The worst thing to happen to you during Ramadan:

You start getting SICK.

My throat is killing me, my ears are ringing and I feel drowsy.

Tomorrow is really going to be rough.

:(

Freshmen:

I never thought of naming the new freshmen males as "smurfs" or "sanafer" until I saw this cartoon of them:

I was literally on the floor with laughter. Now everytime I see the freshmen I start laughing.

The picture I added didnt turn out too clear. You can check out more here:

http://ain.ae/index.cfm?fuseaction=News.ListNews&categoryId=382&newsid=1614

(its all in arabic, sorry :/)

I found this article in gulf news amusing

Al Ain:

Little shouting and screaming on the streets has made the UAE a "discomfortingly" quiet country for many visitors and expatriate residents, especially those with a Mediterranean background.

Thank god there is no shouting and screaming on the streets! Who would ever welcome that?
That has got to be the most idiotic thing to say.
How can people sleep at night with people shouting and screaming?
Thats discomforting!!!

So all of UAE is discomfortingly quiet?

But thats not the point of the article, but the research that is being conducted and the development of an Arabic-English mini-dictionary of UAE politeness formulas for visitors and newcomers to the UAE. This research is being conducted by UAEU.

I think that this mini-dictionary of UAE politenes is great and much needed!

You have to continue reading and reading to understand what its about.

You just have to laugh at the journalism found on gulfnews, khaleej times, emirates today (and most other online newspapers).

here is the full article :

http://gulfnews.com/nation/Society/10071241.html

Intellectual situation in the Arab world 'retarded'
Staff Report

Abu Dhabi:

The intellectual situation in the Arab world is not just retarded,
but is suffering from ignorance and lack of acknowledgement,
said a Saudi intellectual at a lecture yesterday.

DAMN!

“Arabs and Muslims are in a very bad condition. We live out of history.
As a matter of fact, we hinder the movement of history, and still live with pre-historic mentality,” said Al Belehi.

He said the world has keys, and we must know how to use them well.
He said the west started developing after authorities lost their holy nature,
and when reason and criticism prevailed.

Al Belehi said the Arab mind is too rigid, and relied too much on references and authorities, which results in duplications. Authorities must be criticised, challenged and questioned, and must not be given holy quality, he said.

He termed the current Arab culture as a culture of the dead — only the living deserve respect and encouragement, since they participate in change and
development for humanity’s benefit.

Al Belehi reviewed intellectual stages of the human civilisation, and the changes that affected them, and said cultures are infinite bodies that move and develop and interact with changes — they must move and compete to improve, and thoughts need to reach the public until the right vision is reached.

Following the lecture, which was introduced by Abdul Hamid Ahmad,
Editor-in-Chief of Gulf News, an open discussion was held,
and many said they did not agree with the bleak picture painted by Al Belehi,
while some agreed with him on the need to renew and keep up
with the new values of this age, while maintaining Arab and Islamic values.

to read the full article:
http://gulfnews.com/nation/Society/10070994.html

Does anyone have any comments regarding this article?

Bill Clinton gets Fox News

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9026120716999978732&q=fox+news+interview+%2Bbill+clinton

This is the first 20 minutes of Bill Clinton’s interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. In this clip, Wallace asks Clinton why he didn’t do more to capture or kill Osama bin Laden while he was in office. Clinton clearly feels like he has been set up and doesn’t hold back in telling Wallace just how he feels.

As he says to Chris Wallace " You have that little smirk on your face and you think you are so clever".

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosa its BILL baby.

Check out these muslim video blogs

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=www.ummah%20films.com&sa=N&tab=wv

ummah films website : www.ummahfilms.com

pretty funny stuff :)

-props to noor for giving me the link-

If you could give up one thing during ramadan, what would it be?

(i.e. swearing,reading novels,smoking sheesha,watching tv,listening to music)

Ramadan Anticipation:

So how are people feeling towards Ramadan these days?
What are your thoughts?
Are you guys anxious? dreading it? excited? happily awaiting it? indifferent?

What is going through your head?
I was just wondering how people react towards ramadan.

Everyone reacts to Ramadan differently.

Ramadan Mubarak

I am delighted with my courses and professors this semester.
My overall university experience in the business college has exceed my expectations.
Every semester it just gets better and better. Inshallah it will continue in this way.

As usual there are many misconceptions about UAEU.

The first thing is that all the courses are taught in arabic.
That is NOT true.

The teaching methods are old fashion or outdated.
Another false statement.

