Its 3am in Doha as I write this blog post. Its my third night in Doha and my body keeps waking up at 1 or 2am. My stomach wants to eat at 9pm , 3am, and 10am Doha time. I feel dizzy and have no sense of date or time. I struggle to stay awake in the middle of the day. I'm not sick, I am just dis-oriented in the new travel, location, and culture.
Today was new faculty orientation. When you start a new position or new school year - the academy sets up 1-2 weeks of meetings and social gatherings to help you adjust. The firehose of information and new people is overwhelming -even when you've taught higher ed for 20 years - so I refer to orientation weeks as dis-orientation week.
Qatar University asks faculty to return 1 week before the students. In a university with a global faculty, this means that faculty come from all over the world. Today's orientation group contained faculty from Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. The first session included check-in and small gifts (a notebook with a built in wireless charger and a nice travel mug). Then a 45 minute session introducing us to the university, student body, and general policies. The session and slides were entirely in Arabic.
I don't speak Arabic (despite studying for 1 and half years on Duolingo) so the university supplied translators for us - leading to a new experience of live translation through a headset.
After the session - they supplied us with coffee and an amazing spread of treats like bit size tomato cheese sandwiches, fresh fruit, and Arabic pastries (Sorry - I forgot to take a photo).
The university did an excellent job setting up the orientation - scheduling one morning session, then asking all of the important services like HR, IT, Immigration, Health Services, and transportation to sit in one hall. They then gave us a checklist of all the services we need to visit and 4 hours to visit them all. The orientation took place in a large bright room with chairs in the middle for new faculty to sit in while waiting for services to open. Most importantly, they supplied us with coffee and snacks` - including fresh arabic coffee and dates (Yum).
Everyone here has been incredibly kind and welcoming. But despite the organization - the coffee and the dates - I felt lost and overwhelmed for much of the day. People had to restate things 3 or 4 times before I understood them. For someone who spent the last 4 years directing start of the year orientations - this loss of control can make me feel like a failure.
Thankfully, in the weeks before I left, my therapist helped me practice
Radical Acceptance - accepting situations that are out of your control and the emotions that come along - without judging them. I accept the emotions that come along with the situation - I am frustrated that my body wants to fall asleep, I am angry that I woke up at 2am and could not fall asleep, and I sad when I miss family/friends. These negative emotions are natural - I accept them as being present. Then I use those emotions to guide me to what I need to do next.
I can't change jet lag but I can accept that I will be out of sync for a while - then adapt my routine to accommodate it. This meant that I embrace that I fall asleep at 8pm, and will wake up at 2am. I can be angry, or use the time for bonus yoga and mindfulness sessions on the
Calm app or write a blog post at 3 in the morning. I can't change the heat, but I can commiserate with other faculty about the heat - which helps us bond. I miss family and friends, so I call or text them every day - keeping in contact better than when we share the same continent. I can be frustrated that I don't understand Arabic - and use that frustration to ask for help. I asked Arabic speakers to help me practice saying things like my university id number in Arabic. This helps me build a connection with the people around me which help reduce loneliness.
Dis-orientation is my guide as I orient to a new culture.Generally, it takes the body 1 day to adjust for each hour of change, so I hope my body adjusts by the weekend or middle of next week. The cultural and language dis-orientation will continue as long as I embrace it.
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