week in review

It's been a great week. Of course, it's only been a four-day week for me.. that always helps. :)

It was a week with never-ending To Do lists and too little time (but I like to be busy); being hungry all day, but stuffed all night long (Ramadan will do that to you); staying up late and watching too many bad movies on TV (but it's a fun to make fun of them with my two roomies/coworkers); too many conference calls and a lot of tough decisions (but the decisions that were eventually made were good ones).

There's still a lot to catch up on, but I am going to Oman bright and early tomorrow! I have worked straight through the past two weekends and I'm in need of a fun vacation. And what could be more fun that a few days with some of my good college friends from my pre-Doha days?

I've baked some cookies to bring, downloaded a few podcasts and some new music, packed my swimming suit and I'm ready to go! (I do have another conference call tomorrow evening, but whatever! It's the weekend as far as I'm concerned!)

Muscat, here I come! w00t!


P.S. I bought my ticket for Dubai for New Years!! I don't think the UAE is ready for the craziness, Bucky's Angels style, of course. :D

The Daily Show on Qatar

No comment.

patterns and updates

Life has settled into a pattern here... fasting during the day, eating everything we can by night, a good amount of TV watching and working almost every moment I'm awake.

In other news, we just welcomed the first newbies of our term, who completed their "Intro to AIESEC" conference today. It's a great group of nine students (from Sudan, Lebanon, Qatar, Bangladesh and other countries) that attend the Canadian University here. I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent sessions of a few of the older members who faci'd the conference.

The organizaiton of the GCC conference is progressing nicely, and I love the committment many of the GCC MC members already have to making this a success, even though we haven't decided if it's on for sure yet. It's really awesome to be working across the region with people that share the same vision and purpose.

Insha'allah, I'll be in Oman on Thursday! I can't wait to see Lynn-Dogg and Brett "Cake in the Face" Borkan (and David, too!) and remember the good ol' times in Madison.

We're currently watching "Operation Dumbo Drop" on TV, because it's the best thing that's on out of the three English channels we get in our apartment. Oh, and I'm baking brownies right now that I have to go rescue from the (incredibly unevenly cooking) oven. We're probably going to eat them all tonight and then go shopping. :)

Just another night in Doha, Qatar, the Pearl of the Middle East...

day four

Today was tough. I feel a bit weaker, but it could be that I stayed up super late again. And I've started to notice that I'm getting really cold easily. Whether that's an effect of the fasting or not, I don't know. It could be that the weather is just getting cooler. I think I just need to eat more at night. Hmm.

I stayed up until 4 a.m. writing a proposal for the first-ever AIESEC Gulf Country Cooperative (GCC) conference. It's become my pet project and just thinking about it happening inspires me when I have a down moment. I won't drop details now, but let it be known that if we can pull this off, it will be the cooooolest thing to hit the Gulf since Range Rovers and roundabouts.

Iftar was with a bunch of the members last night at...... Ponderosa. Yes. Ewwwwww. Whatever. I ate a lot of salad. After eating, we went to a shisha place and chilled for a while. Apparently it was not time to stop eating and hanging out despite the late hour, so I ran home to grab blankets and we drove to the most picturesque spot in Doha, sat on the sand overlooking the corniche and chatted about life.

MC planning this morning was equally as inspiring as the conversations I had with members last night. Who said that the third month always brings the most culture shock? I feel like everything's finally falling into place.

That's enough blogging for now... it's six minutes until iftar time! Mmmm... I can already taste the sticky sweetness of the date being washed down with gulps of water... :)

day two

The hunger really hits me at about 2:30 pm, five to six hours after I wake up. But last night, I found that you really taste your food after not eating all day... I'm looking forward to Iftar tonight even more than I was yesterday because of the hightened sense of the flavors and aromas...

I woke up from a nap around 5:30 pm yesterday. The minute I walked out of my room, I could smell spices and food cooking, even though nothing was going on in our kitchen. Everyone in the city was cooking at the same time and everyone was going to start eating at approximately the same time... Everyone has their first bite and experiences their tastebuds pique at almost the same time. It feels like a movement. And it's so cool to feel as if I am part of it.

day one

It was a normal day for me... the whole not eating thing isn't really very difficult so far. I was a bit tired, but I think that has more to do with me going to bed late than me not eating.

Iftar (breaking the fast) was very nice today. Around 5:45 pm, the three of us on the MC (Lonneke from the Netherlands and Layial from Canada) went out for buffet filled with traditional food with Irina, a trainee, and Altaaf, a South African friend. It felt like we had our own little family. :)

More to come in the days ahead...

ramadan eve

It's Ramadan eve, as I call it in Arabish (Arabic + English, like Spanglish is Spanish + English).

