Museum of Islamic Art

I had a chance to visit the Museum of Islamic Art this past Eid and what a place it was! It is architecturally stunning and the contents are pretty amazing as well. The only qualm I had with the museum is the poor labelling and lack of organization in their displays. But like I said, the contents were pretty stunning and I'm sure, priceless. If you're in Doha, a must see!

Cars

Another adult rite of passage crossed, folks. Yesterday, I purchased my first...car! At 29 years of age, I have finally bought my own car. It is used, but it's still my own car. A used 2007 Nissan Tiida, with 50 000km already on it. Its condition is fairly new and I just need to take it in for some regular maintenance and change the front break pads, but other than that, it runs smoothly. It is off-white in colour, but it looks pretty white to me. I will take a picture soon and post it here, but I still wanted to mark this occaision. My first car! Yay!

Goodbye 2008, Hello New Year

I've been very bad with posting on this blog, so no presents for me I guess. I'm sorry for the delayed posting - and I can't really say that it's a reflection of how busy and exciting my life is here either. I've just been consumed with work mainly, and more recently, illness. Over the last Eid el-Adha, I developed really large and tender swollen lymph nodes that tend to emerge in times of prolonged stress. What happens with my body is that through the period of prolonged stress, my immune system is depleted and weaken, making me subject to infections that I would otherwise be able to fight off. So with a weakened immune system, my body experiences some foreign body that's not good for me and my white blood cells kick into gear and try to fight it themselves. That's where the lymph nodes come in and that's why they swell up. One major side effect of all of this is fatigue, nausea, fever, body ache and headache. It's like the flu except it lasts much longer. I'm still dealing with it now but am doing better than I did the past few weeks. It has quite frankly been hell going to work, which I have pushed myself to do.

So fast forward four weeks and it's now Christmas. I really find it hard to be festive here, though. The weather's still pleasant, and there are simply no cues to remind you that it's Christmas. The radio station will play the occaisional Christmas song, but mix it up with Arabic pop. Carrefour has a Christmas section that's always filled with foreigners, but I have to say, I haven't bought any Christmas decorations. It's not fun when it's just for one, kind of like cooking meals. I can't help but think back to what I was doing for Christmas last year and I'm grateful for the memory. My sister had come and visited me in Egypt for the first time in three years and we did the requisite trip to the south of the country along the Nile. We were pulling into the Aswan train station on Christmas morning and by that evening, we were eating at a Nubian restuarant on the Nile that you can only get to by boat. The food was great as was the atmosphere. We then tried some Nubian coffee which was pretty strong. It's a great memory.

This year, in contrast, involved a Christmas dinner at the Marriott hotel somewhere in Doha. Good food was eaten, conversations were had, but I have to say that something was lacking, namely, the closeness that comes with sharing Christmas with really close friends and family. Is this my way of saying I miss home? Maybe - home being evenly split between Toronto and Cairo, I suppose. Finally, to add insult to injury, I am actually at work right now, if you can believe that. There are some loose ends I wanted to tie up and needed to make some photocopies so here I am. The many lives we live.

The semester is winding down and next week is our final week of classes. After that, we have three more weeks to putter around campus and then we're finally released for our mid-year break. Hopefully I'll be able to churn out a few more posts before then. But until then, Merry Christmas to all, and Happy 2009!

Doha Pics

It's about time for an update. Going beyond my immediate surroundings, here are some pictures of Doha city proper. As you will see, it is truly a city in development - while stunning from afar, the Dohan skyline is actually incomplete and alot of the buildings are unfinished and unoccupied. Enjoy.

Dohan skyline on the Persian Gulf.

Doha in development - up close

Doha in development.

The corniche - and a bit of the Persian Gulf.

Souq Waqif

A little taste of Doha's souq - Souq Waqif. Not quite (actually nowhere near) Khan el-Khalili, but it serves its function. I usually get my shisha fix at the souq, which is nice.

November in Doha

Life in Doha is still humming along. It's already mid-November now which means we're at the mid-way point of our semester. Yes, you read that right - we're at the mid-point of our semester because our semester ends at the start of January...! I will, in fact, be working through Christmas and New Year's this year. January 1st is the last day of class for students in my program. This doesn't mean, however, that we're without a break between now and the end of the semester - Eid al-Adha is coming up in December and we'll have a week off then. It's safe to say that I have been patiently waiting for this week to come and now there's three weeks left until then. Yay! Since I don't have any plans of leaving the country that week, unlike everyone else in al-Zuhoor, I will probably lay low and get some well-needed rest. Maybe I'll make more of an effort to get to know this place. But the resting part is essential - I have been waking up at 5:45am every morning for my 8am class on the other side of the city. This has taken its toll on me and it has pretty much been a struggle every morning. My caffeine dependency has risen notably.

