utlookThe American UniversiTy of BeiruT

vol. Xliii, no. 4 | TUesdAy, OcT 19, 2010 | The IndependenT sTudenT PublicaTion since 1949

o

on Monday, october 11, 2010, interna-tional AuB students

gathered in West Hall Au-ditorium C at 4pm to grasp what could be the opportuni-ty of a lifetime. Mark Haze, a representative from Amer-ican university in Washing-ton, D.C (Au), came to leb-anon in 2005, during which unfortunate events occurred, and had to leave with no re-sults to speak of. this year, though, he comes bearing good news for students look-

Mohamad Al MedawarStaff Writer

continued on page 4

continued on page 4

In response to general student dissatisfaction concerning Internet per-

formance at AuB for both academic and recreational usages, outlook interviewed Rabih Itani, Assistant Di-rector for operations and Manager of Data Communi-cation Services at the Com-puter and Networking Ser-vices (CNS). the topics of bandwidth allocation, cen-sorship, security and priva-cy were addressed. However, this article will focus strictly on bandwidth issues, as the first of a two-part exposé.What is bandwidth? While time is measured in sec-onds, data is fundamental-ly measured in bits. Hence for bandwidth, which is a measure of the maximum

data transfer rate a certain channel can support, we use multiples of bits per second as a unit. one can imagine the channel as a pipe and the bandwidth as the maxi-mum amount of water that

can pass through the pipe in a second. Naturally, increas-ing the bandwidth decreases the waiting time for a docu-ment to transfer making the surfing experience more flu-id and more enjoyable. How-

ever, bandwidth can also re-fer to a quantity of data as in 2GB, which is the monthly bandwidth quota most AuB students are granted.Although important univer-sities are Internet Service

Providers (ISP) themselves, AuB is not. “We don’t have the license,” said Itani, ex-plaining that AuB uses three different ISPs in order to en-sure a constant connectiv-ity. the CNS considers the amount of bandwidth pur-chased by AUB confidential. Similarly, the budget allocat-ed to this effect was not dis-closed. Without providing an actual figure, Itani lament-ed the high cost of bandwidth in lebanon and told us about a few policies a CNS counsel applies to manage this scarce resource.Among these policies, there is packet shaping. this prac-tice consists of filtering traf-fic depending on content type and then giving priorities and limits to some of these types. For example, at AUB, file-

Fouad BadaouiStaff Writer

CNS Explains its Internet Distribution to Students

october Special Employment Dayopportunities Prevail for lebanese and International Students Alike

INSI

DE

readoutlook@gmail.com

Campus NewsArts & Cultureout loud

3-45-78

Bliss Street, West Hall 208 tel: 01 350 000 ext.3193www.aub.edu.lb/outlook

Out of the BoxEditorial & opinon

910-11

Honorary Scholarship Recipients

Band “shines” 7 out loud! 8

ing to study at Au. the hall was filled with economics and business students, with some biology premeds, and a few psychology majors. En-gineering students left early on after finding out that AU does not have an engineer-ing department. Au, an in-dependent private univer-sity, seems to be a center of attraction for internation-al students. the universi-ty boasts over 12,000 active students on campus, includ-ing both the undergraduate and graduate programs, 60 percent of which are coming from abroad. the university

offers 54 different subjects, including International Re-lations, Business Admin-istration, Communication, Psychology, Biology, His-tory, and Justice, law and Society. What is more in-teresting is that internation-al students taking part in this exchange program can take any class in any major and will have “wide access to courses,” said Haze, “but can only take 12 credits for a total tuition fee of $6,000 in comparison with $18,000 for u.S students.” He also explained that students at-tending this university en-

joy “exposure to a wide vari-ety of amazing people,” such as President obama, who gave an inauguration there recently.Another appealing notion is that over 80 percent of stu-dents at Au are taking part in internship programs, as-sisting participants by pro-viding them with experience in their field of study, allow-ing them to easily acquire po-sitions in prestigious firms. Moreover, Haze mentioned that Arabs in Au are equally dealt with. In fact, Arabic is the third most popular lan-guage to learn and speak at

Au, following Spanish and French. Students are also encouraged to take part in community service and to get involved with extracur-ricular activities.As for living expenses and accommodations, the uni-versity provides dormitories with small-sized rooms and laundry services. However, the fee per semester is about $1,400, whereas off-campus, prices range between $700-$1300 in a secure neighbor-hood with ample security.

New Cafeteria Freedom ClubPage 3 Page 5

2

CNS helpdesk

Pho

t: Sa

lim B

atlo

uni

CAMPuS NEWS2 OUTlOOk OcT 19, 2010

the President’s Recep-tion is an annual tradi-tion that welcomes all

incoming students to AuB, and this year was no excep-tion. It is considered the cul-mination of a long week of orientation, whereby new students are better acquaint-ed with the university ser-vices, register their courses (if they had not done so dur-ing July), and enjoy a trip to Baalback and AuB’s own Ag-riculture Research and Edu-cation Center (AREC) in the

Beqaa Valley.this year’s reception was held on thursday, September 30 on the Green oval. New students were joined by administrative and faculty members, includ-ing former Dean of Student Af-fairs, Maroun kiserwani, as well as current students who served as orientation guides during that week.After all the students had been seated, President Dorman welcomed the students, who represent 30 countries and 37 nationalities, to AuB hoping that their duration of study at

AuB would begin a life-long relationship with the univer-sity.Dorman then proceeded to an-nounce the names of the 15 stu-dents that had received schol-arships. As every year, Merit Scholarships are given to six Sophomores and four Fresh-man, and five Lebanese Bacca-laureate scholarships are given to the highest ranking students in the abovementioned exams. the recipients will continue to receive the scholarship, provid-ed that they maintain an 85 av-erage throughout their study.

Daniela Ashoush (Grand lycee Franco libanais), Patrick Bou Samra, Ghadi Sebaali, Micheal Ibrahim Mouffarrij, Jad Younes (all from St. Joseph School, kor-net Shahwan), and lea Fay-ad (International School, kou-ra) all received the Sophomore Merit Scholarships. Nadia El Gawarsha (Squali-cum High School, uSA), Roza-na El Eid (ISC Al Ain, uAE), Maria Zabaneh (kings’ Acade-my, Jordan) and Nadia kass-ab (ISC, Dubai) were the recip-ients of the Freshmen Merit Scholarship.

As for the lebanese Baccalau-reate scholarships, they were awarded to Reem Abi Am-mar and omar Bou Fakhered-din (Amjad School), Hoda Jaf-fal (Al Mustapha High School) and Samer Chamata (Notre Dames Des Apotres).After cutting a cake to com-memorate the occasion, the at-tendees enjoyed a grand buf-fet, followed by a dance party whereby old and new friends got a chance to mingle and en-joy themselves before begin-ning their journey at AuB.

