Well, it's the holiday season. With the whoop-de-do and hickory dock. And nothing says the holidays like good old Doha. Over the course of the past few weeks I have been a part of a variety of holiday celebrations. First there was the Doha Singers holiday concert. This group is made up of Ex-Pats from various fields within Doha and they perform a holiday show each year. The concert took place at the American School of Doha and really had the feel of a high school auditorium. That same weekend myself and some friends in the compound put together a 14 hour Christmas movie marathon, yes 14 hours! We started at 10am and played through a variety of holiday films including Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, Bad Santa, Rudolph, and more. We even cooked a holiday turkey for dinner and it was another one of those moments where I was thankful to have such great friends. This past weekend two different friends, Kevin and Imad, both hosted Christmas parties at their homes. I was able to find a Santa Suit at the mall in Doha for the equivalent of $10 so of course I bought it. And of course I wore it to both parties. Much lower quality than my Santa Suit from last year's holiday festivities, but you get what you pay for.
On a work related note, I have spent approximately the last month working closely with students and staff from all the campuses here to create a comprehensive leadership program. Now I appologize in advance for those who don't work in student affairs because some of this might be confusing. But basically we have been meeting weekly as a group to envision a leadership program that all of the students from the different campuses can participate in. We wanted the program to be open to all students, how varying levels of commitment, and various entry points. Last week we finally started to put the pieces together and laid the foundation for a 3 year leadership program. The program will be a certificate program and offer a variety of seminars for students to attend. It is based on the Social Change Model of Leadership as each year is themed around individual, group, and community values. This was one of my major highlights from the semester and we will spend the Spring continuing to work on the program. In the Fall we will begin in full and I cannot wait to see the results.
The latest trip that I took was this past weekend where I went to Saudi Arabia with my friends Wil and Sulayim. Now, getting into Saudi is much easier said than done. Although the border is only one hour away it took about a month of planning for us to actually get there! If it wasn't for our friend Sulayim we would have had no chance at getting into the country. We had to apply for a transit visa, since you are not allowed to be there for tourism. Sulayim took our paperwork, passports, and passport photos directly to the Saudi embassy for us and after about a week we had our transit visas. Sualyim could not have been a more patient and gracious tour guide through Saudi. Since Sulayim is Qatari he is able to travel more freely between the countries. He was incredibly knowledgeable and fielded all of the questions Wil and I had for him. While we were there we spent time at his friend's Magilis, visited a camel camp, saw a camel and sheep market, saw incredible rock formations, went to a Souq, had a local meal, and even took a trip to the emergency room! There is no way that I could possibly do justice to the trip so I will simply give a basic timeline. Keep in mind this was a day trip. Check facebook for more photos from the adventure:
8am: Leave Doha for Saudi
9:30am: Reach Saudi Border
10:00am: Cross Saudi Border
10:30am: Magilis with Hammad and his family
11:30am: Lunch at Hammad's house
12:00pm: Visit to Hammad's camel camp
12:30pm: Watch camels reproduce
1:00pm: Leave Hammad's for camel and sheep market
2:00pm: Visit camel and sheep market
3:00pm: Leave for Hafouf
4:30pm: Check out Jebel Qarah Moutains
5:30pm: Check in at Hafouf Hotel
6:00pm: Watch Never Been Kissed with Wil
6:30pm: Nap
7:00pm: Souq
8:00pm: Dinner
10:00pm: Visit to Emergency Room
Now out of the many random events in there, I would say the emergency room sticks out above the rest (maybe with the exception of camel reproduction but I won't give details there). While we were in Saudi our friend Sulayim had some issues with his left eye. It was bothering him most of the day and after a nice dinner in the local town he wanted to stop by the Pharmacy to get something to alleviate the pain. Upon visiting the Pharmacy he was told to get it checked at the clinic across the street. Once he arrived at the clinic, he was immediately told that he needed to visit the ER. So they we were, Wil, Evan, and Sulayim, at 10pm on a Friday night in Saudi at the ER. The hospital itself was pretty nice but Wil and I were out of place to say the least. While Sulayim was getting cared for, Wil and I were quite the spectacle. We were the only ones in the ER not wearing traditional clothing and this brought us many stares. In particular children had NO reservations of staring and pointing at us. After waiting around for a bit we decided to look for a local coffee shop or restaurant to kill some time. The only place remotely near the hospital was a corner store across the street. So we were looking for some snacks and what do ya know...we found BUDWEISER! At first we thought this might be some speak easy is an unassuming area but upon further inspection we found the "NA". Regardless of having alcohol in it or not, we had to buy two cans. I can honestly say it was the worst drink I have ever tasted, although Wil seemed to have less issue with it. As we drank our NA Budweisers on the street corner Sulayim comes triumphantly from the ER room. He was fitted with a beautiful eye patch to wear home and we made our way back to the hotel. The following day he bravely drove us back to Doha, eye patch and all. Little did we think entering the trip that we would be brought back to Doha by a pirate. There are SO many more stories to be told from the trip but those will have to be shared at another time. Rest assured we made the most of our trip and I hope it isn't my last time in Saudi!
