I started to write this entry on May 25, 2006 ---- way back when the Rotarians came to visit us at AUN (called AAUN back then). The only reason the entry was so delayed was because I have been waiting to get some pictures from the PR (Public Relations) office ever since. Since I couldn't get any pictures, I decided to add the entry anyways. The reason why I'm not scraping the entry altogether is that that day I had read this wonderful story called "The Penny". I had received the story as a forwarded messgae in my email from a friend. Here's the what I had in my email:

We went to the university club and had lunch with the Rotarians that day. It was a lovely day, I still remember the clouds. That was the first time I visited the faculty club and got to taste the food there! I liked it, but not too much. We also had a tour of the yet-to-be-built south campus (permanent campus). I talked to them mainly about the US and particularly Tennessee, from what I recall. Anyways, it was nice meeting them especially cos I got the penny from them. It was then that I realized that God was speaking to me..... and He still is today as I write this entry seated in my dormitory in South Korea. I was worrying about so much these past few days, but now I know that I trust Him completely. The inscripton on the penny is truly awesome - "In God We Trust"

We started a new club in AUN called the American University of Nigeria’s Honors Society (AUNHS). The criterion for selecting student members was CGPA of 3.3 and above, and completion of a certain number of credit hours. I and all my siblings were also invited to join the club. The first meeting was held in early October, 2007 (that's when I started writing this entry!) Professors in attendance were from the three different schools and the three deans were also present. Well, the meeting was spent familiarizing everyone with the purpose of the club, and discussing why someone would want to join the club. At the end we decided to meet twice again the coming week to finalize the constitution and select the executive members.

As agreed, we met next week and were able to finalize the constitution and select the executive committee. The president’s position was given to Dean Norman Wright! I was really happy cos I wanted him to win. It was a secret ballot, and we were voting for either Hamman or Dean Wright. So we (me and siblings, including Hamman) voted for him! The position of the Vice president was give to Hamman Samuel (yes! This time we all voted for Hamman). Patricia Akubo won the most votes for the position of Secretary, and Adunni Rufai was voted the Treasurer. There are different member types that constitute the society. These are the charter members, members in course, honorary members, and associate members. Of course, over the years there have been new elections and new members to take the positions in the executive committee. Somewhere along the line we as a society decided it was in our best interest to have students run the society so consequent executives after 2/3 terms were all students. I think last semester, the president of the society was Temitope, the vice was Heriju, the secretary was Omasiri, and Bimbo was the treasurer. Anyways, I, Hamman, Nousheen, Omasiri and Nayyara were elected to form the website committee. There were lots of other committees created by the society such as a tutoring committee, events committee, movie nights committee etc

There were also numerous event organized by the AUNHS - Dr. Korie Handweger made all the arrangements for the first few events (from what I recall). We also had an event where Patrick Okata (a board member) gave a speech. Like earlier events, this also was really good. And like the earlier events also, I wasn’t able to attend. This time I had a mid-term in History of Art, and I couldn’t afford to get a low score on that. So I decided to forfeit the speech . BTW, when I was writing this entry back in October, 2007, I wrote this:

"Speaking of board members, I just read from a newsletter that Desmund Tutu has joined the board of Directors for AUN! Isn’t that amazing? I’m grateful to God that we have very distinguished dignitaries in out board of directors - (Written on Oct 30, 07)"

There were other events organized by the society in one of which we were to have poet from Ghana come over. The event that I got to attend was the career counseling - it was a really good event. Lots of professors from all the schools were present. The event was organized basically for seniors and juniors to better equip them for their future endeavors. Some sophomores also attended. There were two meetings in the event - the first was among facutly and students in the same school (e.g. SITC held its meeting and dicussed careers in IT and professors addressed any questions students from SITC had), and the second was a meeting with everyone from all schools present. The second meeting was kinda funny cos professors and deans from the schools started competing with each other, haha. Dr. Smith (dean of SBE) said that "if you want to make money you should join the school of business and enterpreneurship" to which Bill Hansen (representing the dean of SAS) reacted "if you want be an intellectual you ought to join the school of arts and sciences". Dr. Kah being the last of the deans to speak said "if you want to make money and become an intellectual, you have to join the school of IT and communications". Really funny seeing all of them trying to get attention from the students. The event was fun and I'm glad I attended it . Dr. Fonkam and Patricia organized it very nicely.

