My first three days at aub

College isn’t as I thought it would be and not so arduous as what others have told me. Actually, it’s a very wonderful beginning for a lifelong journey. Although, I can’t deny how hard it was for me to just accept the fact that I am leaving everything behind and ready to start a completely different life with a different lifestyle. I felt so nostalgic, anxious and miserable. But I cannot deny the fact that I managed to pass the first month easily even though my first week was really hectic as I didn’t know anything there. But the good point is that I’ve made new friends, became more responsible and self-dependent and the most important thing I’ve gained a new place that I can actually call my second home. But no matter what I passed through, I see myself growing day after day into a more responsible person that my family and I always dreamed and worked hard to see, into a person taking all the challenges life puts on the way to reach the main goal of her life and become a doctor that helps save people’s lives.

Monday: first day at a completely new place

On Monday morning, I woke up really early as I was excited to start my new journey. I prepared myself and packed my stuff and head to West Hall where we met and had our first orientation. But I cannot forget that guy who was one of the guides that helped us. He is really funny as he told us about the university life and made us laugh really hard during the time we were waiting for the speaker to come. We got introduced to the university and to the rules and regulations. In addition, they told us more about our faculty- Faculty of Health Sciences – and had a group advising session. Also, I made a bunch of new friends. Despite all the fun and good moments I had, I admit that this day was a bit hard because of AUB being a very big institution with more than 70 buildings I guess, so you would get lost easily. But thanks God there’s that mobile app, which has the whole map, that helped me reach where I wanted to go.

Tuesday: fun day

That day all the new FHS students gathered in front of Van Dyck for lunch then we went to Nabil Boustany Auditorium where we had an ice-breaking game. We were divided into five teams each one of the four represented a region in Lebanon-South, North, Beqaa, and Mount Lebanon- and the fifth represented the International students, and we wrote what characterizes each one. We then played trivia and the questions were more related to our faculty. On that day, we also had training sessions for registration that will take place on Wednesday. It was really a nice day except for the very hot weather. And after this long day, I went to my room and met the girls in the room beside mine. They’re really nice. We actually played cards and got to know each other better.

Wednesday: Registration day, the worst day

On that day, students registered for their courses. But unfortunately, the fastest to register is the luckiest. At AUB registration starts at 9 am and most probably by 9: 10 am all the classes will be full. I couldn’t register for my CHEM 201 course which is a prerequisite for the other Chemistry courses, and at this point, I kind of panicked. I stayed in my room all day trying to figure out what should I do. But later, I calmed down and figured things out with the help of my cousins and sister who were AUB students.