13-May-2013 Our First Qatar Graduation

Last Thursday, we had the privilege of attending our first TAMUQ Graduation ceremony.  Being faculty, we were able to dress in full regalia and sit on the stage throughout the ceremony.

 It was quite the event with over 100 students graduating which is the highest number of graduates for TAMUQ thus far. The guest speaker was the current President and CEO of Saudi Aramco and a graduate of TAMU, class of 1982. He was a wonderful speaker and strong promoter of TAMU core values and beliefs. After he spoke, each student walked across the stage to receive their diploma and then a student concluded the ceremony with final remarks. He was quite entertaining and it was obvious the students really enjoyed his closing speech. After the ceremony, there was a reception in the lobby where we were able to enjoy the ritual sword dancing along with socializing with the graduates and their families. Unfortunately, I did not have my good camera so the quality of the pictures is not very good.  

  John had over 18 students from his first semester graduate.  I had only 2.  For many of our students, it was the biggest smile we had seen all semester! 

Congratulations to all our students and we wish them much success in the future!
 In other news... 



John went back to the shooting range and was able to shoot skeet with the guys.  I was told that he did very well on his first round and hit something like 19 out of 25 clay pigeons.  I have a feeling this will be a regularly scheduled event for the guys!




I also participated in a local tennis tournament.  While I did not do as well as I wanted in singles, my partner and I won second in doubles.  We had a really fun time and the awards ceremony is going to be tonight.  The ironic thing is that one of the days we were supposed to play, all the matches got rained out.  We were told this very seldom happens.  They tried to dry the courts but the rain just kept coming so eventually they had to call the matches and resume play the following day. This is their version of "squeegeying" the courts.

Finally, we enjoyed bowling with the Barkers at the Qatar Bowling Center.  The center was created for the Asian games and is the primary location for any professional bowling events in Qatar.  It was really nice and surprisingly very affordable!  John did much better than I did and is ready to teach bowling for the first summer semester! 


That's really all to report at this time!  Stay tuned for next week's post as we have a big adventure coming!  Also, please continue to keep Harley Beth in your prayers!