Education City: A Radical Experiment in Education

PBS recently did a program on Education City. There are clips of the campus on the show, as well as a bit about WCMC-Q.

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/420/video.html

Grand Theft Auto--Doha Version

It may sound strange to say that if one were to go on holiday, they'll come back to find that everything has changed. However, people who say things like this have never lived in Doha.

Last week or so I saw an advertisement in the newspaper for a major construction project that was going to take place in West Bay, which would require a significant change in traffic patterns. Now, before people think that this, too, is unusual news-- remember, this is Doha. *Not* seeing construction when going anywhere would be the unusual occurrence.

For weeks now, I had seen the people preparing diligently for the construction by building temporary roadways, gathering stylish orange and white barriers, moving the ever-present taxi queue off the street and into the City Centre underground, putting up huge No Parking signs, and so forth. However, I figured it would be at least a year before anything got done, and wasn't going to hold my breath in anticipation. Remember, this is Doha.

But then I got in my car Thursday morning, and encountered a completely new traffic scheme which had been constructed as I slept:


There is only one lane, and traffic that wants to go to City Centre has to use either this turnaround or the back road (which at least they opened back up, so there would be more than one way to the carpark). Obviously if a lot of cars go in through the front, it will mean that no one can pull onto the road from the slip road near my house. Fortunately, though, they have opened the "back road" going toward Rainbow Roundabout. It has been "open" for a bit, but driving the road required wrong-way-down-the-street navigation, twice, plus a slalom-like turn around the barriers blocking the road. Now, though, you can go down the street without the slalom-like navigation. Wrong-way driving is left to be determined.

On Thursday afternoon, thinking that the street seemed pretty empty, I looked out my window to discover that the roundabout has now been completely by-passed, so traffic cannot turn left to go toward Oryx Roundabout, nor can traffic turn right to go to City Centre:


We have been saying we should write a version of Grand Theft Auto specifically for Doha.

Beach Treasure!

Today on my usual trek to Old Club Reef I came across some fantastic beach treasure that had washed up with the tide this morning (presumably). I am now the proud owner of one of those dive knives that you strap to your leg-- a 150 riyal+ value!

On my way to the water on my first dive, I noticed that the knife was halfway buried in the sand, with only the straps showing. Thinking it maybe belonged to the group of divers next to me, I left it alone to be claimed. However, an hour and a half later, the knife hadn't moved. When I picked it up and had a look, the sand inside the carrier, plus the rust, told me it had been underwater for a while.

The sand washed off, and the rust was removed thanks to two tins of Pepsi I had in my fridge plus a couple hours of soaking. There are a couple small bits of rust left, but they don't really affect the knife's use.

I had been thinking about purchasing one for a while, as knives are important here. No, not to protect oneself from the yellow banded angelfish (which I've learned like to bite little white girl librarian fingers, even when I'm minding my own business), but to cut the miles and miles of fishing line one comes across in the water. I had been carrying an inexpensive 20 riyal pocket knife, but it's not the most effective thing to use.

Had I waited long enough, a couple of cylinders may have also washed up on the beach so I didn't have to buy any of those either.

Department Newsletter

I am pleased to report that our department newsletter has gone live this morning. Check out our home page for the latest edition with a new name, "Delib Bytes".

Yes, I am well aware of how this sounds. My excitement, then, is not over having my name published next to two articles in the newsletter, but in knowing our new newsletter name.

Head on over to http://www.qatar-med.cornell.edu/elibrary/index.html

Cornell Graduate

On Sunday I got a certificate in the mail from Cornell University.

Now, before you get really excited, thinking I've committed yet another brilliant feat, let me explain.

Cornell University offers CE (Continuing Education) courses via their online teaching platform, eCornell. As a Cornell employee (well, I'm really employed by the medical college), one of my benefits is tuition reimbursement. I get up to a substantial dollar amount reimbursed for tuition upon completion of job-related courses. As an aside, this is one reason I've tossed around the idea of going to business school to get an MBA-- if Cornell will pay for all, or at least most, of it, then why not? If not business school, then a second Master's in something.

Also, as a Cornell employee, the courses offered by eCornell carry a significant discount.

As a few of my co-workers are doing eCornell courses, I also decided to take some courses. As it turns out, I managed to take 11 of them, to get a certificate in Supervisory Studies. I took 2-week courses in things like interview procedure and selection, management issues, legal issues in the workplace, communication styles, and time management. I also got .6CE credits for each course I completed, so I have some CE credits for my CV.

But as many of my blog posts have to have some ironic twist of humor (whether it's actually funny or not is another topic for debate), here's today's:
1. It cost USD$25 to send my plaque here.
2. The plaque is valued at USD$10 on the customs declaration form.

Yet the plaque arrived within a month of its being sent, and the postmark *does* say 2008.

New Delib Website

I don't think I've ever posted that we finally launched our new website. Go to http://www.qatar-med.cornell.edu/elibrary to see our handiwork!

More updates later.