Is it Wrong or Illegal? Situating the Gaza BlockadeWhen few words speak louder than actions

AuB Welcomes New Students & Honors ScholarshipRecipients

“Is it wrong or illegal?” asks Noura Erakat the ad-junct professor of Interna-tional Human Rights law at Georgetown university, uSA.on Monday, october 11 at 5pm in college hall Auditori-um B, a round table discus-sion on the working paper of Professor Erakat started off. this discussion is part of a series of events that the Is-sam Fares Institute will hold this year. the aim of these events is to help the public understand the variables in global power and policies; in layman’s terms, it serves to make sense of what is going on in the region around us.Professor Erakat the schol-ar activist moves us closer to achieve those goals as she gives a more resolved pic-ture of how Israel exploits the loop holes of the uN char-ter to justify their oppression of 1.6 million Palestinians in the Gaza sector. In specific, her working paper focuses on the blockade that is imposed by Israel and is neglected by

the uN Security Council.In summary, Article 51 of the uN charter states that a member of the united Na-tions under attack could take counter measures they see fit as long as the measures are seen as acts of self-de-fense. this setting requires the presence of two sovereign entities or states. In 2005, Is-rael acknowledged Gaza as a sovereign entity. In 2006 during and after operation “Cast lead” thousands of Is-raeli troops flooded the Gaza strip in an attempt to stop missiles being fired into oc-cupied Palestine (Israel). However, the sector was al-ready under tight control by the Israeli Forces. this bla-tant fact inhibits Israel from waging war because it has al-ready - in one way or another - occupied Gaza; you cannot wage war over an entity that you have already occupied - it is illogical not to mention il-legal. In addition to the occu-pation, Israel has imposed a blockade on the Palestinians. the blockade mainly inhibits the import of many - if not all - vital supplies into the sec-tor. the Geneva Convention

obliges an occupying force to maintain order in the occu-pied land and protect its cit-izens. Israel denies that it is an occupying force. Howev-er, as Erakat cleverly shows, whether Israel is an occupy-ing force or not, the blockade it is imposing is illegal. So the problem is that Article 51 - among others - in its pres-ent state is subject to various misinterpretations. the Is-raelis believe that this space for misinterpretation is a permanently open gateway to change the legal system as claimed by their former head of the International law Di-vision.Hence, to put an end to the evasive tactics employed by the Israelis to legitimize the blockade, Erakat claims that the united Nations Security Council (uNSC) has to be mo-bilized. Ironically, the uNSC has made few resolutions re-garding the Middle East the past years, 11 of which are related to the zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment and only two regarding the situation in Gaza. unfortu-nately, the first resolution (1850) does not involve the

Gaza blockade - it is more of a condemnation to Hamas - while the second (1860) mere-ly mentions the blockade.Assistant Professor of Po-litical Studies/Internation-al law, Coralie Hindawi, criticized the working pa-per as being unoriginal. She states that many similar pa-pers have been presented in many conflicts including the Arab-Israeli one. Also, she questions the emphasis on the uNSC. the uNSC has proved to be unreliable espe-cially in the Arab world. Also, Beirut Director of Human Rights Watch, Nadim Houry argues that Israel, if estab-lished as an occupying force, would exploit the legal sys-tem to be able to arrest Pal-estinians and confiscate sup-plies as they are doing now. to Mr. Nadim the battle is over the public’s opinion not the uNSC’s.In response, Erakat says that her work is only a scholar-ly analysis. It serves to “iso-late the variable from the ob-vious.” that being said, the professor confesses that she does not oppose an emphasis on states, but the main goal

of her paper is to end the con-troversies and black holes of the uN charter articles that have lead to the legitimiza-tion of the Israeli aggression and the elongation of the Pal-estinian humanitarian cri-sis.But away from all the techni-calities and ambiguity of in-ternational law, what the ma-jor consensus in the audience was that there is a constant battle going on in the court-room even when the can-ons outside rest. Most of the Arabs are not aware of this battle, mainly because it oc-curs behind closed doors and in small contained rooms. While Israel makes use of all its top lawyers to manipu-late the uN charter, we gath-er our breaths for the next le-gitimized Israeli air strike. At the end, -in my opinion- the uNSC can not even con-demn Israeli actions when its own charter speaks with Is-raeli lips that Israel is exer-cising its legal rights every time they kill Arabs and re-cently turks.

khodor Abou DayaStaff Writer

tala kardasStaff Writer

3

CAMPuS NEWSOUTlOOk OcT 19, 2010

october Special Employment DaysFuture Job opportunities for Students - Interviews on the Spot!

Promising Cafeteria Has Bumpy Start

Yumna GhandourContributing Writer

Fouad BadaouiSenior Staff Writer

Dr. Maryam Ghandour paces the halls and of-fices of West Hall, an-

swering questions, giving advice to students, leading company representatives, taking phone calls and giving orders, all at about the same time. With such fast paced gusto, the october Special Employment Days have be-gun.Headed by Dr. Ghandour, the career and placement specialist of AuB, Special Employment Days is taking place on campus with the aim of providing job opportunities for interested students. Busi-ness and financial firms from around the country partici-pate by giving presentations in West Hall. Stands can also be found in the upper campus around West

Hall. Students are able to get acquainted with a wide vari-ety of firms and what they are looking for in their employ-

ees. they offer jobs in any-thing from accounting to con-sulting to auditing. Seniors especially, are then able to present their resumes for job vacancies with a chance of getting recruited.this event was to be taking place from october 11th to the 29th, but Dr.Ghandour found it necessary to keep it

going on until November 8.“there is so much demand from the firms in Lebanon to come to AuB and participate,

we had to provide more days to be able to include them all,” she says.In fact, Special Employment Days used to happen annu-ally, but now it takes place twice a year due to the high demand of firms as well par-ticipating students. With the deadline extended, the stands this year are fully

booked. last year, over 75 firms took part in giving pre-sentations and accepting re-cruitments. Some seniors who had applied in october got accepted and were able to secure a job before they had graduated. that is not to say that only seniors can take part. Some presentations are for the juniors of AuB, offer-ing internships inphysics, math, science and engineering.Credit libanais is one of the first firms to set up a stand outside. they are looking for students who are studying economic business or finance. With the informal interviews they conduct, they also look for specific qualities.“the student needs to be mo-tivated of course,” says Elie El Helon, one of the represen-tatives of Credit libanais. “they should also have some experience. If they don’t,

they should at least be ready to demonstrate strong work-ing skills.”the october Special Em-ployment Days is sure to be a success again this year. Dr. Ghandour seems to be very enthusiastic.“I get so happy when the students know themselves, when they know where they are heading. they come in concerned about finding jobs and we are able to provide them with options,” she con-cludes.With job opportunities broad-ened, the amounts of men and women in suits increases this month across AuB. For those interested and curious in what a future in these fields might look like, the stands and presentations are open to everyone. And some are of-fering chocolate bars.

