Eid Mubarak!

In case you're wondering, that means "have a blessed Eid." Ramadan is just about over, and to celebrate, almost every expat in the country is leaving tonight! Seriously... at least thirty people I know will be on flights out of town (including me) tonight. Why? Well, for starters... we get a bunch of days off next week because of Eid. Eid is the week long celebration of the end of Ramadan. Everything is shut down... the government, the schools, lots of the entertainment... etc. So, instead of sitting through some firework shows and eating shwarmas, everyone who wasn't born in the desert heads out.

As for me, I am headed to India. Two days in Delhi, one day at Agra, and six days in Kerala. Everything is packed and ready to go... I just have to finish up the work day and we're off. I'm trying something completely new for this vacation. The six-day stretch in southwestern India is set in the countryside among the backwater canals and plantations of Kochi. Our hotels and resorts are known for "eco-tourism"... turns out people like to pay big money to hang out with nature. And I guess I'm one of those people. Personally, I thought I was done with nature when I moved to the desert...

And to get in the "eco-tourism" mood, I'm one-bagging it. That's right... ten days... one itty-bitty bag. Just a slighter larger than high-school sized backpack is all I'm taking. I went online and researched the one-bag travel philosophy, and it makes good sense. You don't pay for checking in, you aren't worried about your luggage, no waiting in the airport... just get up and go! I bought a very nice, one-bagging custom bag from the Rick Steves' line... but the merlot-and-tan was on backorder so it won't get here in time. So instead I borrowed a similar bag from Tex, through in my Rick Steves' merlot Citiva daypack (tiny backpack), and was done. No more than three changes of clothes, and no extra anything. And when it's time to wash some clothes, hopefully I'll be able to talk [NAME REMOVED] into doing it for me like a good girl...

Of course there is only little that's holding me back a smidge. A series of bombs went off in Delhi last week from a Muslim fundamentalist group. And wouldn't you know... all the bombs went off at the places I was supposed to visit. God help me... I'm going on vacation in a warzone...

To all my friends and family that were huddling under the stairs when Ike was barreling down on Houston... glad to hear you're all safe and sound. Thankfully, everyone I know got through the storm. My great friend Johnny lost parts of his house, but is in good spirits. Best of luck, Johnny! I really do wish I could be there...

Take care, everyone...

ben

Ramadan Kareem!!

Ramadan Kareem!! I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day! I'm celebrating a different type of holiday...

Yesterday was the official start of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar. My knowledge of Ramadan was very sketchy. Originally, I thought Ramadan was a time when all the muslims fasted and prayed all the time... and that was about it. I don't think I've ever been more wrong about anything ever... and that includes my affair with Gov. Sarah Palin's underage daughter.

Ramadan is a party... think Marti Gras, not Lent! Yes, the muslims do fast during the day; no food, water, smoking, or sex from sunup to sundown. But once the sun goes down, the city is filled with huge tents set up in vacant lots brimming with families getting together to break their fast, called "iftar." Education City is having a large two-day celebration for all of us to experience our own iftar. Once they break fast by eating dates and drinking water, everyone celebrates into the night! Islamic law says that all muslims must fast during the day, give to the poor, and perform charitable works during Ramadan. But, these are not done out of supplication to Allah, but as a way of giving thanks to God. And since God is merciful, God insists that muslims stop fasting as soon as the sun sets. I even have to let my students out at 5:58pm to allow them to break fast! Lights are strung up around the city, and the public areas have intricate displays of traditional Ramadan lanterns. In my building, the students have decorated one corner just like a traditional iftar tent, with musical instruments, lanterns, and plates of dates and nuts.

