Oh- did I mention?

...that Dan Boyarski (Head of the Carnegie Mellon-Pittsburgh School of Design) arrives in Doha tonight to participate in VCU-Q's 'Tasmeem' Design Conference next week? And he'll be siting in/TAing 2-3 of my Communication Design classes?

...that my 19-year old brother arrives tomorrow night to spend his first collegiate spring break in a dry-Middle Eastern country with his big sister? It will also be his first time in the Middle East.

...that I've been biking on Friday afternoons with a group of cyclists, through heat, sun, wind, and sand, riding on the loaner bike, which turns out to be the old bike of the renowned and sadly departed Bill Brown (CMU-Pgh and CMU-Q Bio Professor who died last July)? Or that I am signed up to bike 68 km (48 mi) from Doha to Al-Kohr in the
Bill Brown Memorial Bike Ride on his old bike this Saturday morning?

...that I've been taking two Arabic classes in the mornings, each 1 hour, each twice a week- with one class focusing on learning the alphabet (which I already learned at a class last fall in Washington DC) and the other on writing and reading sentences? (It's a little advanced and I would be entirely lost if I hadn't been working on Rosetta Stone)

...that I've been taking Spanish Level 2 classes here at CMU-Q? (The term 'taking' is used loosely here- the class meets 4 times a week and I often show up 2-3 times a week- although I only went once this week... :/ )

...that I'm giving a half hour presentation 4 times this Sunday and Monday at Qatar University's " Go Green. Change Our Future" كن صديقاً للبيئة. غير مستقبلنا Conference, presenting to a minimum total of 2,100 people?

...that the 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf' mini course starts this Monday, and that I've had numerous inquiries into the course and received enthusiastic interest? I just received an email stating that "Me and my friends want to joing this mini course so badly, but unfortunately the timing is bad since others and I have a class that starts at 2:30". I responded that if the demand was high enough, I'd consider requesting to create another section of the course... Imagine that!

So- yeah. I didn't mention any of that? Sorry- I've been meaning to blog on that for a while now... :)

Sporting Week(end)- Part 2

I thought I'd wrap up my tales of last weekend's/week's sporting events before I embarked on another equally busy weekend (Fitness Festival, Anime Film Show/Demonstration/Lecture, Faculty Lunch, 2 Parties...etc).

On Saturday of last week, I finished up some chores around the house before deciding later in the afternoon to swing by the Qatar Masters tournament at the Doha Golf Club. The event was free and didn't require a ticket, and having never been to that part of town or Doha's golf course (heck, any golf course other than the course my boyfriend's parents live on), or a golf tournament, I thought I'd drop by. Before heading into the club, I snapped a picture of the club gate, marveling that this course existed in the desert at all (Remember, I've never been to Vegas). However, the fact that a police SUV was in front of the sign and the policeman saw me take my photo, prompted him to stop me and very politely tell me that I couldn't take photos of the police. I obliged by deleting the image and showing him so. I won't go into much detail about the tournament itself, as I have no experience with with which to compare it. Let's just say- yes, there was a lot of money walking around (some expat, some Qatari); it was very green; there was alcohol; there were famous players (don't ask, I don't know); I ran into a fellow CM-Q faculty member cheering for his fellow Swedes; I received 5 Doha2016 Applicant City shirts (2 of them polos); and I arrived about 15 minutes before they wrapped up for the day. Ah-well. I was more excited about the shirts than anything. :)




Next day-Sunday- continued my sporting 'firsts' and played my first game of squash with a fellow CM-Q colleague and compound neighbor Greg (the same one who shares an SUV with Darbi). Our compound community center has 1 squash court in the basement (with only one door in/out- we'd be so screwed in a fire). He was kind enough to loan me the better of the 2 racquets, explain the game, and put up my muscle memory blunderings, as I tried to comprehend how this was not tennis or racquetball. We volleyed and traded shots for about an hour. We'll maybe keep score next time.

The following evening-Monday- continuing the sporting variety- as I played 2 hours of friendly competition co-ed volleyball with CM-Q faculty, staff, and students. This was the first time I've played volleyball in years (minus the pool volleyball games last summer with a few drinks and against former-collegiate volleyball scholarship girls and professional hockey players at a reality tv personality's wedding in St. Thomas... but that doesn't count). My forearms and shins were quite sore after all those games but I enjoyed waking up forgotten muscles. At one point we had about 22 people playing volleyball, with at least 6 women (all staff). We had a few Qatari males and they removed their thobes to join the game in normal t-shirts, jeans, or athletic shorts. I plan to continue playing with the group every Monday, guaranteeing me at least one workout a week.