“I get so happy when the students know themselves, where they are

heading. They come in concerned about finding

jobs and we are able to provide them with options.”

the Ada Dodge Hall cafe-teria opened on thursday Ocotber 14, for the first time in nearly a year and under new management.Many students had ex-pressed frustration last ac-ademic year for not having a proper canteen on campus and a sit-in even took place. President Peter Dorman also sent an email to the AUB community express-ing his concern over the ab-sence of the social gathering area that the cafeteria repre-sented. In the past academ-ic year, students have been provided food from plac-es the mobile kitchen near West Hall and the Charles Hostler cafeteria, although neither are considered to be complete cafeterias. the ad-ministration had sent sev-eral imail updates concern-

ing the selection process for a catering company and the renovations. under the man-agement of Faqra Catering Company, the new cafete-ria presents a stark contrast to the previous one. “It’s like Walt Disney’s cafeteria” said one student upon walking into it for the first time.the decoration is indeed mod-ern and colorful. Both floors can now accommodate more customers and the seating is, by most accounts, pleas-ant and comfortable. Couch-es lounge a ground floor wall. Yet the outside area behind the building is unchanged and barely sheltered from wind and sun. It is adorned with nothing more than plas-tic chairs and tables. the bathroom facilities have not been updated and, on thurs-day and Friday, they were not maintained up to AuB standards.

In addition to the regular daily meals, the kitchen pro-vides several separate areas specialized in different kinds of food. there is a diet food section as well as an Italian one that focuses on pasta and

pizza. others provide juices, coffee and ready-made sand-wiches like those the mobile kitchen would offer. A Car-ibou café section will open next week and the cafeteria will close at 10 p.m. on week-days.the food quality is accept-able according to the prices.

But the problem lies with the service. “the service is awful” commented another student. In fact, most students seemed interested in trying out the separate stands that offered variety rather than settling

for a plat du jour. this result-ed in a huge pressure on the pizza and burger stands, es-pecially around 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Many students wait-ed for 15 minutes and some even gave up and left as the inexperienced staff attempt-ed to keep up with the over-whelming demands. It is un-

derstandable that a project of this size may take time to take off, but employees were stressed beyond function-ality. A change in cafeteria staff is expected to take place soon.Provost Ahmad Dallal and President Dorman tried out the new facilities on Fri-day october 15 and Dorman agreed that a change in the shifts was needed. Dorman also described the new cafe-teria as a “complete transfor-mation.” All in all, students are satisfied with the presen-tation, accept the food qual-ity and complain about the service

“Under the management of Faqra Catering Company, the new cafeteria presents a stark contrast to the previous one.”

4

CAMPuS NEWSOUTlOOk OcT 19, 2010

sharing web site Rapidshare.com takes much longer to ac-cess than does Gmail.com. the decision regarding which web sites deserve priority over others and which are to be purposely slowed down is made at the discretion of the CNS counsel whose mem-bers are still unknown to us. that said, it is fair enough to assume that this strategy plays a major role in improv-ing the students’ Internet ex-perience as it does for a num-

ber of companies according to Ridha Chebbi, Network secu-rity expert.According to Itani, the band-width is shared evenly among users at any time, regardless of their location on campus. However, many students have challenged this state-ment and verification by Out-look has yet to be made.In order to save bandwidth, the CNS invites you to share your large downloads through http://share.aub.edu.lb/ to avoid a costly re-download by peers. Also, Mi-crosoft Windows updates can be obtained from a local serv-

er instead of Microsoft’s mir-rors overseas. Web page cach-ing, which consists in saving data temporarily and feed-ing it to future users to avoid requesting from the original server again, is deployed on AuBnet and as Itani indicat-ed “CNS is working on a so-lution to cache video in addi-tion to other content.”CNS offers overnight FtP, a service that enables AuB-net users to request a large file download out of quota-charge. It is underused since no more than 280 requests have been filed between Jan-uary and August 2010, and

it remains unclear who ap-proves or disapproves those requests and based on what criteria.In the first week of class-es, over a hundred residents from Penrose signed a peti-tion expressing their malcon-tent with the quality of the Internet connection. the pe-tition emphasized the fact that the connection was slow-er and worse after 7:00pm, making the quota-free hours from 8:00pm to 8:00am non exploitable for the dorm res-idents. the CNS shortly re-sponded with an email sur-vey. the latter, however, was

not thorough with only three of the seven questions per-taining to the connection.It is apparent that CNS has been implementing sever-al strategies to improve the quality of the Internet and has been respondent to col-lective initiatives to the same end. Notwithstanding, students still believe there should be more transparency in regards to the bandwidth budget, the Internet policies and the structures and oper-ations of CNS.

“there should be more transparency in regards to the bandwidth budget”

continued from page 1

continued from page 1

Applying to study in Au is performed online and re-quires a GPA of 3.0/4.0 (78/100). the application in-cludes, apart from the resume and personal information, two essays concerning career goals and the applicants’ rea-sons behind choosing Au. A letter of recommendation is also required with the appli-cation. As for language, Haze explained that “passing both the English courses” ( Engl 203/204) at AuB is enough as a language proficiency stan-dard. Finally, the deadline to apply for the fall semester is March 15, while the dead-

line for applying to the spring semester is october 1. In less than two weeks, a response for each application is sub-mitted to applying students, and visas are handled by the university.on a separate occasion, though relevant, the Amid-east Center, in collaboration with the ‘u.S. Education-al Group’(uSEG), organized the uS university Fair in Movenpick, on Monday, oc-tober 11. Representatives from about 50 uS universi-ties attended the event in-cluding ‘ohio State univer-sity,’ ‘Marshal university,’ ‘Indiana university,’ ‘Flori-da Institute of technology,’

‘Mercer university,’ ‘State university of New York,’ ‘university of Iowa,’ ‘uni-versity of Miami,’ ‘universi-ty of Evansville,’ ‘university of Michigan-Flint,’ ‘univer-sity of toledo,’ ‘university of South Carolina’, and many others.the ‘Educational Group’s Fall 2010 Fair’ is being held in cities throughout the Mid-dle East, including Jeddah, kuwait City, Manama, Doha, Dubai, Amman, and our very own Beirut. Its aim is to help “find the right higher educa-tional program that you are interested in” because they believe that “internation-al education offers opportu-

nities to acquire training, knowledge, and understand-ing which will enhance you, your country and the world,” as was mentioned in the fair’s guide.Both undergraduate and graduate programs are be-ing offered to students cover-ing all subjects and fields of study. Moreover, after inter-viewing volunteers and stu-dents at the fair, their opin-ions could all be summed up by the comments of volun-teer Farah Shehadeh, who said that “studying abroad could not get any easier! the fair provides you with the immediate human assis-tance which still proves to be

a more efficient kind of help when you are starting your search from scratch.” More-over, she was very grateful for the efforts of the represen-tatives and explained that “the college representatives were very friendly and help-ful. they provided the guests with fully clear information regarding majors, program, campus, services, entrance requirements, grants, and fi-nancial aid.”

