Back from Bahrain!

We made it home safe and sound from Bahrain. It was a lot of fun to hang out with friends and enjoy some of the things you take for granted in the US (aka pork and alcohol!). It was a much deserved break and I hadn't left Qatar in almost 4 months! We had a great time eating, joking around, and seeing the sites. Check out the pictures I took below.

Bahrain April 2010

Next up is Morocco in 4 days! We'll be there for about 10 days and will obviously have tons of pictures when we get back. Enjoy the rest of your weekends everyone!

Finally an update!

I know I know... I haven't written anything on here in like months... but to be honest we haven't had that much going on here. It's been pretty much the daily grind for the last few months, working hard and playing hard. But now that class is almost over, I thought I would write an update and post some pictures I've taken in 2010.

The first set of pictures is from an Education City coordinated Camel Race. Let me tell you that was definitely a crazy experience! There are roads on both sides of the sand track and all the cars follow along with the camels. We were lucky enough to be able to hop on a bus and catch the last race of the day. You can see the little robots on the backs of the camels. Those robots replaced the children jockeys that they used to use in years past.

Camel Races 2010

The second set of pictures is from a student organized dhow trip. We chaperoned the trip and got to ride on the dhow through the West Bay and over to an Island near the man made island The Pearl. It was lots of fun and if anyone comes to visit, a definite must do!

Student Dhow Trip April 2010

The third set of pictures is from a visit from a friend from Kuwait. He is in Student Affairs at the American University in Kuwait. We took him out to the souq one night and also took some pictures of the Museum, Corniche, and West Bay. It was a great weekend and a great night!

Corniche and Souq at night

Our travel plans over the next couple of months are really about to heat up though with classes being over and the slow and ridiculously hot summer about to start. As of right now, we've got 3 trips planned, 2 big ones and a weekend. We kick it off next weekend by going to Bahrain for the the weekend with some friends. It'll be nice to hangout and relax in a place that isn't Doha! Less than a week later we'll be heading to Morocco for 10 days on an Intrepid tour which should be really interesting and fun. Morocco is one of the places we both couldn't wait to go and experience. It'll be really interesting to travel there after living here in Qatar for 8 months. On a side note, I can't believe we've been here for that long already! It's absolutely flown by. Anyway, our next trip we're definitely going on is to Singapore and Malaysia with another couple in July. It should be a blast as well as relaxing as we're planning on spending plenty of time on the beautiful beaches. We've got a few other possible trips, Nepal at the end of June, but we haven't made a definitive decision on that trip at this point. We're also possibly going to Thailand for one of the Eid's this fall but again nothing is set in stone.

Well, that's about all that we have going on here in Doha. Like always, if you're planning a trip anywhere near by (or with in a couple thousand miles!) let us know and we'll see if we can try to meet up with you! We miss you all!

Tristan and Rachel

Finally I'm updating my blog!

Hi again everyone, sorry it's been so long since I've updated my blog!  We obviously have been very busy around here since the last time I posted.

We had a great Christmas break.  We were back in the US for about 2 weeks and even got to see some snow in North Carolina!  It was very strange to be back, driving was such a pleasure compared to here.  We really enjoyed seeing everyone and wished we could have spent longer seeing everyone that we missed.  After NC we flew up to Chicago for our annual get together with some of our UNC friends which was great.  It was very cold but that was refreshing after living here for almost 6 months, not that I'm complaining about 80 degree weather everyday.  All our flights to the US and from the US were very smooth, we were able to sleep just enough to be able to avoid too much jet lag which was a relief.

Coming back to Doha was a shock again. It's funny how quickly we got used to being back in the US!  Driving here is still such a chore and I think it always will be!  Rachel had to go back to work right away when we got back. I was lucky and had a day off! 

That first week back wasn't the most fun however... Due to forces outside of Cornell or Qatar Foundation I was forced to stop working at Cornell.  Luckily I had a week to transition everything, but needless to say it was a shock to me and Rachel as well as everyone at Cornell.  Luckily, I was able to step into a Teaching Associate position at Texas A&M so I'm not completely out of work!  I'm teaching the intro to chemistry lab twice a week which is obviously very entertaining but also exciting as I haven't ever taught a class like this before.  There is potential that I could go back to Cornell in 6 months, but we will see how that all pans out.  As of now, I'm happy and at least have something to fill my time.

