General

"Manama: An Islamist lawmaker has urged his male peers to take four wives, three Bahraini women and one foreigner, in order to help address the issue of the high number of spinsters in the country." - Gulfnews.com

Are you kidding?? 

-Gen

First of all, there was a huge thunderstorm on Thursday.  I thought that was the end of our weekend.  Too bad we'd already caught up on watching episodes of "Lost" the previous weekend.

Thursday we were invited to the Alternative Energy Masked Ball.  The event was in the newspapers as the "social event of 2007."  I can't say that it was the social event of the year or not, but seeing as we dont go to many of the ritzy events, this was pretty spectacular.  The location of the event was the Oyster - part of The Pearl.  This is Doha's version of Dubai's Palm projects involving land reclamation. It was supposed to be outside, but had to be brought indoors due to the aforementioned thunderstorm.  Anyhow, it really was an amazing venue with everyone decked out in suits and gowns.  The center of the room had a huge architecture model of the entire development.  The event was a masked ball, so we were given male or female masks when we entered. 

I, however, came prepared.  Instead of the usual Phantom of the Opera masks that I was expecting, I tried to create my own T.M.N.T mask.  That's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (yes the cartoon/cheesy movie).  It was sweet.  After people had started leaving towards the end of the night, I put it on and started posing in karate chop poses.  I'm sure I made Genny really proud :)

Yesterday we went to Rima's birthday party (Rima is a coworker friend of Genny's).  She decided to have a last minute party at her house because on Thursday everyone threw her a tiny office party.  So in the space of a few hours she put together a guest list, had caterers lined up and was ready.  The party was split between people watching the India-Sri Lanka World Cup cricket match and the dance party and the BBQ outside.  Sri Lanka won, the dance party was dancin, but the real interesting piece was about this one-man restaurant who catered Kabobs, Indian food, the whole works by himself.  He even had a portable Tandoor that he made fresh naan with.  The Tandoor is made with a half barrel that has concrete (or clay if you're really into it) poured inside to make a hollow bowl on the inside.  It is heated with a fire or coals and bread is stuck to the inside and pulled off when it is done.  I've never had fresh naan like this before.  Amazing.

Today we went on a boat with some friends and went wakeboarding.  This was our second time - the first with Chris Smith in Charlotte.  It was a bit of Deja Vu - except the water was salty.  I fell over 8 times trying to get out of the water.  Genny popped up on her first attempt and boarded back and forth in the channel.  Pretty sweet.  I've got a video of her on the water.  Afterwards, we went to Safliya island.  It is more of a sand bar than an island, but I guess it doesn't completely go underwater.  There were amazing oyster shells on the ground and a few people and dogs (Genny played with a 3 month old puppy named Fuzz).  One guy got stuck because the water had receded in low tide, so he just hung out a few hours until it rose again.  Didn't bother him one bit.  His kids were going to go see Mamma Mia, but one of the other boats would take them back.  People just trust each other here.  Much more than in the US. 

We're both really sore right now.  I need to get water for our water cooler, but I can't quite make a fist because of the wakeboarding.

I just learned that Umm means "mother of" and Bab means "door". Why would they call a little town that? No clue. But out of respect, people call mother's here "mother of first son's name" instead of by their own name. Umm Ankur for example.

Anyway, we decided to explore a new beach in Qatar since it was gorgeous outside. We found Umm Bab on the map and headed off in our OLD Jeep Wrangler. Apparently no one else has discovered this beach because there was not a soul in sight! On the way there we saw camel crossing signs and what do you know...there were actually all these camels grazing by the road. Even one crossing on our way home. We passed the Qatar Cement Company and a QP Desalination Plant but beyond that is just a beautiful beach w/no one around. There were itty-bitty shells instead of sand and super shallow water. In the pics you can see Ank way way out with water only up to his knees. Not ideal for swimming but not bad if you have some Crocs :)

All-in-all a very peaceful Saturday.

-Gen

Instead of writing documents, I'm googling people.

Kothari: I'm the 48th link in Google of 1,560,000.  I feel like at some point in time I was up there.  Probably back in 97 or so when there were ten people using the Internet.  :)

Ankur: 38th link of 1,000,000 (it's actually this site).

Guinevere: Got to 150 and gave up.  Apparently when they have made movies with your name you've got major competition.

Genny: 12 of 1,890,000.  Nice.  Almost the top ten!  (this site again)

Alok: stopped at 150 also.  Pre-med isn't big on google. 

Filipe: 2 of 5,690,000.  There's a pesky religious photographer listed above him.

