Ready, Set... Doha!

I am so excited and ready to start my adventure in Doha this summer! I have been able to read the blogs and Facebook posts about my classmate's internships and I am excited to start my own!  Things have been a little bit crazy recently with preparation for Qatar, wrapping up work at my graduate assistantship, and recovering from an unexpected gall bladder removal surgery.  

This summer I will also be taking two online classes.  One of them is an elective for my program and one is an online discussion class that supports and supplements the internship.  I will have to learn quickly to balance my time between classwork and work-work and a social life/ exploring Doha. 

Where I'll be: Doha, Qatar

Info about the city:
Climate: Year-around sunshine and temperatures up to 113 degrees during the summer. Desert climate. 
Population of Doha: About 1.5 million people 

Who I'll be working for: Qatar Foundation in Education City. Working in Housing and Residence Life within Student Life.  (http://www.myeducationcity.com/) 

Education City is made of 10 different universities/ programs, including Texas A&M University at Qatar. 

What I'll be doing:

• Supervising orientation student staff
• Plan and implement New Student Conference on August 26th and events leading up to it. 
• Act as a liaison between Housing and Residence Life and branch campuses to plan for the arrival of new students. 
• Manage orientation information posted on the website

Where I'll be living: I am provided an apartment in the female residence hall. I've heard I will have my own bedroom (hopefully) and that I'll have a kitchen to cook if I want. 

When I'll be there: July 1st- August 27th. I fly out of Houston (IAH) on the night of July 1 and arrive in Doha, Qatar on the night of July 2nd. The time difference between the two cities is eight hours. I will fly back to Houston from Doha on August 27th. I leave in the morning and get back to Houston in the afternoon of that same day. It's weird how that time difference works. 

Preparing for the trip:

• I had to get shots for this trip abroad! I had to get polio, typhoid, and tetanus diphtheria shots. Not too pleasant, but it's better than getting the actual disease/sickness while I'm over there. 
• Notify my bank that I'll be leaving the country so they won't shut down my account when I use my card abroad.
• Trying to get my hands on some Qatari Riyals (their currency) before I head over there so I'll have some when I land... just in case. 
• Put international texting on my phone so I can text my mom/ text people for Skype dates. 
• Creating my packing list- making sure that I've got plenty of cool clothing since it's going to be so hot while I'm over there. 
• Buy textbooks for the two classes that I'm taking while I'm there. One online elective (Leadership in Higher Education- online through TAMU) and a class that goes along with the internship that I'm doing in Doha. 

Things I want to do/ experience while I'm in Qatar: 

**clearly this list is still a work in progress- if there's anything you can think of that I should do, let me know!** 

• Swim/ put my feet in the Arabian Gulf 
• Ride through the sand dunes in Qatar
• Visit the Museum of Islamic Art
• Visit the gold souk
• Ride a camel
• Visit the Villagio mall (if it has reopened after the fire that happened earlier in the summer)
• Visit the Corniche
• Go to the Grand Mosque 
• Try lots of yummy local food
• Get a henna tattoo 
• smoke hookah (flavored tobacco- local thing)
• Travel to surrounding attractions if possible (Abu Dhabi or Dubai) 
• Get experience supervising student leaders with the orientation programming
• Get experience working in international residence halls
• Take lots of pictures of everything!
• Try and keep up with my blog to keep everyone updated on what's going on (I'm going to try my best to better this time than when I was in Italy).