money can buy history

I spent my Friday morning this week at a private museum owned by some Sheik or other that is only open by appointment to groups of 15 or more. The amorphous mob of white-legged expats otherwise known as the Qatar Natural History Group descended on the museum around 11, and we took our time wandering through the ecclectic collections of weaponry and saddles from north africa, giant carved rosewood doors from Oman, pottery and metalwork from Morocco, mother-of-pearl inlaid wardrobes from Turkey, and intricately beaded textiles from India alongside 20s-era Ford cars (juxtaposed with moth-eaten camel carts), old and modern currency from almost every country in the world, and an impressive array of fossils. There was also an interesting smattering of rustic agricultural implements (how do you like that disk, Thor?) and old wooden carts.
After the museum we trooped en masse to the Sheik's "farm", which didn't seem to grow anything other than dates and alfalfa. (To be fair, there was a very sad irrigated wheat field that was mostly grass.) This may not be interesting to the average blog reader, but the alfalfa was growing in an almost horticultural fashion as if it was arugula or some other delicate green (which prompted insistance from one British woman that it was in fact corriander), lovingly sown in raised beds surrounded by irrigation ditches. I guess the fanciest Arabian horses have to eat the most lovingly tended fodder. (No pictures of the alfalfa--my camera batteries ran out in the fossil room...)

On Saturday Autumn and I went in search of the famed "Book Fair Ship". Apparently, this giant ship sails all around the world, docking in various cities and selling books like "Teach Youself German" and "Eat Your Way Thin!". They had quite a music section, with nary a single artist i had ever even heard of, but there were several album covers featuring balding men with grey ponytails and bolo ties, so I declined to partake (though the $1 cassette tapes were tempting me). All in all it was kind of a strange experience, but the hour-long wait in line and the ride from the parking lot to the boat in a crowded school bus that smelled like pee were worth it because, well, we just couldn't not go.

The other major excitement I have to report is that...IT RAINED. Very early Thursday morning while it was still dark, I awoke to an electrical storm that was so incongruous to life in the desert that i initially thought the flashes of lightening and rumbles of thunder were eminating from the construction site next door and that the half-built skyscraper was about to collapse. But then I heard the light roar of the downpour, and i crawled back into bed smiling with the coziness that only comes with such a wee-hour torrent. As I splashed my way to work the next day, i saw dozens of people crowded under the eaves of the building, gaping in silence as the rain continued to fall. You could almost watch the grass greening before your eyes. The tops of the palm trees were washed clean of dust and the skyline was scoured to reveal the first clear view of the far side of Doha Bay that I have seen since I arrived. The next day--the day of the museum/farm trip--was the most perfect weather we have had. The air was clean and crisp, the sun shone, and a light breeze kept the temperature at about 75F. Everyone says that it won't rain again while I am here. I feel lucky to have seen it at all.

That's all for now from the desert. Until the next adventure...
Love,
emelie

dead date palms make for a monochromatic landscape

Since I last wrote to the "group formerly known as yahoo list", some medium-core excitement has happened here in the M.E., with lots of days just working, working out, cooking, eating, sleeping, repeat. Last weekend I joined the Doha Naural History Club on one of their weekly Friday 'rambles' to a small village with an abandoned date plantation. Apparently this plantation used to yield oodles of plump, sweet dates until the growing development of Doha lowered the water table sufficiently to starve the trees. Now the "farm" is an eerie field of giant de-fronded palm trunks curling over and pitching precipitously at loopy angles. It was SO COOL (see photos). Someone should really make a movie here. The dead trees looked like ancient dinosaur necks trapped in suspended animation. On the walk back I got an offhanded marriage proposal from a worker at a nearby (living) date plantation which brightened my day briefly. Of course, in the group of 30 or so people, the 6 of us there from the Cornell writing program were the only ones to (ahem) get lost on the way back. Well, we actually were on the right track but we had lagged behind so severely that a couple SUVs were sent to find us. (The fact that we were't actually lost was, however, pure luck.)

The next day Autumn and I went to a horse show where our riding instructor was jumping. It was at the Doha Equestrian Club, which was pervaded with a sense of under-construction-ness, but gorgeous nonetheless.

Did you all know I am taking riding lessons? I almost fell off my horse on Thursday during an exercise in which we had to take our feet out of the stirrups and then get them back while trotting. I got one foot back in but not the other and lost my balance, but i turned a potential fall into a graceful though quick dismount, which gave the instructor a good laugh. Hey. It's been like 20 years since I've had a lesson. Give me a break. (Can you believe it has been 20 years since I have done anything?? YIKES!)

Anyway, this weekend I mostly slept in and took naps. I went for a run in a wicked wind on the sand flats just outside of town where i had gone flamingo watching not long ago.



I felt thoroughly exfoliated afterwards. Or maybe sand-blasted is a better way of putting it. Then on Saturday Autumn and I decided to go shopping at the Souks, which are a kind of network of traditional outdoor strip-mall style shops carrying everything from veils to wooden camels to carpets to shoes to aquariums. I bought some really good honey from the "World of Honey" and in the course of Autumn's search for perfume we both were spritzed to the point of saturation, so much so that even after bathing we were sniffing each other for traces of the nauseating combination of florals and musks with which the vendors insisted on inundating us.

So now another work week has begun. I am getting to know my students and settling into my duties. Tutoring ESL students is exhausting but deeply satisfying when that light of understanding spreads across a student's face. And my colleagues are wonderful and sympathetic so we have fun together. I even threw my first dinner party for all the single and lonely TAs on Valentine's Day, which made Doha feel a little more like home.

I hope everyone out there in bloggsville is happy and staying warm in this cold front that is sweeping your nation. I miss you all terribly. Don't forget to keep in touch with my new email address!

with sandy love,
emelie

a new home for Em in Qatar

Dear friends formerly known as Yahoo List

As many of you may know, it has recently come to light that Yahoo cooprated with the Chinese government to hand over information that resulted in the jailing of 3 political dissedents for 10 years. You know how i feel about political dissent and freedom of speech and corporate collusion with government and all that stuff, so i have chosen to terminate the yahoo group as well as my yahoo email address. this here "blog" (ohmigod...i'm a blogger!) is meant to be its replacement. as you've also already been aprised, i have a new email address in addition to my old cornell one. i don't know that Google is much better then Yahoo, but at least i think they've only been accused of censoring search results, not handing over info that has gotten people arrested. So anyway, that's the end of the rant, by way of introduction to my new form of mass communication. Apparently I can still post photos and whatnot here, so stay tuned for the next installment in my middle-eastern adventure, coming soon...!!