Schoolwork? What Schoolwork?

Well, although I’m not taking a lot of credits this semester, I still feel very busy all the time. I’m taking 5 courses this semester; Arabic, English, Media in Modern Societies, Problem Solving and Graphic Design.
Since I transferred from Saudi Arabia, the University of Sharjah didn’t accept all my credit hours, even though they said they’ll accept everything grading in C+ or more. I still need to re-take a lot of the courses I already took at Effat University like Arabic, English, Islam, most of the general stuff and some of the major-related courses.

• Arabic has been pretty hectic, the professor usually gives us 4 assignments to finish in 2 days! That means I have to submit at least 2 assignments a day, 3 times a week!
• English is pretty easy, a few quizzes here and there but nothing much!
• Media in Modern Societies is an elective I’m taking. I honestly chose it because I thought it would be easy, but I’m quite fond of it at the moment! We basically discuss everything from propaganda to stereotypes to modern journalism. This course is one of the few I’ve ever been really interested in in my entire student life. I just love cultural and intellectual discussions, and this class is all about discussions!! We have a final paper to submit at the end of the semester, it’s supposed to be a group work, me and my colleague decided to talk about “Blogging” as a source of media of course.
• Problem Solving is also quite easy, basic programming with plenty of charts and problems. We have an assignment almost every other week or so.
• Graphic Design, I was very excited about this course when I first registered for it, but now I’m not sure how I feel… I thought I would learn plenty of new things I didn’t know about design in general and graphic design in particular. But so far all we’ve done is a business card and a bunch of Adobe Photoshop tutorials, which I already did when I was in Manchester for a summer course. But I’m still hopeful!

Midterms

Yes! It’s that time of year already! So far I’ve only finished 3 out of 5 midterms.

• Problem Solving was easy to say the least, I hope I get an A or A+ for it.
• Media in Modern Societies was OK, we had to write a lot. I did fine, but I was unsure about a couple of questions! Fingers crossed for me!
• Graphic Design, we all thought it was going to be very hard considering the last quiz he gave us was -in my opinion- poorly graded. But it was actually pretty fun to do, especially the practical part where he gave us a lot of different things to do. One of them was a bunch of pictures of famous websites, magazines and ads and he asked us to point out the Photoshop mistakes, just like Photoshop Disasters!
• Arabic and English, the midterms are after our Eid break, which I thought was really annoying. This means that I have to actually study during the holidays!

Work, Youth in Depth

So, as some of you may know, I’m working with a youth-based newsletter called Youth in Depth. I’m currently working as their head editor and web developer. I finished the website, although I did not create the whole theme, I just personalized it, it still took a long time to finish, especially because of the bilingual features. I’m still working on ways to improve it, we’re going to add more pictures and stuff, but take a look and let me know what you think.
We also published the 3rd issue, you can view it here YND: Issue 3

Other Stuff

Personally, there’s so much going on… My mom and sister decided to move back to Dubai, they currently have their own place here, I will join them as soon as my contract for the apartment ends. But they live like 5 minutes away, so it’s still cool! I’m always packing my stuff and moving… almost every year! It’s so tiring, but hey, hat can you do?

So that’s about most of what I’ve been up to, I promise you guys I will try to squeeze a few more blogs here and there, I’ll also upload some more downloads for you guys as soon as I can.

The test was on Ramadan and it was in the morning! If you guys remember, we fast in Ramadan… Which means I haven’t had any food or water or anything before my test, and I’m one of those people who need to have something when they’re nervous. I went to the test area, submit my application, waited for like an hour, then they asked 3 of us to go outside because it was “time”. We went out, and the lady looks at me, and points to the car like “You go first!“… I was about to freak the hell out, then I thought “To hell with it!” I got in, put my seat belt on, adjusted the mirrors and seat, and started to drive!

When I finished, the other 2 girls had their run… Then, we got back in the building, she called both of them first, and they all came back with sad faces, so I guess they failed! I got really nervous, because I just hate it when they call me last, I thought I failed big time… But she called me and asked if I ever had a license before, I said “No”, then she was like “You’re really good mashalla, nice focus and great driving. Congratulations, you passed!“. I was like “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH” *in my head of course* Next morning, I got my license :D

YouTube

In other news, I’m always on YouTube these days, usually to watch music videos and shows even. I watched the new Lady Gaga video: You and I, here it is below…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9YMU0WeBwU

Everyone who knows anything about me, knows how much I love Lady Gaga, but I just hated this video! It’s confusing and just has nothing to do with the lyrics. I know she’s done that before, I mean, most of her videos have nothing to do with the lyrics, but they made sense in general! This one was just… NO!