Our curriculum isnt up to date.
that statement actually hurts me. It is one of the accreditated universities in the middle east. Our business college is the best in the Middle east. The college of Education is the first accredited college of education in the whole middle east. We have one of the best medical schools, IT college and Engineering.

Our sister schools include some of the best universities in the US. My brother studied one year at the engineering college at UAEU before transfering to the US. The courses he took were transfered without a problem to Georgia Tech, Purdue, The University of Michigan and the University of Chicago. He even got a full scholarship to attend the Georgia Tech engineering program.

This university is up to the academic standards. I just think its time for people to realize that. This isnt the same university that people have in mind 6 years ago. It is so different that people are astonished when they realize this is UAEU.

I can not neglect to mention the teaching staff. The staff that was hired about 6 years ago and onwards are great. There are some professors that have been teaching at the university for some time now, legends as we say, are so good :)

I love that my professors are from all over and they bring all that they have to the classroom.
Different nationalities but the same passion .

Statistics -Tunisian
Macroeconomics-Egyptian
Marketing-Palistinian
Financial Mangement-Emiraty
Health 101- Somalia
Nutrition 101-Indonesia

Each professor is so different from the next one, but its so awesome to hear them speak, lending us some of their knowledge and experiences. I love hearing the stories or ancedotes from their lives.

If only I could write about all the professors I have met and share their stories.
One professor speaks 13 languages!
The other is a Tia Chi master.
Another owns a famous ballet school in California.
One sailed around the world by herself in a small boat.
Another professor spent some time in Africa doing humanitary work, building water wells.

I will never forget about the time I spent in Al Ain or at UAEU.

i love al ain !!

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

TWO roads
diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler,long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Im BACK !

Well i've been back for some time now, but its been a little crazy and hectic.
My life is getting back to normal, classes have started and im back in the game.
Im becoming a little more competitve and more driven.
I have a goal and im aiming for it. (inshallah bil iznallah i'll achieve it)

So inshallah i'll be posting more often.

Let me start off with something that happened to me at the MOE(mall of the emirates) a few days ago.
I decided to go with a few friends of mine to do some shopping before classes started. I first stop at starbucks at debenhems to get some coffee. Im enjoying my coffee and chatting to friends as im walking out of the store when the alarm goes off. What the heck? I didnt even look at anything in the store. The security lady comes to me and we open my purse to see if anything fell out. So im standing there, taking out my wallet, my cell phone, my ipod, my keys, my planner. There's nothing inside besides that. strange. I give the security lady my purse, and I walk out of the store again. Once again the alarms ring. Strange. We just shrug our shoulders and the security lady let me go. -sigh of relief-

Why are the alarms going off? The security lady said 'Maybe you have a lot of iron in your body, and its setting off the alarm' Seriously? No, I dont think that could be it. It must be something else. My friends and I discuss it as we head towards the luggage store. We go inside, and the alarms go off! I start laughing and I go to the employees of the store to speak to them. I ask them that for some reason the alarm goes off at everystore when I walk in and walk out.
My friends and I thought it would be a good idea if I stayed in the store to figure out why. The manager agreed, and so we began the search. My friend walked out with my purse first. The alarms didnt go off.

hmmm. Then its something im wearing. I take off my watch, and I walk out the store.
The alarm rings.
I take off my necklace and I walk out, and again the alarm rings.
I thought, maybe its my belt. So I go to the corner of the store and take off my belt.I come back and walk out of the store again. You guessed it, the alarms went off.
Now I cant stop laughing.
I take off my earrings and Im praying its my earrings. I walk out, and the alarms rinnnnnnng.
This is getting crazy.
My friends pointed out that I was wearing my new pumas. That made sense, it could be my shoes.
SO I take off my shoes. People outside the store are stoping and watching. They are like what the hell is going on? Everytime that girl walks out of the store, the alarms go off.
Now im in my socks, incredibly embarassed, and i walk out the store.
THE ALARM GOES OFF.

Maybe I do have too much iron in my body,( or blood). Still, it sounds ludacris.

I keep racking my brain, what could it be? why am i ringing?
i told the manager that im going to go to the bathroom and check all my clothes.
I go and i check and search and i didnt find anything strange or different.
I keep looking and looking and looking.
Ah ha! I found it. A little strange tag in the inside of my shirt. (all of my clothes were brand new).
I have never seen a tag like that before. The clerk at the store i got it from in the states must have forgot to take it off. I rip off the tag.
I hope this is what is making me ring.
I went back to the store, and I tried again.

I walked in and ... I DIDNT RING!
yay!

Hahah talk about an intense search. I got searched more than I do at airports.
lmao.


I kept the tag for future practical joke use. ;)