Marjorie in Qatar

Meme from nicodemusrat:

If you like, post this meme and your current wallpaper.
Explain in no more than five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!

My wallpaper on my laptop is a photo of Himeji Castle, because, while I've loved all the countries I've been fortunate enough to visit, there aren't many that I actively pine for. I pine for Japan.




At work, I rotate among 22 photos from our travels, generally trying for one per country:

• India: Khajuraho at sunset
  
• Egypt: Ramses II, Abu Simbel
  
• Jordan: The Monastery, Petra
  
• Italy: Ponte Vecchio, Florence
  
• Qatar: a desert safari with friends
  
• France: me at the Chambord chateau
  
• England: daffodils at St. Mary's Abbey, York
  
• Gabon: Jeff's close-up of a crab
  
• Gabon: Gorillas at Langoue Bai
  
• Thailand: cute monkeys grooming
  
• Thailand: Marjorie kayaking
  
• Turkey: Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Mosque, Istanbul
  
• Turkey: view from the Lycian Way
  
• Czech Republic: Jewish cemetery in Mikulov
  
• Sri Lanka: me riding an elephant
  
• Sri Lanka: fields of tea
  
• Oman: the village of Balad Sayt
  
• Thailand: sunset in Ao Nang
  
• Japan: the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji, Nara
  
• Japan: a more zoomed-in version of this maple tree in Isui-En, a Meiji-era garden in Nara
  
• Japan: the gate to Honen-in Temple, Kyoto
  
• Spain: a beautiful ceiling in Gaudí's Casa Batlló, Barcelona

I'm back in Doha, just in time for sandstorm season. Woo.

Pictures of my trip to Spain with my friend Ryan are now posted. Someday Ryan will post his pictures there too, but it may be a while since he's in the midst of moving and starting a job right now.

Since not everyone may want to peruse all 260 photos, I've posted one highlight picture for each city below. ( Click here to see my top 7 pictures! )

Or, if you totally can't be bothered, here's the extremely redacted version:

Our friend David takes panorama pictures of the Doha Corniche every two years. Here's 2009, 2007 and 2005:



Even the dhows are getting bigger! :-D

Sri Lanka pictures are up here.



It was a very enjoyable trip. Sri Lanka is a beautiful country, with interesting history and architecture, and lots of friendly people.

Its tourism industry isn't doing very well, though. It's just been one thing after another, I guess: the tsunami, the worsening civil war, the global economic downturn. I saw no other Americans the entire week I was there, and only a handful of Europeans -- and this is supposed to be the beginning of a peak season!

At the recommendation of a Sri Lankan colleague, I arranged the trip through Pership, who were very helpful. I had a really awesome guide/driver for the week, who can also arrange things independently and more flexibly. I'm happy to give his contact info to anyone interested in traveling there.

Our pictures from the Czech Republic are up.



We're experimenting with using SmugMug, so at least for the next two weeks the pictures are here. Unless I hear complaints about the format, we'll get a permanent account and start transferring our other pictures there. [Update: they're now here.]

Notes on the format: if you don't like the thumbnails-and-highlighted-picture view, you can click other options at the top under "Style." Parental units: I know you like the "Slideshow" view; it doesn't work in Firefox. It should work in Safari or IE, though.

Edit: Some pictures were taken specifically for particular people -- Mum, Dad, Lorraine, Grandma Carlson, Andrew (1, 2), Mary, Doug, and Steve.

My nephew was born yesterday! I got to England at just the right time; they induced labor just before I got to the hospital.

Witnessing childbirth is a little unnerving but mostly just hugely fascinating. I still can't believe that I just saw a tiny little person entering the world for the very first time! Like whoa.

Real-life newborns don't look like newborns on TV. They're extremely purple, and their heads are way, way more conical than I ever imagined. Also, babies aren't like puppies or kittens; they can open their eyes right away! That was pretty cool.

Picture album here.


Aunt Marjorie, Cousin Dr. Evil Rayna, Grandma Kathleen and Mum Mary with Sproglet

Our pictures (and a couple videos) from our Eid trip to Thailand are now online here.

There are four folders for each of our four destinations: Phang Nga, Phuket, Chiang Mai, and Bangkok. It is also worth noting that graphic pictures of self-mutilation at the Vegetarian Festival in Phuket are in a separate folder within Phuket, so you don't have to look at those if you don't want to.

If you don't feel like looking at all the pictures, here are a dozen of my favorites: ( Cut for bandwidth )

I don't even celebrate Ramadan, but after next week I'm sure going to miss these iftars.

This week, we finished the move into the LAS building. Our tutoring space and computer cluster are far from finished, but my cubicle now exists!

Cubicle Sweet Cubicle.	Wall of Nostalgia, featuring some of my favorite peeps who've come and gone from Qatar.

There are more pictures of the new ARC (and for that matter the old ARC) here.

I like my new workspace, and I think the LAS building is prettier than Cornell's. So it's been a bit of surprise, and a testament to my own capacity for nostalgia, that I managed to feel a pang of sentimentality about leaving Cornell.

I had some really wonderful times in the Cornell building. Every time I walked down the hallways I was reminded of those happy memories, as I passed the couches where I argued religion with Leland, or the lockers where Jess first ran up to me and said "We should talk about process theology!", or the office where Doug helped me prove Pierce's Law, or the Student Affairs office where I hung out with Ryan and Caryl, or the TA cave where Paul used to greet me with a cheerful "Marjorie!", or even the stain on my office's rug where Andrew spilled his drink in a typically hilarious fashion. I am continually grateful for all of the friendships I've gained here in Qatar and all of the wonderful people I've had the good fortune to meet. Now I'm ready to people the halls of LAS with similarly warm memories!

We are home from Gabon!

I am semi-officially in love with Africa.

Pictures and videos will be forthcoming. For now, suffice it to say: GORILLAS! ELEPHANTS! HIPPOS! ZOMG!

You all have evidently been busy in my absence, since my Livejournal friends page has 220 new posts since July 2. Since friends pages only go back 220 posts, you'll have to tell me if you posted something super-exciting on July 1. :-)

Two pictures to whet your appetite:

The Ndogo Lagoon, taken from an airplane. Every little scrap of land is teeming with life. Qatar this is not!	GORILLAS ZOMG!