Being Vested and Qatarded

There are 2 things that I would like to share with you all. The first thing is that I had some good news about my retirement plan for A&M. After 5 years in the system you are considered vested which means that if you choose to remove the money that you have put into retirement you get to keep the matching funds. If you leave before hand you lose all matching funds. This can be a large amount of money lost especially if you only plan on staying 3 years like I do. Then I found out this key piece of information, my time in Texas working as a graduate student counts toward my 5 years. I’m not going to lose the money! This will be about $7,000 in matching funds that will go toward my retirement. How cool is that!

The other thing I wanted to share with all of you a new term. It is Qatarded. Pronounced cu-tard-ed is usually used to describe something in Qatar that is done is a stupid or backward manner. For example, “the road construction here is Qatarded.” It can also be used in a question, for example, “is the process to buy a car here Qatarded?” (The answer is yes to that question.)

Other fun news is that in 10 days I will be in the Frankfurt Airport waiting for Mom and Vickie to magically appear from their loooooong flight. I will be bored to tears after spending 3.5 hours sitting in the airport not being able to read German. I really should pick up some German. I did learn in July that you can go a long ways in Germany with the following 3 words: bitte (please), danke (thanks), and Visa (Hand over your credit card so I can charge a lot in euros). It is amazing that with just those 3 words you can go all over Germany.
Ramadan is over half finished now. It is an adjustment but things aren’t as bad as people say they were going to be. I would like to have water at my desk though.

Hope all is well with you.

Contract

Well, today I signed my new contract today. This means that I am employed through June of 2010. My new contract goes into effect December 1 and will last through June 30, 2008. If you listen really carefully right now you can hear my parents celebrating and singing "Yes! She's employed!"

Actually, what it really means is that I now have the money, or will soon, to pay for the plane tickets and hotel reservations that I've already booked. Just in case you are wondering I leave Doha for Berlin on December 5, to Alaska on December 14, 2008, and then I return to Doha from the 1-3 of January. On the way back I overnight in Frankfurt so I get to break-up the 4000 hours of flying, coach. I know the amount of sympathy I will get from this statement is, well, nothing, but I have crossed the Atlantic Ocean 3 times but never in coach. I've always had business class. If only there was a conference in Anchorage that would be worth my boss sending me there.

Hope all is well with you.

Ramadan

Welcome to the world of Ramadan! The month of Ramadan started last night at sundown and will continue until the next new moon. All Muslims are fasting during daylight hours, which means from about 4am to 6 pm. What does this mean for me? Well let me tell you.

No restaurants are open during the day for the month, not bad except that means you have to bring lunch or eat at the cafeteria, I don't mind it so much though. I heard that grocery stores aren't open until sun down too, but I have not confirmed that. The other things are not being able to eat or drink in the car, in my office (I have windows), and having students that are especially whiny. One thing that many people have told us is that we should drive in the last hour of daylight. That is when people are rushing to other people's homes to be able to break the fast so the driving is awful. There are more accidents during Ramadan than any other month. So, I am currently sitting at work, waiting for the sun to set so I can go to the knitting group.

I am hungry too. I've been fasting since lunch.