There's No Place Like Home!!

Studying abroad is a great experience that I am glad to have the chance to go through. Despite all the positive things that come with it, studying abroad also has some negativity that us international students feel. One of these negativities is feeling homesickness. As a Kuwaiti Student in The United states of America, 7957 miles away from home, I mostly feel homesick during social, national, and religious events that take place back in Kuwait. With the use of Social media such as instagram, I am able to see what I am missing instantaneously.  Here is an example of a reason that I felt homesick not too long ago.

Less than a month ago Kuwait, my home country, celebrated two national events that are dear to every Kuwaiti citizen. It celebrated its Independence and liberation days on the 25^th and 26^th of February. These days are when Kuwait became independent from the British protectorate in 1961 and liberated from the Iraqi Invasion in 1991. The Independence Day is the day when Kuwait became a country of it’s own. During the same year Sheikh Abdullah Alsalem Alsabah may he rest in piece legislated Kuwait’s first constitution, joined Kuwait to the United Nations and the Arab League.

As for the Liberation Day, It is held in memory of the day that Kuwait was liberated in the Desert storm operation from the invasion of the Iraqi troops. The story of the invasion started on the Thursday 2^nd of August 1990, which is now called the black Thursday, when Iraqi troops invaded by surprise Kuwaiti Soil and began killing citizens and looking for Kuwait’s King and all the royal family to assassinate them and get rid of the whole royal bloods. This invasion went on for 7 months and resulted in killing 570 citizens, and 605 captives, who were officially announced dead by the U.N. a couple of months ago. Also it resulted in the burning of 600 Kuwaiti oil wells, which caused massive pollution in the region. This terrifying incident that Kuwait faced all came to an end after the United Nations allowed coalition forces to enter Kuwaiti grounds and free Kuwait. With the help of countries such as the United States of America, Britain, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and most of the Arab league countries, Kuwait was liberated and returned as a free country as it will always be.

Stephen King, an American author said in his novel The Body, “Homesickness is not always a vague, nostalgic, almost beautiful emotion, although that is somehow the way we always seem to picture it in our mind. It can be a terribly keen blade, not just a sickness in metaphor but in fact as well. It can change the way one looks at the world; the faces one sees in street look not just indifferent but ugly...perhaps even malignant. Homesickness is real sickness--the ache of the uprooted plant" the breathing method.”  I have lived and celebrated these two occasions for more than 20 years of my life and to miss them 2 years in a row is something depressing. Homesickness is a feeling that I will go through for all my years abroad, but having friends from all over the world here in the home of the free, I am able to overcome those feelings and difficulties and sense that I am in my second home.

            

Research and MLA

Since I started university, I found out that research is an essential educational tool that is necessary in lots of classes besides English. Research builds credibility to the paper or speech that is presented to the audience. As an Engineering major student I am demanded to do a lot of research before writing any research paper.  For most of my classes the most important thing about what is written is the research and evidence. Engineering students also use research for their graduation projects, which may vary between papers or stereophonics. Although research is important in our future careers, I did not get enough education and practice in it through my school education. As a foreign student the educational system that I studied under was way more different than it is in the United States of America. Going back to my high school years I remember that all what we have been taught was the process of writing to pass an exam. I was taught to write narrative and argumentative essays because these are the essays that appear on exams and aptitude tests. Also, studying in the ALP “American Language Program” here in CSUF did not do me any good in the research-writing field because we were only taught to write for the IELTS, TOEFL or university placement tests. But when I took the English 99 class and was assigned to write a research paper, I realized that I was behind all of my classmates. Most of them were starting to research and write their essays while I was still trying to figure out how to do a research for my essay. After multiple visits to the writing center, asking friends for help, and plenty of emails to my professor I had a brief idea about research and I was able to finish my essay. I find that I still lack the ability to research because my education did not have a good foundation, but I am learning more and more everyday.

As for MLA “Modern Language Association” format, I find it as a struggle whenever I write. In my native language, which is Arabic, we do not need a format to write. It is simple and straightforward, While English writing requires multiple formats and styles. I started using MLA when I was a student in the ALP program. I was introduced to basics of MLA such as font type, font size, margins, spacing, titles, and headers. I noticed that MLA format differs from one professor to the other. For Example my first semester ALP professor had us write our name, class, and the name of the instructor on the right of the page with double-spacing between each one and leave out a line after the title. My second semester ALP professor had us write our information on the left of the page with no spacing between them, and we also had to leave a line after the title. As for English 99 my professor did not care about the writer’s information because it will eventually be removed before submitting the portfolio. I am pretty sure that all my instructors followed the MLA format but I am still not sure about the correct way. In my English 101 class I learned that there is more to MLA than what I picked up in the past year and a half. There is MLA citation and a lot more to learn that what I already know.

In both these subjects I am still a beginner that I has a lot to learn before even considering to be good writer. But I have to say that I am proud of what I accomplished in just a short period. It is encouraging me to learn more and more about College level writing.