Orienteering Education City

Well, they didn't exactly drop me in the middle of Education City with a compass, start the clock and time how long it took me to find the Texas A&M building, but with all of the student/employee orientations I have had (and still have) I do feel pressure to figure my way around quickly. Some procedures remain the same as on main campus; others, of course, do not. Medical insurance, residency permits, IT, HR, library access, building access . . . the list goes on and on. At least everyone has office space in the same building, making locating people and completing tasks far easier than in College Station. On the other hand, once someone knows me, I have nowhere to hide!

I have chosen not to pursue a Qatari driver's license. Renting a car, though it would provide me greater autonomy, costs more than I would like to spend - around $600 per month. Some people decide not to drive here because of the reputation of Doha drivers as aggressive and perhaps a tad crazy; however, I have yet to see anything worse than I saw every day I made the transition from highway 59 to interstate 45 in Houston. Many of the intersections here have roundabouts instead of stoplights, which I think contributes to the messiness of the driving culture (though currently construction is underway to replace all the roundabouts with stoplights).  In any event, I will take a shuttle bus to Education City for the coming year.  One way, the trip takes between twenty and thirty minutes. Random point of interest: yesterday I was the only woman on the shuttle (and the only blonde as well). As this shuttle goes directly to the Texas A&M building, I believe this is a byproduct of the engineering focus of this campus; I have seen more women in Education City. Really I guess this differs very little from College Station, or at least it differs very little from the history department . . . Lesson of the day: know your driver, because the shuttle buses are not labeled! Luckily I knew someone taking the same shuttle, so I did not have to sleep in my new office.

I will share an open office space with two (possibly three) other Liberal Arts Graduate Assistants.  This is the building in which our office is located:

TAMU-Q Building

Someone I met from the English department yesterday mentioned that she thought our building looked like something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Now I cannot get that association out of my head. I haven't found the snake pit yet, nor have any boulders rolled down the hall, but I am going to find the trap door just in case.

Another view of the TAMU-Q Building

I have not explored much of the rest of Education City yet, but I did venture over to the Hamad bin Khalifa Student Center for lunch and looking around. I cannot wait until it cools off enough (ok, you can stop laughing now) so that I may hang out here:

Sculpture Garden @ the Student Center

More of the Sculpture Garden @ the Student Center

Hope everyone has a Happy Monday!

XO,

JZog