Hi blog followers! Can't thank y'all enough for reading and checking out the site. I just checked the views and in total I've gotten ~100 views in the past week...now I know this blog wasn't all for nothing! This past week actually went by ridiculously fast and luckily I've settled in extremely well. I've been getting all sorts of new habits like cooking almost every day, going to the gym regularly, and being way more time manageable. The first few days of my classes seemed easy going. I am taking a studio class, a class called Light & Color, a graphics class, and an art history class. Studio consists of large-scale projects that will focus on retail and design branding, while Light & Color focuses more on the design concepts [of light/color]. In graphics we are learning Revit and Rhino software, and in art history I am learning about Roman art/architecture. BUT if we're being honest I might switch out of the roman art class because there's an Islamic art history class that I could join. Fingers crossed! One huge adjustment is the way the curriculum lays out in the interior design department. To best describe it, the department in Richmond focuses more on being creative and hands-on while here they are teaching you design in a more structured way. I was surprised that in each class we had some small casual discussion. Basically a time where we debrief and talk about the upcoming project and start working. Instead a majority of class time became more lecture-based than hands-on. Drafted drawings aren't really a thing since we have so much software but I'm a bit sad about that. Personally, I am able to see my ideas and choices clearer on a drawn out plan rather than on a screen. You have more flexibility and opportunity in your designs as well. So...what I'm going to do is channel my inner carpenter and custom build my own drafting board with the wood shop staff here. They showed me all the materials they have and what they CAN give me so I knew I had to jump on the opportunity while I could. I...am SO excited! How will I ship it back home? I'll save that issue for December. On a different note there was a trip yesterday to Msheireb (still can't figure out how to pronounce it) for the new students. It's basically a square with 3 different museums and it was incredibly eye-opening. Each museum is a "house" and each one has something to do with the culture or people of Qatar. I will insert the link to the properties. There was a house that talked about the early oil industry, the labor culture, one about the sustainability and design in Doha, as well as a house about slavery and Qatar's fight against human trafficking. The last one was the most intense and emotional. Most people don't realize just how much profit the industry still gains today (BILLIONS of dollars. A higher profit than Google and other huge companies). Other than that it was a fun trip. Lots of amazing architecture/design in Msheireb as well as some small building models/3D print models that I LOVED. Also, the highlight of the day was my friend Amna running into a glass wall. Pretty much everyone saw it since she was in front of all of us. Shoutout to the designer for that amazing slim-fit curtain wall. I will post more pictures...eventually. Questions? Ask in the ABOUT section of this website. Salam! Peace! ~Margarita - - The link to the Msheireb Properties: https://www.msheireb.com/msheireb-downtown-doha/msheireb-museums/about-msheireb-museums/mohammed-bin-jassim-house/
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Hi everyone! It's blog #2 and I may or may not have finished blog #1 a couple minutes ago (don't @ me!).
Blog posts will probably happen once or twice a week, that way it will be easier to sum up 3-4 days instead of each day. If you want me to post more often I can just let me know. Each day has so many new things happening! Classes start TOMORROW and turns out they use a software I haven't ventured through yet. RHINO! It's a lot like AutoCAD so it shouldn't be too hard to learn. Yesterday was the first day I wasn't stuck at VCUQ for orientation because I went to an exchange student orientation instead. Where I and other exchange students from different colleges went around Doha! From Katara to the Souq Waqif we took a quick tour just to see what's around. First we went to Katara which holds one of the biggest multicultural festivals in the world! There also sat a blue mosque with gorgeous tile. To say the least I also geeked out there. The other exchange students weren't art students so I was the only crazy one looking intently at a lot of walls. Our guide, Colby, told us a lot about the designs and materials. It was cool to hear where some materials were imported from. An artificial hill lied there and the grass was imported from the U.S. The trees and plants at the top were from East Asia. This country really screams multiculturalism in interesting ways. As we drove to The Pearl, a swanky (and not affordable) part of Doha, we felt like ants under the gigantic skyscrapers. Some are very funky in stature, some with amazing geometric patterns, and some with giant banners of the Emir (the King of Doha). Which I will talk about later in the post. The Pearl basically had a lot of apartments, a lot of expensive stores, and a lot of yachts. It had a very "Florida resort" type aesthetic, with buildings that shined a red granite-like color. I saw a Portuguese flag waving in front of an apartment, turns out the Ambassador of Portugal has a place there! After the Pearl, we visited the Museum of Islamic Art, or, the "veiled