A Year in the Fulbright Life: Umar’s Story

For the next year, Fulbright MENA will be showcasing a handful of students as they study in the United States with their new series, A Year in the Fulbright Life. Each month, spotlighted students will share an update as they continue on their Fulbright journey.

July 2019

You do miss your mother’s food when you are abroad, don’t you? Well, I have only been in the United States for a couple of days and every time I try cooking something it looks nice it just tastes different.

The day before I travelled, I made sure I tried everything I will miss from Jordan one last time. The Shaninah, Mansaf at Al-Karak; my hometown, my aunt’s tea (with lots of sugar), and Knafah. Oh how much I will miss the Knafah.

It feels like yesterday; lining up for that one last family photo (shout-out to Anas for taking the picture). I do miss every one of them.

But things moved so fast after that and I attended the nicest orientation with the loveliest group of people. We made memories that we will never forget including the great reception and all the useful sessions from Northern Illinois University at the beautiful city of DeKalb, deep dish pizza at Giordano’s, pirate ships and seagulls at Navy Pier, and the beautiful Chicago architectural river tour.

School starts next week; catch you later!

August 2019

It is only my first week of classes but I already love WashU! Well, despite the fact that I just finished reading 180 pages of research for one of my classes, which is A LOT. But I absolutely love how serious everyone is about learning!

During my free time, I was able to attend St. Louis’s World Fair at Forest Park with my roommate and his friend. We enjoyed a selection of foods, activities, and scenery! Forest Park is a brilliant place, I will definitely be spending more time there.

On another subject, I am delighted to let you know that my cooking has improved a little bit. I am starting to learn new dishes. My favorite so far is Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, which is a quite simple dish, and very delicious!

I am excited to see what September brings!

September 2019

I have been waiting for the Great Forest Park Balloon Race since I landed in St. Louis. The race is one of the greatest hot air balloon races in the United States. Unfortunately, the race was canceled due to weather conditions. In my attempt to make myself feel better about it, I have been telling myself that I must have been really lucky to witness what was only the 3rd cancellation in 47 years! Oh, and I got to take some photos with the balloon pilots.

I have been playing a lot of basketball lately which is one of my favorite sports. There is a number of sports facilities here at Wash U: Football, Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball, Swimming, Tennis, you name it!

Unfortunately, I hurt my ankle a few days ago. So instead of playing sports, now I get to rest a bit and watch some sports live (when I’m not studying of course)!

It took me a while to establish my comfort zone, and it is a good thing to take time to settle-in in a new place. But I will be working on getting out of it occasionally in the next few months; meet new friends, go to different places, and try new things!

October 2019

The past month had one theme: Study, then study, then study even more. You would never imagine the amount of coursework we have to do at WashU. One sight I got used to is that of Olin’s Library at night after a long night of studying.

I am not complaining, though, I love how challenging the experience is! And, I love the fact that I am still managing to find time to do other activities every once in a while.

I was fortunate to hear about and participate in the annual Olin Sports Business Summit, which includes speeches by a number of representatives of professional sports teams and sports agencies. I have always been a fan of sports, but I have never been this close to sports decision makers before. Hearing about their jobs and the challenges they have to overcome was very enlightening. That was a whole new side of sports for me.

Another really nice event I attended was Jazz at Holmes, a weekly Jazz concert held at the university. I was excited to take a break from school and sit and relax to music. The week I attended, the band played Argentinian and Brazilian music. I loved how people from different backgrounds and ages all came to sit down for a few hours and enjoy music.

November 2019

November was cold. And, although winter had not officially started, we started getting lots of snow. Of course, snow means lighting the fireplace, and lighting the fireplace means one thing: S’mores!

I have been meeting with a new friend I made through a global matching program that matches international students with other members of the university community. We meet every other week to enjoy an American breakfast and talk about everything imaginable: politics, religion, culture, education, and more.

Further away from school, I joined a couple of friends at the Muslim Student Association to watch the movie Ford v. Ferrari at the cinema. To be honest, I had low expectations, but the movie turned out to be really, really good! Oh, and Christian Bale was brilliant in his role as Ken Miles!

One last thing I would like to highlight about this month is that I had the opportunity to participate in a blood drive hosted by the university and to make a blood donation to the American Red Cross. I truly believe that each donation makes a difference, at least for someone, somewhere, and I highly encourage every eligible person to donate.

