Stoopid Blogging

I don't know what to write. I finally have a chance to write after well over a week of working too much for thoughts of anything else, and I can't think of anything to write about. Or at least anything that sounds worthwhile to me. I wrote a post about my girlfriend, and deleted it for being way too sappy. I wrote a post about squash and the exercise I've been doing, but it was way too boring, so away it went as well. I wrote a post about orientation, posted it, reread it, and now would like to apologize to those of you who bothered to read it. It's pointless.

But, I'm beginning to think that the whole blogging process is pointless too. I sincerely doubt that what I have to say is interesting to anyone else. And there's no point in blogging for myself, that's called thinking.

So, I think I might just delete this blog and forget about it.

Orientation

This past week was orientation week in Education City. At Carnegie Mellon, the entire orientation was planned, scheduled, coordinated, and led by the upperclass students. Now in many schools, this would have been a recipe for disaster and a weak start for the incoming class. Not so with these students.

In fact, the students did a fantastic job and the result was not only professional, but highly motivating to both the freshmen and the Student Affairs staff. Personally, the entire process thrilled me. My job simply advising and observing the progress was quite satisfying. I'm not sure how to describe the pleasure of watching a student learn and grow, and this week was filled with such events.

I certainly hope that other schools can learn to stand back and allow student leadership, and I know that I look forward to a successful year with all of the organizations that I will be advising.

Creativity

In my humble opinion, there is nothing better in the kitchen than a healthy dose of creativity. It bothers me how many people are literally scared to enter the kitchen without a safe, step-by-step recipe in hand. So, I am saying loud and proud, make something up.

Every dish that I have made from a recipe was alright. Each dish received good reviews and failed with about the same regularity as when I simply began cooking with a group of ingredients and a mind to have fun. I've included in this post a number of pictures of dishes that I have prepared completely from scratch, with absolutely no recipes. If you would like any of the recipes now, please let me know, I'd be glad to try to remember what I put in each. However, the point I'm trying to make with the pictures is that delicious, attractive food can be made without ever taking a cooking class or following the letter of a recipe.

Now, don't get me wrong, recipes and classes have their uses. Those of you who know me well know that I read cookbooks for leisure and watch the Food Network religiously. But creativity is the ingredient that makes a dish personal. It can be using a recipe as a base and changing the final touch to your own liking, or completely inventing a new dish. Take this simple example: my friend gave me a recipe she had found for moist bran-muffins with a cream-cheese frosting. I tried the recipe and thought that it would be a great breakfast recipe, switched around a bit. So I simply added a bit of orange juice to the muffins and mixed the frosting with orange marmalade. The result was a new muffin and my own tastes satisfied.

But to go even further, I have found very little as satisfying as creating a new recipe completely from scratch and watching friends and loved ones enjoy it. Enjoying my own food is one thing, but pleasing those that I care about with it is on another level entirely. So, I encourage everyone reading this to go out there to your kitchens and make something up. If omelettes with peanut butter, mushrooms, and cheddar can be delicious, so can what you invent!

On a final note, I'd like to thank my wonderful girlfriend, Sophie, for patiently tasting my many, many culinary creations, good and bad. I love you darling.

Oh yeah, and if Eric Gagne blows one more damned game for the Red Sox I'm going to blow a gasket. I never liked that guy, and now that his ERA with the Sox is approaching 20, I'm ready to explode. For christ's sake, Tavarez was better than this jackass. Stop putting him in when the score is close!

Potluck People

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came to the potluck tonight. It was really a blast and great to get to know all of you a bit better. I'm definitely looking forward to more!

TGI...T?

OK, two quick things before I talk about what I opened this post for:

1) Frosted Mini Wheats Cinnamon Streusel sounds delicious, and I think that that is more than just the fact that I haven't eaten today and its almost 3 pm. (I just saw a commercial for it, yum)

2) Walking up the stairs to my apartment after biking for half an hour and then lifting weights SUCKS.

Anyways, it's my first true weekend in Doha, and I honestly wasn't looking forward to it. I had gotten used to heading to work and feeling like I was accomplishing something. But, instead, I have avoided the bane of senior year and have pushed myself to check things off my list on the weekend too. Yay for me. So far I have gotten a bit of extra sleep, probably well-deserved. I also cleaned my apartment and used my dishwasher for the first time.

