campus events

Last week there was a Middle East conference here at the university. I love conferences because they provide an excellent opportunity for networking with people from around the world, and to hear a lot of great presentations. I believe some of the contacts I made will be helpful to me in the future. One was a journalist for AlJazeera, which happens to be my favorite media source. This is timely as I am writing a paper about media globalization and means of dissemination in the Middle East. Overall I was greatly inspired as a result of attending the conference.

In general, there are many lectures around campus which are in Hebrew (including my Jordan seminar). However I had not yet had the opportunity to attend an all-Arabic event until today. My friend Arkan was one of the organizers, so he gave me a ticket, a kind of Muslim-Christian unity event. There was some really nice music performed at the event, and a group of young male Bedoin dancers. Even though I didn't understand everything, I enjoyed it much more than sitting in a Hebrew lecture or presentation, and more relevant for me since this is my area of study. It's really nice to be here and have the opportunity to immerse myself in the culture. Last night I even had someone sing to me in both Turkish and Arabic.