AUD Campus Life

AUD Campus Life... Wait. Does that exist? As you can tell from my sarcasm, American University does not have much happening on campus. At Ursinus, a college probably 1,000 students smaller than AUD, I received 30+ emails a day notifying me of campus activities, club meetings, off-campus trips, etc. Here, I may get an email to my AUD account every other day. I am certainly okay with not being bombarded with useless information all the time, but the lack of student involvement is just so strange to me.

I have no idea how AUD students occupy their time. (It's certainly not taken up by the amount of studying they do, but more on that later.) Once, on a Friday afternoon (equivalent to US Saturday), I walked from my dorm all the way across campus to the Metro Station and didn't see a single person. These kids must all have friends or family who live off campus. Where else could they be?

My roommate, for example, doesn't live here. She doesn't even have sheets on her bed! I saw her for the third time ever today while walking to class. She informed me that she was going to Lebanon for the week and might move some stuff in the week after that. So far, she's dropped off a giant tv, which basically takes up all the space on her desk. That's it. She seems like a really nice girl though. Don't get me wrong-- I'm not complaining about the situation. I love being independent and living on my own. I just don't understand why she's paying for housing when she can live somewhere else for free. haha.

Now back to AUD students and classes. Earlier I alluded to the lack of studying that goes on here. I was honestly a little appalled at the behavior of many students and teachers my first few days here. Professors know that students don't do anything, so they don't push. I'll be assigned 5 to 10 pages of reading for the next class. At first, I thought we might have been starting slow but were going to gain momentum throughout the semester. Nope. It looks like this semester is going to be more of a vacation than I originally imagined. Today I was assigned a "research paper" that has a 1,000 word limit. I asked my professor to clarify what he meant, thinking that there might have been a language barrier or something. Seriously, he told me he'd lower my grade if my paper went over 1,100 words. As the other students groaned about the length of the paper, I sat back in my chair and thought "Yesss, this is going to be a good semester!"

Today, I'll leave you with a question.
Q: What three things are essential for female students at AUD to carry at all times?

A: 1. Your Blackberry (gold plated is better!)
2. Your Marlboro cigarettes
3. Your current season Louis Vuitton bag

On a serious note, I'm serious. haha. I'd go so far to say that 85% of women carry Louis Vuitton bags, maybe more. Everyone has a Blackberry. Everyone smokes. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is life at AUD (and, let's be honest, life anywhere in Dubai).