There are some disadvantages to Ramadan for non-muslims, though. All restaurants are closed during the day... so no breakfast or lunch. When they do reopen, it is almost impossible to get to them since every muslim is racing to get to eat! Also, it is considered EXTREMELY RUDE to be caught eating or drinking during the day, so most people only eat in their offices, and carry any food or water in bags or coolers. Men are not supposed to wear shorts in public, and women are asked to dress very moderately (long skirts) when out. These are inconveniences, but considering I'm in their country, I have no problem with this. In fact, I've decided to join the fast! Lots of the expats try it out to see what it is like... and I'm going for it. And as an added bonus, when the restaurants reopen at night, they give anyone fasting a free bowl of lentil soup! Mmmm... soup!

My chemical education conference in Mauritius was fabulous! The conference was incredible! I learned a ton of stuff regarding teaching chemistry labs and interacting with students. One fun little fact, I ended up staying in the same hotel as 1981 Nobel Prize winner Roald Hoffman. We shared meals and drinks several times during the conference, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with him.

When I left Doha with the high humidity, it felt like it was 44C. When I landed on the island, it was 22C... half as hot!! That's a big, damn, difference! The island was incredibly lush and green, full of sugar cane and tea plantations. Huge palms with large coconuts dangling in the wind, ready to fall. Increadible beaches, gorgeous cool blue south Indian Ocean water, and lovely women! I stayed at La Plantation Resort, sitting right on Turtle Bay. Directly outside my room was a rain fed river that flowed directly into the ocean. Hammocks dotted the landscape between the trees where I relaxed with a book, swaying in the breeze. They speak a beautiful mix of Hindi, French, English, and Afrikaans that floats overhead, mingling with the rustle of the sugar cane leaves and tropical bird songs. It was... beautiful.

We went on a day long tour of the island that included touring a dormant volcano that overlooked the capitol. Later, we checked out the second largest Vishnu statue in the world! Turns out half the island is Hindu, and we toured a large temple and holy lake. At the temple, I got blessed by aholy man who gave me a tikka (stripe) and a third eye... by painting my forehead! There were small tables surrounding this lake where people gave offerings of fruit, incense, and beads. We stopped by the reservoir, where our guide told us that the man-made lake was purposely surrounded by pine trees. When we asked why, our operature looked at us oddly and stated, plainly, "because everyone knows pine trees attract rain." We also went to some incredible overlooks that gazed over multiple waterfalls and huge chasms! Monkeys slowly came out of the trees to steal food from all the tourists. In all, I have never been to a more fertile and green place in all my life! Make sure you check out the photos of Mauritius at http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/gg223/benji-of-arabia/.

I took a personal day and went scuba diving. They took me to an area called "poison reef." I saw black tip reef sharks, sea snakes, stone fish, lion fish, moray eels, sea cucumbers (eww) and huge schools and columns of colorful fish and coral. To prepare for the dive, Tex and I went on some practice dives off the southern coast of Qatar. Not quite as lovely as Mauritius. Just some sunken buses and a shitload of spiny sea urchins!

The new fall semester has begun, and already I'm getting it with both barrels. This semester I'm teaching two sections of freshmen chem labs along with the junior quantitative analysis lab... around sixty students total. That's a ton of grading and prep for me, but it's going well. We're also in the process of moving our research labs into the new engineering building. With any luck, we should have all the teaching labs moved into our actual building by next year. Maybe then the chemistry staff won't be the forgotten bastard step-children of TAMUQ!

Finally, with any luck, me and [REMOVED] will be taking a trip to India later this month! I'm going to try and take a day trip to the Taj Mahal, followed up with a weeks tour of the backwaters and plantations of the state of Kerala in the southern tip of the subcontinent. To prepare for the trip, I went to a birthday party with a Bollywood theme last weekend. I spent an entire day looking for a khurta to wear. But it turns out in a country of 1.2 billion, there isn't a single Indian that is over six-foot tall and heavy-set!

One last thing... I BOWLED A 203 THIS WEEKEND!!! THAT'S RIGHT... I'M A TWO-HUNDRED POINT BOWLER!!! I'M COMING FOR YOU, DAD!!!

Hope everyone is throwing strikes this summer!!

ben

the lost month...

Hey everyone... sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. But to be honest, nothing has happened here as of late. Nothing. I finished up teaching the summer semester last month, and then everyone decided to leave the country, except me.

