Well, that post title pretty much sums up the last week. Movember has finally come to an end and what an amazing month it was. The money is still trickling in but as of now our team has raised just under $21,000 and ranks in the top 50 of all fundraising teams in the US. I am incredibly proud of the efforts of my team and thankful to all of those who have been so supportive throughout the month. A good friend here, Kevin, actually threw a Movember Gala at Carnegie Mellon Qatar as well. The event was attended well by students from the University and had prizes for a variety of categories including Best Mo. It was awesome to see students becoming involved in the effort and I am hoping to host some Movember events in Doha next year.
One of the amazing things about Doha is the amount of visitors that come to the city for conferences, business, or travel. While I have been here I have gotten countless couchsurfing requests from visitors looking for a place to stay. For those unfamiliar with counchsurfing, you basically make your home available for people to stay free of charge while they are traveling. This past weekend I hosted a Dutch guy from Swedan named Alexander who was visiting for a UN conference on sustainability. While in Doha Alexander was like a kid in a candy shop. His genuine awe and appreciation for Doha was incredibly refreshing. As we drove around the downtown skyline his head was tilted to the sky, with each person he met he was amazed at their stories, as I shared information about Qatar and Doha he continuously wanted to know more. One of the best parts of couchsurfing is being able to be an ambassador for your city. While Alexander visited we ran all over the city and the big highlight was camping in the desert.
Since my first visit to Doha last January I have wanted to go camping in the Desert. This finally became a reality this past weekend. A group of us, including Alexander, went to an area in the central part of the country called Zekreet for our camping experience. It was about 45 minutes from Doha and half that time was spent off roading through the desert. As we drove out to our camping area we passed beautiful rock formations, were awe stuck by the desert expanses, and raced sunset to get to our site before dark. Now what would a first desert camping experience be without getting stuck in the sand? This was the inaugural desert excursion of my new XTerra. I obviously have no driving experience in sand and deserts so I panicked when my car was all of the sudden dead stopped and tires spinning in the sand. Luckily our friend Riham is quite the desert driving expert and he had the truck moving in a few minutes. Once we arrived at the site we set up camp and started cooking dinner. We camped in an abandoned village beneath brick dwellings that no one really knows the history of.
While we were out in the desert Ahmad and I decided to do a bit of exploring. In one of the dwellings (I have no idea what else to call them) we saw lights and heard some people talking. As we approached we saw that it was a group of about 15 Qatari high school and middle schoolers. We chatted with them for a bit and they told us that they were practicing a skit to perform with another group of students. Ahmad decided we should go see these skits and the students not only agreed but asked us to be judges. After 15 minutes of walking across the desert we arrived at the students' campsite and were greeted with a welcome song, drinks, chocolates, and some hilarious skits. It is difficult to articulate what this experience because of how unique it was. In general, Qataris are very family focused and it is not often that I will have the opportunity to interact with this large of a group of specifically Qatari students. They were incredibly welcoming, intelligent, and creative. They performed their skits in Arabic but did their best to translate for me as the only non Arabic speaker. Although the experience was completely unexpected it was one of the big highlights from the entire trip.
That just about covers the latest. Other things that have been going on that I won't go into detail about are a visit to the Grand Mosque, International Fest in the Student Center, and planning a road trip to the UAE. I think we can start the official Brennan Biddle countdown: 20 days. Talk soon!
One of the amazing things about Doha is the amount of visitors that come to the city for conferences, business, or travel. While I have been here I have gotten countless couchsurfing requests from visitors looking for a place to stay. For those unfamiliar with counchsurfing, you basically make your home available for people to stay free of charge while they are traveling. This past weekend I hosted a Dutch guy from Swedan named Alexander who was visiting for a UN conference on sustainability. While in Doha Alexander was like a kid in a candy shop. His genuine awe and appreciation for Doha was incredibly refreshing. As we drove around the downtown skyline his head was tilted to the sky, with each person he met he was amazed at their stories, as I shared information about Qatar and Doha he continuously wanted to know more. One of the best parts of couchsurfing is being able to be an ambassador for your city. While Alexander visited we ran all over the city and the big highlight was camping in the desert.
Since my first visit to Doha last January I have wanted to go camping in the Desert. This finally became a reality this past weekend. A group of us, including Alexander, went to an area in the central part of the country called Zekreet for our camping experience. It was about 45 minutes from Doha and half that time was spent off roading through the desert. As we drove out to our camping area we passed beautiful rock formations, were awe stuck by the desert expanses, and raced sunset to get to our site before dark. Now what would a first desert camping experience be without getting stuck in the sand? This was the inaugural desert excursion of my new XTerra. I obviously have no driving experience in sand and deserts so I panicked when my car was all of the sudden dead stopped and tires spinning in the sand. Luckily our friend Riham is quite the desert driving expert and he had the truck moving in a few minutes. Once we arrived at the site we set up camp and started cooking dinner. We camped in an abandoned village beneath brick dwellings that no one really knows the history of.
While we were out in the desert Ahmad and I decided to do a bit of exploring. In one of the dwellings (I have no idea what else to call them) we saw lights and heard some people talking. As we approached we saw that it was a group of about 15 Qatari high school and middle schoolers. We chatted with them for a bit and they told us that they were practicing a skit to perform with another group of students. Ahmad decided we should go see these skits and the students not only agreed but asked us to be judges. After 15 minutes of walking across the desert we arrived at the students' campsite and were greeted with a welcome song, drinks, chocolates, and some hilarious skits. It is difficult to articulate what this experience because of how unique it was. In general, Qataris are very family focused and it is not often that I will have the opportunity to interact with this large of a group of specifically Qatari students. They were incredibly welcoming, intelligent, and creative. They performed their skits in Arabic but did their best to translate for me as the only non Arabic speaker. Although the experience was completely unexpected it was one of the big highlights from the entire trip.
That just about covers the latest. Other things that have been going on that I won't go into detail about are a visit to the Grand Mosque, International Fest in the Student Center, and planning a road trip to the UAE. I think we can start the official Brennan Biddle countdown: 20 days. Talk soon!
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