Classes at AUB

Greetings!

Well, we have survived our first two weeks of school! I have found "my" coffee shop where I can buy coffee each morning and not feel guilty because it costs the equivalent of .75! Once you get used to walking past the armed guards, the beauty of the campus (and the amazing sea views) are the first thing to hit you! In all honesty, I am quite overwhelmed, I am taking 6 courses, 3 of which have labs. This is twice as many courses as I took in the states but so far, I am managing. The emphasis here tends to be on group work, exams and short essays in comparison to the states, where each class had a very long research paper at the end. The MPH program is pretty strict about their requirements and course load, so I am just following the curriculum.

For those of you who are wondering what classes I am taking this semester, I am taking Epidemiology, which studies the causes and risk factors of disease, Biostatistics, which uses mathematics to determine trends and patterns of disease, Research Design, which teaches me qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, Communication for Health Professionals, which deals with verbal and non-verbal communication issues, Health Care Management and Policy, which deals with the managerial aspect of health care and last but not least, the Social and Behavioral Foundations of Public Health. This class focuses on the social and behavioral influences on health and provides me with the theoretical background necessary to conduct my own research (one day :) This last class is the only one that is actually in my concentration, which is Health Behavior and Education.

Some of you have asked me, what the heck is public health? What kind of jobs do I hope to get when I am done? Well, I found this nifty video and it answers both of these questions, check it out!

http://whatispublichealth.org/what/index.html

Tylor just signed his Graduate Assistant (GA) contract yesterday, this not only pays his tuition but gives us a small living stipend in return. So far, all he knows is that he has to be on campus working for 20 hours per week, but has yet to be informed of his duties! He is taking two courses, the first class focuses on the History of Identity of Lebanon, which basically studies when and how people started to consider themselves distinctly Lebanese. This topic is what Tylor hopes to continue with once he begins his dissertation.

The second class is focusing on the History of the Umayyids. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, this course is taught ENTIRELY in Arabic! All of the lectures, discussions and class presentations are conducted in Arabic and the course readings are in Arabic and French. Luckily, Tylor's writing assignments can be in English. It's a difficult feat but he is surviving and learning a lot in the process. Ironically, a lot of the Arab students dropped the course because their Arabic wasn't strong enough to be able to comprehend the readings! This is common with a lot of Arabs I have met. They are fluent in the "street" Arabic, which is the language they speak with their families but when it comes to the written formal Arabic (known as Classical Arabic), they struggle and are oftentimes more comfortable conducting their writing in French or English.

Better get back to the books, until next time, xoxo!