July is the month that all the Qataris and expats leave for vacations. The weather has become more and more aggressive, the nights are sweltering hot, and not much is happening around the country. For the past three weeks, I've been preparing to teach my fall classes, and reading up on teaching a new lab. To say I'm taking my dear sweet time is a misnomer... I'm trying to take as much time as possible.

My four professors and three coworkers are all out of the country as I type this. Most of my friends are in Vegas, Ireland, Turkey, Texas, or the Maldives. I am the only person in the chemistry department. I could have scheduled a longer vacation, but why? I'm going to Mauritius in a few weeks (on the university's dime), so why bother? I have been looking into taking a weekend trip somewhere (Dubai, Cairo, Bahrain) but these trips are very cost-prohibitive... not worth the effort either. Maybe later...

As for this fall, I'm planning a trip to India. A friend of mine is going there for a wedding, and I hope to join her for part of the trip. But where she wants to go is very different than what I'm used to. She hopes to go to the Kerala part of the country... a scenic, pastoral area of the southwestern tip of the subcontinent. Comprising beaches and inland waterways, tea and spice farms, Kerala bills itself as "God's Own Country." But beside the beauty, I don't know what we're going to do there? When I travel, I like to plan ahead and organize my trip to see and experience certain things... architecture, history, cities, museums, a good concierge. When I look up Kerala, all any of the websites or tourism books say that it is known for its natural beauty and "Ayurveda" treatments... one of those holistic medicines designed to clear the chakras with jasmine and coffee enemas while emptying my wallet. I have no idea if I'll enjoy this trip at all, but you never know unless you jump right in. I hope to try and take a side trip to the Taj Mahal and Agra... so we'll see how that goes.

Everything in Doha is going well. We've been under sandstorms for most of the summer so far. Check out the picture taken by one of my coworkers during the middle of the day...

When I say that the sand here can make you start choking, I'm really not kidding.

I want to go back two months to the Education City convocation that I blogged about earlier. I forgot to tell you on of the more charming stories of the night. I've posted some pictures from the convocation (thanks Shane) at http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/gg223/benji-of-arabia/. During the convocation, the ruler of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani eloquently spoke about the future of the students and the great accomplishments that they will achieve for Qatar. He started speaking about Education City and the Qatar Foundation, both of which were founded and are run by his wife, Her Highness, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al-Missned. When he mentioned the work and drive that she had put into Education City, he looked directly at her and called her by "Her Highness." At this point, the crowd went wild with applause and cheers! All of us expats looked around and didn't know what was happening. When the applause ended, the emir thanked her for her work, and said something in Arabic while placing his fist against his chest. At this point, every student in the crowd jumped up and started to yell, whistle, clap, and basically become very raucous! Once again, the non-Arabics stayed seated... not quite sure what was going on.

Later, I asked one of the professors who told me the meanings. First, for the emir "His Highness" to address his wife in public as "Her Highness" was a monumental thing! That demonstration of respect and admiration for his wife (remember, this is the Middle East) was nothing less than amazing. Then, on top of that, the Arabic word he called her was like a pet name. Something akin to "sweety" or "honey"... but a little more formal. That was when all the students started to really get excited. No ruler in this part of the world has ever been so openly affectionate and respectful of his wife. And to point to her, on camera, and call her "sugar" was a testimony to the emir's utmost reverence for her.

And at the end of the night, the Emir and his wife strolled into the mass of students that were watching the Andrea Bocelli performance and were mobbed with affection. Students were allowed to walk right up to the emir and take their picture with him; most of the time with emir just beaming with pride. The Emir is absolutely loved in this country, and they call His Highness the "Emir of Generosity." The more you see him, you can plainly see why. Kinda wish our leaders were like that...

Keep in touch...

ben

it's starting to get a little warm...

Amazing how this country keeps throwing curves at you...

