Calm Before the Storm...

Leading a team building exercise with the CDAs. 

The title of this blog post seems rather fitting to me at the moment. The past week or so has been relatively calm, but also really productive. I've been doing more prep work for orientation and orientation leader training and I've been helping out with CDA (RA) training. Same on the social front, I haven't done anything crazy or outlandish, but I've been doing a lot of low-key yet still fun things.
The "storm" that is coming is: orientation leader training next week, orientation August 23-26, leaving Qatar on August 27, starting classes on August 27, starting my graduate assistantship again on August 28, and surviving another semester of grad school. I'm also trying to fit everything in that I want to do before I head back to the other side of the world. So what do you think... "calm before the storm" is relatively fitting, yes?

Last Saturday we had macaroni night at Katie's. We were supposed to watch a movie about two religions coming and functioning together, but we got sidetracked in conversation instead. Macaroni was delicious, Katie did an excellent job! Over dinner conversation they planned possible trips to nearby countries that they wanted to visit before the end of the year. This is one thing that I am totally envious of my colleagues that work here year round- they travel everywhere because it's so close! The passports that I've seen here are jam-packed with stamps, the way that I hope mine will be someday. The location of Qatar is perfect for long weekends to nearby countries like Oman, the UAE, Jordan, etc. I would absolutely love to come back and work here and be able to experience the frequent traveling (one of the many perks of working here!).

On Sunday, CDA training started and it was a great day. This whole week of training has been good insight for what to expect from my orientation leader staff during training next week. I'm excited and prepared (mostly) for an amazing five days of orientation leader training, which I haven't had the opportunity to do in a few years! Sunday night at had dinner with Kevin, a former SAAHE student, which was really great. We talked a lot about how great this experience is going to be and how good it is going to be as a marketing tool during job interviews and what I should do before I leave Qatar. He's a really cool guy and I'm glad I got to see a SAAHE alum while I was over here.

On Tuesday I went out to dinner with some of my HRL colleagues to Neo Sushi. It was really great food and while I ordered pasta as my main dish, I tried my first piece of sushi ever... and it wasn't that bad! Of course, the piece I tried didn't have any kind of fish in it, but it's a step!! Another first experienced in Qatar...

My first piece of sushi! Grateful that Katie encouraged me to try it!

Early in the week, Jimmy, one of my colleagues, asked me if I wanted to participate in a volleyball tournament with the HRL staff. I thought it would be fun, so I said yes. Little did I know when signing up for this that there was a 5,000QR prize attached for the winning team! Had I known there was something riding on the game I would have been a lot more hesitant... I'm definitely not a star volleyball player by any means. On Wednesday night we had our first game. I prepared, did some stretching. But the real preparation was mental. Had to keep telling myself, "okay, if the ball comes towards you, don't dodge it or close your eyes- hit it!" We played a team from Education City Facilities division. We won the first two of three games and won the match (using correct terminology here?). I was relatively proud of myself. I made a couple of serves and only completely botched one. Thankfully my teammates are really supportive and the team we were playing wasn't crazy amazing so I got some good practice/skill building in for prep for the next game. I'd like to think that I somewhat held my own, there were sometimes though that I definitely messed up. I am aiming for improvement in the next game that we play which is on Sunday at 10:15PM (late, huh?).

Volleyball- Team HBKU! 

Today (Thursday) we wrapped up the first week of CDA training and had a relaxing evening. After iftar I went back to Katie's place and we napped until we met up with Wil and Arooj for a late night coffee outing and antique shopping. There was a really neat shop that we'd been wanting to visit that is next to Thai Snack. It's a crazy awesome antique shop that sells a little bit of everything. We went upstairs and it felt like I was walking through my grandma's attic. Very cool collections of stuff.

Tomorrow night we are going on a Dhow dinner cruise out on the water, which should be amazing and really fun! It's the first night of the birthday celebration for Katie and Wil, who's birthdays are both on August 11th. There are going to be lots of fun events throughout the week and hopefully I can get more things knocked off of my to-do list!

So what is left on my to-do list, you ask?...

• go dune bashing with a professional driver
• ride a camel
• buy something at the gold souq
• visit the Villagio Mall (if it opens back up while I'm here)
• Take a picture with the giant pearl on the Corniche
• Visit shops on the Pearl, maybe have dinner there
• Go to the Grand Mosque
• Go to a service at a mosque in English
• Get a henna tattoo
• Buy local clothing, maybe have something made
• Get a massage at the Club House (not really cultural, but relaxing none the less!)
• Go on a dhow boat (tomorrow night!!)
• Do more shopping at Souq Waqif for souvenirs
• See the Falcon Souq- where they sell falcons
• Eat dinner at Aspire Tower
• Go to Heritage Village

There are probably other things that I am forgetting... but this is the main list. 

I'll have lots of exciting things to share next time I post, so until then...

Feel free to leave me comments if you'd like to :)