Ok then, here are some random pictures from various Honors Society meetings, mostly from the AUNHS Awards Night and Career Counseling. The Awards Night was organized for all graduating seniors that were part of the AUNHS members. Outstanding graduating seniors were recognized during the event - awards given included graduating class valedictorian, students with 2nd and 3rd highest CGPAs, service awards, contributions awards, etc. It was a really cool event - the venue was the faculty club and the food was totally delicious! Well, enjoy the pics! I'll write about graduation and other awards nights in one of my later entries.

Seniors at the AUNHS Awards Night (Left) --- Bill Hansen, Mohammed Sani, & Adi Bongo at Career Event (Right)

Oma at Awards Night (Left) --- Temitope & Judith being awarded by David Kosoko (DSA) at Awards Night (Right)

Nayyara being awarded by DSA at Awards Night (Left) --- Me, Saima, & Nousheen at Career Event (Right)

Me being awarded by DSA at Awards Night (Left) --- Nayyara and Sam at a General Meeting (Right)

Nayyara, Oma, & Frank Azeke at Career Event (Left) --- Hamman speaking at Awards Night (Right)

Hamman being awarded by DSA at Awards Night (Left) --- SITC Faculty & Students at Career Event (Right)

This entry was supposed to have been posted on 25th August, 2008, but unfortunately it wasn't. Anyways, the field trip was organized by Dr. Odinma for the INF 252 course (Telecoms and Data Networks). The aim of the trip was to show us how various networks across the AUN campuses and AUN housings are connected. We visited the server rooms of the university as well as control rooms in the faculty housing and dorms. The trip was meant to help us do our course projects - I and my team were assigned to study the AUN MAN. Victor (the IT director) was our "tour guide" -- he explained all the technical stuff and answered any questions we had. It was by far the best field trip I've had at AUN (have had about 3-4 others). Here are some pics from the trip - enjoy!

Victor & Dr. Odinma at 16 Flats Faculty Housing (Left) ----- Server room in the Girls' Dormintory (Right)

Students on top of the roof at 16 Flats Faculty Housing (Left) ----- Main Satelitte of AUN on South Campus (Right)

Dr. Odinma and the studnets touring in bus (Left) ----- Outside the AUN President's house with Victor (Right)

Victor explaining design of connections at the Girls' Dorm (Left) ----- Outside the server room on the South Campus (Right)

AUN had a spelling competition as part of the founder day's activities for fall 08. Close to 12 teams participated made of 5 members each. I also took part in the contest - Hymenopterons (my team's title) was made up of Nino, me, Hamman, Omorx, and Wisdom. A very strong group, or so most people who met us remarked. The contest was fun! Professor Pavlik was in charge and the aim was to raise funds for the library project. We had lots of judges too. I personally didn't practice too much cos I was participating for fun. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the competition. The founder and president also attended the contest. It was scary standing on stage and trying to spell out words! Thank God everything went well and I didn't get out in the first round! I got the word 'longevity' wrong. You won't believe it but I had never head the word before :-)

There were supposed to be two winners - one who scored the most points, and one who raised the most money. The money was to go to charity for the library project (like I mentioned a few lines back). Praise God my team managed to raise the most money! I think the Dictionary Dudes got the highest score. There was also an individual winner who would win an iPod nano. I can't remember the name of the person who won the contest but he was part of the Dictionary Dudes. We also had a dinner at the president's house as part of our reward. The winning teams were invited and the faculty was actually serving us! I would say the contest was the thing I enjoyed most and I must congratulate Cheryl Pavlik for doing such a wonderful job and for giving us students something really fun to do!

