L'Auberge Arabique

[qatarperegrine]

I was just commenting to my parents how much my work-life balance has changed in the last few years. For my first few years in Qatar, my job was boring and undemanding, and my life revolved around my friends; for a long stretch of time, in fact, the only reason I didn't quit my job was that it would mean seeing less of my friends.

Now all those friends have left. I miss them, and haven't really replaced them adequately. However, now that my job is interesting and stimulating, it's fine that I no longer have a tight-knit circle of friends for my life to revolve around. (The downside: my new workaholic life does not lead to interesting blog entries.)

I did have a fun social occasion last night: a group of TAs, young professors and staff went out for iftar (the fast-breaking meal at sundown during Ramdan) at a Lebanese restaurant. I had a blast. Even if I don't get as much social time as I'd like, I love that working here gives me the opportunity to interact with such a fun, smart, diverse crowd of people. (IIRC the 14 of us represented 9 nationalities.)

I think this is one of the interesting realities of living overseas. I imagined that moving to Qatar would mean meeting lots of Qataris and learning about their culture. That turns out not to be very easy: Qataris already have their own social networks and life routines that don't include me. This may be partially because Qatari society is rather insular, but I think that people living abroad in other countries often find the same thing. On the other hand, if you're lucky, you end up meeting lots of other expats in the same situation as you and learning about their cultures instead, so it all works out in the end.

Comments

Re: 3rd Culture

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Is this "Third Culture" like that "Third Culture Kids" book I've heard your mother talk about? (Ran into her in a bookstore today, btw.) I've heard the phrase but not known what it means.

When I was at uni my college (of international studies) explicitly recruited TCKs, which they called "Global Nomads." I like the sound of that better. (In fact, it looks like (a) they still do and (b) this page hasn't been updated in 10 years -- the "Josh" they mention was in my class.)

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I met most Germans I know when I loved in Holland. When I lived in Germany, the largest group of people that I made friends with were the Eastern Europeans.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I should add that Eastern Europeans and I have mutual liking, so this is not accidental.

I've met tons of global nomads (being one myself), and I dislike most of them (I often find them to be ritzy and pseudo-intellectual). I'd trade them for an insular science nerd any day.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, 'cause science nerds are never pretentious and arrogant. :-D

See

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

Here it works very much the other way around. I hardly think that Israeli culture is very insular, if at all (to the extent that we have yet for actually amalgamate a definite culture out of our melting-pot mix). BUT, it IS rather different than that which most European and American immigrants are used to. So crossing that cultural "barrier" can be pretty daunting, and requires a LOT of personal effort, far beyond "merely" learning the radically different language. This despite, most of these immigrants having various large degrees of a shared common "Jewish culture". The end-result of this, is that many people take the easy way out, and stick with what they're comfortable with - their "home" culture. So we have groups of Russian, French and English speaking folks, who are themselves insular, to varying degrees.

I find it sad that people can make the large effort to move half way around the world, and then largely fail to become part of the society they moved into.

Sometimes I wish I had more personal exposure to other cultures, but I'm very much a home-body. So I guess LJ is my rather poor substitute.

Re: See

[qatar.livejournal.com]

I think the US is similar, really -- there are pockets of immigrant groups that assimilate to different degrees.

I see the Doha experience as different because almost nobody relocates to Qatar permanently -- indeed, nobody can, unless they marry a Qatari. So this isn't like aliyah or like emigrating to the States. We're all here temporarily, and we are neither expected nor even particularly invited to become part of Qatari society.