closing. We had to talk to the manager so he could get us a dessert and some tea. (Abdalla just wanted me to mention that since we were the customers, and we weren't alerted of closing time, that we were right. I just want to say that I hate inconveniencing people, especially harried waiters, so I felt bad for them.)
Despite it all, I still have a huge project and a presentation due on Tuesday, so, I'm just warning you now, these adventures need to get much shorter in length so I can do what I'm theoretically here to do: "study" abroad!
It's award season (for Hollywood at least), so I'd like to thank a few of my friends, who I am "making famous" by putting in this blog post.
First, I'd like to thank Utshav and Salman; the former for inviting me out to play some ultimate frisbee today, and the latter for being on the winning team with me.
Next, I would like to thank the group of CMU TAs who informed me of a delicious place called Maya. In no particular order (actually, from left to right), I'd like to thank Samreen, Tessa, Swapnil, and Rishav, my CS superstars. Maya is a restaurant of completely chocolate dishes. After I ordered a chocolate fondue as my "meal", the waitress asked if I wanted any "dessert." The others ordered everything from hot chocolate to crepes filled with bananas and - you guessed it - chocolate.
Next comes the A-to-Z duo of Abdalla and Zaid. They deserve a Grammy for their work on QF Radio (which I haven't actually heard yet...) and for their leadership around their respective universities. While the rest of us were sitting lethargically in a chocolate coma, these two went to pick up Krispy Kreme donuts to sell as a fund-raiser for Haiti. Here you see them standing by a vat of chocolate.
The last two people I want to thank today are the dazzle team that are part of my rap group. On the right you see "sprinKILLZ", who has skillz with the reelz. On the left you seen my G (who's name I actually forgot... I'll fill it in later) who drops Qs like they're on fire. You might also see the fact that each of us has three dozen donuts on our laps. It was one delicious-smelling, beat-busting ride home from Landmark Mall.
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 exchangestudents 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?
restaurant, with a few of the CS people. Samreen, ever the chocolate lover, was present, as well as Rishav, and Nasreem
and Amal, two other CMU students. We ate a lot, we laugh a lot, and it was a heart-warming goodbye with a card and some good hugs and promises to see each other in the future.
nvinced a group of Cornellians (and us) to come with her to Star of India. There was a lot of laughs (especially for the guys... don't know what it is about those kind of jokes that just set them off) and then, it was time again to say goodbye. Sabrina was making me teary-eyed; it is very hard saying goodbye to people that I may never see in person again.
