VisÇa Barca

If I wanted to find a single word that represents what I consider as the joy of life, it would be SOCCER!!! There is nothing in the world that can make me feel better after a lousy day than sitting on a comfy couch, with a 50” flat screen TV, watching 90 minutes of soccer. Being the most popular sport in Kuwait, soccer became a part of my daily life. Playing a friendly match with my friends or watching matches on TV sums up my weekend plans. In Kuwait watching any soccer match was within reach from any home TV whether it was from The English League “Premiers League”, The Spanish League “La Liga”, The Italian League “Serie A” or The German League “Bundes Liga”. Also, there are a number of fans in Kuwait that support the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team and watch their matches. Unfortunately, coming to the United States of America made it difficult to keep up with my hobby. Due to the difference in time between California, Europe, and Kuwait, a person in California should sometimes stay up until 3 or 4 am to watch a match. As for playing soccer, it is easy to find a field to play on but hard to find a team to play against. Soccer in the United States is not as popular as football, basketball and baseball. It is almost impossible to find a sport’s bar that shows soccer matches unless it is the U.S. national team or a team that belongs to the same state.

My favorite league to watch is The Spanish League “La Liga”. I consider my self as a Fanatic fan of FC Barcelona. I have loved this team from the first time I saw them play. They are a team that really believes that there is no ‘I’ in team. They are a team that does not depend on the skills of a single player, but on the harmony of the whole team. The most extraordinary player in FC Barcelona is Messi. Messi is an Argentinian player that won the FIFA best player trophy for the past 4 years while he is only 25 years old.

This summer, and to be more specific from the 12^th of June until the 13^th of July, the FiFa soccer world cup will be held in Brazil. The world cup tournament will include 32 national teams from all over the world divided into 8 groups. This tournament is held every 4 years and that’s why people get so excited about it. For the summer break I am planning to leave California and go to Brazil with a couple of my friends to attend this event. I have dreamed about attending it since I first knew about soccer. Now that I am in America, I can fly easily to Brazil, and that is something I am thankful for.

To some, soccer may be a boring sport, but to me it is a part of my life (I am not exaggerating). My long term goal in life is to live a whole year in Barcelona just to watch FCB play for a whole season live in front of my eyes. Finally, for whoever is reading this post, cross your fingers and wish me the best. Visca Barcelona <3

Speak now or forever hold your peace..!

Speaking is a part of education that I have never been attracted to. The idea of speaking in front of total strangers in a classroom has always terrified me. Throughout my 12 years of education in Kuwait, I never gave a speech or a presentation without mumbling and being nervous. I decided to change my attitude towards speaking before I came to the U.S. I knew that in American universities presentation and speeches are a big part of the learning process and thus, I took a one year program in CSUF called the American Language program for international students. Throughout that year I developed myself in English and got a solid base of the language. I found an American roommate to live with. He was of great help to me. He helped me improve my accent, gain some new vocabulary, and made me meet his friends and practice speaking in English with them. I became a fluent and a confident speaker. After that I realized that my fear of speaking was not because of the lack of confidence in my self, but it was because of not knowing the English language good enough to speak it. I then started to watch more American movies, listen to American songs, read English literature, and start conversations with native speakers such as my neighbors and classmates. I also started speaking in English with my Kuwaiti friends here in California for the sake of practice. I was criticized and laughed on at the beginning; being an Arabic speaker speaking in English around other Arabic speakers. But after that my friends started to get the reason why I did that and became more helpful and encouraging. Speaking has become something that I look forward to. As a result I took the HCOM 101 class, which is all about presentations and public speaking. I am encountering with native speakers more and more with every day I spend in the United States. Also, my pronunciation became better and better with practice. Back when I was in Kuwait I used to speak English and I thought that I pronounced the words correctly but after I came to the states I figured out that I miss pronounced half the words I knew. The best moment of my ALP year in CSUF was when my public speaking teacher told me that she heard a southern accent when I was presenting. At this moment of my life I am very proud with what I have accomplished. After being a hesitant speaker in both Arabic and English, I became a better speaker in Arabic and a fluent speaker in English, give or take some grammatical mistakes and some pronunciations. I am seeking to improve more and more until I reach a point where I don’t count English as a second language. I am planning to take more public speaking classes and presentation classes too. Finally, I would like to point out that the biggest role in improving my speaking abilities goes to my dedicating teachers, which I will be forever grateful for the efforts.