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.