no rain on our parade

"It only rains maybe 4 days a year in Doha."

Yesterday was one of those days! It was the day of our walking tour, a very damp walking tour. We walked to the Souq Waqif and dodged some raindrops. The city is beautiful. We then sought cover at a local Moroccan restaurant called "Tajine," where we drank tea and ate Moroccan pastries. It was beautiful! And dry.

You've already seen Mrs. Vicki's dune bashing videos...It was one of the best experiences of my life. I would love to do it again.

Today was the first day of the conference and the first day we ventured into Education City. Several American universities have campuses there (Carnegie-Mellon, Cornell, Texas A&M, Georgetown, etc.), and Qatar Academy itself is probably about the size of Camilla. It's really fantastic and overwhelming. I literally could not fathom the immensity of it. Pools, gyms, a coffee shop, a post office, a bank, more gyms...all in a school. The architecture is so modern.

We also went to the Islamic Art Museum, which was a really interesting experience. The building is fantastic, certainly not something we see every day in Camilla!

(Sorry if I'm repeating anything Mrs. Vicki said!)

Everyone here is so friendly. I think one of my favorite parts of the whole trip is meeting people from all over the world. Oman, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Texas, Qatar...It's mind-blowing, really. My team consists of a girl from Pakistan, another from Ethiopia, and a boy named Muhammad from Doha who can't speak one word of English beyond "no english." (We're still trying to figure out how we're going to work through that one!) They are very intelligent and interesting to talk to. We are having a great time.