“studying abroad could not get any easier!”

lookout people!Soap Football

Coming your way

next week!

5

ARtS & CultuREOUTlOOk OcT 19 , 2010

Freedom Club Rocks Chocolate Club with Astonishingturnout

the Freedom Club proved that no one can party harder than

a lebanese in hosting their “Fall Back” party at Choco-late Club in Sin El Fil on oc-tober 15.the club managed to sellout the tickets just two days be-fore the party date. Freedom Club president Michel El-Haddad, fourth year mechan-ical engineering student, said that many people re-quested tickets after the sell-out, and even some students called the Chocolate owner to try get in using “wasta”.“tickets were being sold in the black market for $50 and that a Saudi guy was willing to pay 10 times the price of a normal ticket to let him and his 3 bodyguards in,” said El-Haddad.the party started around 10 p.m. with Mix FM’s DJ Ramz playing songs that are old as Montell Jordan’s “this is How We Do It” and as recent as kevin Rudolf’s hit single “I Made It”.According to El-Haddad, by 12:30 a.m., 713 people en-tered the club. After that it was free to enter the party.“this was one of the biggest welcome parties not just in AuB, but even bigger than those of other universities found in lebanon,” said El-Haddad. “the event was cov-ered by the otV’s well known “3ish Beirut”, Beiruting.com, and of course outlook.”“It was very crowded and Chocolate was a hotbox,” said

Joseph trak, biology soph-omore. He also mentioned that he would “definitely do it again.” Emile Zankoul, sec-ond year Engineering, en-joyed his first party at Choco-late and said that despite the heat, he had a blast. the par-ty ended around 3:00 AM.El-Haddad said that Free-dom Club is definitely plan-ning on having another par-ty, though not sure if they would repeat at Chocolate. He thanked all of the peo-

ple who helped organize the event, including Freedom Club VP Michel Darcy and Elias Gharib, those who cov-ered the event and everyone for attending one of the most successful parties so far host-ed by an AuB club and mak-ing it a memorable one.The Freedom Club’s next event is “a surprise,” said Haddad. Everyone can be sure that the next party will be an even bigger success.

Joseph SabaStaff Writer

Today, I caught myself smiling for no reason... then I realized I was thinking about you. I miss your smile,

barefoot Cinderella from Chocolate.If you know what I’m talking about, email me at:

princecharmingaub@gmail.com

Phot

os b

y Jo

esph

Sab

a

Freedom Club members dance all through the night

6

ARtS & CultuREOUTlOOk OcT 19 , 2010

the lebanese Medical Stu-dents’ International Com-mittee (LeMSIC) held its first annual National General As-sembly (NGA) on the week-end of October 9. The two day meeting took place at Hotel le Crillon in Broumana, and witnessed the culmination of the organization’s efforts over the past year. Around 100 AuB and uSJ medi-cal students participated to make this event a great suc-cess.leMSIC is a member of the International Federations of Medical Students’ Asso-ciations (IFMSA) and ac-cordingly has six standing committees on Research Ex-change (SCoRE), Profession-al Exchange (SCOPE), Med-ical Education (SCoME), Public Health (SCoPH), Re-

the closing ceremony of BIFF’s 10th edition was held Wednesday,

october 13, as a glamorous evening took place at the uNESCo palace in Beirut. the festival, which had proudly opened its curtains with Sofia Coppola’s “Some-where” in these same prem-ises, closed the week-long event, gloriously!As the guests waltzed into the screening room, the fa-mous actor Elie Mitri hosted the award assignation, with “a fun spirit and theatrical twist” as Christine Youakim, assistant ceremony direc-tor, explains. Three catego-ries of awards were present-ed: Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, both subdivid-ed into further categories, and the Audience Vote. the members of the jury, Robert Daudelin, Arsinee khanjian and kalki koechlin award-ed Ahd kamel with the Gold Aleph for Best Short Film for

“the Shoemaker,” Shawkat Amin korki for Best Feature Film for “kick-off” and other six directors in their respec-tive categories. the audi-ence, on its end contributed to “the long respected tradi-tion” as Alice Edde, award-presenter explains, by hon-oring Juan Jose Campanella with the Audience Vote for “El Secreto de sos ojos.”the evening further contin-

ued with the projection of “I am love” by luca Guadag-nino, introduced to the audi-ence by a vibrant and glow-ing Colette Naufal, director of the BIFF. the movie por-trayed the director’s ability to

merge culinary and cinemat-ographic art, staging the sto-ry of the Recchia upper-class, Italian family. the intense film focused on the dynam-ics of the family dealing with transitions; the selling of the family business, a daughter discovering her homosexual-ity and a mother, enacted by a brilliant tilda Swinton, en-gaging into an enflamed love affair. this panorama of sto-ries, linked by the beauty of food, is portrayed through soft and refined images mak-ing us appreciate the detail and art of every scene.As the curtains close on this spectacular festival, what is it that made it as special? Na-ufal states, “this year’s event was bigger! We want to ex-pose lebanon to movies of the world, of different cultures; we like it, we bring it! And I have noticed with time that people have become more ap-preciative of this art”. She continues explaining how “this year’s novelties are a wider range of internation-al directors being presented,

as well as a the new culinary movie category, which gave the festival a tasteful twist!”. A strong mark of women di-rectors was also highly ap-preciated, as kamel hopes, “Inshallah, more women should take the lead, I find it promising!”A final important message for lebanon, was shared by Degaulle Eid, winner of the Jury Special Prize for Fea-ture Film with “Chou Sar?” a feature retracing the tough

