I'm Official - ish!

Though still only holding the lowly title of Graduate Assistant, it somehow feels grand:

TAMU-Q Liberal Arts Program

Sometime soon the page will also include my photo. But, for now, I think this one should do:

JZog in True Form

Mid-sentence or mid-laugh? Who knows?!? Doesn't everyone who knows me have a picture like this? I also realized that I am wearing the same thing in this photo as in my "About Me" image, even though this was taken in Corpus Christi and the other, in Aruba. I do love my beaches, and my beachwear, apparently . . . 

Also, with a visit to the US Embassy yesterday, I took one more step towards obtaining my residency permit, or, colloquially, my RP, which will give me (temporary) resident status in Qatar and allow me to travel in and out of the country freely. Way before I left the States, in May, in fact, I had to request an FBI clearance in order to enter Qatar. Upon arrival I made an appointment with the US Embassy to have this clearance notarized in order for the Qatari government to continue processing my RP. I would post a photo of the embassy, but one cannot take cell phones, cameras, usb drives, music players, or really anything beyond your paperwork and money, into the embassy. After parking, I first entered a trailer outside of the embassy compound, took a number from a broken ticket machine and then sat and waited for said number to appear on a screen at the end of the room. Once the correct number flashed, in my case after about twenty minutes, I then exited the trailer and approached the window as directed by a security guard. With confirmation of my appointment I entered a "cage" in which another security guard used a metal detecting wand to assure that I did not have any disallowed materials. She then pointed me towards another trailer - still outside the embassy itself, though inside the walls of the compound - where I surrendered my photo identification in exchange for a visitor's badge, passed through a metal detector and out the door where I walked about a quarter of a mile to the embassy. Songbirds, the first I have heard in Qatar, and some sort of saccharine-smelling blooms lined the pathway. Had the heat index dipped below 120 degrees that day, the scene would have perhaps proven appealing. At the entrance to the embassy I again surrendered my paltry belongings so that I could pass through yet another metal detector and into another waiting room where I secured another number that I waited to post on another screen so that I could tell the person at one window what service I needed (though I had noted that in my appointment registration), pay a different person at a different window, have my basic information filled out on paperwork at the first window and have my documents notarized at yet another, different window, with another, different person. This entire event took only a tad over an hour, but I felt exhausted following it, nonetheless.

This move has required much paperwork and many run-arounds such as this, though TAMU-Q has a system in place to help us navigate the bureaucracy much more smoothly than if we had to complete the process on our own. Only the medical exam and fingerprinting remain, and I should complete these two pieces within the next couple of weeks. Now, if only I could move so quickly through the bureaucracy of the Office of Graduate Studies . . . Ha! 

I have nothing new and exciting scheduled for my weekend. This past week I made significant progress on my next chapter, which I hope to have prepared to submit by the end of the next week. I think that means that tonight and tomorrow I have bought myself some time to relax, drink some tea, curl up on the couch and watch vapid movies while knitting. If only I had a puppy to lie on my feet . . .

Happy weekend, everyone!

XO,
JZog