It's getting a little warm, and by warm... I mean ungodly hot. It turns out that summer came early this year. Since the first of May, it's been over 100F everyday... normally close to 110F. Some days the humidity pours in and you feel like you're melting on the stairs.

It's been a really busy month. At the start, we had the Education City convocation. It was beautiful! We had it in our ceremonial court on campus, which is an ornate outdoor stage with massive screens and lit towers. Guests included the Emir and wife, multiple sheikhs and sheikhas, the Emir of Dubai, and the president of South Africa... and me. I would love to show some pictures... but we weren't allowed to bring cameras... or at least that is what it said on the invitations. But when I arrived, everyone had brought cameras. As soon as I get some photos from someone else, I'll post them.

After the convocation, Andrea Bocelli performed. I sat about thirty feet away from the singer, backed up by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Normally, tickets to his shows run around a thousand dollars each, and I saw him in a gorgeous outdoor stage on a beautiful night for free... incredible. Have to say... it was one of those things I will never forget.

Next up was the arrival of Jeremy, a grad student from College Station to help out with our research. He showed up and we worked in the lab and hung out for two weeks. We went to a rugby game, Korea versus the Arabian Stallions. I've never been to a rugby match, and it was different to say the least. The sporting events here are almost always free, and no one ever attends. Check out the photos on the photo site... http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/gg223/benji-of-arabia/. Jeremy was, and is, a total spaz... and fun as hell. It was great having a bombastic squirrel to hang out with for a while. I took him to the souqs, hung out at the malls, and played in some poker games. Make sure you check out the great video of him burning his ass hairs off.

Later, we went to the inagural TAMUQ graduation. Thirty-plus students walked for their diplomas at the Four Seasons Hotel on the corniche. First off... that is one ungodly beautiful hotel. The graduation took place in a massive ballroom and... thankfully... only took an hour. A lot better than the five-and-a-half hours my graduation took.

Afterwards, there was a reception in a large tent out back. In fact, most hotels have large tents to hold big functions. But these tents are the size of gymnasiums, have air conditioning, and crystal chandeliers... not too shabby. We all ate tons of food... rumored to be the best in Doha, followed by a band playing the Arabian classics. Best part of the night was when a group of Qataris swarmed the place wearing their best bescht (dress robes), drums, and swords. They performed their ceremonial sword dance, which you can see in the video posted nearby.

I've started teaching again this summer. Two labs a week, four-and-a-half hours each. Plus proctoring a two-hour exam every Sunday. Thankfully, it's keeping me very busy so far.

And I have some good personal news. I've started dating a very cool woman who works for [CLASSIFIED]. You have to give me some credit... Qatar has the largest male-to-female ratio in the world... and I found a girlfriend in four months. She's a [DETAILS REMOVED BY ORDER OF THE GIRLFRIEND]. She's really cool, very well traveled, and is a lot of fun. We took a trip to the beach of Fuariit, and had a great time. I'm not allowed to take photos of her, and definitely not allowed to post any pictures... so I'll have to sneak a picture to get everyone to see her.

I have some great work related news!! I'm going to an international chemical education conference. There, I'll learn about process orientated guided inquiry learning, teaching international students, and modern chemistry teaching techniques. And it doesn't hurt that it is on the island of Mauritius. For those of you that have never heard of Mauritius (and I'm almost sure that is all of you), it is a tiny island about 600 miles off the eastern coast of Madagascar. Make sure you look it up on google earth... it's suppose to be one of those secret places that only really rich people know about. And I'm going there on TAMUQ's dime for an official reason. Although, I am taking a catamaran around the island to go snorkeling and spear fishing while I'm there... just for fun. I'll be gone from August 2nd thru the 9th, and will be back just before the fall semester starts. Fun stuff...

Also, my bowling league has finished up. My team finished in fourth place... and we were robbed!! We should have been in third, but another team cheated... seriously!! We should have been in third!! Anyway, I finally got my bowling shirt and got a special award... most improved! I went from bowling a 70 in the first week to a 184 in the final week... one hell of an improvement if you ask me. Of course, I went bowling this morning and threw a game average of a 102...

