Doha skyline and the Museum of Islamic Art - designed by I.M. Pei (Other buildings created by Mr. Pei that have intersected with my life: HJM in Ithaca, National Gallery in DC, and, surprisingly enough, the NCAR building in Boulder). The photographs I took of the interior do not do it justice - here is a picture of us being awe-inspired upon first walking in (I am defogging my glasses, which is often necessary going in and out of air conditioning here) - photo credit Aleks my co-TA.
The walkway up to the museum.
We only visited 3 galleries the first visit, to make the museum last for the whole year: Introduction Gallery (astrolabe from first century A.D. was memorable), Calligraphy, and The Figure in Art - here is Tony and a falcon.
Ceiling of a part of Souq Waqif, the outdoorish market/restaurant area that is delightful in the evenings. The first time I walked through I half expected Abu and Aladdin to be running past me through the narrow alleys full of candy shops and spice stores.
Crescent moon outside Villagio Mall - right after the beginning of Ramadan.
My house. And the moon, I believe. I go swimming in the lovely outdoor pool between the towers. Oh! Also we recently figured out how to access the roof (go to the top floor and find the stairs) and Doha is spectacular at sunset and shortly thereafter.
Peter (the math & ethics TA) and I walked down to the Arabian Gulf to go wading after school one day. Came across a few Nepalese and Korean laborers clamming and talked with them a bit (all we learned really is that they are Nepalese and Korean and interested in clams). I snuck a photo of them, and procured many lovely seashells from the piles of sandy dust that look like they will become concrete soon.
This one's blurry, but maybe that conveys the hazy heat better. From the "beach" outside the apartment, which is apparently under construction to become a park.
The building being created next door to my apartment - I think this is the project that the clamming laborers were working on. One of the treadmills at the gym looks out on this project, and I realized on this walk that the workers can see into the building where all of us silly ex-pats run around on a machine while they spend 14 hours a day constructing a skyscraper. The noise of the construction is quite profound - something you miss when driving by in a car or observing from the gym.New camera is on its way to Doha!!!!!
