Area 77

Hello people, before I kickstart an expected ugly two weeks before finals I would like to share one of the best weekends I ever had.

I arrived at the hotel Thursday night, missing the opening ceremony and I believe the Sports Convention as well, at the National Union of Kuwaiti Students Conference of 2006 in New York. But I was in time for the NUKS officers open forum.

Friday was a pretty hectic day since I was asked to take photographs of as many events as I can. I think my photos were extremely crappy, thanks to the fact that my camera is a point-and-shoot Sony T33 with a limited zoom. It’s a fantastic camera for snapshots but does really bad at far off subjects and in low light. I would have done much better with a digital SLR with at least a 6 mega pixel sensor.

I covered the Performing Arts, and Homeland Security Conventions which were really interesting. It was the second time I attend something serious or important that had nothing to do with school (yuck!). Abdulameer Al Turki (legendary writer of “Darb el Zalag” series) and Su’ad Abdalla (one of Kuwait’s most beloved actresses) led the talks in the first convention. Both reminisced about the past and how things have changed for the better or, usually, the worse. One story that stands out at the moment is how Al Turki came up with the character “Gahata,” one of the characters from “Darb el Zalag.” He said that Sheikh Jaber Al Ali, was the one that actually came up with the character, basing him on black man he knew! Actually, Sheikh Jaber Al Ali had asked Al Turki to write a series about the time right before Kuwait started to rapidly develop so that the youth of today would learn the roots of their culture. A beautiful story behind the story.

After that was the Homeland Security Convention. It was about the many, MANY dangers Kuwait faces in regards to Iran’s nuclear research. The speaker, Dr. Sami Al Faraj, emphasized that he does not question Iran’s right for conducting nuclear research but that Kuwait should seriously do something to prevent environmental disasters that would severely harm Kuwait by urging talks with Iran to relocate their research facilities further inland and away from the waters and winds that lead directly to Kuwait.

Friday was also the day of the NUKS student officers’ elections and I finally got the chance to take part in vote in an official election. It was great! A lot of people turned out to vote and I’m thinking it took about three or four hours for everyone to cast their ballot. I was too tired so I missed out on the celebrations of the Al Wihda party. But it’s OK, I had already witnessed numerous spontaneous moments when the supports of Al Wihda would just break out in an awesome chanting and cheering session.

Saturday was the Grand Finale of the conference and it was fantastic and I couldn’t have changed a single thing if I could have. Although I regret not having had the chance to watch an original film about “Nabeeha 5,” which turned out to be a great film. I had spent the night before worrying about what to wear for the final event the next day (Nawal concert) and watching old-school sitcoms on Nick@Nite (Roseanne rocks!). However, I got up and said to myself “—- it! I came all the way here to see my favorite singer of all time and I shouldn’t care what people think of me.” So I walked downstairs in my brown corduroy pants, pink polo, jean jacket and old converse all-stars. And to my surprise, almost everyone was in casual clothing too! I even saw a guy in shorts! So I went over to some friends and had dinner.

Then came the Nawal concert. I cannot even begin to describe what I felt in those three (?) hours. Seeing her in concert on TV get me excited! I had a frozen smile on my face the whole time. And it wasn’t just because of her, it was the whole audience too. I loved how the audience and Nawal would respond to each other. Between each song, a group of guys would start chanting and cheering and just making her laugh! “Ahebech ya Nawaaaal!” “La ywagef! La ywagef!” “3ashat Nawal! 3ashat Nawal!” “Ya 3eini ya leily ya Nawaaaaaaaaaal! Oooooooh!” and many others. There was a point when she had requested for a spot-light to be dimmed a bit because it was either hurting her eyes or was too warm, I’m not sure, and then we all started chanting “Khefaw el itha’a! Khefaw el itha’a!” hilarious, and she thought so too. I could tell that she really enjoyed it as much as we all did. The first song was “Tadry” which is one of my favorites, and also “Tehadidni” and many other fantastic songs. Ofcourse she sang “my” song “Tebarra.” And in the end it was “Taj il Roos” and the audience became even wilder than it already was.

I went to bed that night with a huge grin on my face (couldn’t smile anymore because it started to hurt) and I can’t say I’ve had that opportunity many times before.

Finally, I would like to say thanks to those responsible for this weekend. NUKS did an unbelievable job and I think it’s acurate to say that all 800+ people agree with me.

I’m guessing only 1% of you reached this far so I congratulate you on reading the whole thing. I hope it wasn’t too long.

Check out Abraaj’s photograph of Nawal at the concert, and my coverage of the conference.

I uploaded two videos I took of Al Wihda supporters chanting here and here.

I also uploaded two videos that I took of Nawal at the concert singing Tehadidni and Tebarra. They aren’t that clear because they were taken after she asked for the lights to be turned down. You can actually see a hint of pink every time the flash from a camera goes off so you can tell where she generally is. Even if you think the video is crap, I suggest you just listen to them because I feel that you can really hear the excitement and amazing attitude of the audience. And you can hear me and the girls I was sitting with say something once in a while too, haha!

Enjoy!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Cartoons/Art, Kuwait, Literature/Poetry, Music, My Life, Politics, Sports, TV/Movies, Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.