woman". At the top of the white island lie two windows that look like eyes. The building as a whole looks like blocks stacked in a pyramid but using your imagination you see the woman and her veil. The museum was built by architect I.M. Pei (rest in peace) so that may give you an idea on the inconspicuous design. By the end of the day we went to Souq Waqif, probably my favorite stop. Away from the rich-ey richness of Doha, Souq Waqif is known for it's market stores that contain everything. Rugs, lamps, spices, falcons (the animal), and a diverse selection of restaurants/cafes. Next time I go I'm getting a rug! We went to Tajeen, a Moroccan restaurant and it was great. We split platters of chicken dishes and lamb dishes. We also tried camel (sorry non-meat eaters) and it was SO good. The best way to describe the taste? Think of how rich duck tastes compared to chicken, it's like that compared to beef...A richer beef! My favorite thing of the night was trying kanafeh. It is this amazing dessert made with filo dough, mozzarella cheese, and pistachios. To say the least, you shouldn't knock it until you try it. I thought I wouldn't like it but I ended up loving it so that's my story of how I figured out my 2nd favorite dessert. It sounds gross to you now but try it...you'll see. Other than the sights and the food it was cool to hear why other people were in Qatar and they were all there for many different reasons. It is easily a hub for many opportunities. That distinction shows in the EC as well. There are so many different schools offering different majors and that's the joy of investing education in the EC. One cool thing about Qatar is the unification it is currently experiencing. Since the embargo that some GCC nations (and Egypt) put against Qatar it's actually helped the country a lot. For those nations it was a way to put an oil-rich competitor at a lower tier so its economy suffered at first. Now it is booming thanks to the Emir who saw this as an opportunity to expand trade to different countries but more importantly, focus on production independently. LaKisha has been here before the embargo and said that its unified the people of Qatar than ever before...as diverse as the population is. That's something real special. NOTE: they are one of the most environmentally friendly countries so that probably attracts other nations wanting a surplus of more ecofriendly imports. Yay Qatar!! Sorry to get all political for a second but shoutout to the Emir, we love an independent and unifying community. Tomorrow is school day so before then I will try to post more photos of the Doha trip. Thanks for reading and don't forget: Ask ANY and ALL questions in the About page!! Feel free to do it anonymously as well if you don't wish to put your name. Salam! Peace! ~Margarita Hi everyone and welcome to the blog! I am SO late considering its been over a week since I landed in Qatar. Sorry to those that have been waiting for even a sentence on here. I've settled well and had the best 7 days in Doha. No bad days! I'll try to sum up the days so this isn't a long post.
The first few days consisted of learning a lot about the city at once. BIG shoutout to the VCU student liaison, LaKisha, who's been the biggest help since she picked me up from the airport. She showed me around Doha, the Education City, and told me how they do things around here. At this point I felt a lot cozier since I really didn't know much at first except the legal stuff. The second day I met my resident assistant, Salma. She's the sweetest and offered to make dinner the night we met. We had only the finest...cornflakes, a cucumber-tomato salad, and lintel soup (shelf-life is half as long since barely anything has preservatives). I'm now happily addicted to lintel soup. Thanks Salma. The next few days I was pretty much left to explore on my own. That's when I got to see a few buildings in Education City. In simple terms EC is a lot like a utopia. Visiting the Qatar National Library (QNL) and Student Center were amazing. I pretty much geeked out because there are things I have not seen before like design concepts or what they were made out of. The next 3 days were definitely the highlight of the week. I went to the freshman orientation for VCUarts and met nearly half of VCUQ. In a way it was actually nice to meet freshman as well, we were all new to this process and VCUQ. The craziest thing? I met another Margarita who works at VCUQ and she is from Mexico. The EC has students and staff from all over the world so I think that's been the coolest thing so far. Hearing so many different stories. - - Classes start soon so I am super excited for that. I heard we'll be doing more digital work than drawing so I am curious to see what our projects are like. For now, I am working on making more friends...especially ones with cars. LaKisha said its easier to be friends with people who have cars to see more things. Totally get that, there's not a lot of public transit and things are far away from each other here. It's not like Richmond where a Starbucks is a minute walk. And the weather? To best describe it it's like a slap in the face every time you walk outside. You only go outside to walk from building to building. As I start this blog feel free to look at the About page and give me feedback! OR questions!! I thought it would be cool to answer some people's questions on the blog that could be interior design, VCUQ, Qatar related, or really anything. Thanks for reading the FIRST blog post! ~Margarita |
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