My First Day of 2009

I started off my morning by walking to the beach and sitting on a bench by the Gulf. It was just beautiful. It was warm and breezy, much different than the weather in Illinois! It was a lovely and relaxing way to enjoy the morning.

Around noon, I was picked up by Ameena, a woman who works in campus life at Education City. She took me on a driving tour of Doha and then to lunch. I really enjoyed talking with her about Doha, her family, and her job. She is very honest and willing to share her thoughts. I appreciate that I am able to speak with a Muslim woman about her life and experiences. Her perspective is certainly a different one from that which I have gotten in the States. I am going to enjoy my time with her at LeaderShape.

So - the city of Doha. It is undergoing a great deal of construction these days. The new buildings are grand! They are glittery and large and say, "Look at me!" This new Doha is quite different than the old Doha. Those buildings are, well, older. They are small and plain. Ameena said that they are taking down the old Doha to put up all the new buildings. This means no more old Doha and a great deal of construction, traffic, and dust for those living in the city.

Following lunch we took a drive around Education City (EC) and to the campus life offices. Like the city, there is a great deal of construction going on in the EC. The Qatar Foundation (QF) has a lot of very ambitious plans for the project. The architecture is really beautiful inside the EC.

After a bit of rest, Lindsay took me to dinner at an Indian restaurant with folks from residence and campus life. They were all nice folks. We were very near to one of the soccer stadiums, which was holding what looked like a pretty large meeting in support of Palestine. The situation between Israel and Palestine is, of course, very much in the news over here.

I tried two new things today. Mint lemon and date pudding. A mint lemon is a fresh lemonade with mint in it. Very refreshing. I plan on drinking more of these. The date pudding was more like a cake with a sauce on it and totally delicious. I haven't really eaten dates before but they are very popular here.

Tomorrow is Day 0 of The LeaderShape Institute - Faculty Training. We'll be at the EC getting ready for LeaderShape. It's time to focus on the task at hand now.

Here are a few pics...enjoy! The first is the view from my room and the next is a picture of the skyline from the beach.