Well folks, another week is in the books. What a week it was. I had the privilege of finally meeting Varun's cousin Nive (who is incredibly cool), received my resident permit, attended a break dancing performance, finished a season of the Newsroom (awesome show), went to a Carnegie Mellon talent show, and participated in my first major leadership workshop at HBKU.
Let's start with the break dancing performance, because it was pretty unreal. A few weeks ago Arooj and I were walking to lunch in the Student Center and tickets were being sold for a show sponsored by Red Bull called "Flying Bach". It is basically a break dancing crew that performs to classical music. Think Step Up if their soundtrack was a piano. Of course we bought tickets for it, and I am SO glad we did. Check out this clip about the show (ignore that it's not in English):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T6uTH1gkfc
Not too bad for your casual Wednesday night! We even ran into a work colleague, Bachar, while we were there and went out to dinner after the show.
A HUGE part of this week was finally receiving my Resident Permit. This basically means that I am officially allowed to live in Doha, despite already having a work visa. This is also the next step to getting a driver's license, which I am hoping to do this week. Not having a car is becoming more of an inconvenience as I am
desperately wanting to get out on some adventures. Although there is some limitations in the things to do in Doha, I want to try some things like scuba diving, kayaking, beaches, desert camping, etc. I should be able to keep myself entertained for quite some time. This Resident Permit also allows me to now apply for an exit visa to be able to travel out of the country. We have the second Eid holiday coming up at the end of October and I am looking to travel during that week. There is a slim chance that I will be back in the states at that time attending a conference in Denver and then swinging to JMU's Homecoming, but nothing has been confirmed yet. If not the states, I will start brainstorming some travel in the region for that week.
As you all may have guessed, weather in Doha is pretty consistent. You can basically bank on the fact that it will be sunny. Every day, nearly 365 days a year. Now to many this would sound AMAZING, no rain to worry about, being able to be outside most of the year, etc. And while the sunshine does have its benefits, especially as fall comes around you long for some overcast clouds and rainfall. And this weekend we got just that. Wil, Arooj, and I were at the mall trying to pick up a few items and we noticed it was overcast outside and the wind was picking up. Anywhere else in the world we would have been mad that it was going to rain the rest of the day, but we were PUMPED. We got in Wil's car and became storm chasers. The radio told us there was rain on Salwa Road, so to Salwa Road we went. As we chased the storm we caught a few glimses of lightning and found a few raindrops. In the end we didn't find the rainstorm we were searching for and headed back home. Immediately upon getting back to the complex, we noticed puddles all over the place! Evidently it rained pretty heavy at home while we were out chasing. Looks like we will have to wait another few months for some real rain action!
Another major event for the week was my first Doha hair cut. Not only was a hair cut 20 QR (basically $5) the barber was incredibly skilled and it was one of the best haircuts of my life. He was incredibly detailed used a buzzer, scissors, and straight razor for the cut. If I had wanted to add a complete shave to this experience it would have been another 20 QR! The same kind of service would be at least $100 back in the states. Add this to the ever expanding list of things that are much cheaper in Doha, which is balanced out by the things that are insanely expensive.
As far as the whole job thing goes, we hosted a Student Leadership Workshop this weekend. It was my first major HBKU event and it was organized in partnership with all the branch campuses. We had about 70 students attend and we facilitated a personaility assessment (True Colors) and then had student presenters for a variety of break out sessions. It was really interesting to see how leadership programming is done here as well as some of the views on leadership held by the students. From what I observed today, it seemed that students identified leaders based on positions or the person who was "in charge". There is definitely some work to be done to expose students to the idea of leadership being more relational and collaborative as opposed to positional. I am starting to work on a leadership program that will be HBKU wide, but this is very much in the early stages. I look forward to having more conversations with colleagues and students to develop some intentional leadership programs here in Doha.
That should just about do it for now. I have a big week ahead. Hopefully I will be getting my license and starting to go car shopping. We are attending an Oktoberfest event at the Inter Continental hotel on Wednesday night, and might even get into some desert camping this weekend. So stay tuned for next week to hear about all of those adventures. Looking forward to hearing from you all this week. Talk soon.
Let's start with the break dancing performance, because it was pretty unreal. A few weeks ago Arooj and I were walking to lunch in the Student Center and tickets were being sold for a show sponsored by Red Bull called "Flying Bach". It is basically a break dancing crew that performs to classical music. Think Step Up if their soundtrack was a piano. Of course we bought tickets for it, and I am SO glad we did. Check out this clip about the show (ignore that it's not in English):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T6uTH1gkfc
Not too bad for your casual Wednesday night! We even ran into a work colleague, Bachar, while we were there and went out to dinner after the show.
A HUGE part of this week was finally receiving my Resident Permit. This basically means that I am officially allowed to live in Doha, despite already having a work visa. This is also the next step to getting a driver's license, which I am hoping to do this week. Not having a car is becoming more of an inconvenience as I am
As you all may have guessed, weather in Doha is pretty consistent. You can basically bank on the fact that it will be sunny. Every day, nearly 365 days a year. Now to many this would sound AMAZING, no rain to worry about, being able to be outside most of the year, etc. And while the sunshine does have its benefits, especially as fall comes around you long for some overcast clouds and rainfall. And this weekend we got just that. Wil, Arooj, and I were at the mall trying to pick up a few items and we noticed it was overcast outside and the wind was picking up. Anywhere else in the world we would have been mad that it was going to rain the rest of the day, but we were PUMPED. We got in Wil's car and became storm chasers. The radio told us there was rain on Salwa Road, so to Salwa Road we went. As we chased the storm we caught a few glimses of lightning and found a few raindrops. In the end we didn't find the rainstorm we were searching for and headed back home. Immediately upon getting back to the complex, we noticed puddles all over the place! Evidently it rained pretty heavy at home while we were out chasing. Looks like we will have to wait another few months for some real rain action!Another major event for the week was my first Doha hair cut. Not only was a hair cut 20 QR (basically $5) the barber was incredibly skilled and it was one of the best haircuts of my life. He was incredibly detailed used a buzzer, scissors, and straight razor for the cut. If I had wanted to add a complete shave to this experience it would have been another 20 QR! The same kind of service would be at least $100 back in the states. Add this to the ever expanding list of things that are much cheaper in Doha, which is balanced out by the things that are insanely expensive.
As far as the whole job thing goes, we hosted a Student Leadership Workshop this weekend. It was my first major HBKU event and it was organized in partnership with all the branch campuses. We had about 70 students attend and we facilitated a personaility assessment (True Colors) and then had student presenters for a variety of break out sessions. It was really interesting to see how leadership programming is done here as well as some of the views on leadership held by the students. From what I observed today, it seemed that students identified leaders based on positions or the person who was "in charge". There is definitely some work to be done to expose students to the idea of leadership being more relational and collaborative as opposed to positional. I am starting to work on a leadership program that will be HBKU wide, but this is very much in the early stages. I look forward to having more conversations with colleagues and students to develop some intentional leadership programs here in Doha.
That should just about do it for now. I have a big week ahead. Hopefully I will be getting my license and starting to go car shopping. We are attending an Oktoberfest event at the Inter Continental hotel on Wednesday night, and might even get into some desert camping this weekend. So stay tuned for next week to hear about all of those adventures. Looking forward to hearing from you all this week. Talk soon.
Can we see more pictures? How about people pictures and things around town.
ReplyDeleteGreat reading these. Definitely like hearing about different cultures and student affairs and views of leadership.
ReplyDelete