First day back in Pittsburgh after Doha. This is also my first time posting here on Qatarburgh. I did keep a journal of what happened each day at Doha. After being away from CMUQ, I realize how much of a community their campus is compared to ours. I would have to say that the sense of camaraderie is what I miss the most, as well as the food. It’s been tough getting back into the swing of things, but I know that my time in Qatar provided me with an experience I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

Last few hours in Doha (2am): we just got back from the souq a little while ago and it feels surreal that we will be leaving in about 3 hours, to return back to our normal schedule and our normal lives. I think it really hit everyone today that we will always be connected across countries by or experiences here and the student connections that we have made will never be forgotten. It feels strange that so much can be achieved in a week but I think we can all say that we have made amazing friendships with the CMU students in Doha and I know that we will enjoy more time together in the future. I feel as though we got to see the most of Doha in a week; camel rides, karak, roundabouts, henna, Islamic culture, skyscrapers, Education City, hospitality, kindness and so much more. I didn’t expect this week to leave such an imprint on me and I am excited to see where this will influence my life in the future. I’m also excited that I got to travel with such a fun group, we got to experience so much together and after some of our conversations today, I think that everyone is motivated to bring Doha and our experiences back to the Pittsburgh campus. I’ll be back in the US in a few hours which is so sad, leaving new friends behind, but I think that our time here has been well spent, looking forward to Ben & Jerry’s on the plane :)
(power nap time?)

This trip is without a doubt, a trip of a lifetime and I am enjoying every moment. Each day brings new experiences, new foods, and new insights into the Qatari culture and other cultures that inhabit Doha. We are now half way through the week and I think my favorite experience thus far has been the visit to the Fanar Islamic Cultural Center where we had traditional tea in the Majilis while we learned about the history and customs associated with Islamic culture as well as the history of Doha. We saw the latest copy of the Qu’ran and the calligrapher who transcribed this copy was there to write out each of our names in Arabic calligraphy. The girls then changed into abayas with the help of the women and we all sat in the mosque for a question and answer period on the Islamic faith and practices. It felt surreal to be sitting surrounded by our group but completely transformed in appearance into something that felt so foreign. And yet, actually experiencing this aspect of the religion was one of the most amazing experiences that I have had here.

We had the chance to visit Al Jazeera which was so inspiring. After waiting to go through security, we went on a wonderful tour where we learned about the work that Al Jazeera is doing to broadcast global issues to all parts of the world, showing both sides of a story and always striving to fit within a code of ethics. This is so rare even with our government, and the fact that they receive funding and support from Qatar is very impressive for the country as a whole. And we got free goodies! (I think we are all planning on putting our new pins on our backpacks)

Even though we have been here such a short time, I feel as though we have been exposed to an extensive spread of cultural discussions and explorations. From events such as Pizza and Politics where the global issue of the UN veto power was debated to QALTA and meeting with the CMU Student Majilis, we have begun to explore deeper into what it means to live in Doha. The students that we have interacted with have been amazing, tonight they taught us some new dances, took us out to traditional Syrian/Turkish food and then showed us around the Villagio so we could shop and this has definitely made the trip infinitely better for me. Having the chance to meet students, ask them questions about their lives, their families and cultures, their goals for the future, shows how we are very much similar but with unique upbringings and experiences. My view of the world has expanded and I hope it continues to do so for the rest of the week.

Desert trip tomorrow!

After a very long flight, we have finally made it to Doha! We are beyond excited to be here and to start getting to know Qatar. It’s finally hit us, that after many weeks of preparation, we’re actually here. Wherever we go, we are warmly welcomed, and that has really smoothed our transition. Our first experience was Doha at night. We were so amazed by the beautiful lights on the city skyline. After spending some time in the hotel (which is unbelievably fabulous, minus the minor mishap where it took all of us 10 minutes to figure out how to turn on the lights in our rooms) we went to a magenta restaurant called Al Majain..? At the restaurant we had a sampling of mezza (appetizers) so we could get a feel for the food. We all fell in love with the lemon mint drinks that are common here. Then the jet lag finally caught up with us. When we returned to the hotel, we all passed out right away, and woke up to a wonderful breakfast at the hotel.**