productive Health and Aids (SCoRA) and Human Rights and Peace (SCoRP). Each of these standing committees is responsible for organizing many events, and members made a jump start on prep-arations for these events in Standing Committee (SC) sessions at the NGA.the NGA did not only com-prise of SC sessions, but also included project presenta-tions, an IFMSA presenta-tion, official IFMSA trainings and workshops, and theme events.Day one began with registra-tion and a coffee break, fol-lowed by a Newcomers’ ses-sion during which leMSIC President (2009/2010) Dr. Caline Mattar introduced new members to leMSIC SCs and executive board. Next, the six SC sessions ran si-multaneously till lunch time. Meal times in general, as well

as the coffee breaks, satisfied all tastes; le Crillon offered participants the finest either in the garden courtyard or in a hall with a view of the leb-anese Mountains.After lunch, trainings on leadership Development, Contacting Externals and Fundraising, and Project Management as well as work-shops on time management and motivation and well-be-ing were offered. According to Med III Student and leM-SIC National training Sup-port Division Director katia khoury, “trainings are es-sential for the members’ per-sonal development and bet-ter enable them to support a growing organization. As we trainers say: ‘trainings are the backbone of leMSIC.’”As per the NGA’s theme of “Healthy Doctors,” partici-pants had the choice of pick-ing one of four events: Yoga,

Physical Health, Nutrition-al Health and theater Skills. these were concurrently beneficial and entertaining to all, and they will undoubt-edly have lasting effects on Medical Student lifestyles.one of the major highlights of the NGA was the Social Program which took place on Saturday night. It was a color party; members had to wear the color of their SCs. In addition, each SC had to prepare a stand with special food, drinks and games. An-gels, gypsies, pirates, hip-pies, and even Scotsmen ran amok, dancing and greatly enjoying each others’ compa-ny.Despite a late evening, break-fast was served early Sunday morning, followed directly by another round of SC ses-sions. the afternoon was jam-packed with project pre-sentations and the continua-

tion of trainings. lastly, the NGA saw the handover to the new LeMSIC Executive Board.leMSIC President (2010/2011) Sara Hassan was very happy with the out-comes of the NGA, “I am per-sonally extremely proud to be part of the organizing Com-mittee that did a fantastic job in organizing an assem-bly of this caliber. It has defi-nitely taken leMSIC to new heights!”Feedback from participants was also positive. “It was the first attempt for Medical Stu-dents to boget her and it was a blasting success,” said Med II student Nicolas khattar. With the NGA finally real-ized, leMSIC can add anoth-er notch in its belt of accom-plishments.

National General Assembly takes leMSIC to New Heights

…and Cut! the Curtains Close at the Beirut International Film Festival

Wajiha Jurdi kheirSenio Staff Writer

Caterina BelardiStaff Writer

“Inshallah, more women should take

the lead, I find it promising!”

memories of the director un-veiling the mysteries around the murder of his entire fam-ily during the Civil War. An emotional Eid speaks out “we have to talk to each oth-er, and watch this movie all together, for our sake, we, the ‘chaab lebnani’”…and on such a powerful note, who’s looking forward to next year’s edition? I am, definitely!

Courtesy of B

eirut International Film Festival

ARtS & CultuRE7OUTlOOk OcT 19, 2010

Currently playing at the Hard Rock Cafe is Shine, an aptly named

band considering the sheer amount of energy they both contain and invoke in listen-ers. the band travels inter-nationally, playing in coun-tries like South korea, China, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Cana-da, uSA, India, Indonesia, the uk, and, of course, leba-non. Shine is primarily a cov-er band; its members all have side projects, but enjoy per-forming classics from artists like Pink Floyd, Sean kings-ton, Black Eyed Peas, Eva-nescence, and ACDC. their name comes from a Vanes-sa Amorosi song, which band leader, lead singer, and Aus-tralian native, Claire kelly, says can refer to “sunshine or moonshine. It’s energy.” the members come from a vari-ety of places, including Aus-tralia, the uk, Canada, and even las Vegas. though from all across the globe, the band has a con-nection that compels them to do everything together. kel-ly describes the dynamic of the band as a group of “posi-tive, wonderful people.” Es-sentially, they are their own family members, spending most of their time together. “We go for the people first. We live together, we eat to-gether, we don’t sleep togeth-er,” kelly said, laughing. “We do everything together; we would literally jump out of a plane together.” the members have all had their own projects prior to forming Shine, which was formed in 2004, though with different members. Ben Har-ris, for example, is the bass-ist of Absolace, a progressive metal band from Dubai. they also have different tastes, ranging from hip-hop to clas-sic rock to Fayrouz, and ev-erything in between. Due to this diversity, the group has formed a unique mix of char-acters, with evident chem-istry. Whether playing for a full house or a room of twen-

ty people, the energy comes through. “We do a lot of in-teraction on stage...the more people we have the more fun we have,” says kelly. the other singer, Alan J Roberts, is easily the most enthusias-tic part of the band. His style, comprised of shutter shades and a sideways hat, paired with his dance moves, create an excitement which is conta-gious to both the band mem-bers and the crowd. the highlight of last thurs-day’s event came when the band performed Guns and Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine.” kelly’s voice, accompanied by Roberts, combined with Dan talbot on keys, Holli Coup-land on drums, bassist Ben Harris, and Rudy Rangel as lead guitarist, soared to new heights, especially when it came to the song’s close. Ran-gel’s solo drew much atten-tion, causing audience mem-bers to stop what they were doing and stare. Perhaps the height of the night’s ex-citement came when kelly and Roberts hopped around next to Rangel, clapping and swaying to the guitar solo, showing that their chemistry comes as naturally as their love for music. the interaction between the members of the band and the audience seems to be a key piece of their success. kelly spoke of the crowd in leba-non specifically, saying that “so far the crowd here has been the crowd that...you can just have so much fun with...lebanon is just...this awe-some place.” All night, the band took requests from fans, walking through the audi-ence, getting the crowd in-volved. “We’re here...to have fun,” said kelly of the band, “there are no rules here.” Shine currently plays at Hard Rock Cafe six nights a week, not including Fridays, and will be in lebanon un-til at least November 15th before moving on to perform the grand opening of Hard Rock in Dubai. this month, the band wears pink ribbons

on their clothing for Pinkto-ber, in support of breast can-cer awareness, which helps to raise money for chari-ties such as May Jallad. the band will also be doing an in-terview with Radio one in the upcoming week. kelly epitomizes the “shine” of the group. Her ambition is apparent, as she sings in not only English, but German, French, Chinese, and kore-an. Of Arabic, she confidently

states, “I’m gonna learn.” She also plays percussion, keys, violin, and bass guitar. When praised for her soulful sound, she responded that her belief in always improving herself is what pushes her forward. “I don’t think I have a good voice. I think that its some-thing that you keep on learn-ing...like anything that you love doing, you want to con-stantly improve at it. until I die I will never think I have

a good voice. once you say, ‘well, i’m good at that,’ well then, you might as well give up.”

the band “shines” at Hard Rock Heather JaberNews Executive

Shine” concert poster”

Courtesy of Hard R

ock Cafe

8

out louDOUTlOOk OcT 19 , 2010

“What were your first impressions of your first couple weeks at AUB?”outloud is brought to you by outlook Staff Writers Edrees Elrachidi and

Emile Zankoul, giving you the rare opportunity of conveying your opinons

relating to current events or circumstanes taking place at AuB.