I'm truly amazed I got such a wonderful result this semester! Thank You Jesus!Thank You sooooooooooo much!!! I had been praying earnestly for an A in Database Security and Auditing, and in Systems Dynamics. Praise God I actually got an A in all my courses!!! It's amazing how God answers prayers, even of those that are unworthy- thank You Father!!! So it was the THIRD miracle! I knew it! I'm waiting for more and more that are yet to come........

This semester I enrolled for just 4 courses and surprisingly, I found it harder than usual to cope with classes. I guess I was being lazy. Anyways, all courses turned out to be good - the Systems Dynamics course was particularly fascinating. Database Security and Auditing turned out to be the most pragmatic course I've ever done. I think I learnt more in this course than in any other course, something I did not expect. I got to develop a prototype of an e-commerce site in my Web-driven database course. Better still, we all got pizza's at the end of the semester!!! Western civilization turned out much easier than I anticipated - thank God I was able to write a good reflection paper in the course.

So much for courses, I want to be abap (as brief as possible) about courses this time around. The new and final semester has started. I'm taking 4 courses again - Senoir Design Project with a new professor, IT for Development with Dr. Bollou, Technical Report Writing with Dr. Ume, and I'm retaking Project Management with Dr. Quaye. I truely love the way all of these professors teach these courses! Actually I didn't know any of these courses could be as exciting as each of these professors have made them. I'm not very clear on the capstone project I'll be doing but I think I'll be working with Dr. Grakhov. The semester looks like a lot of fun, I only hope things turn out well, God willing. Can't wait to graduate, hahaha!

Like I've already mentioned in my 2 recent entries, two miracles occured in a row (Praise Jesus), the third incident that happend actually had to do with my courses. It was time to write my mid-term for INF 353 (Database Security and Auditing). I'd been revising whole week. I don't think I spent so much time studying any other course - almost 4 hours each day. Looking at exam questions I thought to myself "piece of cake". All of us (me and my mates) thought we'd do well and score high on this one........reality turned out to be different....

The professor handed us our papers back - I scored 15, "hmm, not bad" Patricia got 16 and Oma got 11. I thought my score was good enough until Patricia told me it was out of 20. "What? That means I scorred only 75% on the Midterm! And midterm is 20% of overall grade!!! How come?" We all felt sad and decided to go and ask the prof about his marking scheme. We didn't gain much by doing that. In the end, we felt very much discouraged and sad cos we weren't sure if we'd make an A or even an A- in the course. I couldn't help but wonder,  "could this be a third miracle? Oh Jesus, please let it be!!!!"

I haven't been told my grade in the course yet, God willing it will be good as always.......

This is what happened a few days after I had my motherboard replaced [just the way it was in my head]

On Friday.......

Woa, I can't believe my laptop is finally working fine! Thank You Jesus! I Love You! Even my USB ports must be working now!!! Unbelievable! Let me connect my iPod nano and check ...... Woa, still can't believe it. Hmmm, what's this New Folder? Maybe someone created it, anyways, let me see if I can view the pics...... what's this? Why is everything stuck? Wait! {I unplug the iPod immediately} Why is my anti-virus disabled all of a sudden? Lord, what is this happening? I need help, where's Hamman? Jesus, why did this have to happen now when I just got my new motherboard? Oh Lord, please help me..........

"It's the same virus that has infected Saima's laptop" Hamman tells me when I show him what happened. What?! "It's running the Blank.exe and .JPG processes that you can't even end. Don't restart your PC, and quickly uninstall Yahoo messenger" "But I can't even open the ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS in control panel! This is bad! Why me? I said. Hamman says "Don't panic, we'll find something to fix it over the net" "But it won't even let me download - wait, I can download only with Download manager. Phew! Ok let me do that" I said. "Here are some links try them" says hamman as he sends me some links. "But you were working on this for Saima's laptop ever since, didn't you find anything for her uptil now?" I asked. "No, I'm still looking" and he goes downstairs to do some work of his, while I search for something to rid my laptop of the virus. {I find something and download it } Lord help me {When I get to Hamman he runs the new program but it doesn't help in any way so I begin to pester him to find something quick} "Please, I don't want the virus to spread" {but Hamman doesn't seem as eager or worried as I am} Why is Hamman not concerned about my laptop? He's busy helping someone else with their homework! It's not fair! I guess it was all my fault to have stupidly connected the iPod without reason {tears begin to fill my eyes, but I control them and decide to cry when I get home} I don't want to format my laptop, there's so much in there that I can't loose. Please Jesus help......

