Sesquipedalianist

One of my direct relatives got married lately, and that got me thinking about a lot of different things. That, and the fact that I go to a university that doesn't really feel like it's in the UAE. It is as if you have gotten a small sample of the world's population and made them live in one location. Sometimes, that makes you reflect on who you are. Only after I'd finished my last exam of the semester, did I see a non-Emirati student in make up. You cannot tell the difference between relatively rich and poor students, because everyone dresses almost the same. And they dress down, not up, when they go to class. Sometimes you see the random person that is dressed up all nice and formal, but when you start a conversation with them you'd soon discover that they either have an important class presentation, meeting, or interview to attend to. I love living amongst them, because there's nothing that dictates how a person should dress or act. There is no standard e...

Its been so long since I posted. It's not because I've been busy, because I guess I could've always found the time, like I am now. It's because my priorities have shifted; or you could just say that I've realized that I actually have to study hard in order to pass in university.  Having taken a step forward in life, from school to university, I must say I should've expected many aspects of my life to change. But I didn't. Approaching the end of my first semester -which I'm very happy about- I've begun to put together how things have gone wrong, and how things have gone right. Life is all about experience, and with that comes trial and error, which is an inevitable part of life. Things aren't always so clear, and thus I have written this poem which I wan't you all to read and give me feedback on. I haven't written much since June, so you really can't expect much from me at this point. I'm back to square one, Wherever that squ...

We all love summer. Every time a new academic year starts, our brains start their own subconscious countdown for summer. I mean, we kind of have the right to do that. Nobody likes doing homework -at least I think- and certainly no one loves studying for exams. No one likes the sleepless nights where you're trying so hard to finish up the project you've been neglecting for about a month. Its hard, its intense, and you don't really like that. You just want to sit there, relax, do nothing, and sleep. I've never sat at home idly doing nothing for an entire summer, until this summer came along. My excuse? I could possibly get away with saying that it's a relatively short summer and I need a break from studying to mentally prepare for the transition to university... but that would be some sort of a lie. I could just say I was too lazy to do anything. And that nothing much else happened. I always did some sort of thing in summer if I wasn't traveling. Doin...

Disclaimer: This post is based on nothing more than mere observation of the past five days. Okay, so first of all I would like to say that I do not think of myself any better than you are. I'm not perfect, but after all, no one is... We can safely say that a sixth of Ramadan, the most important month of the calendar to all Muslims (I hope), has passed. It has passed quite fast as well. We can also safely guess that the rest of the month will pass quite quickly as well. And before we know it, we will all be thrown back into out hectic lives of school, university, work, or whatever usually keeps us busy. How would the normal person react to this small piece of information? He would take advantage of this month of course, right? Well then maybe.. most people aren't "normal".. The month of forgiveness has arrived, the time where the devils are chained, the time where the gates of heaven are opened, and the gates of hell are closed. Its just one month. Sadly, this holy mon...

It seems that my addresses to this topic are endless, maybe because I think it is a subject which is very crucial to discuss and examine. I heard that once, in America, people observed a certain (unwanted?) characteristic in people of the same age. What did they do? They studied their school curricula, and they found something that triggered or built this trait in them, in a third grade text book! Now I'm sure the UAE's education system is far from even realizing that maybe, the cause of many of our major weaknesses come from something triggered by something taught to us in school. One of the main things that I observe to be clearly present in most Emiratis is our excessive passiveness. Maybe, that is not the result of a "gene"; after all, is it reasonable to suggest that this gene is present in, and affects, 95% or more of our population? Maybe, and this is just a guess, this could be a result of the poems in our Arabic textbooks? I might be picking on them mainly be...

Over the time-frame of the last two days, the UAE has witnessed one of the most tragic events our community has ever seen. The story of a boy lost at sea, only to be found dead over 36 hours later. الله يرحمه. The story has affected me and you, and everyone around us. Right now there is nothing we can do but pray for Abdulla, his family, and his friends. Despite that, there are a couple of things that we can learn from this heartbreaking incident. After all, we witness events such as this so we can learn from them. My mother's first reaction to hearing the unfortunate news was surprise and shock. "Wasn't he wearing a life jacket?" she said. Sadly, the greater majority of our country's youth don't think twice about their safety. In summer, we begin to hear about stories similar to this one, stories about jet ski accidents and water sports. In our few, short months of winter, we hear countless stories about dirt bike accidents. Not to mention the car accident...

I should be studying; either studying or sleeping. I don't want to do neither, so what do I do? Write another blog post. In light of my life's recent events, which include studying, studying, and more studying, my post will also be about studying. Papyrophobia, the fear of paper. Okay, I'm not talking about the phobia; but I am talking about fear of paper nonetheless. This blog post will examine the fear of paper and how it haunts a student's life. In case you haven't realized this yet, by paper I mean tests. I am not one who experiences test anxiety, but I do know many who do. As for me, I don't think my brain recognizes the existence of tests. That is not a particularly good thing either. So at least we know that there are two ends to this spectrum. Personally, I believe in both the existence of tests, and the students' liberation from them. Teachers say that students wouldn't study unless they're given a test, and maybe that is the main reaso...

