Wednesday fun

I continue to appreciate the opportunities that we've had to meet with colleagues and offices here at Education City. I'm finding our time to be very beneficial and our discussions worthwhile on a host of topics in higher education and student affairs.

Our first stop today was the Northwestern University campus, where we were clad in the 'purple' for most of the morning. I felt very much at home in their spaces, as the program is focused on media, technology, and journalism. Seeing their equipment checkout area reminded me of my team back home...the group here will soon be adopting an RF-ID system similar to the one at State. They also use a wide variety of cameras, and do most of their editing using Final Cut Pro.

Our next stop was Cornell University, which focuses here in Qatar on medical. They have 272 students in both a Pre-Med and full Med program that is one of the toughest here. I was fortunate to visit their larger lecture hall room, complete with three Panasonic DW100 projectors in rear-projection. I'm amazed so far at the slope in these learning spaces...much more steep then our present designs at State. We were also able to visit several of their medical lab spaces (not specifically my favorite) but very impressive none-the-less. Their exam room stations were set with remote cameras for viewing of patients and evaluations, which might be something for us to explore for future nursing labs. The program here is 2 year program...very intense. One comment we received though was that students are very focused - with not having the ability to drink alcohol or do drugs, the staff do not find it hard to keep the students on track. Interesting. :)



Our final afternoon session for the day with the staff from the Qatar Foundation, and our hosts for the trip. Student Affairs in higher education in Qatar is a relatively new and unknown quantity within the country, which makes their work and our visit so very important. They continue to work to expand and help the populace know the roles that are important in student development, and how best to understand it. With so many students from so many different nationalities, it is a big task, but one they continue to develop and grow. Heifetz even made it into the discussion this afternoon...grins were had by all.

Cheryl also presented a session - very well attended - that culminated our day.



I also managed to squeeze in a quick video conference with my team back home - was good to hear how things were going, and it sounds like we're ready for the start of the semester. I'm fortunate to have such a good group to work with, who can really come together to get things accomplished.

More to come!

Tuesday - Education City

Our group today began our campus visits at Education City with the resident US campuses located there. We were split into two smaller groups, each taking a different section of universities to visit. My group visited Virginia Commonwealth, the Academic Bridge Program, and Georgetown.

Each program is unique within its own right. VCU was the first university invited to participate in the new Education City endeavor, and therefore has had the most experience in operating within the country. Focusing on arts and design with just over 200 students, VCU went to a co-ed campus only three years ago and is now offering an MFA program to its students in Design. The tour of the building took us into many of the teaching spaces, including ceramics, textiles, fashion, and painting. After our tour we met with several of the student affairs individuals from the campus for a Q&A session. I was most impressed by how the campus still operates within its normal US framework (as best as it can) to give the students as much of an authentic western learning experience as possible. At the same time, cultural considerations must always be taken into account (such as the role of women and religion) as part of the process. It’s a balance that often takes quite a bit of work to maintain.

The Academic Bridge Program prepares students to enter the university from many different walks of life, and gives them a foundation from which to entire university as prepared as possible. The counselors we met with, including the Director, were very kind to share their process for engaging the students in a variety of activities. All of them carry multiple responsibilities though, so I got the sense that there is a very important balance that must be maintained for the 300 students that participate. They were also very kind to give us some gifts to take back home, including a folder hand-made in Lebanon that is used for their graduation activities.

A quick cafeteria lunch (which by the way is run by Sodexho) was next, which was very cheap and also very good to eat. I tried the Chicken Marsala, which I found out to be much hotter than I was anticipating. It was very good, though…after you got through the kick on the back end.



We finished up with a visit to Georgetown, who forgot we were actually coming to visit. After an awkward few minutes, I walked around to see about getting into one of their large lecture spaces. I ran into a very nice individual from the Dean’s Office who let me into the classroom, and I was able to look at their current design and installation. They do a wide variety of teaching in the space, including connecting via video conferencing when needed. I was additionally introduced to another member of the Dean’s Office staff, who was kind enough to discuss their current distance learning opportunities offered to the students.

After meeting back up with my group, we went on a full tour of the Georgetown rooms, and I was able to snag some pictures of their high-end video conference space, the RPX room. They continually connect back with the main DC campus for a variety of activities and student organization events that I found fascinating for student involvement.



