Pluggin' away...

Yikes, I didn't mean for a month to pass before I blogged here again. Sheesh. I'm really bad at this whole blogging thing, this time around. It could very well be representative of my life here, as in there isn't much to blog about. I was better at this online journaling when I was in Egypt, I have to admit. Anyhow...

So I am in the thick of the second semester now at the university and this semester looks, feels, and smells different. I have a smaller class, for one. I have about twenty students on my roster, of whom about fifteen come regularly. That's easily ten less students than the last semester. Among my regulars, the majority are Omani. Go figure. This semester, we've had an influx of Omani scholarship students coming to Qatar to study. As a result, the proficiency level of my students is significantly higher than that of my last class. In addition to the Omanis, I have a Bosnian and Bangladeshi student each. And finally, a dash of Qataris to boot. This semester's class has been much more interesting, I have to say. It'll be interesting to see how the semester ends...it has been fairly positive thus far. Watching the dynamics of the class change with each week has been fascinating, to say the least.

In other news, the winter here is officially over and has been for a good month or so. The weather is in the high-20s now during the day and I'm already using air conditioning when I drive around. I keep the windows open at home and that seems to be sufficiently cooling for now. I dread June and July when the mercury will eventually surpass 35 degrees celsius and I constantly feel like I need to shower three times a day. But such is life here. My overall health seems to be slightly improving because I have been making a conscious effort to eat better and move around more. After four months of essentially hibernating at home in front of the tv, ever since I got back from Egypt I decided to start walking more, so I do. I walk in my compound, I walk along the corniche, I walk by a park that I recently discovered close to where I live. I'm consciously eating more vegetables and fruit and less red meat. I am taking mutli-vitamins daily and stretching at home. I do have the occaisional sugary treat and still consume a lot more caffeine than I should, but otherwise, I'm doing better and feeling better than before. Given that the air quality here is much better than in Cairo, I feel like my lungs have been cleared out of a lot of gunk that I brought with me. I've even decreased my shisha-smoking (once since I got back from Cairo), something that I did maybe monthly. So in the end, this place has a certain solitary confinement quality to it in that there's not much to do here so you start focusing on self-improvement measures, haha. I've heard people say this several times before, but it really is true. After experiencing a extended period of boredom, the mind and body demand attention as it fights off the effects of inertia. Not to mention, I'm nearing my thirtieth birthday and that's also scaring the crap out of me, but that's a whole other blog unto itself that I'd rather not share.

So all in all, that's what I've been up to and experiencing lately. Not much else to share, I'm afraid. Well, that and the fact that I've already bought my plane tickets for home this summer. I'll be in "the West" for a good two months. I have no feelings about that yet. Hmm...weird. That's all for now.