Scene Depiction "Project 2"

The Arabic Club

First of all, the reason I chose to observe a meeting of the Arabic club here at the university was because I first tried emailing about 12 other organizations but none of them replied back to me other than two who said they’ll both check with the president of the group then let me know if it’s possible for me to attend a meeting of theirs, but they never got back to me. I was really planning to use my sense of imagination to write an observation about a meeting I haven’t actually attended until Monday the 18^th of Feb this guy called “Nazeer”, the president of the Arabic Club, walked to me with a brochure and introduced me to his new club. He then told me that they have a meeting every Monday and fortunately, my schedule was free for that day so I didn’t reject his offer. I was so lucky to be the one he asked to attend the meeting out of all the international students in POT at rush hour.

Arriving early to the scheduled place of meeting (classroom building or “White hall”), it’s a pretty big classroom with blue and black chairs with and arm/book rest on the right side, and a white board on the front of course. There are some mathematical equations, looks like there was a class here just a couple of minutes ago. 

There are a couple of members sorting out their notes and tasks which were due for the meeting. One member rushing through the reading task that was supposed to be done before attending the meeting, filling out the answer sheet with careless handwriting just to be done with the assignment before the leader of the club arrives. It’s a sunny day so two other members are busy trying to fix the curtains that were barely hanging on the wall with gaps that allow the sunlight to shine very bright into the room and even those who are sitting next to the window. 

About five minutes before the meeting starts, the class was almost filled with university students who came from all over the world waiting for the leader to arrive. Friends chattering, sharing jokes, and laughing. It’s an international club so many languages are spoken here in this one atmosphere which I find really amusing. Some just have their headphones on listening to some calm music; they probably had a long day. There is one girl in a dark green polo with a pair of jeans sitting alone in the far right corner of the room just there staring at the ceiling, she looks kind of depressed.

All of a sudden, the leader (president) walks in with a formal checkered red shirt and a pair of red jeans with a pair of shiny classic looking shoes about two minutes before the meeting is scheduled to begin. Greets the members in a cheerful manner, lays his black leather laptop bag on the class table and sorts his papers out.  The vice-president who was a female with dark brown hair, very light blue eyes unlike the president who dressed up pretty formally she has a blue top on and a pair of dark blue jeans to give her a casual look. She walks to the leader with some papers and starts discussing some issues between themselves and only themselves, we couldn’t hear a single word said from either one of them. Just before the meeting starts, the leader takes his laptop out of his bag and sets it up on the table; he pulls the white projector sheet down and turns the projector on.

“Good morning and welcome to our 3^rd meeting this semester” he says with a smile. Everyone seems excited about the meeting today. He then starts discussing tasks that were to be done or issues that were to be dealt with soon or later. The members are all listening to what is being said in class and they all look like they are excited to hear more about the upcoming events that the group plans for but only two of the members who feel bored already pull their cellphones out and start texting. The leader takes some pauses between a point and another as it’s his first experience to leading a club and he is new in the University. Stutters a bit when it comes to mentioning names of places around the campus or even when he tries to recall a member’s name. Maintaining a sense of humor and in an attempt to cheer the class up, he throws out a joke in Urdu “Pakistani language” but only three members who understood what he said cracked up laughing and the rest were all left wondering what it might have meant. Members chattering and shouting out guesses with smiles until he translates the joke to English then everyone starts laughing.

All of a sudden, knocks on the door interrupts the president’s speech. The vice president stands up and walks to open the door. A group of Saudi teenagers’ walks in with a cheerful mood, they are all happy for some reason with these two guys one singing and the other clapping along. Of course that has managed to cheer everyone in this room up including the girl with the dark green polo who finally shows a big smile. The meeting is now back on track with the leader explaining some slides and the vice president going over what has been missed with the Saudis.  The vice president seems a bit nervous, biting her red polished nails and going over a note card. The president then calls her to come up front. She then walks to the front of the room with her notecard and starts explaining a couple of points she has. Some of the students have an Arabic fun quiz after the meeting, this guy memorizing names of fruits and vegetables in Arabic. The vice president tells him that they will be given a couple of minutes before the quiz to revise and go over their notes. She then says “And now it’s time for the trip that you have all being waiting for”, that surely worked as an attention catcher now that she has every students undivided attention on her. She plays a slide show with photos of places all around the Arabian countries in the world, with some Mediterranean music played along with the slide in the background. All the students in the class are filled with excitement and enthusiasm to know more about the trip. Dozens of photos of students from other organizations are being viewed on the slideshow having fun doing some activities in various countries around the world. After the slideshow, she starts explaining more about the trip and asks “Do you guys really want to enjoy your spring break?”. Every student in that room shows a surprised facial emotion, I think I am showing that too. Students literally have their jaws dropped wide open. But then she clarifies a bit and says that “Don’t get over excited it’s not like you’ll be travelling 16 hours on the plane to a country in the middle east for spring break and come back obviously but it’s going to be a road trip across five different states here at the US and visit this city that has a Mediterranean theme” with a smile. Everyone in the classroom calms down but doesn’t lose interest yet. She keeps looking at her notecards to remind her of the points she needs to talk about and give the students an eye contact of course, she’s so nervous that her hands are shaking and its clearly noticeable. Jumping from a point to another she almost drops her notecards but then “Oops” she says with a smile and blushes with embarrassment. Before she concludes presentation, she tears off a sheet of paper from her red notebook and passes it to the closest member who was a Chinese teenager student with a UK sweatshirt and white and blue Hollister sweatpants, then asks the class to write their names down and to include their emails. She then walks back to her seat and phews.