After our breakfast, we drove down to Education City to get to know the CMU-Q campus. Our first realization was how silly it was to forget sunglasses. The weather here is just perfect in everyway (a beach-y 70 with a light breeze). As soon as we walked into the CMU-Q building we were awed by the large scale, ample space, and abundant natural light. One thing to note about the campus is that CMU is only one university out of many clustered together in Education city. Each university, like Texas A&M, Georgetown, VCU, LAS, and Cornell, has it’s own building, and also only provide specific majors. For example CMU offers Information Science, Business Administration, Biological Sciences, and a bunch of minors, while Texas A&M really only offers engineering majors like electrical, petroleum, and others. A good equivalent would be how each college in the Pittsburgh campus has its own building, housing a different major.

Although CMU is completely contained by one building it is in no way underwhelming, if anything we were all a little bit jealous! The pictures (soon to come) really speak for themselves.

After spending time wandering the Carnegie Mellon building and Education City, we left to enjoy dinner with a host family. The family made us feel right at home with a tray full of tea with sugar and a bonus of home grown mint leaves. We spent some time making small talk in their sitting room and then moved on to their dinning room to find a giant plate of lamb meat! It was a real treat to have home made dinner and desserts. The family made sure that we were in no way wanting. At one point the father of the household brought around second servings of meat for everyone and it was hard for the vegetarian’s to escape his enthusiastic servings. It didn’t seem that he knew what vegetarian or “no meat please” meant, but everyone managed to work around it, and got a kick out of handling a tough situation. After taking a tour of their garden, we returned to the sitting room for a second round of tea with mint leaves.

Our day has been incredibly filled with new tastes, smells, sounds, and ideas, and we can’t wait to experience what tomorrow will bring!

-The 2012 Burgh Impaqt team

• An ode to breakfast
  It was an amazing spread of custom made omelets, assorted savory baked goods, cheeses, and juices. There was also a surprising spread of Asian delights like miso soup, and rice! The pastries and yogurts were phenomenal, but the yogurt was definitely less gogurt-esq and more similar to greek yogurt.

Good morning Pittsburgh!

Ever thought there was a pop artist trapped inside of you? No?
Well, Andy Warhol did! At the Andy Warhol museum is where day six started. Andy Warhol began his journey as a commercial illustrator and then moved on to become more of a visual artist, often producing some controversial drawings. We spent around an hour and a half browsing through his art. I found his obsession with repetition interesting; he’d make print copies of the same drawing but only change the colors.

Next stop: Campus

After touring through all seven floors of the Warhol museum, we headed to campus. Unlike the first two days in Pittsburgh, today was “nice and warm” according to Pittsburgh standards. I loved the campus today! The area in between Hunt Library and the Walk to the sky was filled with students playing “football” and Frisbee, or simply laying down on the grass, with good music playing in the background. The campus was just lively!

Most of the time on campus was spent in meetings; we met Jaycie as a group to discuss our campus exchange project, and to try to understand what motivates CMUP students to study abroad at CMUQ. Once that was done, my team of three split to attend different meetings. I went to meet Rubab, the student advisor for Business undergraduates. Marwa went to meet the director of the economics undergraduate program to discuss the possibility of her doing masters in Economics. And Maryam attended one of the junior project team’s meeting with their advisor. Oh, final not since we’re still on campus, I finally understood how a “block meal” works! I’m one tiny step closer to understanding the Pittsburgh campus.

The long tiring series of meetings has passed, and it’s now time for food! So we headed to The Porch for dinner, where we met some of the IMPAQT students visiting Qatar next week, Renee, Meagan, some students from the Qatar campus and Gina. We occupied a quarter of the restaurant! Go Tartans!

After dinner, we finally did what we have been putting off since the beginning of the trip, the incline! The view from the top of the incline was beyond amazing! It would be great if there was some sort of restaurant on the top though. Overall, amazing experience!

The 9th of March was the last day of the trip, this day has came without us realizing. Our days in Pittsburgh were full of fun activities and project meetings we hardly kept count of the days. so time past by and here we are on our last day in pittsburgh.