Temperature-wise, the country is cooling off. We're now into our mid-to-high 20s and the mornings are even slightly chilly. I do leave the AC at home sometimes, but it is only if I'm doing any cleaning or cooking. Otherwise, I'm feeling like the temperature now is manageable and dare I say, liveable. And on that note, I can say that slowly, but surely, I am getting used to this place. I am making small but significant shifts in my perspectives towards this place. It's becoming less of a foreign place and more of a home that I'm beginning to understand and sometimes even appreciate. Life is more mundane, which also means that there's a certain level familiarity here now.

More meandering musings to come...:)

Life in Al-Zuhoor in Ad-Doha, Qatar

I thought I'd share a few long overdue pics of my place in Qatar, at the behest of family and friends. So I've finally sat down and downloaded a few pics. I will continue to do so with time, hopefully. Enjoy!

This is what the front part of Al-Zuhoor 2 compound looks like. On the left, is my Hyundai Accent rental. In the background is the compound clubhouse. What you see here is what the whole compound looks like. Lots of beige and white buildings. My car fits right in!

Our apartment block. A23!

The hallway in my apartment block. There's eight apartments in total. I'm the second door, closest to the staircase. That's me, at three.

What I walk into everyday.

My "dining" table.

My hallway. One morning, I found the ceiling light hanging off its cord. I have since gotten it promptly fixed. With the will of God, it'll stay that way.

My kitchen.

The other corner of my kitchen. Great washer AND dryer, but obviously I prefer to air dry.

Bathroom

My master bedroom. Love the light from the window. Not so much love for the comforter though.

Since the accident, I have been trying to be more cautious and careful on the road. And so far, no more scrapes. The roads here are somewhat scary, with the roundabouts being the toughest to adapt to. It's hard to explain, but picture a circle with four exits extending from it. Cars in the roundabout have the right of way, but the cars outside of it trying to get in, don't. So it's kind of a game of give and take, sort of, where if and when there's a gap anywhere in traffic, you shoot out as fast as you can and try to merge with the traffic. Maybe I can take a video of it someday and post it here. You can't really get a feel for it, until you're driving. Even riding as a passenger, I didn't understand how perilous it was until I was behind the wheel. Maalish.

That being said, I am kind of beginning to enjoy driving around in my own vehicle. I am slowly but surely getting used to driving to and from school, within campus and within the vicinity of my compound. I like the freedom that it provides me - something that I had in fact, thought I didn't need. While I still feel like I'd take public transit if it existed here, I am finding the convenience of driving around, scarily convenient. Eeek...!

On a different note, I am finding that life in the compound to be very weird. It reeks of artificiality, yet it is very much my current life. Nothing about the place seems home-like (except for, maybe my bedroom where I can sort of tuck away in my own little world and forget what awaits outside). People are fine for the most part. Something that adds to the weirdness though, is having to work and live with your colleagues, which I have never experienced before. Some have been making a great effort at lying low and not being seen around much while others are conspicuous figures in the compound and campus. I am doing my best to strike a balance between the two but it's hard. The thought of being here for a year to three is daunting in moments like these...

A highlight amidst all this weirdness was discovering a little Thai restaurant somewhere in Doha called 'Thai Snack'. I will go again I'm sure. It was such a surprise to enter this place and see people of various nationalities stuffing their faces with pad thais, curries and soups. It had a distinctly Thai feel to the place, without the beach. I did feel a hint of nostalgia, remembering my time in Ban Phe way back when, but I digress. So yes, this was a great discovery and I will definitely go back.

Okay, that's it for now. More posts to come, inshallah.

And another one bites the dust...

I got into a car accident today. It was at a roundabout, somewhere in this city. I wanted to keep going, but the guy on my left wanted to turn right. S/he ran into me with his/her ginormous SUV. My Hyundai Accent's rear left-side bumper is dented inward. I'm okay, I'm fine. I will have to pay the repercussions of this at some point. I do have insurance, which comes with the car in this country. The other guy took off and I continued on because one cannot stop at a roundabout, it's just not done. Got the proper papers needed from the rental place and went to the police station to file a report. It is all standard stuff, but I will most likely have to pay for the damages after all is said and done.

If I could have my way, I would not drive in this city. If there were some sort of reliable transportation system, I'd be the first person on it. But there isn't and I have to deal with that. I'm not having my proudest moment right now, I must say.

Sushi in Doha

Left to right: Matt (Illinois), Rebecca (London), me (Toronto), Mike (London), Fasil (New York).

