 |
 |
 |
Diary Entries Trip to Qatar Apartment Work at CMU School Starts Mystery Soda |
| We
began our trip in Little Rock, Arkansas. When we arrived the
American Airline computers were experiencing technical
difficulties so we ended up waiting quite some time to check
in. After we finished checking in we had lunch with David's
family, said good bye and headed off to our gate. We were both
"randomly selected" for full searches when we went through
security. Do you think it had anything to do with our going to
the Middle East? We arrived at our gate in time to walk right
on the airplane.
We flew from Little Rock to Chicago where we met up with the rest of our group (pictured to right). We enjoyed several hours in the British Airways Club Executive Lounge.
The next leg of the trip took us from Chicago to London. We had access to breakfast pastries and beverages. We were here long enough to shower (the reason why I'm wearing two different shirts in these pictures...did you notice?). The trip was very nice! As you can see (pictured to right) we had our own space to spread out. The seats reclined as if you were on a bed and we had our own screen for viewing in-flight entertainment. Our trip from London to Doha was uneventful. We arrived in Doha to 3 of our 4 trunks. When we walked outside the airport we were greeted by CMU personnel, given cell phones and whisked away to our apartment. |
In the British Airways lounges we had access to snacks (chips,
cookies, crackers, cheese, fruit) and beverages (soda, juices,
coffee, tea) as well as a meal (picture to left) before we left
Chicago. We took FULL advantage of this benefit.
|
| Back to Top | |
|
|
|
| We love
where we are living. We are close to school and several
shopping centers. The Riviera Gardens Compound has an air
conditioned gym (even has a personal trainer one can hire), indoor
pool (used for water aerobics classes), outdoor pool (warm water),
wading/child's pool, tennis courts, basketball court, miniature
soccer field, beauty shop and soon to come: a small medical
clinic and store (we're assuming for groceries). To read more
about it go to...
We have 3 other young couples living in the same building with us so there is great potential for carpooling and we've already shared meals together. Click on each room in the above floor plan if you wish to see video of that room. |
|
| Back to Top | |
| Working at CMU | |
|
Well, I have found that being the receptionist is one very quick way to get to know everyone! I answer phones, greet visitors and troubleshoot the color printer that is behind me. Oh and I am getting several phone calls with only Arabic speakers...I'll quickly transfer to my friend Fatma!
|
Fawzi, one of our Admissions Counselors, is trying out the Segway. Seven or Eight Segways were purchased for the school to use for PR purposes and 2 Robotic Segways were purchased for David and Justin to use in their Robotics laboratory. Fawzi is wearing the Qatari traditional dress. His white robe is called a "Thobe", his red and white cloth headdress is called a "Gutra" and the black rope is called a "Agal". |
| School Starting | |
|
|
Chuck's Welcome to the students (Click Here). Today (8-25-04) was Convocation for the inaugural class at CMU-Q. The Class of 2008 was welcomed into the Carnegie Mellon Family. This week has been full of orientation events and next week classes start. Click the above to see a small video clip of Chuck's welcome speech. |
| Back to Top | |
| For those that live in Pittsburgh we apologize for using soda instead of pop ;-)...What do you think? Can you name that drink? On most of the products here they will have Arabic on one side and English on the other side. We thought you might enjoy seeing this. We'll send more products later! |
|
| Back to Top | |
