BLOGS

I reached the city of Doha on the 22^nd of August. I was scared because I had never stepped out of my home country without my family. The OPA’s were waiting for me at the airport, finally at 4 in the morning I was at education city. A CDA handed me the orientation booklet and so it began. The HBKU orientation team had a number of things prepared for the new students, my favorite of which was the city tour. We saw around Doha and I realized that this place could be my new home. We saw the Islamic art museum which was beautiful.

 

 

 

The HBKU orientation team had other activities planned for us, one of my favorite was the charades game at Texas A&M. It was fun and really interactive.

 

 

 

Following this the next biggest thing was the Cultural night. I had so much fun practicing for it; I befriended not only freshmen but sophomores and juniors during these rehearsals. Our seniors were fun and they were so accepting that for once I felt like I was back home. At night time I used to come out of my dorms to walk around EC and every time I would find a familiar face, I used to sit with our CDA’s in the FB3 building and we shared some really nice moments where we would laugh the night away.

 

 

Finally the cultural night was here, this is the picture of the last night of practice.

 

 

 

The HBKU orientation helped me in so many ways. I was scared that I would only befriend CMU students but this orientation helped me make friends throughout EC, I got to know people and I know for sure that I can trust most of them. The people here are accepting and very good natured in general.

 

Following this was the CMU-Q class of 2016 orientation. I accept that when I went there I had no idea that I was about to be amazed in way I couldn’t even imagine. The first day was tiring but it was so amazing, for the first time in my life I played a human maze, a game designed by the orientation team of CMU-Q. It took us a while to finally figure out how it worked but once we understood it, it became one of the best game I ever played.

 

 

 

So the 2^nd day was more occupied with our own tribes, I was lucky to be joined by such good people in my tribe, the palm tree islanders. We painted our flag and came up with our tribe cheer, it was so much fun. We also had a couple of sessions with office of international admissions and the student majlis which were both very interactive.

 

 

The 3^rd day was easily one of the best, I met my professors and got to know more about my major. It was more of an academic day but it was really nice. I met students from my major and got to know more about everybody else. Funny enough, I was the only international student in my IS major, scary thought but my class mates were really welcoming and it took no time in becoming good friends with all of them. After lunch we had another really fun ice breaking sessions where all the tribes had to make a cave with balloons.  

 

 

The last day of orientation came, and as excited I was about classes starting, I was a little sad inside that all the fun of the orientation was soon to go by and this once in a life time experience was nearly over. The orientation team gave us a small but remember able souvenir, it was small framed picture of us from our first day of orientation. The orientation was fun from the amazing board game to the shouting between tartans and wildcats to the final dinner. Every bit of time spend in those 4 days are forever printed upon my memory. I thank every single person in the CMU-Q orientation team for the hard work they put into the orientation and in making sure that every freshmen left with a tartan mark forever printed upon their hearts. I am proud to say that I am a part of Carnegie Mellon University for my heart is in the work.