Last week talking with my friends, I pointed out that I don’t have than many weekends left in Qatar. I told them we have to do something awesome every weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I see my friends every weekend, but not always do we spend a lot of money or even do anything huge. Just hanging out and drinking tea, playing games, etc. So this weekend we made plans for an overnight desert trip, which I had been wanting to do. So it was 10 people, including myself, who were up for it. What we do is pay a business that pick us up from whereever, take us to Sealine desert, where they would drive us around on the dunes, and then eventually to the camp. The camp site consisted of a few tents where other groups of people also stayed overnight. We played volleyball, swam a little, we explored the sand dunes, went star gazing, made S’mores, enjoyed sitting next to the beach waves, etc. It was actually the same exact camp I had been with the Graphic Design Department trip, the only difference is we stayed overnight. Here are some pictures!
The drivers in Sealine usually stop for people to take pictures and what not. In this case, were really wanted to run down. I completely failed at this.
view from higher up…you can see water in the back because it had rained a lot the last 2 days, so that is just a huge puddle because of the rain
view from front seat 
You can see all the car tracks in the dunes. The sand was a bit tougher though because of the rain, so it wasn’t as difficult as usual to drive through these parts. 
wearing my awesome japanese bath house pants…Loose clothing is the best for the desert, so it came quite in handy. probably not the best fashion statement, but I was happy!
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the distance 
staying up all night to watch the sunrise was amazing….me being silly and sitting on a chair in the beach water. This was around 5am
Now we got back quite early, like around 9am, so I was able to sleep a good 4 hours, and get up to work on my project. This project has been the source of stress for the past week, and not like other projects, but this one was dependent on a 3D printer. The problem was the program I had made the file with, was not being read by the printer, and it took a while to switch over to the right program and wait for it to work… I didn’t think I would get it done, but thankfully my professor gave us all an extension of about a week, so if it were not for that, I do not want to think of what would have happened. But, fact of the matter is, I finished it and I am quite pleased with it.
The project was to use a product that already exists, and make structural display for it. This would help you incorporate design systems already used, and using that in your display. I thought as long as I am in Doha, and 3D printing is so easily accessible, I figured it would be a great piece for my portfolio. So, as much of a headache as it was (mostly my fault), the final result was quite nice, and I even got to use the new vinyl cutter and successfully applied the tiny type too!
We are having weekly meetings for the Indonesia trip, to start lesson plans for the workshops and what not. I am with the accessory group, so that should be exciting.
More desert adventures to come, now that I am leaving in a month….sad sad. Also I need to rack up on my Arabic playlist.