In case anyone is wondering, the reason I haven't posted in quite a while is because quite frankly, I didn't have any ideas. There is good news though! After a conversation I had with my mom, I am now inspired to write another post which I hope will be of interest to you guys. So please read on. The conversation all started when she made a simple statement: that I am good at almost everything, and that that's something really rare which I should be proud of. Well, why am I writing this post? I don't believe that being good in more than one field is really rare, I believe it is actually quite common. I bet all of you do really well in numerous things that have nothing to do with each other. It is true that people do have different abilities, yet that itself does not determine anything. I'm sure you have all seen people who are naturally smart and do not study much; and you have also seen others who, despite being slightly inferior in ability, make up for that by stud...

I'm a proud Emirati, from Dubai; so why aren't I writing in Arabic? If I love my country so much, then why don't I write in its official language? The answer to those questions is the bad part: I can't. Yes I speak Arabic, and that isn't something I would ever let go of. However, I cannot write in Arabic. Had this blog been in Arabic, no one would read it because it would've been so bad. Heck, I wouldn't even write anything here! So, why can't I write in Arabic? What's clearly obvious is that most people in private schools aren't very good with Arabic. The same thing is true for people in public schools, they usually aren't very good with English. There are some exceptions to this general rule, and that is why I say most , not all . If this country believes in being bilingual, as is strongly evident around us, then why is this even happening? Why doesn't the country build a stronger English curriculum for its public schools, and why doesn...

I've been wanting to blog about this for quite a while. Why did I choose today specifically? Because I realized how people have been completely brainwashed, or lets say programmed, by today's media. Example: Lady Gaga's new music video. I'm quite sure she wasn't "Born this way," I would say that she's forced to act "this way"; by this music industry with its hidden agenda of course. Its not just Lady Gaga, but of course she's the most obvious figure these days. I'm sure most of you have heard of the illuminati. A group of people who worship Satan. Basically they sell their souls for fame or money, most probably both. Word is that these illuminati have control over the global media industry. This might seem a little far fetched, but the evidence is out there and its quite believable. I am not a person who believes that everything in the world is a conspiracy, but I really do not see why this is NOT a conspiracy. You could do a littl...

...Social Expectations. I'm sure everyone on Earth lives within a society. Within each society there are specific guidelines which should be followed, the norms of society. Most urbanized societies today almost have the same norms, however slightly different. Dubai's norms aren't that much different. Its just that our set of norms is shaped through Islamic values and Arabic traditions. I would very much like it if I were viewed only as me. Not through my friends, my family, how I look, how I dress, or through what I do; I would like to be viewed by who I am. But who am I kidding? We all know that that's not going to happen. So what do I do? Well I guess ideally, my family, friends, and the way I present myself should all represent the person I am inside, or at least the person I want people to view me as. What if that's not possible? So because we sadly live in some kind of society, we have to oblige by the norms of that society. And if we don't, we are often ...

I've been going on and on alot in my posts, or so I've been told. I guess the majority of people dislike reading. So I decided maybe I wouldn't talk so much for a change. If you check my first few posts you'd see poetry, so I decided that its about time I return with another poem. But wait, don't close this page yet, read on. So this poem I wrote in an attempt to experiment with form and style, since I hadn't written anything for quite a while. The form might be a bit weird; its a form I'd used two years ago in poetry class, and I wanted to see what more I could make with it. I wrote most of the poem, in an attempt to use figurative language, then returned to complete the poem I'd forgotten about and realized that I didn't know what I'd oginially written about. So it ended up the way it is. I'm guessing by now you want me to stop talking and just show you the poem, so here it is. The door was locked Yet I peered inside. A small girl was in th...

** I dedicate this to certain people in my life, I want you all to somehow not hate "knowledge". Yes, school and university might get on your last nerve at times, but just try to open up your minds a little okay? There are many different types of curiosity, but when I say curiosity here I don't really mean being nosy. Yeah, I do admit to being a bit nosy, but I am also curious. Dictionary.com defines curiosity as "the desire to learn or know about anything". By curious I mean that I am intellectually curious; in simpler terms, I mean that I want to learn. Goes right back to the definition right? I don't suppose many people think of this definition when they think about curiosity. But enough about me, there's something I intend to send across to you. We tend to read our textbooks usually after being told to several times by the teacher. I am guessing that at some point, many of you have skimmed through a certain textbook, saw an interesting title, and rea...

I know basically nothing about economy or business, I just want to say this, so here goes nothing. Everytime I want to blog about something I have to do a brief search on a number of things, which will probably be the case now as well; I love this aspect of blogging, I learn a lot. Now lets move on. So we have the producers and the consumers, export and import, supply and demand, right? So which countries are the biggest exporters? The top 4 exporting countries, in decending order, are: Germany, China, USA, and Japan. Do they have anything in common? NO, well except that they are trade partners. What are the top importing countries? Again in decending order, they are: China, Italy, Hong kong, and Honduras. Now what do these countries have in common? I'd have to say nothing. So what's the point of all this?... I always wonder why there is not much production going on in the UAE, and all I get in response is that: 1) We are a small country, therefore we have no space for manufact...