December 2019

I spent the first half of this month studying for my finals and spent the second half playing video games, relaxing and planning for what I hope to be one of my best days in the United States so far! I am finally going to watch an NBA game live!

I made arrangements to attend back-to-back Mavsgames against the Lakers and the Sixers next month. I am very excited!

Until then, I will leave you with pictures from my visit to the Saint Louis Zoo this month!

January 2020

If you are back to hear about my NBA experience, you are not going to be disappointed! But first let me introduce Shohaib. I met Shohaib in my video game programming class. We worked on a group project together and have been friends since! We traveled together to Dallas to catch my first ever NBA game.

We had a very busy schedule. We visited the Dallas Museum of Art on a night filled with activities to honor David Bowie. The museum has a pop-culture twist event every other Thursday!

The next day we visited the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, a 66-acre park filled with an endless number of seasonal plants. I am excited to visit again!

We also enjoyed visiting the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and the National Videogame Museum, among others. Both were two of the highlights of my visit.

At night, we only had one thing on our minds: support the Mavs! Entering the arena for the first time was one of the most overwhelming feelings I ever had. The atmosphere was out of this world!

The first game was against the Lakers. LeBron James dominated and the Mavs lost, but they came back strong the next day against the Sixers with a strong performance from Luka. The highlight of my first NBA experience was when Boban Marjanovic made a 3-point basket that had the whole arena jumping out of our seats! Everybody loves Boban!

February 2020

We have been back to school for a few weeks now. I am enrolled in courses for machine learning and artificial intelligence. Pretty exciting stuff, huh?

I am also auditing courses in educational and cognitive psychology.

I have two exams next week. I have not been doing much this month besides studying, with the exception of enjoying late night walks on campus! Did I mention how much I love WashU?

March 2020

Spring Break has been extended and we are not going back to campus. The university has announced that we will be moving to online instruction due to COVID-19. I am glad I did not make any travel plans.

Staying at home can be very exhausting, both physically and mentally. I have been trying to go out once or twice a week for walks around the neighborhood while adhering to safety precautions.

Online education has its benefits. You do not have to wake up at an earlier time to catch the bus to school, and you have more free time! On the downside, I am missing out on seeing how beautiful the campus is in spring!

One other benefit of quarantine is that I learned to cut my own hair since all barber shops are closed. It does not look as good, but it is a start!

I know these are hard times for the whole world, and I hope we can all stay healthy, safe, and together to overcome this.

April 2020

The world is still on lockdown, and the state of Missouri has issued a stay at home order. Spending all my time on my computer was starting to exhaust me, so I started going out on walks almost daily.

During this month, Ramadan started. Muslims fast from dawn till dusk during Ramadan. We are not only asked to abstain from food and drink, but to also be mindful of our relationship with Allah (God) and other people. Good deeds are highly rewarded during Ramadan.

I was very lucky to get to know a Jordanian family here in St. Louis. Although we have not met yet because of COVID-19, they make sure to always send me Jordanian food. I have not had Jordanian food since I came to the United States! They are very generous people, and the food is so good.

Aside from food, I finished my spring semester a few days ago. I had fun working on my artificial intelligence course project. We were asked to write code that controls Pac-Man to play against other students. It was a really fun experience. I learned a lot, and I even wrote a fun blog post about my journey developing my code!

May 2020

May was really exciting! I started working as a Software Engineering Intern at Pulse Secure. I am working remotely on several technical projects that aim to increase employee engagement in company events and opportunities.

As a part of the internship, all interns are asked to present updates about their progress each week. Attending these intern learning sessions is letting me learn about the jobs of people in different departments. I am looking forward to all the new things I will be learning over the next 10 weeks with this group of bright interns!

I have always wanted to learn to play the guitar, and being stuck at home because of COVID-19 presented the perfect opportunity for me to pursue it. I got myself a guitar and have been practicing every day for a few minutes. I am often frustrated when I do not see immediate progress, but I know I have to be patient.

Umar is a first-year Fulbright student from Jordan. He is studying Computer Science at Washington University- St. Louis.

Follow updates from Umar and other Fulbright students on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Check back here every month for more updates on the blog and Medium Series to see what Umar does this year!

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