Hopefully, I'll be heading to either Turkey or Egypt this fall for a vacation during Eid (the holiday week after the Hajj). This is going to be a fun year...

Enjoy...

ben

birthday convocation...

Hey everyone... First off, thanks for the many birthday wishes! I really appreciated them, since no one here even knew it was my birthday. I went out to an expensive steakhouse and treated myself to calamari, king prawn, and and four-inch-thick fillet. It would have been better served with wine instead of watermelon juice... but still nice.

I played in a poker game last week and lost my ass. Played terrible, absolutely no cards came my way. What made the night worse, though, was that we all lost to someone who brought a poker cheat sheet with him that listed the order of the hands. Damn that hurt...

Speaking of sport, my golf outing a few weeks ago was great. It is beautiful playing a full round of golf at night, but ungodly hard to find your ball if it rolls off the fairway. I even stranded a cart in the sand... not a sand trap, but deep desert sand. Unfortunately, we all decided to make a night of it and went out to a hidden bar in the city, Garvey's. It's not really hidden, people know about it, but there are no signs or listings for it anywhere, and you just have to know where it is to get there. They are allowed to serve liquor due to a grandfather clause back when Qatar was a British protectorate. Anyplace that was serving alcohol then was allowed to continue to serve... that means Garvey's and the Rugby Club. Well, that lasted until about two a.m., then it was club sandwiches at The Hot Chicken, followed by a three a.m. poker game that went for several hours. Somehow, at that point, we decided to break into a South African's home and start making boerswoers sausage... can't really explain the reasoning behind that one. And after that, it was several hours of bowling. All in all, a 36-hour day... with about eighteen hours of sleep afterwards... I'm just not as young as I used to be.

Anyway, it's dead quiet here today. It is the last day of finals, so any prof who finished their class early has taken off on holiday. The building that I work in with Carnegie Mellon and Georgetown University, has already finished up their semesters... meaning that the normal hustle and bustle of students is gone and has left it eerily quiet. You can hear shoes squeaking from 500 meters away...

Tonight is the Education City Convocation. The convocation is a gathering of all the seniors who are graduating this year. This is the first time all the universities on campus all have full graduating classes; so the QF is treating it as the inaugural class. It is a massive event, getting coverage on all the news with signs up everywhere. Just across the street from Education City is a billboard about 300 meters long, congratulating the seniors. The royal family, His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa and Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned, will be in attendance along with other dignitaries. Sheikha Mozah will be presenting all the graduating seniors special rings from the Qatar Foundation... solid platinum, encrusted with diamonds. About five grand each. Considering how wealthy some of these students are... makes me want to vomit...

Of course, this comes with a massive contingent of extra security. Besides our normal security guards, we have the armed Internal Security Forces (like our CIA and Secret Service in one) patrolling the campus. Several of our roads are blocked off, and in the main building, everyone is supposed to leave early to have the garage for VVIPs... really... there is a sign up for VVIP (very, very important people).

And we have a performance tonight. It was supposed to be musical icon Sarah Brightman... the original star of Phantom of the Opera and Requiem... the muse of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. But sadly, she had to cancel yesterday. Everyone was stunned! If she cancelled, how is the QF going to get someone to replace her? It's not like this country is packed with high caliber musicians and singers! I don't think they're going to have "The Exiles" play their cover of 1984's Hungry Like the Wolf! But once again, Sheikha Mozah surprised us all. With one day's notice, she got... Andrea Bocelli. Probably the most famous, and most successful opera singer alive... with one day's notice. Not bad... not bad at all.

So tonight, I'll be dressed to the nines, surrounded by sheikhs and sheikhas, sitting outside in sweltering weather, watching very rich kids get even richer, while listening to Italian opera. Either that, or I may go bowling...

later...

ben

dunestock...

