Welcome to Week 14 of The OPIE Zone Newsletter. Here the important events happening during the fourteenth week of the semester. We hope you’ll join us for some of them.
International Conversations: An Evening to Share and Learn
Where & When: Athens Public Library, Thurs, April 19, from 6:30-8 p.m.
This is a event meant to provide a platform for cultural exchange between international students and members of the Athens community. Participants are invited to briefly share about topics such as social issues, feelings about their national flag, links between their culture and American culture, places they have visited that left lasting impressions on them. Cultural items are very welcome (flags, traditional clothing, coins, etc.). Free snacks!!
OPIE Ambassadors Writing Competitions Winners
This week we feature the winning entries of the Paragraph category.
The Winning Paragraph
Student Housing: Useful, Interesting, Wonderful by Bashayer Alsaleh
Living in student housing was a useful, interesting, and overall wonderful experience. I lived there when I was studying for a master’s degree in Economics at King Saud University in Riyadh. This experience taught me how to be patient with any problems I had and to try to solve them on my own. Another thing that was useful was I depended on myself for cooking, cleaning and washing my clothes and that increased my own confidence. Over there I met a lot of students from different countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, China, the Philippines and South Africa, which helped me to identify different cultures. Fortunately, I met a student named Lulu who led a group of students who liked reading that was called “Family Readers.” We used to live in the same dormitory then and we spent nearly all of our time together. We went to college together, cooked together, ate dinner together and drank many cups of coffee together. That day she suggested I join that group (Family Readers), and I joined. This group did a lot of activities in one semester. One of them was based on choosing a book to read in a period of time and then discussing it in a café with a group of students and that activity was called Coffee with Book. It was very useful because it developed my skills in reading and was very interesting because I visited many cafes with students. Regarding my love for reading, I visited Riyadh International Book Fair and bought some books. It was useful and interesting when I saw lots of writers signing their books. Another thing that was interesting was when we visited Star City on the weekend and we rode on the roller coaster with my friend Lulu and other students. I remember buying ice cream, popcorn, and potato fries. Before Lulu graduated, we visited the Aljanadriyah festival that happens once a year. It includes many things that reflect the culture of my country. I am still in contact with my friends now, and I hope to see them again very soon. Overall, this experience was wonderful.
2nd Place Paragraph
Surprise Trip: Surprising, Worse, Great by Dalal Lafi Alamri
My trip to Yanbu was a surprising, sometimes bad, but mostly great time. I went to Yanbu several times, but the last trip was surprising to me because my family surprised me by doing my graduation party on the beach. My family booked a resort overlooking the sea. This was the first time they did this. When we traveled to Yanbu and arrived at the resort, they made me close my eyes. My mother was holding my hand and leading me to the place. When I arrived at the beach and opened my eyes, I saw the lights, balloons, many gifts and flowers. Also, I heard the graduation song. There was a large table. This table was decorated with candles and flowers. Also there was a cake and on this cake was my picture. There were many sweets and appetizers. I did not know was happening to me, and tears filled my eyes. I was so happy and grateful to them. My family and I were dancing and enjoying. My nephew and I played with sand and made a sand sculpture’ my mother taught me how to swim and that was the first time since I was born. I saw my friend and that became the greatest surprise. But something also happened to make this trip the worst trip in my life. Suddenly, when my nephew was playing in the sea, his foot was hit. He was crying and could not move. Then his father took him to the hospital immediately, the doctor treated him and did the medical examination to ensure his safety. At that time, I was worrying about my nephew and my family was waiting for good news. We were nervous and fearful if my nephew had a serious bite. After he was treated, he returned to the resort in good health. However, there were many great things that happened when we rode on a boat and caught fish. I was excited because it was my first time fishing by using a hook. Also I took some pictures when I was fishing. Before the end of the trip, my brother invited me to a seafood restaurant to taste seafood because I had never tasted it. But unfortunately, I did not like the taste of fish and shrimp. I will not eat seafood again. I have added new memories and new experiences to my old ones. Overall, it was a great trip.
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