Want to be heard? Find any one of us on campus and give us your

thoughts about what’s going on and your picture & feedback just might be

incoproated into our upcoming issue!

“It’s a new world full of surprises, a mix between fun and work. It’s 180 degrees different from school” (Mahmoud Mardini, Freshman).

“I’m having fun; I met a lot of cool people. Now we hang out at west” (Dima Abi Fakhr, Freshman).

“I liked the community; there are a lot of societies you can join. They promote in-tra-cultural activities, diversity etc. I liked some teachers, I liked the campus, how there are a lot of things such as the gym, the pool, the tennis courts and the Green-

field.” (Nerces Arslanian, Freshman).

““The 1st week was really bad, it felt like a year, but the 2nd one was amazing be-cause I found my way around and met everyone”

(Rhea Moufarrej, Business Sophomore).

All Photos by Moham

ad Alameh

9

out oF tHE BoxOUTlOOk OcT 19, 2010

Empty Nest Syndrome

A Fruit-ful life

Most of the readers of this newspaper, if not all, are independent adults who are currently students at AuB, and some number of these students live in apart-ments away from their families. If not now, they will soon enough be living inde-pendently if they seek a job abroad or when they get married, eventually. During this period, most parents experience what is known as the Empty Nest Syndrome (ENS). This refers to feelings of sadness and grief experienced by parents after their children reach a certain age and move out of the house (to go to college or to get married).Women are more likely to be affected by such a syndrome than men. usually, when children leave home, mothers are going through other critical life events, such as menopause, or caring for their elderly parents. However, this does not mean that fathers do not experience ENS. Feelings of sadness are normal at this time. It is also important to note that more mothers work these days, leading to less feelings of emptiness and loneliness when their children leave home.Moreover, recent research shows that the relationship between parent and child can have important consequences for both parties at that time. When the rela-tionship is secure, parents can psychologically benefit from the empty nest and maintain healthy relations with their children. Insecure, hostile, and detached parent-child relations may reduce support between the parent and child when such support is mostly needed.Importantly, it might be helpful to seek treatment when this departure leads to overwhelming sadness. Counseling and therapy may be helpful to keep one’s feel-ings in perspective. one’s support system, such as friends, might be very helpful. In addition, the time and energy formerly spent on taking care of children can be directed towards different areas such as engaging in hobbies, sports and even ca-reer pursuits. Some experts suggest that one should begin preparing for the emp-ty nest while the children are still living in the house. this can be achieved by accomplishing one’s goals, engaging in hobbies and even making plans with the whole family.Reference: Empty Nest Syndrome. (2009). In Psychology Today online. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/child-neglect

Would you believe me if I told you that mankind has been a strict and instinctive fruit eater for millions of years? In fact, weapons, artefacts, and stone tools have given us reason to believe that the prehistoric man has existed some two million years ago, and ever since before then and up until the onset of his rather recent meat-eating crescendo, the primitive human being has depended on food gather-ing, not hunting. In essence, this could lead us to conclude that we are evolution-ary related to fruit and well, if we look at the physiology of fruit and fruit digestion our hypothesis is confirmed. Here’s why:• “...all the vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, amino acids, and fatty acids that the human body requires for its existence are to be found in fruit” says Har-vey Diamond, author of Americas best selling dieting and wellness book “Fit for life.”• Fruit is also the simplest and fastest food digested by the human body. Any wonder why fruits need an average of half an hour before leaving our stomachs as compared to other food products such as dairy and meat which can take up to eight times that amount of time (up to 4 hours)?!• Fruits are picked nearly completely self-digested as they ripe, offering us their nutritious content with minimal digestion. If we couple the energy spared from unnecessary detoxification as a result of consuming other complex foods with the insuperably high water content in fruit (between 80% and 90%) we find the vital energy and water capacity needed to cleanse our systems and keep us healthy, thereby aiding in natural hygiene and weight loss.Let’s face it, the energy benefits (mainly in the form of fructose) and nutrients reaped from consuming fresh fruit, are far more enduring than those of other food products. You can count on it, so long as fruit is properly consumed, on an empty stomach, living health with absolutely no deprivation can be ours!

Maroun kisrwani

Cleo Cacoulidis

Antonios Francis

Rami Diab

timmy Malkoun

Yahia Hamade

Mariam El Ali

Salim Batlouni

John Hajjar

Joelle Haddad

Giovanny Reaidi

Heather Jaberlojine kamelMostafa Fadlallah

Mohamad Al Medawar

Sally khalifehlara traboulsi

Fouad BadaouiYasmin FansaMaryam Hoballahtala kardas

Sarah Al DiraniMohamad Al MedawarCaterina BelardiEdrees Elrachidilynn ItaniSherif MaktabiRita obeidYasmine SaabJoseph SabaAmer SareMaya Sfeirlara traboulsiEmile Zankoul

Nader Al AhmadiehMarwan Ali JaafarSamer Bu JawdehWajiha Jurdi-kheirIlijia trojanovic’

Mohamad Alamehtariq BuhilaigahDima Hajj

Deedee El Jilani

The OUTlOOk Team

Chairperson

Faculty Advisor

Responsible Director

Editor-in-Chief

Associate Editor

Editor at large

Arabic Editor

Photography Editor

layout Director

layout Editor

Member at large

News Executives

Web Master

Business Managers

Senior Staff Writers

Staff Writers

Contributing Writers

Photographers

Cartoonist

Food for thought Rami Diab

Psyched out Rita Obeid

10

oPINIoNOUTlOOk OcT 19 , 2010

الفناء، دار في األماكن أعظم فالناس ل تزورها إلاّ بعد انتقاء، البناء. أعظم إلاّ بها يُشاد ول جتد فيها إقراء الضيف، والضرب بالصيف. والسياحة بالسيف، إلى يروم مشغول، فيها الكلاّ ويبني األوضاع، ليصلح احللول، القالع. فأعداؤها ل ترحم، وأشداّ من أجرم، تبعث باجلنود، لُتسقط احلدود، تنأى عن السجود، ومتيل قطعت أن بعد القدود. إلى ، لقيت عهدي، بتجوال كلاّ املمتدِّعضدي، على فشداّ العبِد، أبا وقال خذ الذي عندي، في وصف قوم جدي. فقال: شارعنا املنارة، ومركوبنا احلضارة، وشعارنا السيارة، ومسلسلنا باب احلارة. القيد وكسر الصيد، هوايتنا أعمالنا احليض. عن والدفاع ا جيوبنا زاهرة، وغاللنا وافرة، أماّفقافرة، ومصاريفنا كافرة. لكن فاضي، وبالنا راضي، عيشنا عاصمة نحن ماِض. زماننا الكتاب، نزخر بالكتاّاب من أخذة السهر، مدينة نحن األلباب. على ضوء القمر، نُذهب الضجر،

