Yep. Here it is. The Blog. It's created.
This is a big step in making this experience real for me. It's 6:31 AM CDT, I'm on another of my all-nighters. I attempted to finally turn in about an hour ago and just, as often occurs, found my mind alight with wonder. Who am I? Why? Now that I am 18-years-old, can I really be free? What kind of world awaits me? I am eager to discover. So I applied to study abroad. I didn't just want to go to London. Anyone can go study abroad in London. They speak English there. I really liked those Lord of the Rings movies, I especially liked the scenery, so I wanted to go to New Zealand.
So I applied to go study in Istanbul. A funny thing happened on the way to Istanbul: I heard about a study abroad program in Doha, Qatar.
I've never heard of Doha, Qatar. It took a while before someone corrected my mispronunciation of the country ("Kwater").
Anyway, I'm an American with money, so naturally I was accepted into both study-abroad programs! What was I to do? How do I choose which to pursue? Well that would be a question for someone pondering study abroad programs occurring simultaneously. I am not of that stock. No, the Doha program is a 3-week Winter Break program. The Istanbul program is a 4-month Spring 2012 program, begins about 2 weeks after I'd be scheduled to return from Doha.
As of this writing my plan is to participate in both programs.
Oh, I should also mention that I am most definitely not 18. No. I am 30. That's the truth. I'll stop fucking with you, imagined reader. I appreciate, sincerely, your interest in me, and I want to honor that with honesty. While I have money, I am not an American "with money." I am not rolling in it. I also never pronounced Qatar "Kwater."
Yes. Whereas when one thinks of college student studying abroad one probably tends to imagine bright-eyed and bushy-tailed late-teens or very-early-20-somethings "off to see the world" a la Alvin and the Chipmunks in that epic 20th century travelogue, The Chipmunk Adventure.
No sir, I am a grizzled old man of thirty. That is part of the adventure. Amidst one of the great world economic downturns, I quit my job of well over 10 years and went back to school full-time. Tapping into my retirement savings to do so, and all while a "live-away" dad with rent, child-support, and bills to pay.
I am well aware of the common hardships of these times. Debt is a common onus among the hard-up. I will be assuming considerable debt to embark on this journey.
I am also likely to be apart from my beloved 10-year-old daughter for the whole time I am abroad. I hope she may be able to come visit me in Istanbul, but I am not optimistic that it will work out. I am sad at the prospect of this length of separation.
I will also be apart from a loving fiance, my partner of over three-and-a-half years now.
There you have your plot. In a lost world, a lost man embarks on personal journey for growth in the face of risks and deep uncertainty for himself and the world.
I'm going to have to learn ways of enduring. One simple tactic is to learn some basics of the Turkish language. To that end, I borrowed a CD with accompanying booklet from the library, teaching Turkish for travelers.
The CD includes the Turkish translation for the phrase "I've taken a beer from the minibar." I would offer you that translation right now, but I can't seem to find the accompanying booklet.
My friend Noah is living and working in Qatar now so I can connect you two while you are there and you can show you around and things insha'allah. The pronunciation of Qatar is like KUT-AR, all three consonants are basically unlike their English equivalents, the T is much harder and instead of the palate of the tougne going to the roof of the mouth the tip does. The "r" in Arabic is more like the Spanish "r" , the Q sound takes place all the way in the back of the throat. Anyone, English speaking people generally just pronounce it like the English letters so there is nothing wrong with you doing that also, but the first vowel sound is like the u in "cut". I can show you how it is said in Arabic on skype sometime.
ReplyDeleteYou know Qatar is where Al-Jazeera is stationed yes? People in Qatar are very wealthy because of the small population and large wealth, every Qatari citizen gets money from the government just for being Qatari and I have been told that ranges in $100,000-$200,000 but I don't have facts to back that up. I believe Qatar has the highes GDP per capita in the world, it is either them or Kuwait, I forge which. Qatar is a monarchy like all the Gulf States (essentially, the titles are different in Yemen) and for a long time it was under British control as part of their 19th-early 20th century efforts to have absolute control over trade coming from India. Qatar's independence was rather recent though the monarch has been around since the time of British control (I believe). Wikipedia can probably shed a lot of light on this also. Qatar is suppose to be rather expensive and pretty cosmopolitan and liberal compared to say Riyadh. I will talk to my friend Noah as soon as I can and ask them about life there and get back to you. Doha is also on the Arabian Gulf (or Persian Gulf depending who you ask, but on this side it is definitely the Arabian Gulf).
Don't worry about what Mom and Dad say, of course it is important that we always take them into consideration, but ultimately you are all grown up now and if you have your own reasons for doing something that are good enough for you then it has to be good enough for them to. You have proven that you know how to take your own responsibilities into proper consideration when making life decisions.
I meant to say "because of the small population and large OIL wealth" in the second paragraph. They do have the largest GDP per capita, I checked wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteDoha is also very expensive, that is the other thing I know about it. Istanbul would be completely sweet to go to, that is a place I really want to go, we could maybe visit you in March when I have nine days off (maybe, I am not sure I want to make that financial commitment because I planning on making some other ones when I get back home in the summer, though this has me thinking that I will go take a quick look at Saudi Airline prices for Istanbul).
ReplyDeleteAlso I doubt you will need to know any arabic to get by in Doha. English is suppose to be very common there and in Dubai and Abu Dabhi, like it is in Jeddah also.
ReplyDeletebtw, that was your bro posting all of that. i am sure you figured that out.
ReplyDeleteindeed i did, but thank you for clarifying just in case :-)
ReplyDeleteit did take me just a moment, so it was amusing that for about 4 or 5 seconds I supposed some random fella wanted to connect me with their friend Noah
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