The next day ......

Today's a new day. Hmm, Father You didn't let me cry yesteday :-) Thank You Jesus, please let me find a solution to my problem today. Let me search the internet to find some solution...... One site has a forum where AVG is recommended to get rid of this virus. Hmm, Hamman would know better since he already knows all the details of the virus. "I think I've found something, start downloading it" Hamman tells me. "Lets go and get lunch and go for a little walk" says Saima. Ok, no problem, I think that'll help and the download will be finished by the time we get back. I have a feeling this might just be the answer. As we walk past the beautiful grass and watch the mountains and clouds I can't help but praise Jesus for everything that he has given us. My heart tells me that I ought to praise Him for His love. On our way back, I'm listening to the wonderful song "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" by Women of Faith and all of a sudden I feel so glad that Jesus loves me, that He cares for all of us enough to take our sorrows upon Himself. Thank You Jesus. Hmmm, everything will be well - "what about your laptop? aren't you worried about it?" says a voice in my head. And my heart responds - "the LORD's will be done, everything will work out just fine" {When I get back to my laptop, the download's finished} Great! Let's see if this works.....Hamman and I run the AVG software scan and it is able to detect the virus!!! Amazing! Thank You Jesus for answering my prayer!!!! But maybe it can't remove it, lets wait and see........ "Click heal anytime it asks you about an infected file it has detected" Hamman tells me, and so I do as I am told. After a while multiple message windows start to pop-up saying unable to start some program. Hamman tells me to close them as fast as I can. It gets to the point that my system crashes because of the amount of message windows. I see a blue screen and it turns off. A blue screen? Why, what happened? Hamman says "Your system just crashed! Hahaha". What?! That's the first time it has happened. "I hope it's fine when it turns on" I told Hamman "Yes it will be, don't act like you are not an IT student" Hamman tells me. "I only hope the virus is gone now - why did it crash?" I asked  "The virus was probably trying to lauch a file that AVG had deleted so its very likely the virus is gone" Let's check.......It really is gone!!!! All the processes the virus was running are gone!!! Praise You LORD!!!! Thank You SOOOOOOOOO much! This means we can now correct Saima's laptop also! Wow! God really is wonderful!!!!

Saima's laptop had had the virus and we couldn't find anything to heal the laptop for a long time. Now we could try and get rid of the virus from her laptop as well!!! Not only did this experience make me praise God more, but it also helped me to rely more on Him for everything. That was the second miracle.

This is what I felt like a few weeks back and am writing as it was in my head at that moment....read on.....

It came to the point when I had to press my laptop very hard multiple times and turn in off/on before it booted. I felt really sad for the state of my motherboard; depressed actually. Let the LORD help me, I don't want a bad laptop. How will I tackle this problem in class? Then there's the problem of changing my domain still pending! How could Nino not have helped me now? Why did she go and have her domain account changed by Victor and not taken mine also with her? She should have known I couldn't take my laptop upstaris for fear that it might never boot. Yet, neither her nor Noshi helped me. I felt really upset now, how could I get on the domain? Maybe I should go talk to Victor about some permissions that needed to be set for the Finance staff on the Finance module, and with this also request him to change my domain account. That way I won't have to go upstairs....his office is on ground floor you see. What a brilliant idea! God willing, it'll work out fine.......

In Victor's Office.......