I also came across an extremely funny guy known as Kingsley, he’s quite famous online, especially on Twitter and Tumblr.

At first, I thought he was just a weird guy acting stupid, but then I kind of liked his videos because he says what a lot of people only think! I don’t recommend you watching it if you’re under 16 or something, because he swears a lot! Seriously, like every 5 seconds, there’s a swear XD

What do you watch on YouTube? Share it with me, and I will check it out :D

Anyways, my sister came to town, and all she wants to do is go to the movies! I like going to the movies, but I just don’t feel like I have to as my sister probably feels! But the movies we watched were quite awesome.

Bridesmaids

OK, I didn’t watch this one with my sister, but I watched it a couple of days before she came. I thought it was hilarious! Everyone who knows me, knows how much I love Saturday Night Live. And the fact that the stars of this movie, Kristen Wig and Maya Rudolph, are SNL cast members is just too awesome!

Horrible Bosses

It wasn’t the best movie I’ve watched, but it wasn’t exactly horrible either :P I always enjoy a nice laugh… And I think the best thing about this movie was the story, it’s quite refreshing LMAO XD

Mr. Popper’s Penguins

I absolutely LOVED this movie! Jim Carrey never fails to make me laugh my ass off XD It’s about a businessman getting a bunch of penguins in the mail and how he transforms his apartment into the north pole so they can survive.
I especially loved the scene were they dance XD

Prom

I watched this movie yesterday with my sister… It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, you see, I’m not a huge fan of Disney movies, because I kind of outgrown them! But this movie was nice. I really liked the stars, I don’t think I’ve seen them in other movies before…

Have you watched any movies lately? Let me know :D

Well, here are some photos of my new apartment for those who are interested :P

The Living Room

This is how the overall living room looks like… It’s basically a large room that I divided into my desk, my couch and TV and a small dining table.

This is the TV and the cycling machine so I can “work out” every now and then.

This is my desk, where my awesome iMac and Macbook are and it’s also where I work on other stuff.

My printer, I keep it right next to my desk… You can also see my awesome “Star Wars – Family Guy” poster.

A chair my mother got me, quite comfy actually…

The tiny dining area I was telling you about, the table expands for when I have friends over and stuff.

The Bedroom

My awesome bed, the bedsheets I got from Ikea literally make my head sleep in the clouds :P

A new collection of nail polish, 12 and counting!

The Bathroom

The apartment has 2 bathrooms; the big one is in my bedroom, the other one is in the living room, but it’s much smaller. This is my bathroom.

The Kitchen

The kitchen isn’t as small as I thought it would be when I first got the place.

Overall, the place is pretty awesome and spacious… I love the fact that it has 2 balconies and the view in both is of the Dubai metro and Burj Al Arab Hotel. Plus there’s like 3 dry cleaners, 2 small supermarkets and a bookstore right underneath the building. It’s also a 5-minute walk to the metro station. It’s very close to the Mall of The Emirates and there are a number of hotels in the neighborhood, which makes taxis easy to find!
So all in all, I got pretty lucky with the place. All I need is a car, hopefully, that’s next on the list!

In other news, I added a new wallpaper, Yellow Bug, in the downloads section. Make sure you download it :D

Until my next blog post…

Don’t get me wrong, the 45-minute metro ride and then the 15-minute taxi ride to and from the college is just delightful, but seriously, it’s just so tiring and extremely expensive! Aaaah, I guess it will all work out eventually, but I always have something to worry about even when I’m supposed to be on a damn vacation!

I found this photo in Flickr, I felt it describes my frustration pretty well! LMAO

Image source: Jenny Brookes

This is going to be a short blog post, but for now, I leave you with an awesome photo I found online :D I thought it’s only natural to share something about Harry Potter since it’s coming out on the 13th here in Dubai!!

Image source: frl. Zucker