Sabbah El Kheir!

Before I get started here, I want to share one BIG update. Ya boy has got new sheets! Although the lovely floral print you all noticed last post were beautiful, I opted for a different feel:

 I also grabbed a memory foam mattress topper because the bed was hard as a rock. Now that we have covered that transition item, on with the post!
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Sabbah El Kheir, translated means good morning. And even though it will likely be afternoon or even night before any of you even read this, I wanted to show off the very little Arabic I have been able to pick up over the past two weeks.

As you could have guessed, Arabic isn't easy to learn. Even learning basics has proved difficult as I need to train my voice to make sounds that are entirely foreign in English dialect. I have been fortunate to have patient teachers like Mohammed and Ameena, both colleagues of mine. Learning how to pronounce Good Morning in Arabic took me nearly a week, and to be honest I'm sure I still don't have it right. Each day when I come to work I try to pick up another work or phrase in Arabic to be able to use in conversation. At this point I am trying to master basic greetings and goodbyes before tackling the more complex topics. Eventually I plan on taking a course in Arabic while I am here but want to transition a bit first.

Speaking of those transitions, work transitions have been going really well, albeit overwhelming at times. Because we are creating so many different programs it can be difficult to determine where to start. In a Campus Life meeting today we discussed creating a Student Government Association, a Service Learning Office, a Leadership Initiative, and increasing our programming capacity in the Student Center. And this all is taking place....immediately. It is incredibly exciting to be able to create all of these programs but many times it is hard to figure out where to start. The start of the semester has been very busy with programs and events and I have rarely had the chance to sit at my desk for more than 30 minutes to really think about all that I am taking in. As they say, Rome wasn't built in a day. But here we are trying to build a University as soon as we can!

In terms of Doha lessons, one major observation I have discovered is that there is no such thing as a small errand in Doha. Although Doha itself is not a big city, it is very spread out and there is a lot of traffic. It will take you 20 minutes to get anywhere in Doha. This is both a good and a bad thing. It means that you will never travel more than 20 minutes, if you do you're in the dessert. But it also means that everything is 20 minutes away from each other.

For example, this weekend a friend (Shiela) and I went to run some errands. We left the apartment complex at 2pm and the first stop was QDC (Qatar Distribution Center). Now let's talk about QDC  for a moment here. QDC is the ONLY liquor store in all of Qatar, affectionately known as the "Harom" Store by the locals. Harom means sin. In this store not only can you buy alcohol, which is otherwise illegal in the country, but you can also purchase pork products (also not available anywhere else, but you can get all the turkey bacon your heart desires!). Nothing like a little bacon and whiskey for the weekend! Another observation from the store of sin is that everyone was stocking up on liquor like the world was going to end. You are given a monthly allowance from the government for purchasing alcohol that is determined based on your salary. So Shiela had 2500 Riyal to spend at the store (roughly $650 USD). This total is reset at the first of each month and as a fun fact this number is tripled during Ramadan because the store closes for the whole month!

After picking up the goods at QDC we dropped them at Shiela's apartment and went to pick up a couch for a friend. Seems simple enough but the couch was totally across town and by the time we finished up this task it was nearly 7pm! It took us 5 hours to go to the liquor store and pick up a couch. When you plan your day here making one shopping stop is often all you can fit in a day! Quite the change from having everything in the same shopping center back in the states.

I have started to reach out to make new friends outside of the workplace and am realizing how small of a world we live in. A good friend from college, Varun Lal, has cousins who live here in Doha. They introduced me to a few new people, some of whom I played Squash with this weekend (sidenote: Squash. Not easy.) and another who actually is a work colleague at one of the branch campuses. While I was playing Squash with one of these new friends, AJ, he mentioned that he rarely interacts with Qatari nationals while he works on building a new airport here in Doha. This made me realize how lucky I am to be able to work so closely with many Qatari colleagues in the student center. What good would it be to move all the way to Doha only to work with and spend time with other Americans? I could have done that back in the States. I have already learned so much from my Qatari colleagues and admire how open they are to my questions about their language, culture, and views.

As most of you have seen, there have been quite a number of protests recently in response to the Anti-Islam video that was produced in the U.S. depicting the Prophet Muhammed. A protest was held here in Doha as well, but much more peacefully than in other countries. Some basic information can be seen here:
http://dohanews.co/post/31519220522/qatar-residents-join-protests-against-anti-islam#axzz26ilR6KlZ
Doha still feels incredibly safe and there have not been any anti-American sentiments towards myself or any of my colleagues. The story has received a lot of coverage here and many colleagues have friends and family in countries that have demonstrated more violently. Many of us will continue to follow this story closely in the upcoming weeks to make sense of what all of this will mean for the U.S. and Middle Eastern relations, as well as the upcoming election.

There is SO much more that I could write here but I think this is a good snapshot of the last week. I may have to start writing more frequently to avoid these long winded responses. Thank you to everyone who continues to e-mail, Skype, facebook, etc. I was SO sad to miss the JMU WVU game this weekend and it looked like everyone had a great time. The game sounded ugly, but the game is only part of the fun. Looking forward to hearing updates from all of you. Will write again soon. Stay tuned!