On to happier subjects!  We had some more visitors in January.  Rachel was part of a Young Professionals Institute setup by QF.  Masters and Doctoral students from the University of San Diego and the University of Maryland came over to see how student affairs is applied here in the Middle East.  They were here for 2 weeks and got to experience all that Qatar has to offer.  Two of the students stayed with us for a few days which was a lot of fun.  It was really interesting to see their take on what Doha is like.

Well, that's about all that's going on here.  I feel like we're finally settling into a routine and really making this feel like home.

Again, let us know if you have any plans to travel outside the US, we're always interested in meeting people if they'll be near by!

Spain Pictures!

Sorry there are so many of them, but it was a long trip with lots of sights. Enjoy!

Eid 2009 - Espana!

Spain trip

Hi everyone, I know it's been far to long since I updated the blog... but we've been busy!  I started my new job about 2 months ago and have been trying hard to get everything figured out and organized in the labs. I'm enjoying working and it's interesting to work in such a different place where things are not as easy as they are in the States.  It can be frustrating, but will be totally worth it once everything is organized.  I'm really getting in on the ground level here as the labs are going to expand by about 5 times over the next couple of years.

On to our recent adventures.  We just got back last night from a trip to Espana!  It was a blast... running around southern Spain and eating more food than I knew I could handle.  I haven't had a chance to process all the pictures we took (400-500) but once I do, I'll be sure to post them.  I'm also going to post pictures we've taken over the last couple of months since I last updated the blog.

We flew into Madrid November 25th early in the morning and hopped on the train to Toledo right away.  We spent 2 days there and got our bearings being in another country.  Our first impression was how different it was from Doha!  There were clouds, cold, rain, and (shocker!) hills!  We were both very sore after walking for 2 days in Toledo because of the hills.  Like I said before, we pretty much ate our way through Spain, enjoying tapas, wine, beer, and jamon (Spanish version of prosciutto).  Unfortunately, I started to come down with a cold that hung around most of the trip, so we didn't see quite as much as we probably could have since we ended up utilizing the siesta to try and feel better.  Luckily it worked and by about half way through the trip, I was feeling better.  Rachel however caught my cold and is only just now starting to feel better.  We enjoyed our first Thanksgiving together in a different country without our families, which was strange but exciting at the same time.  We had dinner at a very nice restaurant near the church where we ate dried venison, quail, and cod.  Maybe the first pilgrims at something similar, but it probably wasn't as tasty as ours was!

After Toledo we took the train to Granada, a completely different city that Toledo.  Where Toledo felt like a small old town, Granada was a bustling new age hippie town with interesting back street tea rooms and lively bars.  Again we enjoyed tapas and wine.  We also went to the Alhambra, the last great Moorish fortress in Spain which was lost by the Moors in 1492 to Isabel and Ferdinand.  It's also where Columbus convinced the King and Queen to back his trip to the New World.  It was very eerie to stand in the same place that Columbus did so many years ago.  The entire place was alive with history and it was very cool to be there.

From Granada we traveled to Sevilla.  Sevilla was probably our favorite city as the town was so much not only for the sites we saw but the food and people!  We really enjoyed our selves in Sevilla, finally getting into the Spanish way of a late morning snack, mid afternoon lunch and siesta and a late night dinner.  We went to the Bullfighting museum which was extremely interesting.  It may be a brutal "sport" but the Spanish really revere the bull and don't relish in the pain of the bull, but it's courage and fight.  We spent lots of time wandering the streets and visiting some of the other sites, the Cathedral was extremely beautiful and enormous!  It is listed as the largest Church in the world since Saint Peters and Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil are Basilicas.  In any case, it's big.

Cordoba was up after Sevilla.  It was really nice to spend time in Cordoba even though there isn't much to do there besides see the Mezquita, the large former mosque with a cathedral built in it.  It was nice to have some relaxing time together with Rachel and not feel rushed.  Again we enjoyed wandering around town, especially the old Jewish quarter which was a maze of small streets with lots of tacky shops interspersed with home town artisan shops.

Finally we arrived in Madrid.  The big city has done a lot to revive it's small historic core.  They have pedestrianized many of the streets in the historic district, bringing out lots more people.  It was a busy two days as we toured the modern art museum, Prado Art Museum, and the Royal Palace all in about a day and a half.  Lots of walking but lots of beautiful art to be seen.

Well that's it for the brief overview of our trip.  I plan on putting good descriptions on the pictures to supplement this post, but that will have to wait until I get the pictures uploaded!