Traveling Abroad to the United States

Start of the Journey
It’s been pretty some time since I posted a blog; 8 months is pretty long! About one year ago, I stopped looking for a job and decided to travel abroad to the United State and go with graduate studies; M.S. Degree in Computer Science. With the coordination with the organization sponsoring my scholarship, I was admitted to ASU (Arkansas State University) in Jonesboro, AR. I had to travel from one city to another, visit many governmental organizations, get my US Visa, do flight reservation, and many unforgettable hectic activities!
On the 3rd of May 2010 and after spending 16 hours in the air, I finally arrived to the USA, Washington D.C. in particular, so this was about 5 months ago. I spent 2 days there to get some paper work done with the organization sponsoring me.
On the 5th of May 2010, I took my flight to Memphis, TN. I waited for the ASU shuttle to come, pick me up, and take me to where I would stay in Motel 6 in Jonesboro, AR. Briefly, I had to find an apartment near ASU, get it furnished, report to International Program Office my arrival, and hang out around ASU

ESL Program at ASU
First of all, I would like to thank every faculty member of the ESL Institute, especially, those whom I was one of their students; Mr. Magdi and Mr. Michael in Level 04 and Level 05 respectively, for their huge effort in professionally delivering the course materials to us.

Honestly, I enjoyed learning the English language in the ESL Program at ASU. Although it was a refresh to what I already studied before and it was a little out of my expectations. Actually, the main motive behind continuing my graduate studies was actually to improve my English skills. So, I can speak fluently and professionally in the area I’m specialized in and of course the everyday life activities. Nevertheless, I admit I learned new stuff I wasn’t aware before and I’m very grateful to that.

“Of course, no body is perfect, but one should long to perfection as much as possible”

New Experience
Until now, being in the United States has been one of the best times I’ve ever experienced in my life so far.  I got myself improving on the:

Academic perspective: through attending a period of 2 months in the ESL program and preparing the SOP (Statement of Purpose) letter for the graduate studies. Well, I already started the graduate studies

Technical perspective: as I’m an Ubuntu geek, I upgraded my Ubuntu to 10.04 during this time. Well, Ubuntu 10.10 was out 5 days ago and I’ve been trying to convince people to use Ubuntu by showing them how to migrate to Ubuntu and use alternative packages and teaching them how to master some basic commands such as: ls, cd, chmod, sudo …etc.

and Social/Cultural Perspective: through expanding my international social network, getting together with new friends, shopping, cooking, singing (I won’t forget what we did in the Walmart that day ), going to restaurants … and many things I started to do that I wasn’t doing while in my hometown!

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