After a long night of painting the fence, we woke up early morning to pack our belongings, we were tired and exhausted, yet still we wouldn’t miss our breakfast at Pamela’s. we walked from the hotel to Pamela’s enjoying our last hours in the city; enjoying its architecture, its weather and most importantly its people. Pamela’s was one of the places we have enjoyed quite a lot, so we chose to spend our last breakfast in ti. it serves one of the best hot pancakes in the country, the president himself regularly eats their famous strawberry pancakes.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and said goodbye to all the dear friends that we have made in the trip and have welcomed us in Pittsburgh, to Renne who has organized the whole trip for us and to our fellow CMUQ exchange students who has also dedicated some of their time to show us around the city. Getting into the bus, we were quite sad to leave. however, seeing the IMPAQT Pittsburgh students excited me, because it reminded me that our IMPAQT experience is not done yet. we are on our way back to Qatar and it will be our turn to show them around and hopefully we will be able to welcome them to the Qatar Campus as warmly as they welcomed us.

After an eventful week in the main campus, the IMPAQT 2012 team decided that they’re not stepping a foot out of Pittsburgh without taking the fence. An old tartan tradition that resulted in producing the most painted object in the world.

The team gathered to guard the fence at 11PM along with the Doha exchange students, Keynan, Hanan, Humaira, Sidra, Afnan, Arash and Anas. With the help of Andres, Sara and Jennifer the team started planning, waiting for the clock to strike midnight to start painting. we decided to paint the Qatari flag on the fence along with Andrew Carnegie’s famous quote, “My heart is in the work”, in arabic.

After two hours of excitement, jokes, laughter, painting, shivering and more painting the result was worth it.

This experience was a beautiful end for the journey, it was the cherry on the top!

A big thank you for everyone who helped making this possible.

Pittsburgh, you will be missed♥

Breakfast at the hotel. Check!
Greet Renee. Check!
Go crazy on the ride with the Radio. Check!
Go on a wild ride……….
Hold on?

Yes, You heard me right. I went on those box rides that flips you over!
I was screaming the entire ride. Oh, but not as much as Chaudry did! (Video of him screaming louder than anyone else will be added soon.)
That was in the Sport Works and Carnegie Science Center. It was fun to get to experience and learn stuff the fun way! It honestly took me back to my ten-year-old.

After our morning was spent between having fun with science and sports, we went back to campus. We had our lunch (The Indian place was good!) and broke down into groups for our meetings and appointments.

We then gathered in the UC (Now that we’re familiar with the place, and made ourselves feel like home, we don’t call it University Center anymore. We’re that cool.) we gathered to head down to the Drama College, where we attended an AWESOME talent show. ☺

The seniors performed the talent show. The thought that those performers will end up being great stars in Broadway and shows is amazing! The show was a mixture of all the emotions and feelings that we might’ve imagined.

Talking about the mixture of emotions. The show wasn’t the only things that got us up and down. Renee gathered us and let us know about the unfortunate news of the shooting that happened in Pittsburgh. We were all touched and saddened by that news. We were also saddened by the fact that we were not anymore able to go as planned: Dinner in The Cheesecake Factory! ☹

However, that upsetting news soon turned into a good shopping day at Macy’s – Waterfront, and a great dinner at Bravo!
At that time, the rain was still pouring really hard…………..

Maryam (AKA: Meme)

We’ve got approximately 5 hours to relax in DC before we’re off to Qatar. So excited!

- pittsburgh IMPAQTers

Today when we woke up early in the morning, something was missing; I tried to figure out what this was but to no success. Soon I realized unlike the previous few days today I wasn’t feeling cold one bit. I quickly rushed towards the window and to my disappointment (to the delight of the Pittsburghers) the snow was gone. Those memorable snow fights of the previous days were by far the most fun and crazy thing we had done on the trip, and to know it would not happen again on this trip was a little disheartening. But I had so much on my head that within seconds that thought just escaped my mind and I was super excited and looking forward to our action-packed fun looking day reflected in our schedule. As always our day began with a delicious breakfast, here again something was different for the first time everyone was exactly on time, and our awesome chaperone Kevin was missing, just when we thought we could pull out a prank on him we realized he was downstairs having coffee all that time and our prank failed (watch out Kevin we still might pull something on you :p).

