teaching, traveling, taking pictures
A log of the two weeks my boys spent with me in Doha, Qatar over the 2018-19 winter break. 25 December – Christmas Day 5 minutes into the start of Christmas Day, my sons were scheduled to arrive at Hamad International Airport in Qatar. About 30-40 minutes after their plane touched down, they both emerged… Continue reading My Days in Doha (with My Sons)
At the beginning of this week, I finally received the keys to my new apartment, so I spent most of my spare time moving the 10 feet from apartment #1906 to #1905. This had to have been the easiest move of my moving life. I was able to carry and drag all the worldly possession… Continue reading New Apartment Paradigm
This week's blog post was influenced by three things: me lying in bed musing about the different ways of pronouncing Qatar (see NPR newscast); me learning about the Nabati Poetry tradition and the subject matters for the form; and my love for Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Catara Before the start of class, a student tells me… Continue reading 8 Ways of Saying Qatar
“Sunday morning, rain is falling/ Steal some covers, share some skin/ Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable/ You twist to fit the mold that I am in” - -Maroon 5, “Sunday Morning” “You came in with the breeze/ On Sunday Morning/ You sure have changed since yesterday/ Without any warning” - -No Doubt,… Continue reading Sunday Morning, 11 November
And I miss you/ Like the deserts miss the rain Everything but the Girl “Missing” During my first year in Doha, it only rained one time. It was a cool spring night. I was at the Pearl siting outside smoking shisha. Then, suddenly, the rain started to come down. At first, I was… Continue reading Rainy Days in Doha
While living abroad for the past year, I have had the pleasure of exploring a multitude of new sensory experiences, and most of the time in my blog posts, I try to convey an approximation of what I have experienced through visual and auditory imagery: I want my blog reader to see what I have… Continue reading Building a Better Koshari
In the past several weeks, I have spent more than six hours in a hospital ER—not for my own medical treatment, mind you, but to help others with their unforeseen emergencies. So, after these curious curative experiences, I thought I would spend this week’s post detailing them and ruminating about the state of medicine in… Continue reading On Medical Matters
I. Setting: The scene takes place on the Doha Corniche. A MAN and a WOMAN are about to walk together. [MAN] Ready to do this? [WOMAN] Are YOU ready to do this, old man? [MAN] Show a little respect for your elders. My generation gave the world Nirvana, Friends, Jurassic… Continue reading The Corniche: A Short Screenplay
Younger me? No, you're the wack me, it's funny but so true/ I'd rather be 80-year-old me than 20-year-old you/ 'Til I'm hitting old age/ Still can fill a whole page with a 10-year-old's rage “Killshot” Eminem The other night I was invited to a birthday get-together for the new colleague that I have been… Continue reading Midlife Mullings While Sipping a Mezcal Mule
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