وضع أن إلى يفكر سعيد ظلاّ يحققها لعلاّه جانباً خططه

عند املستطاع وانتظر... إناّها اآلن السنة األخيرة من حياة سيتخراّج اجلامعية. سعيد سعيد إن شاء اهلل. لكن ما يفراّق أناّه الطلبة سعيد عن معظم سعى للحصول على تخصص فرعي1. كلاّ ما يحول بينه وبني التخصص الفرعي هو مساق2 التسجيل، وقت حان واحد. ووجد سعيد احللاّ ملعضلته التي

وليلي لهيب، نهاري مريب، ووقتي قريب، إمتحاني كريب، عصيب، أمتنى لو أغيب. فقلت احلديد فإناّك رسلك، على له: ل الذي النصيب، وذلك تذيب، بد ل النهاية في لكن يخيب، من مثيب، فقال: يا ليتني أجيب، ما فادني احلبيب، ول كلاّ منيب، لبيب. أنا من كلية يا فاسمح أتخرج لن لكني الهندسة، حتى أصاب بالهلوسة، فالضرب على الرأس بالقدوم، أخر لي من تلقي العلوم. فضاقت بي البالد، عمل وازدهر بازدياد، والقسط واهلل أجدت له: فقلت اجلالد. حولً. عمرك ازداد زدني قولً، درسي، أكمل اتركني فقال: غرسي، حصد من أمتكن كي أو لعرسي، مدعو أنت وبعدها فتركته رمسي. على للصالة العشاق، ألشهد اآلفاق، وجبت كأس من فتًى انتباهي فلفت احلب ذاق، يشكي لي همه بعد فقال: الزمان وضاق، به أن غدر لساني للشعر ناطُق، وقلبي في الهوى حالُق، ضاقت بي املفارُق،

التسجيل مكتب إلى صديقنا له يقول الطلب. م يقداّ لكي ألغينا بترداّد: ”آه، لقد املسؤول بتعاسة: سعيد يرداّ حجزك.“ د احملداّ الوقت ينتِه لم ”لكن الطلب.“ تقدمي عملية إلمتام املعروف ل املطواّ احلديث يدور كلاّ قرب القلوب في واحملفوظ والتدمير واحلقد الكره مشاعر هناك مهالً! لكن الذاتي. عاملنا في فطبعاً أمل فسحة الشاذاّ عن القواعد اإلجتماعية

لشائُق، إليها قلبي وحبيبتي نهاري بدونها عابُق، ودمع العني قل بيننا ما دافُق، لفرقاها التناطُق، بعد أن أمست قلوبنا بارق، اجلماُل لواصُق، في عينها بإغماضها ينقلب دهري غاسُق، في له حارُق، لهيٌب صوتها احلشى قلوٌب خوافُق، واحمليا في حلو منها والريق غارُق، احلسن عالُق، هواها في ولباّي املذائُق، البوائُق، من علينا أن حلت إلى النواعُق، فوقنا حامت ما بعد لم والصادُق، الكاذُب واختلط فهل املنافُق، هو من أدري أعد ترى ما أنا ذائُق؟ فقلت له ل ُفضاّ ل يرحم أبوك. فأنشأ فوك، كماّ

يقول:أل سحقاً لقلوٍب بها

نهوى الذي ماكان يهواناويهوانا الذي نظن أنه في قلبنا لن يلقى إل الهواَن

ل حتسنباّ احلب متعًة فلن يُزهر إلاّ إن آن اآلوان

واإلدارية يقوم املسؤول بإرساله إلى مكتب فالن... ويقوم فالن بإرساله إلى عالن. يذهب سعيد إلى الشمال ليعود إلى اجلنوب، يعود أدراجه غرباً فيرسل شرقاً، إلى وينزل الدرج يصعد سعيد السماء إلى روحه تصعد أن إليه وإناّا هلل فإناّا تنزل... ول

لراجعون. اً فينا... ويبقى سعيد حياّ

األسدي الِهزَبْر بن ليث ثنا حداّأن قبل بيروت، مرًة زرت قال: فلله ويفوت. العمر قطارُ ميراّ مدينٌة هي أجملها. ما دراّها كثيرة اخليرات، جليلة النعمات، حلوة الذكريات. رجالها فطنة، من بيروت فتنة. ونساؤها

يتدخل ل خلوق، طالب سعيد يترتب في شؤون أحد، ينجز ما عليه من واجبات جامعية، ومن

ثماّ يعود إلى املنزل.أحباّ سعيد األيام، من يوم في أن يقلب حياته رأساً على عقب. ر سعيد جيداً ولوقٍت طويل، فكاّعادي لرجل السهل من فليس عن نفسه يشغل أن طبيعي عقلياً نفسه ويتعب الدراسة وجسدياً من دون أن يعاتبه أولياء عنه. املسؤولون يؤنبه أو أمره

أو بالفقر اخلطر، أو السلم في البطر. نحن ملتقى األديان، وكلاّ قطع ثم اجلنان. في خطر ما األوان، فاتنا لقد قائالً: حديثه جلوعان، واهلل وأنا األذان، وبدأ األقدار، لنمأل الدار، إلى هلم بزوغ وبعد األخبار. ونكمل الفجرِ، وانتقاص يوٍم من العمرِ. الوادعة، بيروت قلب إلى ذهبنا وقال لي هذي هي اجلامعة، التي للفوائد جامعة، ولغدرات الزمان مانعة، فاجلامعة األميركية في على مقتصرًة ليست بيروت معنيٌة بل الشهادات، إعطاء احلضارات، وإمناء الثقافات ببناء بها من النجباء، ومدراّسوها طالاّواحة، في واحة العقالء. من تبسط مرتاحة، فيها القطط لكلاّ تهباّ اجلناَح، الظالل حتت لتثلج ُحضٍن كرميٍة جحجاحة، أو اجلراَح، وتشفي القلوب املناحة. وتبدأ الفتيات تباغت فتوجهت لطالٍب قريب، شكله جنيب، كتابه رهيب، لكن محياه عجيب، فسألتُه مابك ياحبيب؟ وعقلي أمري عجيب، فقال: إن

