The Same, but Different

Today's Arabic lesson:

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Needs no translation!

A Tale of Two Celebrations

Yahooooo!

Me - welcoming the public to the Calgary Stampede in Doha!

The University of Calgary-Qatar hosted the Calgary Stampede in Doha today and it was a huge success! It was designed to reach out to the community and to let them know about Calgary traditions and culture. There were all sorts of things for the kids – bouncing thingies, crafts, pony, horse and rides.

Kids' having a great time on the bouncy stuff

Pancakes were served all day along with hot dogs, corn on the cob and cole slaw.

Bet you never saw people dressed like this at a Stampede breakfast!

There was a live band – Matt Masters and the Gentlemen of the Rodeo – they were great; and line dancing lessons had a lot of us up on our feet – some of the students joined us too!

I’ve never seen abayas and thobes at Stampede, but the locals got into the spirit putting their cowboy hats on over their abayas! The day was warm and absolutely perfect for Stampede celebrating!

Of course, there was another celebration going on today – far across the world, in Vancouver. The Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Winter Games started at 5:00 a.m. Doha time, and I wasn’t up to see them from the beginning. I tuned in around 7:00 and spent the next couple of hours feeling a great deal of pride in my country and envy of all of my family and friends in North America, particularly those in Canada who are, no doubt, sharing in my pride. What I saw of the show was spectacular and I spent almost the entire time I watched with tears running down my face. I get rather emotional about the Olympics (no matter where they take place) and the whole national pride thing. The next 16 days will be stunning!