We headed out to the Andy Warhol museum next, I didn’t know much about Warhol so it was very fascinating for me to see the wide variety of mediums he worked in and the amount of amazing art he produced throughout his life. There was so much to see on the 7 floors dedicated to his fabulous pop artwork and thus everyone enjoyed the visit, something we were not too happy about was not being allowed to take the pictures in the museum six top floors. After completing the tour of the museums everyone started exploring the super cool museum store, at the end we had several people coming out of the shop with small cool souvenirs that proudly showcased Warhol’s most amazing art pieces.

We headed back to campus to execute our respective projects, we went to the have food first and from there dispersed to our individual project meetings. All the three project areas by now had a plan chalked out and these meeting all proved to be productive as this gave us an opportunity to refine and polish our projects. All of us finished our meetings before schedule, some visited the bookstore (Again!?), other just stuck around in the University Centre to chat.
So now we left for shopping and we had about little over an hour to shop. Even though we had little time, and managed only up to five stores, we made up for it by the number of bags that were brought back to the car. At the end of this shopping spree we had several Apple, GAP, Victoria Secrets, Sephora and a gift shop bags in the trunk of our two cars.

A truly awesome day so far and we had several activities to go! :)

-Haider Zali

After a wonderful tour around the Pittsburgh town and meeting with a number of faculty members in CMU’s main campus; we were heading for a Tepper reception.
While we all gathered back together from our group projects to meet the BA faculty and students, as a Tepper student, I was really excited to attend the reception. We discussed a wide range of topics based on academics, several business tracks; and CMU-Q clubs and organizations. With 8 out of 10 students on the trip majoring in Business Administration, the reception was a very insightful experience for us.

As soon as the reception was over, we headed to meet students from the CMU main campus Boss residence. While chilling with the students and enjoying pizza, we began a discussion on the big question – What does happiness mean to you? I was amazed at the responses and opinions that poured in from the students, some of which were really deep and thought provoking. A number of the CMU students shared similar point of views with some of the IMPAQT members. Few of the popular answers were how the very little things such as fresh laundry, turning the other side of pillow while trying to sleep or simply taking a great morning shower, play a significant role behind our happiness in life.

After spending time with the Pittsburgh students, we were invited to Andres’s place, who is currently a CMU sophomore, and a former IMPAQT member. This was a great get-together since we met the QALTA students from previous year and also had the opportunity to interact with a few students for the QALTA trip this year, who will soon be travelling to Doha from Pittsburgh. Everyone enjoyed the great food and a very entertaining cards game of bluff. It proved to be a great bonding experience. After playing cards for a while, chatting and listening to music, we decided to go to Razzy Fresh to have some of its famous frozen yoghurt. It was quite amazing and surprisingly reminded many of us of the Gelato frozen yoghurt outlet in Qatar.

Overall, today was indeed a wonderful experience! :)

