The grand finale

Last week I drove up to New York for a visit.  I met up with:

• A lot of former students and got to see how the liberated American lifestyle was treating them.  (Some took to it more kindly than others.)
• More than half of the TA’s from this past year!  Hollin, Jeff, Tony, Noreen, Zack, Aleks.  It was so good to see them all again.  Seeing them in their natural American habitat shook me out of my dream-state a little.
• One of the TA’s for next year, Jon… good luck to him and to the whole new crew.
• Cristian, my Romanian friend from Cornell who just moved to NYC and will be stuck there for 5 years as he pursues his PhD.

There were even more people I wanted to see!  But in the end I cut my trip early and came home to IL.  I am now home figuring myself and my career plans out.

It has been an adventurous year for sure and I wouldn’t give up these memories for anything!  But now it’s time to move on.  Never sit still.

Before it was bittersweet, now it’s just sweet.  Ma’a salaama!

Epilogue time

It’s LIFE, POST-DOHA…

Boy have I been getting a lot of questions from Americans about Qatar.  I guess it’s to be expected.  Here are some of the most common misconceptions I’ve heard…

1. Qatar.  You can pronounce it “Cutter.”  Or “CAT-ar.”  But not “Qua-TAR.”  And you should really just pronounce it قطر like it’s meant to be but I still have trouble with that one.
2. It’s close to Dubai.  (“Ahh yeah, I’ve at least heard of that one.”)
3. It’s an Arab Muslim country.  No, those are not the same.  Most Arabs are Muslims but not all.  (e.g. Lebanon, which is 40% Christian.)  The majority of Muslims are NOT Arab.  Arab is an ethnicity, its people speak Arabic.  Iranians are not Arabs and they speak Farsi, which is unrelated to Arabic.  Pakistanis, Afghans, and Turkish are not Arabs.
4. Qatar is a very rich country but its money comes from its natural gas exports— not oil.
5. Most women cover their hair, and some cover their face, but it is not required by law.
6. American music is very popular.  Movies as well although in the theaters, sex scenes are generally censored (though at the Doha-Tribeca Film Festival I attended, there was no censorship and the audience was given a mere verbal warning before the start of each film.)  Qatar has not only McDonalds and KFC, but even Applebee’s, Cinnabon, Virgin Megastore, and Dolce & Gabanna.  The lives of my students are not so dissimilar from that of a typical upper-middle-class suburban American teenager, although family pressures to conform and obey authority are much stronger— especially for girls.
7. I was teaching physics, not English.  I taught at a university.  My students were generally 17-20 years old.  I would not be able to teach anyone under the age of 14, ever.
8. The weather is very hot and sunny.  You survive by a combination of: (1) staying in the A/C most of the time, (2) getting used to it.  It’s just the weather, toughen up people.  Also, yes it did rain a few days this year and in the winter temperatures are quite pleasant, though never got down to anything I’d call “cool.”
9. Almost all people there disagree with America’s position in the Israel-Palestine conflict.  Besides that, they are not particularly opposed to the American government.  And certainly not to its people.  But they do think we have some funny habits.  Like some Americans, they believe a lot of our national society’s problems are due to a lack of strong family structure.
10. Yes, I would do it again.  I almost did.

On Monday I travel to Ithaca to catch up.  A few of the TA’s are congregating there, and many of my former students from the Qatar campus are doing research in Ithaca for the summer.  I’ll get to see them all, and I’m really excited!

Welcome to America

I’m finally back in the US.  Well I haven’t experienced reversed culture shock yet, but I have noticed a lot of little things that are different.  People complain about construction here but not in Doha.  My Toyota Yaris handles a thousand times better than the Chevy Optra.  Alex (my bro) is taller and his voice is changing.  My parents got new glasses in the kitchen.  And I can get soy yogurt for breakfast once again.

But mostly I am just surprised how very little is different.  Sitting in my bedroom in my parents’ house I realize that nothing would be any different if I had been in Illinois for a year.  This room has been unchanged for 10 years.  Plus, unlike last summer where I at least had a diploma to hang on the wall after graduation, I have nothing material to show for my time this visit.  Just memories, some photos, some different opinions.  Did this past year REALLY happen?  Or was it just a very long dream?  My rational self says the former… but my heart feels more like the latter.

Onward and upward I suppose.  Next week I am visiting friends in Ithaca and NYC.  And then Seattle.  Lots of details to work out on that front, but I’m not worrying too much.  Things will settle into place.  Somehow.

So is this the end of A Year In Qatar?

Yeah, I guess it is.

Ma’a salaama.

Iceland redux

My last two days in London have been clouded over with the bad news from Marco, I didn’t really feel like doing much today so I uploaded my several hundred Iceland photos.  Enjoy.

Iceland

Sadness

Well for the past few weeks I’ve been planning a post here that went something like:

“Surprise!  Marco asked me to come back to Qatar next year, so I have to change the title of this blog to TWO years in Qatar!”

But yesterday I found out it’s going to be more like:

“Surprise!  You can’t come back after all!  Time for grad school!”

And it’s the worst to get bad news when you are in a loud hostel by yourself in a foreign city with no Skype and no cell phone and no one to complain to!  I’m taking the news pretty hard… I’ve been actually really looking forward to going back, the past month or so.  But now it’s not happening.

Tomorrow I fly back to the US, first time in 11 months, and it’s going to be for good.  Bye Doha.  It was fun while it lasted :’(

هناك كثير الناس يحكوا اللغة العربية في لندن

I’m hearing a lot of Arabic on the streets of London!!  I try to understand… but it’s tough…