A fresh pair of eyes

How many times have you put off going to that cool museum, new restaurant, or new area in town until someone comes to visit you? If you've ever lived in a big city, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I tried really hard not to do that in Pittsburgh, and being in the 'burgh over the summer really helped that. My sister, Devin, and brother in law, Steve, do that every time the family visits Chicago. This past week was my first time to do that here in Doha.



For our spring break here in Doha, we are sending several groups of students away on trips, one of them going to the Pittsburgh campus. This has been a tradition since the school began. This year was only the second time the Pittsburgh campus has ever sent students over here to the Doha campus and last week I had the chance to play host to them for the entire week. Granted, I had to work ahead of time to put together their week long schedule, but the perk was getting to do everything with them! So of course I packed their schedule with meetings and workshops on campus as they asked me to as well as with all sorts of fun things around Qatar I hadn't yet had the chance to do myself: Sheikh Faisal Museum, FANAR (or the Islamic Cultural Center), a tour of Al Jazeera, desert safari/duning, dhow cruises, etc. I got to experience Doha as a tourist for the first time I'd come here.



Not only did I get a new perspective on fun stuff to do in Doha, but I was reminded of how I looked at certain cultural phenomena when I first arrived. The things I've now become accustomed to seeing and experiencing were once again made new in seeing others' reactions to them for the first time. I imagine I'll get to do this again next week when my family comes, but it's an interesting reminder of how we all adjust to our surroundings. Roundabouts are no longer scary... in fact I find them exhilarating. Goats or sheep in the back of a truck are a usual part of my morning commute. "Road works" signs are no longer indicate a road's functionality. But it's not important to exhault ourselves for having reached the point of cultural adjustment - in fact it's quite short-sighted and harmful. Nor is it compassionate to treat our counterparts who've never been here before as if it's silly for them to take the same perspective we had upon our own arrival. Instead, we need to remember our own process of cultural adjustment and then use that to help other people make their way through their own.