As we approach the end of December, it is also the end of my first semester in Doha. Since I work in education my mind still thinks in terms of semesters and I have been doing quite a bit of reflecting on this past semester. In this first semester there have been a lot of challenges both personally and professionally. I have had to make an entire new set of friends. I have had to build new programs from the ground up. I have had to assimilate to a new culture. I have had to foster an environment for student involvement. In both aspects I feel that huge strides have been made. I feel very fortunate to have found some incredible friends and support systems here in Doha, and this is still an ongoing process. The Student Center as a whole has made some drastic changes, hopefully for the better, over the course of the semester as well. As the semester ends I find myself in a new transition stage. My initial stage of getting settled and meeting new people has come to a close. Now I am learning how to navigate Doha more effectively, developing deeper relationships with friends and colleagues, establishing a routine and pursuing my interests, planning trips, and making Doha into my new home. As the semester ends, it was marked with major successes and major shortcomings. There is plenty of room for improvement but that is all part of the process. For now, I could not be happier to be here. And I cannot wait to see what awaits in the future.
As far as major upcoming events go...tomorrow is National Day. The closest equivalent in the US would be the 4th of July. It is a national holiday and the downtown area is flooded with people, parades, and celebrations. I will be sure to post pictures because I hear it is a pretty amazing event. My latest travel plans are to go to Dubai next week for Christmas and I just booked a trip to Kenya for the end of January.
But the BIGGEST upcoming event is the arrival of the one and only Brennan D. Biddle. He will arrive early early on December 24th and I CANNOT wait for him to get here. We will have plenty of adventures to share and nothing says Christmas like a Qatar visit.
That's all for now. Will post more after Brennan's visit. Happy holidays to all and know that I will be thinking about all the friends and family back in the States!
On a work related note, I have spent approximately the last month working closely with students and staff from all the campuses here to create a comprehensive leadership program. Now I appologize in advance for those who don't work in student affairs because some of this might be confusing. But basically we have been meeting weekly as a group to envision a leadership program that all of the students from the different campuses can participate in. We wanted the program to be open to all students, how varying levels of commitment, and various entry points. Last week we finally started to put the pieces together and laid the foundation for a 3 year leadership program. The program will be a certificate program and offer a variety of seminars for students to attend. It is based on the Social Change Model of Leadership as each year is themed around individual, group, and community values. This was one of my major highlights from the semester and we will spend the Spring continuing to work on the program. In the Fall we will begin in full and I cannot wait to see the results.