Now that I'm in Victor's office, he's soo busy correcting problems.....he has asked me not to talk till he is done with his work. It's 10 minutes since I came in and Victor shows no sign of finishing anytime soon. Mr Francis walks in, phew! Maybe he'll distract Victor so I can talk about Finance and my domain problem. Guess I was wrong, even he's been told to sush and wait. What's this? Is Victor getting ready to leave? "I'll be back in a minute" he says. Oh! He has to check on the server.....hmmmmm(sigh). When will he be back? Am getting late for my readings........A discussion on domain accounts with Mr. Francis starts and I voice my reluctance to take my laptop upstairs for fear that it might not boot. I also tell him about problems that others were having after changing his domain account. Mr. Francis tells me how to solve these problems. Wao! I didn't know it was ok and the problem could be solved so easily,........hmm "Can I bring my laptop for the domain thing to your office?" I asked, and he said sure, why not. He says I should come and check at his office tomorrow afternoon. Hmmm.... that's good , God wiling I'll get some good out of this. Can't stop thinking about my poor motherboard.....hmmm(sigh)

Next day.......

Let me just quickly check upstairs for Mr. Francis, if he's around then I can bring my laptop also......... "Which one of you (siblings) has problem with mother board?" he asks. I said mine was too bad now, the worst probably. He tells me he just got a very new motherboard from someone else's abandoned laptop. "There are other people in the queue".....but he's still giving it to me? How's that possible? Could this be true? "How much does it cost, and how do I make the payment".....he tells me I have to pay at finance and bring the receipt to him....."I don't have the money right now but I could call home and get it and make the payment today.....PLEASE don't give it to someone else, I'll make all payments today" I said. "No problem, you can pay tomorrow. Go and get your laptop so I can change the motherboard" What? Did I hear him correctly? I can have it changed without paying? Amazing!!! Praise the LORD!!!! "Thank you sooo much, let me go and get my laptop.....how much does it cost?" ........close to 21,000 naira. Who cares, that's not too much, thank God I have a new motherboard!!! I'll complete the payment process ASAP. Let me go downstairs and tell Nino or Mona.....but no, let me just go for the database course and I'll tell them after. Thank You Jesus!!!

That's the first miracle, Prasie GOD!!!

I had a fabulous time! Tastey food and lovely people with fantastic speeches..... I enjoyed every bit of it. The event started with my good friend Judith's speech - she spoke about her experience as an abroad at AU exchange student, and when she mentioned that she actually shook Obama's hand there was a huge round of applause! The deans of each school (Dean Kah - SITC, Dean Smith - SBE, and Dean Laawal - SAS) and the DSA (Director of Student Affairs) gave a speech, as well as the SUG (Student Union Govt.) president Soji. Dr. Garofalo and President Smith also spoke at the barbecue. I loved Dr. Garofalo's speech best, but the others were just as wonderful. In any case, the food served after the speech was superb! We had chicken, rice, vegetable and fruit salad, and cake, with soft drinks. The quality of the food was really good. Hmm, I guess President Smith was somewhat correct in saying he was standing between us and the barbecue (in his speech) haha....just joking, actually I liked the speeches so much that I didn't even remember the food Thank God Hamman got to take pictures for me to post . I also gave an interview after the event not knowing which channel it was for. I found out after the interview that it was for  AIT! I hope my interview wasn't too bad cos I didn't really think while answering questions  Actually they intended to interview Judith, but they asked me to join the interview. It was cool actually .......

Elijah and Damian in the left photo & Judith giving her speech in the photo on the right

I feel that becasue of the presence of soo many new people and of course better planning, this orientation has been the best so far. The only hitch was that a lizard ended up in the Admissions check-in room! Haha! Mr. Edwin (one of the Admissions staff and a good friend) said that the poor thing had only come to register! It was really funny..... all the staff at admissions, and in fact, AUN is just soo friendly and funny. I'm having a great time, thank God! Another thing that I really liked about this orientation was that the Finance department got rid of some of the manual process - we (me and my siblings) developed a Finance Module for the Finance department to computerize some of their student records. You know, I just love to see automated and improved processes  I only pray registration is just as smooth. There will be some improvements in registration as well, but that's supposed to be a surprise so I can't mention it right now. At any rate, I sincerely thank Lord Jesus for everything.

I will talk about faculty and staff that left us this semester, and new ones arrived in one of my later entries. There's a whole lot of new faculty and staff that has arrived. And we have 2 exchange students from AU, Washington, and 2 visiting students. This semester looks promising......

