Even though we had eaten dinner before, we went to the Jewish Sabbath dinner anyways. We sort of intruded right in the middle of it and everyone saw us awkwardly coming in, but we were warmly welcomed. Abby was feeling a little uneasy about things, which was totally understandable because we were kind of getting the cold shoulder, so we left and then went to the Pop Rocks Catholic club "party." There was no one there, some party right, but across the hall we heard a bunch of laughter and chatter, which was from the Muslim Student Association. Abby recognized her friend, Bushra from Dubai (who also took a gap year working as a journalist,) and we went over there to see how it was "crack a lackin" (AKA what was happening.) Bushra invited us to join them, but I felt a little uneasy at first, maybe because I haven't been around many Muslims, but my time with them was by far the highlight of my time at Williams. They were the brightest people that I had met on campus and were also seemed happiest. I didn't feel like I was out of place at all. We spent over two hours sitting playing "fish bowl" (which is kind of like charades) and then went to do the typical college thing, eat ice cream at 12:30 in the student center.
Three months ago, I thought I knew that I wanted to be a dual major, maybe with History and Chinese or Environmental Science, but my past few experiences have changed my thoughts. My mother has said that if you want to become fluent in a language then you should really enjoy being around native speakers. Although I have met some lovely native Chinese speakers, the majority of them have not been people that I would find myself being friends with. But after my time with the Williams Muslim Student Association, learning Arabic is definetely on my checklist, as well as starting to be a Bollywood fan. (I am a little disappointed that UVM doesn't have an Arabic program.)
UVM doesn't have a major or minor in Arabic, but it does offer it as a subject at various levels, so you can definitely take it! I've heard the professor is really good too. Sounds like you're having fun though and I can't wait for you to visit here in just over a month!
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