Our final activity (after another visit to the cafeteria for a made to order cheeseburger!) was sitting in on a taping of the Doha Debates. Staged before a Qatar audience, the debates focus on a singular controversial motion with two speakers against, and two for. Discussion ensues, followed by a Q&A session with audience members before a final audience vote is tallied. Originally, I had planned to just sit in the green room and observe, but we ended up being able to go in to the taping when additional seats were available. Sara and I happened to get two final close seats in row 2, which after the program began, ended up being the area where EVERYONE was asking questions. We’re fairly confident we made it on TV…sitting right behind us was the Ambassador to Qatar from Afghanistan who stood and asked questions, and the lady in front of us was told by the producer that she was going to be on TV and she should make sure she keeps her legs closed. I even got poked – right in the middle of it, the girl next to me pokes me. I look over and she points her finger over to the mid-seat camera guy who looks right me and motions me to move in my seat forward for some reason. Either they were angling up for a shot, or moving me out of the way. Either way…pretty sure we’re on there.

So…if you care to see what we sat in on, the airtime info:

Name: 'This House believes this Afghan government is not worth fighting for'
BBS World News
January 23 and 24, 2010
23rd: 7:10, repeated at 15:10 and 20:10 GMT
24th: 1:10, repeated 7:10, 15:10, and 20:10 GMT

For those who don’t get the BBC, it will also be on the web or for podcast:

http://thedohadebates.com/

More of the same fun tomorrow.

Monday – A walkin’

I must say…it’s nice to have clothes. Not that I hated my clothes that I had been wearing, but a change was needed. (chuckle) Crazy bags anyway. My story for that was a little amusing. The front desk called at 3am to let me know they had arrived (and naturally I jolted awake at the first ring). I told the guy to just keep them there for me, and he agreed and hung up. Three minutes later I was jolted again when the phone rang. Same guy, asking me about the bags. I told him to please keep them, and he said something about signing a paper so I asked him to please just sign it, and he agreed and hung up again. Five minutes later, the doorbell rang. I couldn’t tell if it was the doorbell really, it was just a noise. So I decided I just better get up and go down to make sure he’s ok. I get dressed, open the door, and there are two guys just standing there (with my bags) waiting. I apologized for not coming sooner, signed the paper, and grabbed the bags. Then I figured I should tip, so I got out some paper money and handed it over, and promptly went back to bed.

When I woke up, I couldn’t find my money. Did I give it all to them? Minor freak-out moment, until I located the bills in a pocket. Whew!

Our departure this morning was 9am, and took us to the Islamic Cultural Center. It actually was a very interesting experience. The start of our tour included a sit down in their hall where we were served small cakes and a sample of Arabian coffee (not bad actually). We got a bit of history lesson for the first hour or so about the background of the Islamic faith, and had a very good question and answer period. There are so many tenants to the faith, that I came away asking myself how many people in America really know about how the faith works, and how related to Christianity and Judaism it is. The second part of our tour took us up to the actual Mosque, and we spent time in the room and were able to observe how prayers are performed and what is said. It was a nice way to learn what they were saying, and how it tied into the prayer process. Pictures were taken, and one is below. At the end they presented us with individual bags of gifts explaining what we had seen today, which was very unexpected and also very kind (although one of the items we received we’re not really sure about yet…thermometer?)



For lunch we walked across the street to the Souk (or marketplace) to get some lunch at Café Tasse (where our food took forever to arrive, but we made it back on time). We were able to preview some of the shops we would be seeing later during some free time, and a group of us sat down for some Italian bread and pizza. Very authentic, and very yum.

The next stop post-lunch was the Museum of Islamic Art. The building was designed by architect I. M. Pei, and was one of the last buildings he ever designed. A magnificent structure, we were very awed by the design inside as well as the dome on the top. We split into two groups for the tour, and came away with many pictures of artifacts from as early as the 9th century (including ceramics, jewelry, carpets, and many tile pieces). I was mostly impressed by the many different colors used on the ceramic pieces, and I’m still not exactly sure how long it takes to construct the rugs that we saw…just amazing.

After a quick group meeting post-our tour, we were back on the street to the Souk for some food and bargaining. Gotta be firm with the shopkeepers, we discovered, or they’ll try to get every last Riyal out of you while you stand there. I think I came away pretty happy with what I was able to get. No doubt we will head back to do more another day. For dinner, a small group of us decided to stop and try out a Moroccan street restaurant called Tajine (after all, how many times do you get to eat at an authentic one of those in your life, right?). Grace, Jacqueline, Christine, and I shared a sampling of lamb and chicken kabobs as well as some saffron rice and coffees (and a Coke for me) to round out the meal. We even had a visitor as we ate (there was a cat hanging around our table which wouldn’t leave…and really wouldn’t go after Jacqueline accidentally dropped a piece of chicken on the ground).