~Jevika

Whenever I travel, I always make it a point to explore the city, get lost in it. Today, I had the chance to explore D.C. We were allowed to split into groups and do whatever we desired. Thanks to jetlag, Narcis, Jevika, and I had some time to grab a cup of Starbucks coffee before we headed off. It’s funny how some things feel the same half way across the world. The uniform Starbucks theme there made me feel like I was sitting at a Starbucks back in Doha, having a nice chilled coffee with a few of my friends before heading to class. It felt nice to be doing something familiar in such an unfamiliar setting.
Along with Raheem, Anas, Haider, and Jevika, and with nothing for reference but a map, we targeted a few landmarks and headed off. First off, we decided to check out some of the Smithsonian Museums and exhibits. The Museum of Natural History was fascinating. I found the fossil section rather enthralling. The ideas of evolution portrayed on the information screens and the prehistoric findings captivated me. Being on a time constraint, we quickly headed to the Art Museum. On our way there, we passed by the sculpture garden. Straight in the middle was this beautiful aluminum tree that I was intrigued by. Art seemed to be embedded in Washington’s culture and history, ones that are quite different back in Qatar.
Enough with museums, now it was time for us to visit some monuments. Our first stop was the Washington Monument. It made a great backdrop for the many photos that we took with my camera. When we felt like we had enough pictures taken, we started walking towards the Lincoln Memorial. I was extremely excited when I realized that I had actually learned some things from the numerous US history classes I took in the past. I excitedly explained some of Lincoln’s accomplishments and the significance of the Gettysburg Address inscribed on the wall to the group. On our way, we stumbled upon the World War Two Memorial, another great photo up opportunity.
Finally… We had one last stop. It was time to see the infamous White House. We walked a large distance to see it, and at that point we were all tired, fatigued, and just needed a break. Once we got there, we were honestly a little disappointed. We had built up a great amount of enthusiasm (too much actually) to see a house from a couple hundred meters’ distance and from behind a fence. Time to snap a few pictures, and head to lunch.
We felt very accomplished after lunch and we all felt like we deserved a little treat. Didn’t someone say that there was a 1 day sale at Macy’s? We decided to go shopping for a while before rejoining the larger group. Once that was done and over with, it was a little surprising to me that the boys came out with multiple bags while the girls had bought near nothing. We headed to the metro, found our route, scanned in, and were about to leave until… Anas asked Raheem where my camera was. I was so worried that after all this time touring we were not going to have any photos to account for it. I was almost certain that if he had left it at Macy’s, it would be gone by now… It wasn’t! I was so shocked, yet happy. A professional SLR camera was left unattended at a large store and someone actually took it to the front desk when he/she could have easily walked away with it. 4 words: Faith in humanity restored!!
Overall, the day was amazing. Yes we got tired and sure we complained, but this was an experience that we won’t forget. From exploring a foreign city without an aid to figuring out how the metro system worked, we did it! The cultural differences between Qatar and D.C. are too massive to account for, and we definitely felt like we were given an opportunity to experience something different …something new.

Morning 8:46
Anas: Let’s go downstairs! They are waiting.
Me: But we still have 10 minutes. looking at my phone clock
Anas: Are you out of your mind? We have to be there before 8:45. Come, let’s leave.
Me: Dude! We still have 10 minutes remaining. You leave and I’ll follow you.
Anas: Ok whatever! Banging the door
I went rushing down the elevator, and found everyone at the corner of the street walking to the Pamela’s restaurant. That is when I realized that my phone clock showed the wrong time. Damn! In the restaurant, I got called over by Kevin (as expected) for a warning since they had to wait for me for another 15 minutes. A bad start to the day! I had the worst feeling ever but thankfully, the delicious and mouth watering breakfast at the Pamela’s made me feel much better.
After having our breakfast, we walked down the street to a Cathedral called Cathedral of Learning. There we were guided through the nationality rooms which represented each country’s history before they were came into existence. Just for your information, they only had the countries for which they were funded by a group of people to reserve a spot and build the room. Sadly, they did not have a Pakistani room. :(
Now that all of the photography, poses and tour of the building were done, we headed to the campus where we had meetings with the professional development and career advisors. On our way, we stopped by the two churches named Saint Paul’s and Saint Nicholas’s. It was my first ever experience walking into a church. All of us had an awesome time there where Megan acted as a tour guide providing us with the fast facts about the churches. Unexpectedly, everyone listened to her with full concentration since the facts pretty much amazed us all. Then, we passed by the Craig Street where you actually get a free wifi (which worked much better than the one we have in our dorms). And FINALLY, we were at the CMU PITTSBURGH campus once again.
We went to the meeting room where they had all the advisors from Business and IS departments eager to talk to us about our progress. That turned out to be a highly productive session since we got to know a lot of things about this campus and the way it works. The advisors gave us their feedbacks not only on our projects but also on our lives, which I hope reflects in my personality in future. After the meeting and having lunch with them, we all split up into small groups of three and went to meet up with the people on campus. I, along with Amal and Anas were working on the Doha/Pittsburgh room so we went with Renee (Director of student’s affairs) to the Doha room. We proposed our ideas to her and she was able to give us practical feedback on them. Then, for the next half an hour of the meeting, we met with Dan, last year’s IMPAQT ambassador. We discussed the opportunities, limitations and benefits for the Doha room and how can we help it make more functional with Dan who again helped us throughout the thought process and gave us feedbacks on what he thinks about our ideas. (He really liked the ideas btw. He got freaked out) ;)