Last weekend, friends and I ate at Sakkura Sushi in Doha. It was decent fare and reasonably priced. Good times were had by all. More pics to come.

The Pressure Cooker that is Egypt...

Even though I'm not there anymore, I still try to keep up with Egyptian news and politics. I came across this article that I wanted to take note of here. It is, what I think, a pretty well-balanced analysis of the current political state in Egypt. While some have criticised it as being too pessimistic (in comments), I think it really just points out that Egypt is in a state of political transition, particularly due to the uncertainty of what would happen after the current president passes on.

Here is the article.

Update

So I've been in Doha, Qatar for four weeks now. I would say that I've adjusted to things here for the most part. There are little things here and there that will take some getting used to, but overall, I'm okay now. If you don't already know, we are in the month of Ramadan now (Ramadan Kareem!) and so many are fasting. And as per the khaleej (gulf) culture, non-fasters are asked to abstain from eating, drinking and smoking in public. Fasting, from what I see and hear, is hard enough as it is, but to do it in 40+ degree weather, is something else. Some teachers are handling it better than others though. I'm personally doing the best that I can to be discrete.

As for the weather itself, the average temperatures now is about 38-40 degrees or so, which is notably cooler than the 44-48 degree weather we experienced when we got here in August. Even today, some of the teachers and I were commenting that we could actually walk outside for a bit and not end up drenched in sweat. Now there's just a dampness after a ten-minute walk, haha. The weather won't really cool down until November apparently when it should hit 20 degrees or less. Can't wait for that.

The culture shock that I've experienced has been muted but present. Qataris are very different from Egyptians, as I've come to realise. In fact, other than the fact that they are Arabic speakers and Muslims, I can't see any other major similiarites. The character of both nationalities are very different, with Egyptians being generally gregarious, outgoing, passionate while Qataris very somewhat aloof, reserved and shy. This is my first impression, at least. Maybe it'll change as the months go by. So, generally that took a bit of adjusting when I had first arrived.

As for my students, I've just finished my first week of teaching. I teach an all-girls class and they range from 17 to 22 years of age. While most are Qataris, I have some Palestinians, Bahrainis, a girl each from Yemen and Somalia, and a couple more girls from the Comoros. I teach two separate classes and each contain about 25-27 students, depending on who shows up each day. And since we are in the month of Ramadan, my eight o'clock class has been moved back to 7:30am. Let me just say that this week has been tough. The funny thing is, there is a week left of Ramadan, which means that we're going to teach for another week and then we have our first week-long break. Yay! Many of us are looking forward to that break, overlooking the ironic fact that we had just started classes. I'm sure many of the teachers including me, will be dying for a break come November. I can guarantee it.

So overall, things are okay over here. Life for us has stablised and I'm anxious to learn more about this culture and people. I've also met some really nice, friendly people who I'll hopefully get to know better. Luckily, the apartment complex that I live in (in our residential compound) houses eight flats, six of which houses single females. The other two include a newly-married couple and the other, a family of four. I do not doubt that this was intentional. I do appreciate that we were put together because it has made the adjustment here a bit easier. We have a clubhouse as well, which houses a small pool, gym, and pool and ping pong tables. The clubhouse also has a "Ladies Day" on Sundays and Wednesdays when only women are allowed to use the facilities. While I didn't think this would matter to me in the beginning, I now find myself using the clubhouse only when it's Ladies Day, as it is the only time when the clubhouse is void of teenagers with nothing to do. Enough said on that.

Alright, I think that'll do for a good synopsis of what I've experienced thus far. More to come, hopefully. Until then, Eid Mubarak!

In Qatar

I am here. I am safe. And I am sorry that I haven't posted until now. It has been busy and internet was hard to come by during that time. As of today, I have internet at home so I will be able to post more often from here on end. Hopefully.

One thing I'd like to say though, in case you didn't already know... Doha is damn hot. The range as of this month has been 45-48 degrees celsius or so. Never experienced that before until now. It's something else, I must say.

I will try to provide more info next time. Until then.

The Beginning

I will be leaving for Qatar in three days. I will be teaching English at a university there. In the meantime, I hope that my transition there will be the complete opposite from the one I had in Egypt. That is, I hope that things will go smoothly and somewhat as planned. If I learned one thing in Egypt, it's that if things were meant to happen, they'd happen. Human planning alone is not enough; a little divine intervention is needed as well. So inshallah, things will go smoothly.

So then, welcome to my new blog about my journey to the 'pearl of the gulf' that is Qatar. I will try to be more objective about the whole thing, but I might add a few personal touches along the way. Please remember that the views expressed here are those of the author - me! - and mine only. My aim is to be as open and empathetic as possible, but also realistic and honest.

Let the adventure begin.