My only oddball moment from that experience was being in the bathroom right before we left, and having the cleaning guy come in and try to mop/clean the whole bathroom right while I was in there…just a tad bit awkward to say the least. I mean, can’t you wait until we’re done in there before you come and start throwing the mop around???

As we were walking out, saw a man walking down the way with his pet monkey. Yep.

Almost on the right sleep schedule…sleep tonight should get me fully on track. With no phone calls needing to wake me.

PS – forgot to mention yesterday that I was able to procure some multi-vitamin juice while at the store…sure wish I could buy that stuff in the US. There was also an entire case of cheeses in all shapes and sizes…I took pictures.

PPS - our group was highlighted today in the Gulf Times - check it out!

Sunday – a day of twists and turns

Hello all – welcome to Sunday. The plan for our day was to start out early, beginning with breakfast. I must say, the breakfast spread is quite good. Many different fruits, meats, eggs, juice…reminds me a lot of western European hotel breakfasts. There were even made to order omelets (of which I will partake tomorrow morning). Most of the group had mixed sleeping results overnight, which culminated in the 5am ‘call to prayer’ horn that was very distinct in voice from our room. Guess I’ll use the earplugs tonight just to make sure I get good sleep. It was quite confusing though…I remember hearing it, rolling over, and asking myself what in the world was singing. Then I rolled over again.

Our first stop in the day was to Al Jazeera. We were not allowed to bring in cameras or phones on the tour, and entrance to the compound where they are at was fairly heavily guarded. But we made it in, had two excellent tour guides from their marketing area that explained the history of the station and where it is now. It seems like they are making a very concerted effort to offer a balanced approach to journalism – offering both sides of any story and letting the viewer make a decision. The examples they provided included the reporting on Gaza, Afghanistan, and other places in the world in conflict (and a few mentions of Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld along the way). I was pretty impressed with their overall layout in their broadcast center and newsroom…reminded me of the news area and set at WTMJ. I wished I could have taken a few shots to share…but its very hard to get into Al Jazeera for a tour of any kind, so I consider myself fortunate to have been there at all.

After leaving the station, we proceeded to the Villaggio Mall, one of the largest and most well-known Malls in Qatar. Very upscale, with many high-end shops and stores. While mall going is not usually my thing, I did walk around the entire place (including the river with gondola boats and ice rink in the middle) to see what I could see. I also stopped at the Carrefour store and got some food and water for the room. Just sitting in the middle of the rows of stores and people watching is fascinating – so many different cultures and groups walking by is sure something to take in.

The ride back to the hotel, though, was something else. What should have been about a 15-20 minute drive back all of a sudden became a half hour, then 45 minutes, and it was at about that time our driver realized he was lost and not sure where he was going. Ah yes…the joys of shuttle driving in a foreign country with a national that doesn’t speak good English. Fortunately, one of us had a map to share with him, and a little over an hour after we first left the mall we made it back.

A meeting with our small groups went quickly, and then we were off to dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. This was my first time eating this type of food, and I must say we were all impressed with the variety and quality of the dishes. I will post some pictures later at the end of this post. Right now, we are all completely wiped out and in need of sleep.

If only my luggage will now arrive…come on phone, ring!

Landed!

Greetings from Doha! My flight made it in one piece, and my group was already in the passport line when I got to the terminal. Only problem…my bags did not make it. They missed the plane change in London for some reason, and will not make it here until tomorrow night. Lovely for me. So, I will deal tomorrow (don’t need any good clothes yet) and make it through for a day. Good thing BA gave me a landing pouch with toothbrush, etc that will tide me over.

My leg from London to Doha was good – dazed in and out, and made a very nice third new friend on the way. My seatmate works for the London Business School but also has done work with Qatar Petroleum, and we had a nice chat about life over here, education, and travel. He does a lot of flying back and forth between London and Doha, so he gave me some good pointers on what to see and eat (a place called Mandarin was one he mentioned). He also offered to do dinner or lunch if it works out while I'm here...very thoughtful of him.

Tomorrow will be an Al-Jazeera visit early in the morning (8:30)…so I am off to sleep.