On another sidebar, it is incredible how long it takes to fill a dishwasher when you live alone.

I have also worked out and am about to begin cooking for the potluck party tonight that my coworker and I arranged. That should be a lot of fun and good eats. So, all in all, it turns out that if I just refuse to be excessively lazy, even I can get stuff done on my time off and not feel so wimpy.

Exercise!!!!

So after 4 years of a slowly degrading body, I am FINALLY beginning to work out. I have to thank Darbi for helping me begin. However, I think that what is really helping is a combination of time, proximity to equipment, and the fact that the workout room is fairly empty. I hate working out with people watching me.

Why? Because I am incredibly out of shape and embarassed/disgusted by my body. Four years ago, I weighed 160 pounds and was able to do anything physical that I wanted. Now, I weigh 220 pounds and get a bit winded after jogging a quarter mile. It's pitiful.

But, now I have set my mind to doing something about it. I want to drop to 185 pounds eventually. More importantly, I want to improve my cardiovascular health to the point where I can be active and not feel like I'm dying. Of course the most important goal is not to have a heart attack.

So, that's my plan. Kick my ass if I don't keep it up.

Compromising My Values?

So I broke down today and did something that I never thought that I would do, bought an SUV. OK, technically I am renting it, but I am still paying to drive it for an extended period of time. For those of you that know me, I don't think that it is completely compromising my values. For those that don't, I hate SUV's. I think that they are the most useless piece of trash ever devised. As far as I'm concerned, they don't handle families as well as minivans or station wagons, they don't handle icy or slippery roads as well as a car, they burn gas like its nothing, and they empower drivers into thinking they are invulnerable. So why, then, did I decide to pool resources with my coworker and get one?

Well, for one thing I don't need to worry about icy or slippery roads here, but I may need to worry about having a 4-WD to navigate less well paved areas. Second, and most embarassingly, the price of gas is not really an object here (sorry environment!). But most importantly, the empowering drivers bit is still true. Not that I need to be empowered, but Arab drivers are in general maniacs. Additionally, many of those maniacs do it in giant SUV's. This means that when they crash (and its definitely when, not if) they do a LOT of damage. In this case, I want as much protection as I can possibly get, and sadly, that is in another SUV. I figure that as long as I'm safe with my own driving, I can lower the risk of an accident. But the risk of someone else hitting me is so high, that safety precedes all environmental or financial concerns.

And that's why I got an SUV. But I swear to you all now, when I get back to the states, I'm happily returning to my hybrid.

Nerdfighters

So, for those of you who haven't had the chance to enjoy it yet, and have some time on your hands, I strongly suggest checking out John and Hank Green on their vlog "Brotherhood 2.0." It's a good time, always good for a chuckle, and sometimes even thought-provoking. Check it out at:

www.brotherhood2.com

Besides, things are more jokes in my pants.

P.S. - Start from the beginning, it's more fun that way.

It's an Expat Life?

So, I've been living as an expat for 2 1/2 days now and already I'm a bit irked by bits of it. Yesterday, I went to an American style diner with my wonderful coworkers. Then, a couple of us from Al Samrya Compound decided to hang out at the pool for the afternoon. After that I went home, made dinner, and then met back up with everyone to see the Bourne Ultimatum. Now, I'm sure you're asking yourself, what in God's name could be wrong with a day like that?

The answer actually is nothing. But that's the problem. Confused yet?

Ever since stepping onto the plane in D.C., I have been treated with nothing but respect and honor. I have been lavished with gifts (beginning with the iPod that the airline gave me as a thank you for traveling with them) and kindness. Now, I will stop for a quick second and say that the kindness is more than welcome. I absolutely love my new coworkers and am excited to admit that many of them I already consider friends. No, I am bothered by the sheer scale of the grandeur in which I am living.

The apartment I have been furnished with is larger than I will be able to afford in the States for at least a decade. Down the street is a beautiful pool, workout room, billiards hall, and restaurant, all exclusively for the residents of my compound. I am getting paid well, I won't get into specifics, but suffice to say it is much more than I was being offered in the States. I am getting compensated for the vast majority of my expenses, and all the while am living where I have wanted to for quite a while.