I saw my first bike race the next day-Tuesday- as Stage 3 of Tour of Qatar finished right outside of Gate 3 of Education City (an 8 minute walk from our building). I was in the middle of an environmental chat with CM-Q's Dean Chuck Thorpe when we remembered the race was nearing and we dashed out. We arrived well ahead of the cyclists, and milled around, chatting with fellow cycling enthusiast colleagues, having a free drink from a bottled water supplier or McDonald's with 'orange drink' and chicken sandwiches. (haven't had either of those in years either) We also kept busy watching the hired BMX bike exhibitionists show off their tricks on the mini ramp and trick park they set up- complete with massive tires and balance beams. The blaring hip-hop, the food, the bikers, and three girls with the event walking around in short shorts were in glaring contrast to the nearby Bedouin black tent with Arab men in white thobes enjoying tea and coffee service. After half an hour of waiting- the pace SUV finally appeared and the first pack whizzed by- faster than I've ever seen anyone on a bike. Darbi nearly got clipped by the leader in capturing this picture (my camera was out of battery). It was certainly something to see; make me wish I had my bike here. The Tour wraps up at tomorrow's 'Wheels and Heels' event, a Fitness event on the Corniche sponsored by Reach Out to Asia, another Qatar Foundation organization. How this event reaches out to Asia, I'm not sure...

مع السلام

A Sporting Weekend-Part 1

In case you didn't know- Doha hosted the 2006 Asian Games back in December 2006. It was a big to-do here and prompted a large amount of new construction and general enthusiasm for sports. It was also the city's test to show had the potential to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. (Much like Chicago's hosting of the 2006 Gay Games to prove its worthiness as a 2016 applicant city. ....pause... Ok, may be a little different...) So you see brand new stadiums, the large 'Aspire Tower' which was the centerpiece of the Asian Games, banners showcasing the 'sportiness' of the city and so on.

However, if you want to see real Qatari sporting enthusiasm- head to the camel, I mean, Land Cruiser, I mean, camel race track. About 45 km outside the city are the oval race tracks and the facilities that house the camels, their handlers and trainers. The camels use to be raced by exploited and often orphaned child jockeys (sometimes as young as age four) but the law changed only a few years ago outlawing the use of child jockeys. Today they use remote controlled robots with robotic whips on top of the camels. The owners then drive alongside the 5, 8, or 10 km long track in their SUVs (mainly Land Cruisers), pressing the remote to whip and urge their camel along.

Friday I joined up with a group of Carnegie Mellon faculty and staff to go on a guided trip to the camel races (100 QR, ~$27.5US), where our bus would have permission to drive along side the race track. We arrive at the course and we're told our bus could not enter, because the Prince (well, one of them) was going to arrive and perhaps after he arrived we could enter. We milled about for a while- annoyed that we had paid for what we could have done for free. Thankfully we had some Arabic speakers in the group and they convinced the officials to let us in. We drove in and piled out amongst the Land Cruisers and camel owners and found ourselves a few meters away from the Prince himself!

We crowded along the track, snapping pictures, and watching the handler's struggle to push the camels into place. Then we were told we better move as 1) the camels could bolt over the fence and 2) we were about to be run over by frantic Land Cruisers. No horn, no siren-- the large gate went up- the camels bolted, the handlers all scrabbled out of the way and the SUVs screeched after them. We didn't see much except for the start and anti-climatic endings of 2 races but then another official said our bus had permission to follow behind the SUVs along the track (I think the Prince had left). Next race began and we sped off after the vehicles. A well-trained camel runs at about 35 km/h and many of them eventually slowed to be more evenly spread out along the track. The SUVS were another story- they were the real pack and proved more entertaining than the camels with colorful robotic whipping humps. We drove right with them, jostling and honking and bumping along the road next to the course, dust flying in through our open windows. The races were all 8 km female camel races that took about ~7 minutes for the fastest camel. We drove around the track 2 times and watched another race from the ground before we headed back to town.

The environmental standards in me say I shouldn't have liked camel racing- it manages to combine tedious animal racing with emissions spewing vehicle racing. And yes, I'll admit I'm not crazy about the need to drive cars/vans around the track. But- it was thrilling- and yes, it is certainly a bit of culture you won't find in the States. It also proved to be valuable bonding time with fellow-CMU-Q employees. And for that, I enjoyed it.
مع السلام