Fortes: 2 of 21,100,000.  Impressively nerdy.

Lianza: 3 of 109,000.  Odd that your same domain in New Zealand and higher up: Library & Information Association New Zealand Aotearoa

Shishir: 13 of 292,000.  A channel 9 article.

ok, I should go back to work.  What a waste of time. I am glad that I'm not the nerd-king of the "Ankur Kothari's of the world"

http://dev.lipidity.com/ - I swear it isn't me.

Windows Live Messenger just introduced an initiative that will donate a portion of its advertising revenue to one of roughly ten causes.  All you have to do is put a *code after your display name to have it sent to the right organization.

Feel good while sending IMs. 

I like the Internet.

It lets me find someone that had the same idea as me and let me use his work.

for instance, instead of putting all of the Cubs' games into my calendar, I can just download the file here and it'll go into Outlook.  Although I did have to modify the items using Excel so that it didn't mark my calendar as "Busy" during these times... even though I'll probably be sleeping during the majority of these games.

Yesterday, Genny and I went to CMU-Q to talk to the students and faculty about life as an alumni and as part of their "Making the Connection" Lecture Series.  We had fun talking to the them and showed them life in Pittsburgh and CMU and what is what like to go through the interview process and work your way towards graduation.  Genny spoke about banking and how math is an integral part of her career.  I spoke about computer science and the future of technology.  Anyhow, it was a good feeling being back with students and feeling like you are helping in some small way. 

Afterwards, we had lunch with Andy Zrimsek, a writer for Carnegie Mellon.  She interviewed us about alumni relations and what is was like for a graduate living in Doha.  They are going to publish the story in the next issue of Akhbar. 

I'm not quite used to speaking while there is press taking pictures.  This is the third time I've done it and I try to act natural, but it's easy to lose your train of thought when people are taking your picture.  Half of you is hoping you don't have fruit jelly on your shirt, and the other half is forgetting what you were supposed to talk about.  I guess you get better with practice, but dealing with press is a new thing for myself (and I'm assuming Genny as well)

In January, I launched one of my initiatives in Qatar.  In Qatar, there is huge demand for skilled technologists.  So to help grow this community of experts in the Microsoft infrastructure realm, the Qatar Infrastructure Community eXperts was launched.  Without a single event, the community has grown to over 100 people and there are quarterly events or seminars to make sure that there is focus.  At the launch of this, we had several reporters and photographers in attendence, with the Qatar Tribune placing it as their lead story on the front page. 

Back to the "routine". It was sad to leave home and return to a place that is still a little foreign. Although work keeps us busy and we are finding things to do on the weekends. This weekend, Ankur is testing out our "new" Jeep Wrangler in the desert. I'm kind of glad I have other plans because I would freak out in the car. Going down those dunes is scary enough with a Bedouin driver who's done it a million times. Instead I'm going with some girls at work to rent ATV's and cruise around the dunes. Not sure how much safer this is but I drive like a grandma anyway! Will post pictures later.

-Gen

We had a lovely 2 week vacation in Chicago! Just our luck it was the coldest week in who knows how long. The day after we arrived it was a high of 0F. The following week there was a snow storm w/about 10 inches of snow! Since we were only there for a bit it wasn't so bad. It felt like the holidays with the fireplace going and no work J I did a ton of shopping since I hate shopping in Doha. You get the same things in Doha for 2-3 times the price. We ate all the things we miss like potstickers, Mexican food, Gino's, hotdogs, Taco Bell, sandwiches from Kirsten's, and lasagna. Mmm…so good! And of course we got to spend time w/family and our dog, Sully. I've heard some pets will get angry if you leave them for long periods of time, but not Sully. He couldn't be happier to see us. He makes the cutest barking/whining noises when he's excited and runs in circles as fast as he can. You can't get a better welcome home than that!

-Gen

We finally moved out of the closet we were living in. Okay, so we got kicked out but it was definitely time. Unfortunately we only had a week to find a place and move out. Fortunately we found a lovely villa. It's huge for just the two of us but at least it came fully furnished. We decided to celebrate and throw a party with all our friends. This was also a good excuse to go get our liquor license. Yes, in Qatar you have to fill out an application and specify your religion and have a letter from your employer stating your salary. If they approve you get a monthly limit on how much liquor you can buy. The limit is quite generous and the prices are slightly above average. The selection is surprisingly decent although there is only one distributor. Anyway, the party was really fun and our friends make living here fun. I think we will make this party a regular event!

Rest of Jan: work work work

-Gen