Exploring Arab American Literature

Food:  The Language of Love   Makloubeh has become one of my favorite dishes ever since I first tried it at my friend Ramiz’s house. He is now the director of the Arabic House, where I lived this semester. I find Makloubeh to be a very unique dish, there’s nothing quite like it in my own culture. Since I love cooking, I have always wanted to make it myself. I love how delicate the process is and how much care goes into each step. It is the kind of dish that helps improve your cooking skills because you have to be precise, making sure it doesn’t burn at the bottom and adding just the right amount of water.   I learned more about Makloubeh at the Arabic House while observing Ramiz cook it multiple times. Eventually, I felt confident enough to try it myself, and I made it for our class. I bought the ingredients from different places. I ordered the rice from Amazon. Although I already had basmati rice in my dorm, I wanted to use the best-quality Asian rice. I got the vegetabl...

  Academic Symposium Reflection  This year was my first time participating in the academic symposium, and it ended up being quite stressful. For some reason, I was signed up to present on the same topic twice. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, maybe I signed up twice myself. I had skimmed through the symposium schedule a couple of months ago but didn’t pay enough attention to realize I was scheduled to present twice: once at 9:00 AM and again at 2:15 PM.   Some of my friends had mentioned seeing my name listed multiple times on the schedule, but I never thought to double-check. Then, around 8:00 AM on the day of the symposium, a friend who had done research with the same professor texted me, asking if I was ready for the 9:00 AM presentation. As you can imagine, I was completely unaware that I was presenting so early. As soon as I read her message, I stopped rehearsing and quickly began preparing.   Because of the surprise, I didn’t get to rehearse my present...