The president concludes the meeting by asking whether they are any questions; nobody raises their hand so he dismisses the members. But only one leaves and the rest line up in front of the presidents table with loads of questions to ask. They all are asking at once in the conference atmosphere, it’s like when people bargain in china town. The vice president asks them to calm down and helps the president answering the questions. There are new members here today so they tried to fit into the group and that worked perfectly because most of them were social and opening to anyone so without hesitations the new members exchange phone numbers and facebook accounts.

I think the students all love what they do in the club and contribute to the club. They were excited and paying attention the whole 60 minutes and that doesn’t happen unless you are really into what’s going on around you.

Peer review workshop feedback

As an author, I started off with an explanation to my partners for the one page long draft and that's because I haven't had much time since the meeting to write a proper, lengthy paper. I also explained my choice of the club/group and I chose to do so because I think it'll be much easier for them to understand my paper and provide me with more comments that can help me improve my essay or even ask me questions that'll lead me to find more points that are missing in my draft and can be included to answer the question clearly.

As a reviewer, I was in a group of 3 and one of my partners haven'y had his meeting yet so I only reviewed one paper. I told my partner that I think he should start off his essay by mentioning a reason why he picked that specific group and to focus more on the actions in the meeting rather than the details (How the members were dressed for an example).

After the workshop, I really am glad to have had the chance to share my paper with my classmates. I found it really helpful and beneficial to read all the comments that have helped me to focus on some parts more than the other and even tell me where are the areas that I should expand more on to reach the 1500 words requirement and why those ares specifically.

Peer review

I think the goal of peer review is to shape up the structure of an essay or a piece of writing and to correct any mistakes (Grammar for an example) or to even edit some points that might make the essay better. Partners may also point out some points that are not within the argument and which can be excluded to make the essay much better. I’m pretty sure that peer reviewing helps because it’s always better to have someone else’s opinion on a paper or any work by you.

After experiencing several peer reviewing sessions, I find the comments on the structure and the points that complete the argument or the whole purpose of my essay that most helpful. People include comments on spelling mistakes which I don’t really find helpful. As a reviewer, I think it’s best to avoid harsh comments and be as polite and respectful as possible to make the writer feel confident about his/her paper.

The bigger the group, the more comments you get on your paper which is the best. So I would prefer working in a bigger group rather than a group of 2 or 3 people. I guess about 30 minutes will be more than enough to discuss the drafts of our second project.

To work with random people is kind of awkward but always is the best to work with, they’ll always be honest with their comments and rarely will include harsh comments. So I’d prefer if you select the pairings.

Scene depiction H/W (The walking dead)

It’s a sunny day, the survivors of the deadly infection are out in the farm after a battle with dozens of infected people. With the music being played to intensify the suspense, a voice was heard from inside the barn, its like a dragon breathing. The survivors hold their weapons to prepare for a battle, shaking with horror, sweating from the heat and the sudden jump in their heartbeat rate. All of a sudden, a young girl walks out of the barn staring at the muddy ground, dressed in dirty clothes with blood that looks like it was there for weeks. “Sophia!” a survivor, the mother of the girl, screams in grief and runs towards the young girl. A man stops her and lays her on the ground and she starts crying in pain. A mother covers her son’s eyes with fear and asks him not to watch. The young girl looks at the survivors in pain, breathing like she’s being hanged; she limps between the dead bodies in an attempt to approach the survivors. Music played in the background gets louder and emotional as you hear the mother sobbing and calling her daughter. Sighs is how all the survivors react with sorrow. Some of them burst in tears and hold their loved ones tightly. The leader of the group walks towards the limping infected and points a revolver to her head with no hesitation. With the intense eye contact between the leader and the girl as she gets closer to him, he pulls the trigger…

Project 2

As of today, I have thought of many different groups to interview or to attend a meeting of theirs for my second project but I haven't confirmed any yet. I'll need to visit the Center for student involvement (CSI) to get contact information for all the groups in the University who are involved in video gaming or in playing musical instruments and see which groups will approve and give me the permission to take photos during the meeting which is a requirement for the project.

Speech Review

After viewing the video of my speech over and over I noticed some mistakes I’ve done while presenting the speech.
1- Powerpoint: I haven’t done a proper powerpoint to show the class on that day I just had a map of the world on the background to show where I came from.
2- Main points: I wasn’t aware that the speech was supposed to be about my “Role” in my career, family and entertainment. I didn’t include points to answer questions like “How does it feels like to be the 3rd member of the family and how did that make me the person who I am today?” or even “How I choose the career I’m willing to set for my future and what are the challenges that I faced so far?”
3- Hand motion: I noticed that I had my hands in my pockets pretty much throughout my speech, and when giving a speech you are supposed to avoid similar situation and that’s to show a better hand motion which definitely helps in communicating with the audience.
4- Volume and clarity: I don’t think my classmates who sat in the very last row in the classroom heard my entire speech clearly; I think I should’ve spoken louder.
Speaking wise, I stuttered a bit and that’s obviously because I get nervous when speaking in public. I should’ve used at least one note card to help me remember my points and the transition when moving from a topic to another, also to avoid awkward pauses!