Hey everyone... hope you're enjoying your beautiful spring weather. Normally spring means gentle, cleansing rains, the opening of flowers, and a return to enjoying the warm outdoors. Over here, spring means something entirely different... it means "oh shit... here comes summer." We had our first 100+ temperature day here... on April 1st... 103F to be exact. It is consistently in the mid to upper 90's F everyday... all day. Walking across the parking lots to our main building feels like running a marathon uphill carrying jugs of water... and it's not even summer yet!

Everything is going really well. I just turned in my final grades, and can say that I successfully taught my first semester!! Well, at least 83% successful, since that was my average grade. Another instructor thought that was a little low, but my prof praised me for being a hard-ass. All in all, I had a blast teaching the labs. So much so, that I'm having to teach over the summer... ugh. I'm teaching the same lab, but instead of fifteen weeks... we're doing it over five weeks. Plus, I'm doing a recitation for two hours a week, basically doing problem solving sessions with the students. With the 20 hours a week of chemistry these students are going to have, they are going to absolutely hate me this summer... which wouldn't be so bad, except that I'll be surrounded by angry students with access to deadly chemicals and glassware.

Big news... last weekend, Tex and I went out to Dunestock. Dunestock is an all day concert put on by the Doha Players, a British theatre troupe to raise funds. The Doha Players theatre was destroyed in 2005 from the only terrorist act to ever hit Qatar. Some guy, during a performance, walked out of a performance, stood in the lobby, and blew himself up... killing one of the troupe members. Since then, the Players have been slowly rebuilding the theatre with donated funds... and their biggest fundraiser is Dunestock.

Dunestock takes place in an area called the Singing Dunes... in a central area of the country very close to the American air base. The Singing Dunes are a large collection of dunes in the middle of the rocky desert. They look and feel like any other dune, except for one major difference... they sing. No... really... they sing!! When you walk on the dune sand, you can hear a very low rumbling resonance. Actually, you more feel the sound than hear it... and it only happens on these particular dunes! Anyway, the morning of Dunestock a massive sandstorm moved in and, once again, almost blacked out the sun. But nothing was going to stop Tex and I from sitting in foldable chairs and listening to bad cover bands... so we were off.

The concert arena was in the circular area created by a massive sand dune, making the dune itself the perfect amphitheater seating! About four thousand people were there, and almost all of them were western expats! It was really very strange... when you live in a country where you are always the outsider, seeing a massive group of people that, at least on the outside, look like you was eerie. People set up tents and canopies, everyone was staring fires to BBQ and smoking shisha. Hundreds of people were climbing up the dunes and either sledding, snowboarding, or simply falling down the steep, powdery slopes. I tried to climb up the dune after an afternoon of drinking and smoking while in the middle of a sandstorm... got about halfway before my lungs gave out on me. Imagine climbing stairs made out of talcum powder... not as easy as it seems.

Another strange thing. There were no police. None. A private security firm was hired to make sure people bought tickets... and that's about it. Everyone was openly drinking, women were in bikinis, people were making out on blankets... behavior absolutely forbidden in public in this country. But it seems that the government kindly looks the other way during these large gatherings. Maybe they realize that there would be a coup if they didn't. Maybe the government was there without their thobes on... who knows. I did see some of my students there (some with women!)... and I asked them if their parents knew they were out partying. After some odd looks and quick unclasping of hands, most confessed they told their parents they were studying at school... sinners.

As for the bands... Doha isn't exactly up to Austin's "live music capital" status just yet. Only a handful of acts were decent, some were god-awful. One particularly fun act was a duo of older indians who sang acapella... no kidding... folk songs and sea shanties. Exactly the music western people want to hear during an outdoor music festival...

So with the exception of the terrible music, the sand behind my eyeballs and in my drink... it was a blast!

Heading out to play some golf this afternoon. Since the course is lit at night, it should be fun. Also, bowling is going great! I really sucked at first, but have quickly progressed to decent status. I still don't have my shirt... but soon, I promise...

later...

ben

GOT IT!!!

I got it!!Three camels in the back of a truck!! Beat that with a stick!!
By the way, you can click on any photo to enlarge it for more detail...

ben