A Chart of the Doha Week

Okay, I have fallen into a state of never knowing what day it is.  The reason is that I still expend brainpower thinking in terms of Texas days and mentally converting times.  For example, when someone says, "I'll see you at 2 PM on Friday," I think to myself, "Oh, Friday here is like Saturday in Texas...and when it's 2 PM here, it's 6 AM Texas time."  Why do I do this?  I don't know.  My guess is that the habit will fade away.

But just for the sake of explaining, here's a chart of the Texas week vs. the Doha week.  Disregard all time differences for a moment.

Texas Day	Doha Day	Explanation
Monday	Sunday	First day of work week
Tuesday	Monday	Work day
Wednesday	Tuesday	Hump day
Thursday	Wednesday	Work day
Friday	Thursday	Weekend is here!
Saturday	Saturday	Day to relax, do chores
Sunday	Friday	Day for church/mosque and family

So you see that the work week has some overlap, but the rhythm of how things progress is a full day off ("Monday" or the busy day of trying to get back on track and make progress is actually "Sunday" here).  After hump day (Weds in Texas but Tues is Doha), the week starts to wrap up.  Doha's holy day comes first--before their "Saturday."


Now throw in the time difference.

We are currently 8 hours ahead of Texas.  However, Doha does not practice daylight savings time, so in October, when Texas "falls back," we will be 9 hours ahead.  That means that when we get to work on the first day of the work week (7:30 AM Doha time on a Sunday), it is actually 11:30 PM Saturday night in Texas.  When we are out partying on the last day of the week (9 PM Thursday night in Doha), it's the middle (1 PM) of the Thursday workday in Texas.   When Qataris are in "church" (mosque), it's 10 AM on Friday in Doha.  That means they're at church/mosque at 2 AM Friday morning Texas time.

As I am writing this, John is at work on the first day of the week...while in Texas, you are asleep on your way to Sunday morning church/family time.

Beyond wallowing my own little OCD issue, I think this is fascinating because you have a home campus (TAMU-College Station) that must on occasion coordinate and must frequently communicate (typically via email, I would guess) with this campus in Qatar.  The situation leaves just an hour or two (8-10 AM Texas time/4-6 PM Doha time), three days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) when people are at work at the same time.  Thinking of the bureaucracy, especially at the giant main campus, it's pretty amazing that anything ever gets worked out.

And hence, it is also not so amazing that I am in a state of not knowing what day or time it is.