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
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