already Monday...

...sheesh.  The start of my last week here.  Time has flown by.  Yet here I am.

I had a great (but long) day of interviews, along with a focus group that made the day go quickly.  The students have been very willing to share their experiences, and my second school has come through as well for access which has made things much easier.  I'm hopeful that I can still get a few students from the second school yet, and have another bunch ready to go for tomorrow.

In a bit I'm going to head out to Souq Waqif to do some bargaining on gifts, and then will wind down for the evening.  Maybe I'll stop by the Italian restaurant my USD group liked so much the first time we were here...the food is excellent.  Care to join me?

time for a travel post

I'm way overdue for a travel-related post - hope you can forgive me while I've been conducting dissertation research in Qatar!

Thought this might be a fun time to do a quick update on my success so far in the last month - overall I've been pretty happy:

- Both of my CC bonuses from AA were posted exactly as they should have, and so I am now 100k miles bigger in my AA account for future travel (although in the last week their on-time average has been only 47% because of their pilots...hope that gets straightened out quickly or they might be more in trouble)
- Bonuses correctly posted for my BA account, and so my flexibility has also increased with an additional 50k miles
- I successfully used Hyatt award nights for my brother, and in so doing also managed to get some points re-credited as I save up for Maldives (and also happened to discover how to properly say it: mall`-deevs).  If you're wondering why the Maldives, these pictures should tell you:

- Helped out another friend with sign-up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card - the points are great and flexible for use across BA, Hyatt, United, and others
- My research trip this far tipped me into United Platinum status - happy for no fees to book award travel, no cancel fees, and more mileage accrual for every flight.
- There are fantastic cross-country fares right now on United and American (found as I was kayaking the river of fares) for the first two weekends in November - jump on these while they're hot!

Not sure when my next churn will be, but I'm feeling pretty good about where I'm at, even for domestic travel in the next three months.  Right now its looking like I will be on the move...

the last push

Tomorrow begins my last push for final data collection - its a bit surreal that the time has gone by as quickly as it has, but I've been so very grateful and thankful to be here and for Cyndy to host me.  I've got more interviews lined up along with class and a focus group - tomorrow will be a busy day. 

I've certainly spent more time than I realized on logistics related to setting things up, but that comes as part of the deal for being here and working within the culture.  Another way to look at it is that the connections I'm making will be helpful later on down the road when I'm writing and analyzing all of this data from what the students are saying.  So a silver lining.

My weekend so far has been good as well - was definitely lifted yesterday and was happy to have the time.  I also got to Landmark and did some walking and shopping...although I don't like to shop all the time, I was pretty successful in bargaining.  Seemed as though everyone wanted to make a deal.  :)

better day

My Thursday (re Friday) was so far the best day of the week I've had - I conducted several interviews, and all of my students showed up like they were supposed to.  It always helps when that happens.  :)

I have more scheduled for Sunday, and then the push will be on to make sure I've got enough by next Thursday - technically my last day.  Cyndy's class is on Sunday morning, so I will be able to get one of my focus groups done during that time as well. 

Now the weekend is here...time to relax a little - or at least try to.

Would Bach roll over?

This has been the trending talk of EC so far in the last 24-48 hours - I've heard (or overheard) the fact that there's a huge group of people going to go see this thing called "Red Bull Flying Bach" tonight down at Katara Village.

Now, I feel as though I keep pretty up to speed on things, but I have to admit that I wasn't really sure what the heck Red Bull and Bach had in common.

Apparently...its break-dancing.  Yeah.

I'll include a link below so you can see for yourself, but apparently this group (named Flying Steps, based out of Germany) breakdances to the Well-Tempered Clavier and/or variations on it, and everyone thinks its awesome.

(If I was to do a mini-rant, I might vent a little about how people tend to disregard the arts in general and don't want to fund things like orchestras and other fine arts activities, but then turn around and mix breakdancing with Bach and call it a mixture of 'high culture' and 'urban art'??? Maybe they're trying to bring more attention to Bach, but I doubt it...)