What a wonderful semester indeed! Thank you Jesus! I didn't expect to get such good grades in all courses esp Ethics and Leadership (PHI 300) and IS Security & Auditing (INF 351). You know when I started the semester, I never thought I could get such good grades  If you recall, I mentioned courses I'm taking this semester in one of my ealier entries. I also said I might drop the World Literature course if things got difficult. Well, I did drop the course cos I knew INF 351 and PHI 300 would take up all of my time; thank God, otherwise I might have ended up with lower grades  The other courses I took were Operations Management (QBA 202), Process Modeling and Solutions Blueprinting (INF 361), and Psychology (PSY 101). I had a personal and a group project in most of the courses plus lots of exercises, homeworks, quizes, and exams. Most of the time I had to stay up late (till 2:00am) or get up very early (3:00am) to finish a paper or read for some exam. There was a particular day when I didn't get to sleep throughout the night...It was quite stressful . But at any rate, God has been merciful and has granted me a very good GPA for the semester. I think I'll discuss what each course was like and let you see for yourself how Spring 2008 has been (I've decided to be brief about all my courses this time).

PHI 300 was a very good course and Dr. Osam Edim did a great job teaching it. Almost all the students I know liked his way of teaching, which is saying a lot as students generally like to complain about professors. We were each of us required to present a world leader of our choice; leaders ranged from Ben Carson, Alexandar, Nelson Mandella, to Bin Laden. I chose William Wilberforce; I think he is one of the finest people that I know, I really praise God for such people. Saima chose Susan B. Anthony and Nayyara chose Ben Gaurion. Hamman's taking the course Summer I and he's presenting Atiku Abubakar. Apart from individual presentations, we also did group presentations on failed leadership in different sectors of Nigeria. My group presented failed leadership in Nigerian Banks. We also wrote a mid-term and about 5 critical summaries of different articles including Bertrand Russell's Appearance & Reality and Michael E. Brown's Misconceptions of Ethical Leadership among others.  

PSY 101 was entertaining, really. A lot of concepts were very new to me. Dr. John Carroll also did a great job teaching it. Sometimes we watched presentations by other Psychology professors in other universities. I usually enjoyed that. I think I like everything about the course expcet Sigmend Freud's theory. But anyways, there were good concepts that I learned like I got to understand how psychologists think and view the world. We wrote about 5 exams in the course and did various exercises in class. I took the course as a free elective.

QBA 202 was very enlightening. Dr. Botchway's style of teaching was different from what it was in the previous semesters; I loved it! This time, we did a personal project on Peugeot Nigeria and a group project on Virign Nigeria. We were required to present details about the company, identify problems with operations, and recommed solutions as operations managers. We also wrote a midterm, a final, about 5 quizes, and did about 4 group exercises. All of this work made everything easier to understand. On the whole, I would rate the course with 5 stars!

INF 361 was also very enlightening. Dr. Bollou did not give us too much work in the course apart from one midterm, a few in-class exercises, and a personal project. We didn't cover as much as we should have which resulted in the personal projects not being very strong, but not bad either. However, we did learn a lot of new things in the course like cycle time analysis and capacity analysis among others. The course textbook was helpful in understanding everything. Some of the in-class exercises we did were very entertaining; I particularly like the business games that Dr. Bollou gives us in most courses.

And finally, INF 351 was a very important course cos it was the only course on security that I've taken. Dr. Kah gave us just as much work as he did last semester; however, he was not to strict on us. We wrote two exams and thankfully, I completed both exams in time. In fact I was the only one who completed the second exam within its time limit. Some students said the time given for the second exam was not enough, but praise God, I was able to finish. Apart from the exams, we wrote about 3 homeworks. We also did a personal paper and a group project. I wrote a paper on the Student Repository system (Samuels' Student Repository system) that we have developed for the university. The group project entailed carrying out a IT securiy audit of AUN! It was executed in a very nice way; the entire class was divided into 3 groups and each group was given part of AUN to study in different phases. The entire team got together for analysis and compilation of findings. I enjoyed it eventhough our group (me, Saima, Radiya, and Jennifer) did a lot of work, in fact more than any of the other teams (our team was assigned areas that required more work). Each one of the 3 groups submitted about 3 different reports, not to mention the 7 status reports, documented interviews, and other project management docs. And finally, a final report that was composed of the 3 reports and all the documents created in the course of the project (a 112 page document!). On the whole, I enjoyed the course. I had prepared my mind for a B+ this time cos I didn't want any negative surprises; however, I worked for an A. I can't thank God enough that I did eventually get an A.