I guess the problem I'm having is that I don't feel like I deserve all of this. I am just a recent college graduate who is exploring the professional world. I would be comfortable working out of a small closet, let alone this palace. It just seems like the expenses being lavished upon me could be better served redistributed to those who are working harder. Now, it is important to note that I have yet to actually start my job and so part of this is certainly me feeling guilty for being so inactive. I am sure that I will appreciate this marvelous place to unwind after a hard day's work. But, to be totally honest, I'm going to have to put in an incredible amount of work each day to begin to feel like I'm doing enough to deserve all of this luxury.

When I ask why American expats are so pampered, the response I usually get is that we are the few who are willing to leave our homes, and in my case family and loved ones, to do the job. In that light, I do understand. But I can't stop the guilty nagging that reminds me that I do not personally need the luxury as motivation to do what I believe is the right thing to do.

I came to Doha to learn. But I also came to Doha to teach. It was my hope that by coming here, I could improve the understanding of a few Arabs and a few Americans on what can bring our two cultures closer together. Should I accomplish this goal, the best reward will be peace, not a pool. Yet, in the end, there is nothing truly wrong with being taken care of. Will I do what I can to see money distributed to those more in need? Yes. But it is counterproductive to simply sit here and whine about it.

Maybe this is my culture shock. I am accustomed to the Arabs, I am accustomed to Americans, but this is my first plunge into the unique world of the expatriate. It is a world of hard work, great rewards, and a shared feeling of longing for home. I am certainly not adjusted yet, but, God willing, I will find my path through before this year is out.

For a tour of my fabulous apartment, check out this silly video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAEJCyR8Btw

Trying Again

Haha, ok, so here we go again. My name's Greg and I enjoy being a walking contradiction. What do I mean by that?

I am a certifiable pacifist that is well-trained on various forms of military weaponry.

I absolutely love to be active and play sports, but have a damn hard time getting my ass off the couch.

I am extraordinarily uncomfortable when I don't have work to do, but when I am working, I look forward to being able to rest.

I am a homebody (astrologically a Cancer, if that's your bag), but I constantly force myself into foreign situations.

I am a die-hard social liberal, and a hard-nosed economic conservative.

I absolutely love fine wine, food, and beer, but am uncomfortable around other forms of luxury.

I will find a menu item that I absolutely love, and then order something different each time I return.

I love my family and my beautiful girlfriend, but I jumped at the opportunity to move to the other side of the world from them.

So where does all of this leave me? I guess when you boil it down, I'm a 23 year old guy who loves nothing more than learning, teaching, exploring, guiding, and attempting to influence the world around me.

Yes, I have delusions of grandeur. I have that incorrigible notion that I have something to offer to the world, if I can just figure out what it is. I am driven by motivations that seem conflictingly selfish and magnanimous.

But, in the end, I'm just a silly guy who enjoys the sensual lingering of a nice glass of red wine, the slap of a baseball against the leather of the glove, the cool shadow felt when you hold your hand in front of your face after watching a campfire for hours, and the thrill of watching someone you taught succeed.

And So It Begins...

Well, I guess this is where I start my own adventure in blogging. I never really seriously considered a blog before, but with the encouragement of a number of my friends, I decided to give it a shot. I find it somewhat of a ludicrous concept that people will bother reading this, but obviously someone is if you can see it now. So I guess I'll have to get over my cynicism and just write for the pure sake of writing.

It seems necessary at this point to give a brief introduction of myself. My name is Greg and I am about to begin work with Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. I have been hired as a Student Development Coordinator and have been told that that means I advise and assist student organizations. A few months ago, I graduated from Miami University in Ohio where I studied Diplomacy and Middle Eastern/Islamic Studies. So I guess that based on my studies, the moving to the Middle East part makes sense. The Student Affairs part, though, is just as out of the blue for me as it may be for you.

The explanation for my current endeavor into the world of academic staff is a mix of several elements of personal opinion and sheer dumb luck. Basically, I have a mental block about working for profit, so potential jobs in the business world never caught my interest. As for charities, NGO's, and the government, it would seem that at this point they weren't ready to snatch me up. So, when CMU called and offered me the job in Qatar, I leapt at the opportunity.

I am honestly really bored with what I have written so far. If you have managed to read this far, congratulations. You've probably noticed that I'm far more accustomed to writing academic papers and the like, than I am at just writing for the pleasure of it. Not that I don't enjoy writing, I just get too caught up in my training. Maybe that will be the good of this blog, maybe I will learn to relax, just a bit.

I'm going to cut this post off and try again.