Saudi Roads Lead to New Apartments!

As we all know, I love road trips. Pack up the car, pile in, turn up the music, and get moving. When I visited Doha back in January of last year I desperately wanted to take a road trip through Saudi but time didn’t allow for it. This past week this wish finally came true. I attend the NASPA ACPA Gulf Regional Conference in Abu Dhabi and instead of taking the 45 minute flight from Doha to Abu Dhabi, we opted for the 8 hour road trip crossing the borders of both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. I was joined on this road trip by my friends Chris and Mohammed. The distance between Doha and Abu Dhabi is not that significant but the border crossing is, especially in Saudi.

Let me paint a picture for you. Immediately upon leaving Qatar the quality of the roads decreases. You can literally see on the ground a line between Qatar and the area between Qatar and Saudi, which we called “no-man’s land”. As we approaching the Saudi border we see a LONG line of trucks waiting to enter the country. These trucks can wait at the border for weeks waiting inspection to be allowed to pass through into the country. When we reach the area for passenger vehicles there are four lanes of traffic merging with no clear lanes or location to go. As we ask questions of the customs and immigration officers to find out where we need to go, we are greeted with shouts, points, and turned backs! Mohammed could have traveled straight through with no issues, as GCC residents are able to pass easily through borders, but Chris and I were not so lucky. I thought I was an expert on the Saudi border from my last experience with Wil and Sulayim, but all the procedures had changed in the few short weeks since I had visited the border. Chris and I proceeded to get finger printed and photographed in a trailer, then the three of us waited 30 minutes to get added insurance to drive in the country, and by the time we actually crossed the border two hours had passed! The rest of the trip to Abu Dhabi was relatively smooth and we arrived late on the night before the conference. I have some thoughts on the conference itself but I will share those at the end.

 

After the conference was over we had a PACKED weekend of activities. We rode the world’s fastest roller coaster at Ferrari world, we drove up to Dubai, we spent time out on the beaches, explored all the beautiful nightlife that Dubai had to offer, and road tripped 10 hours back from Dubai to Doha. This was my third time visiting Dubai and it is really growing on me. After my first trip I really did not like the city but now I have found some of my favorite areas. Specifically the Jumeira Beach Residence area is a great place to hang out and spend the day. There are tons of shops, restaurants, hotels, and beach side places to relax. While spending time at one of these beach side restaurants we encountered my favorite server that I have met since moving to the region. His name was Oscar and he was from Norway. He was doing an internship with Hilton and was working at their Dubai hotel. Oscar was struggling to adjust to life in Dubai. First off, the man’s fair skin was not faring well in the Dubai sun. It actually appeared as if he was melting right before our eyes. By the end of the day we couldn’t help but feel bad for him, perhaps Nathan from Cracker Barrel could help him out…

A final story from the trip was on our way back to Doha. I was charged what we called an “idiot tax” because I just don’t know how to keep my mouth shut. Two Americans (myself and Kevin) enter customs at the UAE border to exit the country. I walk in and begin chatting with the customs agent, greeting him in Arabic. He proceeds to ask how much Arabic I know, and I tell him very little. He asks me how long I have lived in the region, I tell him five months. He tells me that I should know more Arabic and to go pay an exit fee of 30 Durhams (about $10). Kevin walks up, smiles, doesn’t say anything, and gets a stamp in the passport to leave freely. No exit fee. When we left we all looked at each other in one of those, “did that just happen?” kind of scenarios. I guess that’s what I get for trying to make connections…

In other big news, I moved into a new apartment this weekend. It is a fully furnished three bedroom apartment in the middle of Doha. It is about 15 minutes from work for me and 15 minutes from “downtown” where Brennan will be working. Brennan moves in next week and I am doing my best to get everything ready for him before his arrival. The apartment is a perfect size and much more central than where I am living now. We will be getting a third roommate as well, who is yet to be determined. We should know by the end of the week. Although moving is never fun, this was the easiest move of my life. Mostly because I still have so few possessions here in Doha. The entire move, including packing and unpacking, took me about 6 hours!

My last thoughts here were stemmed from the NASPA ACPA Gulf Conference and my role here as a westerner working with mostly local Qataris. The conference I attended featured about 100 student affairs professionals from the Arab Gulf region and beyond. It was fascinating to see how each institution was working on implementing student affairs and who was doing the implementation. It made me reflect and think about my own role here in Doha. Should I be concentrating on developing the talents and skills of locals who have no background in student affairs? Should I be concentrating on providing the best practices in student affairs from the US model? Do I develop students or do I develop staff? How do we bridge the experience gap between westerners and locals to be sustainable in the future? How well does the Student Affairs model fit within the regional culture? The list goes on. I haven’t found many answers to these questions, and doubt I will. Now that I have been here for just under six months I have a more clear perspective on just how complicated the work we are doing here is. I find it fascinating to think about what we are trying to do here by introducing an entirely new model is a system (the branch campus model) that inherently creates duplication. In the end I think it is a comfortable tension to know that you can’t change everything at once because hey…Rome wasn’t built in a day. We need to be able to identify what is a priority to develop now and what can wait until future phases of the process. Overall I have been amazed at what we have been able to accomplish as we lay a foundation for the future. In the student center that I work in we have significantly increased the programs offered, how we work with students, and the complexity of our thinking in terms of creating learning opportunities for students. It has been an amazing experience so far and I can’t wait to see what directions we head in the future.

I think that about covers it for now. My next week will be busy with preparing for Brennan’s arrival and planning for my upcoming Thailand trip. March will be crazy as I will be in Thailand Feb 28-March 9, Doha March 10-14, Orlando March 14-20, DC March 20-26, NY March 26-29, and then back to Doha! Really looking forward to my first trip back to the US since moving and being able to connect with friends and family while there. Until next time!