So you see, it wasn't very easy, but praise God! I could never have gotten through with such good results! And look at my entry! Isn't it amazingly brief? I think I've acquired better summary skills after writing soo many summaries last semester haha!

PS - Just in case someone browsing this blog happens to need some information about work I completed (e.g. if you are researching on Wilberforce, or Virign Nigeria, or want to understand the Samuels' Student Repository system) you can email me and I'll send you some helpful info depending on what you request. You know when I was researching on Virigin Nigeria, I really needed to get information on the organizational structure of the company but couldn't find enough resources; I feel that the least I can do after going through that disappointing experiecnce is to make my work available so that it can be of help to someone.

Fall 2007 was the most stressful semester yet. The ending was nothing like what I expected – I thought that I would not be able to get an A in my STA 301 course, but it turned out that the only course I could NOT get an A was IS Project Management! That came as a shock, really. At first I was very upset with my grade (B+) because I had worked very hard in this course, especially on the project. I mean I spent so much of my time on the project; I had to walk over to the Community school with my group members for interviews and what not. I even had to stay late at school or miss out lunch/dinner for the project. I even kept on bothering Dr. Sergey to set up the site on the server (he was really very helpful as always, he’s also one of my very fav. profs). The project was about developing a web portal for the Community School. We concluded the project successfully enough because the client (Dr. Elspeth Smith – Director of the AUN Community School) was really pleased with the outcome. She’s such a nice person, always very clear about what she wants. Anyways, at the end of the semester I never even once thought about my grade in INF 321 cos I was sure of an A. I was disappointed with the outcome of the examination because Dr. Kah didn’t give us enough time to finish the exam. From what I recall he gave us less than 1 and half an hour. And believe me when I say that the paper was one of the longest I’ve written. We were all surprised when Dr. Kah said that the time was up and we should all submit. Actually he was taking us for dinner after the exam so most of us let go of the exam papers, but we did protest. I guess I have to be more careful next time cos I couldn’t get over the shock of the grade for like 2 days. But with time I realized that I shouldn’t be complaining for 2 reasons – #1 it is written: “Give thanks in everything for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” and so I stopped struggling with trying to accept this grade. In fact, I realized that if I thank God for an A, then why not for everything else? And to be frank, B+ is not bad at all. I guess I was just being greedy and selfish. #2 reason: my grade in STA 301 was way better than what I expected so I praise God for that. Can’t tell you how foolishly I was acting over this grade in INF 321. I ended up writing an email to Dr. Kah to get details of my grade and telling him how happy I was with the project I had done in the course. To be honest, I really am very happy with the web portal project for ACS. I acquired some web development skills doing it. At any rate, Dr. Kah always says that it’s unfortunate for anyone to be in his class. In my opinion, it’s the opposite – I think it’s a great pleasure to learn from him (of course I would have been happier if I had had a better grade, but who cares).  