طواها سابقاً! سيحاول سعيد أن يثق بترتيبات إدارة التسجيل بحجز للطالب سمحت التي عبر اإلنتظار لئحة في موقع زيادة ذلك بعد يتم اإلنترنت. بأناّ على سعة3 الصف. علماً للوصول املسلك يأخذ هذا من ميأل أن مواد من يبتغيه ما إلى املعنيني؛ تواقيع ويأخذ طلب وهذا ما فعله سعيد طوال ثالثة

أيام منذ بدء وقت التسجيل.يذهب حني الرابع اليوم يأتي

املقامة البيروتية

ة حقيقية) ى امللل (مستوحاة من قصاّ سعيد يتحداّ

عامر الصريعكاتب صحفي

خضر أبوديةكاتب صحفي

11

EDItoRIAl AND oPINIoNOUTlOOk

“Connecting the Academy”

“No other extracurricular ac-tivity on campus is better for you career – no matter what that is – than the newspaper,” spoke past Adviser of Florida Atlantic university Press Mi-chael koretzky.Working at a newspaper isn’t at all what it’s cut out to be – it’s more, far more.Where else do you get the rare opportunity of being put to the test, week after week and of having your patience tri-aled and tried time and again? time management, commu-nication effectiveness, and of course, improvisation are ma-jor areas of growth and devel-opment when it comes to the university newspaper.Not only that, but your con-scious will always have a safe-ty net to fall back on. The next time you catch yourself lost for words before AuBsis, unable to explain your final course grade, at least the hours you would have spent slaving away writing, editing, or sim-ply fine pruning layout, will stand, set in stone, as testimo-ny to your hard-earned labor. Way to leave your marks on AuB, huh?university is a package deal. there is so much we pay for and yet what we get out of it is only that which we reach out and grab; and believe me, this is one opportunity you do not want to miss.Do you know what our most pressing mission as a newspa-per is? It is that of “Connecting the Academy,” as President

lara traboulsiContributing Writer

OcT 19 , 2010

Rami DiabEditor-in-Chief

Sometimes we limit our-selves. It might be out of fear but we still do it,

whether consciously or not. I will admit I’m one of those people. I sometimes have a hard time stepping out of my comfort zone and trying out new things. I make plans and get excited and then those plans sort of fade away or sim-ply lay in the back of my closet gathering dust. last weekend was my 21st birthday party. thankfully I had no hand in planning it. If I did I think I would have been too fearful to do half of what I did. Fortu-nately I have someone amaz-

Peter Dorman mentioned at the opening Ceremony some two weeks back, for how is a university newspaper with-out an active student body of all races, colors, and creeds any more useful than a ship without a crew or a military force without an army? In-deed, this newspaper is as much mine as it is yours.the best place to advertise your accomplishments, broad-cast your ideas, and establish-es a name for yourselves is, yes, you guessed it, your uni-versity newspaper. Business managers have the oppor-tunity to make thousands of dollars in profit each year se-curing them a respectable po-sition in the financial world.Editors have the opportuni-ty of familiarizing themselves with the most common of writ-ing mistakes, instantly trans-forming them into a new elite of writers. layout editors have the op-portunity of getting more ac-customed to learning the tricks of the trade of putting together a publication from scratch. last but not least, staff writers will forge new re-lations, enhance their com-munication skills, and boost their writing effectiveness.Provided your busy schedules merits you the time to partic-ipate, don’t think twice - be a part of it! the pros will always be there to outweigh the cons - that you can rely on.

Depend on life to Always Surprise Youing who took over the wheel and planned my three day es-capade down to the last de-tail. First day I attended a wild bachelorette party that was followed by my kickass birthday party that lasted lat-er than I would have expect-ed. I simply let loose and tru-ly enjoyed myself for the first time in a long time.Second day was a calmer day which started with a peaceful breakfast and ended with an exquisite poolside wedding. the third day was supposed to be my major birthday present - which I will get to later - but it was postponed. Not hazed by the minor inconvenience, we went to plan B that was concocted on the spot. I was taken up to the Faraya empty parking lot and I was told to drive. See I have a fear of driv-ing and have logged in a piti-ful number of hours behind the wheel. When I was told to get into the driver’s seat and drive, I was still a bit anxious. After about an hour of driving calmly I was told to step down on the gas and go as fast as possible. Having worked up the nerve I did as I was told…

and it was exhilarating! I sim-ply didn’t want to stop. I of course limited it to the emp-ty parking lot but it was still invigorating all the same. It’s something I would have nev-er thought I would have done. My birthday present that was postponed was scuba div-ing. How cool is that? this is again something I always wished I had the courage to do but never thought I would. In two days time I’m going to be wrapped around in scuba gear, armed with an under-water camera and ready to explore the vast blue sea with all the wonders it offers.What I want to say is try not to limit yourself. When you make plans make them with the intent of seeing them through. It doesn’t necessari-ly have to be now or in the near future. Just let it be someday. What is remarkable about life is that it constantly surprises you. You end up doing the un-expected. If you would have told me that I would be where I am today I would not have believed you. You are young so don’t be afraid to be adven-turous!

tala kardasStaff Writer

I’ve overnighted on proj-ects, studied at Jafet, and taken some very interest-

ing classes. I made friends with people I never see any-

this Could Pass as a Graduation op-Ed

more, took advice from ran-dom strangers, and dispensed it on others. I had trouble with registration, waited for my grades to come out on AuBsis, and avoided plagiarism like the plague. I learned to use a photocopier, load a printer, and work in a fully-equipped chemistry lab without blowing anything up. I tried all the res-taurants along Bliss, drank coffee in class, and anxiously waited for the cafeteria’s re-opening. All this in a mere two years. It may sound like I’m writing my graduation op-Ed a bit too early. Actually, that’s not my point. Since start-ing this year, I’ve been think-ing of how I came to AUB, ex-pecting to graduate with a BS and several good memories.

I’ve come to the realization that, come June, I’ll be grad-uating. Every single experi-ence I stated above has hap-pened or will happen to each and every student here, and that’s what I find so special about this university. Despite the different majors, class-es, and backgrounds. truth be told, this year is just begin-ning and there will be many more opportunities. It’s the time to pass on the legacy to the younger classes to expe-rience the hilarity, confusion, anxiousness, all associated with AuB.