From April 3 to April 7, the Arab Cultural Club held five events in an attempt to capture some of the cultural productions of the region. The week included a reading of Fireworks, a play by Palestinian playwright Dalia Taha, Arabic Language Day for Arabic speakers and learners, a poetry night, a Dabke workshop led by junior Hind AlTantawi, and culminated with the annual Arab Cultural Night.

Photo by Sannia Farrukh/The Gazelle

The Student Interest Group Pakistan Students Association organized a mock wedding ceremony on April 8 to showcase Pakistani culture in the West Forum. The mock wedding of freshmen Mahd Asghar from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Lola Fernandez from Madrid, Spain, was celebrated with Bollywood dances and various traditional practices, such as ubtan, rukhsati and henna.

PSA Social Media Editor Rida Maryam Zafar discussed her experience planning the ceremony with The Gazelle.

“Trying to put together an authentic Pakistani wedding outside of Pakistan was challenging, but also extremely rewarding. None of this could have been possible without the help of members of the SIG, especially sophomore Safa Kashaf,” said Zafar.

“The wedding really brought the NYUAD community together, but also recreated home for many of us Pakistanis which made our efforts worthwhile,” she added.

Photo courtesy of the Office of First Year Programming

On April 7, the Office of First Year Programming organized the annual first year desert camping trip. Students spent the night in sleeping bags despite rainy weather and several instances of thunder and lightning. First years enjoyed camel rides, barbeque, dune bashing and a performance from a bellydancer.

Freshman Reine DeFranco wrote to The Gazelle, "I saw two kids making out on a sand dune, so I guess they had a good night."

This weekend marked the annual NYUAD regional debate tournament. Over 70 teams from universities across the Gulf travelled to New York University Abu Dhabi to participate.  The tournament was won by a team from Texas A&M University at Qatar, who argued for the following motion: This House believes that the Pope should not intervene in international affairs.

Teams from Abu Dhabi University, American University of Sharjah, The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and Texas A&M University at Qatar all made it to the final round of debating.