~ Raheem

OMG. Pittsburgh!
Today was an interesting day altogether. From the conservatorium to the Penguins game, the day was full of surprises. The day kicked off with a snow fight, an experience which I had after a very long time. Although I was shivering due to the cold breeze and snow, I wanted the weather to stay the same as I love the winters and I wanted the previous IMPAQT students to feel jealous as they didn’t experience snow in Pittsburgh.
As a CMUQ student I always wanted to see the main campus and to know what kind of life students have here. We had a tour of the whole campus today, one of the most tiring but interesting tours I have had yet. There were many different buildings associated with their own departments unlike the Qatar campus which accommodates all four majors under a single building. It was a fairly large campus with no boundaries which made it difficult to understand which area is related to CMU. Although I study at CMU, I was more interested in finding out about Tepper School of Business. This was not just me but it was true for the other business majors as well. As I entered the Tepper building, I felt a sense of belonging to the institute even though I had come as a student from a different campus. The corridor with the pictures of Tepper graduates motivated me, increased my confidence that I could achieve whatever I aim for.
Penguins’ game was a new experience for me. I had seen such moments in movies. The game arena, people cheering and nail biting match was all that I knew happened, but never had experienced it firsthand. The VIP treatment we got through our CMU was just amazing. Tepper box was given to us for this match, which is normally given to Tepper students through a lottery. We had the best seats to watch the match. The students from Qatar were not the only ones to experience a live game in an arena; it was the same for the accompanying Student Affairs staff as well. I was overwhelmed with the support the Penguins’ fans showed at the game. The amount of cheering fans were doing was out of this world. It actually got very loud adding to the intensity of the situation. I had no knowledge about how ice hockey is played, yet the game intrigued me. I was fully involved in the game till the dying end of the match. The electric atmosphere of the match kept everyone on their toes.
The day was just amazing with fun filled activities throughout the day. I hope that this experience helps me to finalize my decision for campus exchange. I really like the campus and the environment and, I hope that I can make the most out of this opportunity.

Being under the influence of jetlag, Nada, Jevika and I, woke up today at around 4:00am. Yes, AM, and we couldn’t go back to sleep. We spent the time talking and planning our own schedules for the day in DC. When the clock hit 7:30am, we started getting ready for breakfast. Thanks to jetlag, we had a head start, so we decided to hang out at Starbucks till it was time for us to meet the rest of the group.

After meeting with the group and having breakfast, we decided to break into two groups and go on to explore Washington DC. I was in a group with Firas, Marwa, Amal and Meme, and our first stop was the Air and Space Museum, the most heavily trafficked museum in the world. Now I know some of you must be thinking ‘how, boring, they went to a museum’, but let me tell you, the museums in DC are unusual! This museum had model airplanes suspended from the high ceiling, In addition to models of rockets and spaceships everywhere. We spent an hour in this museum, went to the gift shop and headed to the Natural History and Science Museum.

Before heading out Jumana had suggested visiting the zoo, and I’m so glad we did not, because this museum had a zoo built in! The museum had real-life sized animal figures; they looked so real, that we felt as if we were in an actual zoo. Then we headed out to the Smithsonian Art Gallery, but we didn’t spend much of time there. After walking through the art gallery, we walked (a lot of walking there) to the Washington Monument and spent an hour or so hanging out in the area. When we were done, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, which was in a restaurant at Chinatown! Chinatown was pretty intense. There was a basketball match going on there, so you could imagine the atmosphere.
Overall this was a brilliant experience; some of us went to the metro and navigated a city using a map for the first time. Looking forward to the coming days of IMPAQT.

~Narcis

This week a group of students from CMU-Qatar are visiting Pittsburgh. They’ll be blogging and posting photos documenting their experience. Enjoy!

Welcome to the thinkspace for IMPAQT 2011. We’ll post thoughts, pictures, ideas. You’ll read, comment, respond. Together, we’ll build a bridge between our campuses.