I'm really looking forward to participating in Ramadan to the best of my ability... I wonder when else in my life I'll have the opportunity to participate to the degree that I can here and now. I plan to observe (read: fast) for the whole month...

Everyone here sees Ramadan as a time of family, happiness and celebration. Yes, it is a time to fast; another main focus, though, is kindness, reflection and spirituality.

A big part of my desire to be in Qatar throughout this year was to refocus of my priorities in my life and for my future. As I am not religious to the extent that most are here, my spirituality deals with my beliefs and my connection to the world around me. How nice it will be to take time every day to contemplate those things and to figure out what I really want and where I am going. Some serious soul-searching days are ahead, insha'allah.

Fasting, for me, will be a challenge, but it is not insurmountable [but for those who have never felt real hunger, that is easy to say]. When it was decided that Ramadan starts tomorrow, part of me thought, "oh, so that means that I won't eat tomorrow," and that immediately struck me as strange. But for how many people in this world is that typical? How many people don't know where or when their next meal will occur? We will fast all day, but then eat from buffets overflowing with food at Iftar each evening... Part of what I want to achieve deals with understanding the condition of hunger, as much as I can understand it in this cushy life I lead... I think that the purposeful nature of our fasting redeems the act a little [or makes the hypocrisy worse... I'm not sure which].

I really have no idea what to expect. But I think that in some way or another, it will be like pushing a giant RESET button. For me, it will be what I make it. I will blog often, I promise.

recipe for a perfect weekend morning

Mix in abundant amounts with wreckless abandon in no particular order:

-smell of autumn in air coupled with the smell of morning in the town that you love
-leaves crunching under your feet as you wave hello to friends and acquaintances on way to restaurant
-good fair trade coffee and omlettes in favorite independent, second-story restaurant in a town that feels like home
-a good bit of drowsiness due to getting up at 10 am after crazy fun had night before dancing and partying with good friends until the sun came up
-two best friends, also in same state of drowsiness, engaging in hilarity over stupidly enjoyable and entertaining conversation about night before and other things
-comfy t-shirt and jeans, favorite pashmina
-feeling like you have all the time in the world to live in the moment and not wanting to be any place on earth but where you are

This will be me in nine weeks. I can feel the glow of the moment already.

self image

I think I look much older now than I did six months ago. After looking at pictures from AXLDS in Mexico in March, I am wondering if I actually do look older because of the responsibility and complexities Qatar has placed on me (or that I have assumed myself), or if my self-image has actually caught up with my current state... at least in some ways.

You know how you think of yourself as a certain age, or as a certain person, or possessing a certain quality, or in a certain state of emotion until all of a sudden you realize that that's not who you see yourself being anymore?

I think I just reached that point. But I don't really know where that leaves me. I think it just leaves me with more questions than answers... but that's the fun part, right?

post-IC post no.1

Some random thoughts I that came up during IC:

-How do you make Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) a priority for those that have no idea what it is? How do you make a country, an industry, a company see a need for CSR? And how do you make them see that AIESEC is a way to get there?

-IC is a platform for networking with externals..... and showing us off to those same externals.

-I miss Doha. On MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Night, I heard familiar Arabic music as I was walking down the stairs to the party area and it was the first time I relaxed and took a deep breath... somehow, I felt at home among the lilting notes; it was something which I never realized I would miss.

-I'm surprisingly unfazed by having people from 100 countries in one room. I wonder why?

-My resolve to correct past mistakes and set @Qatar right has been strengthened.

-I want to live in more countries, work harder, reach more people, change lives.

-I miss my KE and EZ, but most of all, I miss who they are as unique individuals and how we all connect on every possible level, above who I am when I'm with them or anything else. There's something to be said for knowing someone so well that you can be halfway across the world and still know when they're thinking about you. And I'm lucky enough to have two of those people. :)

-I like the Dutch.

-I am able to fight for something that's against my personal beliefs for the good of my members and for the good of AIESEC Qatar. To me, that means that I belong here right now.

-I have this incredible pressing necessity to travel and live in other countries... as many as possible for as long as possible.

-Americans are so obvious.

-Do I really look Qatari? No way, I say... but to non-gulfies? Many people at IC thought I was actually from Qatar... HAAhahahaa!

-The AIESEC high fades after time. The high doesn't ever get as high as it does after your first conference. After a while, you need more impact to feel that you can make as much of a difference. But the good news is that you begin to look for that impact in other places, like in conversations with externals who know things that you don't... and the more you have to work for the impactful discussions, the more they are worth. More on discussions with externals in my next post.