Semester 1 Week 1- NYU Abu Dhabi

Hello all,

I survived the first week of college classes, and I definitely got to experience a lot! I thought I was skilled at time management in high school, but balancing everything this week was pretty crazy. I'm sure it will only get more difficult once more clubs and extracurriculars get started and tests/assignments get going, but just familiarizing myself with a completely new routine and class schedule took a lot of planning. I'm still figuring things out as I go along, but it's pretty fun.

   Who says you can't bring stuffed animals to college? Stella, Powderpuff, and Finnick are along for the ride.

My classes this semester are heavy on the math/science side, which is actually kind of nice because they all sort of fit together. All engineering and science majors here have to take a series of courses called Foundations of Science (FoS), which is basically an intensive overview of physics, chem, and bio. So I'm doing FoS 1 and 2 this semester, 7 weeks each. And I now have my very own lab coat, which is super exciting! I've always wanted my own lab coat!

"Authentic Taste"... I laughed so hard at this

Along with that, I have a course called Programming for Engineers where we'll be mainly learning C++. I'm not really experienced/interested in programming as a career as of now (debugging makes me frustrated, haha), but since almost all careers now require at least some knowledge of programming, I'm pretty excited to learn more-- I think in the first week or so we've covered about as much as my high school CS class covered in a month. Fun stuff.

Then, as of now, I have multivariable calculus (MVC). There was some confusion this week as it turned out that a handful of us freshman engineering students were placed into an MVC class for Econ majors, because the Engineering MVC section was scheduled at the same time as our required programming course. So, depending on a wait list, I might push MVC to spring and change to a different class, but I am still waiting to find out. 

Books! Books! Books!

I'm planning to join vocal ensemble as well, so yay for singing opportunities. My classes were actually pretty relaxed this week, since it was a lot of basic review, setting the foundation for what we're about to cover. (I had to sit through 2 nearly identical lectures on vectors, one for FoS and one for MVC, haha). I can tell it will be a lot of work once it gets going, but it's also nice to be back to learning, studying, and working hard at the things I love to do. We also had a campus opportunities fair and a Student Interest Group fair, and it's fun to see all of the activities available in the coming months. 

Here are some highlights of the week:

Fingerprinting
Had to go to the government office at 6:15 a.m. to get fingerprinted for my visa. This was about as exciting as it sounds. [yawn]

Piano Master Class with Nik Bartsch 
I got to observe a master class with this really awesome Swiss pianist who came to visit and perform at the campus this week. He uses unconventional techniques such as holding/tapping the strings of the piano to create different sound effects and percussive rhythms. I really learned a lot about expression and arm/wrist position from watching him critique the students who volunteered to play for him. He was able to simplify each song down to its core melody and rhythms, and then help the students connect with the musicality of that little piece of the song.

Nik Bartsch is my spirit animal

Dinner in the City
Went with a group of friends to get some amazing food at a place called Bait El-Khetyar in downtown Abu Dhabi. We walked around a bit trying to find the restaurant, but it was well worth the adventure to get there. Hands down, it was the best falafel I have ever had, and amazing shawarma and hummus as well. Salad, roasted tomatoes, and flatbread by the bucket. My goodness, we ate so much food. Then followed it up with Cold Stone ice cream for dessert, because there's always room left for ice cream :)

Shawarma smiles

Tomato, hummus, shawarma, flatbread

Veggies + Falafel, fantastic fabulous falafel

Sunset at Corniche Beach

Got to go swimming, play frisbee, and walk around at the Corniche Beach with some friends, which is about 15 km from campus (Saadiyat Beach is closer). The water was warm and more salty than most ocean water I've been in. It was really fun! Definitely a great end to a busy week. 

Life is good. God is good. I feel so lucky to be here. 

~Alison

*For privacy, I will try not to use names of other students on the blog unless it is really necessary. If I post any photo of you that you do not want shown on the blog, just send me a message and I will take it down immediately. Thanks!*