The latest trip that I took was this past weekend where I went to Saudi Arabia with my friends Wil and Sulayim. Now, getting into Saudi is much easier said than done. Although the border is only one hour away it took about a month of planning for us to actually get there! If it wasn't for our friend Sulayim we would have had no chance at getting into the country. We had to apply for a transit visa, since you are not allowed to be there for tourism. Sulayim took our paperwork, passports, and passport photos directly to the Saudi embassy for us and after about a week we had our transit visas. Sualyim could not have been a more patient and gracious tour guide through Saudi. Since Sulayim is Qatari he is able to travel more freely between the countries. He was incredibly knowledgeable and fielded all of the questions Wil and I had for him. While we were there we spent time at his friend's Magilis, visited a camel camp, saw a camel and sheep market, saw incredible rock formations, went to a Souq, had a local meal, and even took a trip to the emergency room! There is no way that I could possibly do justice to the trip so I will simply give a basic timeline. Keep in mind this was a day trip. Check facebook for more photos from the adventure:
8am: Leave Doha for Saudi
9:30am: Reach Saudi Border
10:00am: Cross Saudi Border
10:30am: Magilis with Hammad and his family
11:30am: Lunch at Hammad's house
12:00pm: Visit to Hammad's camel camp
12:30pm: Watch camels reproduce
1:00pm: Leave Hammad's for camel and sheep market
2:00pm: Visit camel and sheep market
3:00pm: Leave for Hafouf
4:30pm: Check out Jebel Qarah Moutains
5:30pm: Check in at Hafouf Hotel
6:00pm: Watch Never Been Kissed with Wil
6:30pm: Nap
7:00pm: Souq
8:00pm: Dinner
10:00pm: Visit to Emergency Room
Now out of the many random events in there, I would say the emergency room sticks out above the rest (maybe with the exception of camel reproduction but I won't give details there). While we were in Saudi our friend Sulayim had some issues with his left eye. It was bothering him most of the day and after a nice dinner in the local town he wanted to stop by the Pharmacy to get something to alleviate the pain. Upon visiting the Pharmacy he was told to get it checked at the clinic across the street. Once he arrived at the clinic, he was immediately told that he needed to visit the ER. So they we were, Wil, Evan, and Sulayim, at 10pm on a Friday night in Saudi at the ER. The hospital itself was pretty nice but Wil and I were out of place to say the least. While Sulayim was getting cared for, Wil and I were quite the spectacle. We were the only ones in the ER not wearing traditional clothing and this brought us many stares. In particular children had NO reservations of staring and pointing at us. After waiting around for a bit we decided to look for a local coffee shop or restaurant to kill some time. The only place remotely near the hospital was a corner store across the street. So we were looking for some snacks and what do ya know...we found BUDWEISER! At first we thought this might be some speak easy is an unassuming area but upon further inspection we found the "NA". Regardless of having alcohol in it or not, we had to buy two cans. I can honestly say it was the worst drink I have ever tasted, although Wil seemed to have less issue with it. As we drank our NA Budweisers on the street corner Sulayim comes triumphantly from the ER room. He was fitted with a beautiful eye patch to wear home and we made our way back to the hotel. The following day he bravely drove us back to Doha, eye patch and all. Little did we think entering the trip that we would be brought back to Doha by a pirate. There are SO many more stories to be told from the trip but those will have to be shared at another time. Rest assured we made the most of our trip and I hope it isn't my last time in Saudi!
As we approach the end of December, it is also the end of my first semester in Doha. Since I work in education my mind still thinks in terms of semesters and I have been doing quite a bit of reflecting on this past semester. In this first semester there have been a lot of challenges both personally and professionally. I have had to make an entire new set of friends. I have had to build new programs from the ground up. I have had to assimilate to a new culture. I have had to foster an environment for student involvement. In both aspects I feel that huge strides have been made. I feel very fortunate to have found some incredible friends and support systems here in Doha, and this is still an ongoing process. The Student Center as a whole has made some drastic changes, hopefully for the better, over the course of the semester as well. As the semester ends I find myself in a new transition stage. My initial stage of getting settled and meeting new people has come to a close. Now I am learning how to navigate Doha more effectively, developing deeper relationships with friends and colleagues, establishing a routine and pursuing my interests, planning trips, and making Doha into my new home. As the semester ends, it was marked with major successes and major shortcomings. There is plenty of room for improvement but that is all part of the process. For now, I could not be happier to be here. And I cannot wait to see what awaits in the future.
As far as major upcoming events go...tomorrow is National Day. The closest equivalent in the US would be the 4th of July. It is a national holiday and the downtown area is flooded with people, parades, and celebrations. I will be sure to post pictures because I hear it is a pretty amazing event. My latest travel plans are to go to Dubai next week for Christmas and I just booked a trip to Kenya for the end of January.
But the BIGGEST upcoming event is the arrival of the one and only Brennan D. Biddle. He will arrive early early on December 24th and I CANNOT wait for him to get here. We will have plenty of adventures to share and nothing says Christmas like a Qatar visit.
That's all for now. Will post more after Brennan's visit. Happy holidays to all and know that I will be thinking about all the friends and family back in the States!
Hi...I came to this page when I was searching for santa costumes. Could you tell me from which mall you got those costumes?
ReplyDeleteI got them at the 7 Riyal store at Hyatt Plaza near Homes R Us!
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