My first elective was the Database Systems course. Unfortunately, CSC 348 was just as stressful as INF 321. In fact, I’d say that CSC 384 was the most difficult course in the past semester. The project took more of my time than any project I’ve done since I came to AUN. I still feel tired when I remember how I used to be writing queries and doing functions, procedures, triggers, etc every where and every time – in classes, during lunch, during dinner, during group meetings, during club meetings, at home late at night, very early in the morning, and what not. But fortunately, it was also the BEST course I’ve done at AUN. And I really really love the way Dr. Grakhov taught the course. He is just one of the best professors at AUN. Really good at explaining, he also makes sure that everyone participates and learns what is required. The project forced us all to practice and learn what we’d studied in the course. On the whole, along with being the most stressful course, CSC 384 was just awesome! We also did final presentations for the project assigned to us in the course. My project involved developing a database that would help store information about labs and could be used by the lab supervisor – Dr. Sergey Butakov. Our client as always was very helpful and was very pleased with the final outcome. We also developed a little application. Faiza was my group member. Dr. Vladislav, Dr. Fonkam, and Dr. Bollou were also present at our final presentations. I was very surprised when everyone commended us for our work. In fact, all the professors were very pleased with the work all the groups did. I really thank God for that. Can’t tell you how relieved we all felt (esp Nino, me, and Oma – group leaders) after the final presentations were over. To make things even better, Dr. Grakhov took all of us (including the professors present at the presentations) to dinner at the Faculty club. We had a really good time chatting, eating, and thanking God that the course was over, haha. Discussions varied from jobs opportunities to education and life in Russia. We also chatted about IT stuff and lots other things. I really really had a good time. I’m so happy I was in Dr. Grakhov’s class, he’s very nice. He even let us order for any amount we wanted; so I asked him “Can I order the whole menu?” And he said “Yes, if you can finish it, why not?” Plus he said that ice cream was mandatory for everyone! He remarked “Eat, so that this food will help to regain the blood that was sucked by the work you did on the projects” Haha. What a wonderful semester indeed! Thank you Jesus!

The History of Art course (CMD 131) was also very enjoyable.  Dr. Parker is also one of my very fav professors. His style of teaching is very good and his classes are very entertaining. Some of my most entertaining class moments in AUN were in this class. I remember two such lessons – one was when Dr. Parker was giving out chocolate cookies for correct answers, and another was when we had a kind of a quiz-game for some chapters in the course text. Everyone was doing something very funny in both lessons esp the cookie-prize class. Some of the students were making so much effort to get the answer right, haha and one student remarked “See what people can do for just one cookie”, hahhahaha. Another very funny comment the same student (Umar) made was when he saw Donan smile after getting a question right and receiving a cookie – he said he’d never seen Donan soo happy before in his life! And then there was this instance when Dr. Parker asked one student “Why was King Tutankhamon’s coffineete very famous?’” and the student said “Who is Tutankahmon?” And everyone just bursts out laughing cos we’d studied it lots of time in class. So in an attempt to remind the student who Tutankhamon was Dr. Parker posed like the Egyptian paintings to illustrate that Tutankhamon was an Egyptian King, haha – his head and legs were in profile while his shoulders were frontal. It was very funny, I couldn’t stop laughing, haha. Oh I’m really going to miss being in that class. I met Nicolas Caroll there too. He’s very cute and sweet, more like a younger brother. The students made the class very lively and enjoyable as did the professor. One of the finest classes I’ve been too. The course was also wonderful. Believe me when I say that I learnt more in this course than in any other course. I mean I leant a lot of new things, and I still remember them – Arichitecture, art, and sculpture; Greek, Near Eastern, Roman, Middle ages, Bzyaantine, Reinascence, and Christian. My favourite were the cathedrals, the most amazing piece of architecture ever! I love the cathedrals at France and England. They are all truly beautiful! If you read my entry on my trip to Abuja, you’ll see how much I appreciate having done this course. Once again, thank You LORD!

The other three courses were Enterprise Resource Planning, Fundamentals of Accounting, and Probability and Statistics. All of these were difficult. I had problems in statistics, had my worst ever score of my entire life on the first test in STA 301 – I got 30% L Later on I improved by God’s grace and miraculously I ended with an A in the course! I Praise God for giving His servant what I do not deserve – how wonderful is God’s mercy. I remember telling a good friend of mine Peter C. about the difficulties I was having cos the course text was not available. He suggested that I use one online that was similar to the course text, really nice of him. I actually came to know him through this blog. He came across my blog as he was searching for Professor Cheryl Pavlik, but that’s another story/entry. On the whole, I enjoyed the class, esp the final exam. Dr. Monday Datong (our professor for the STA 301 course) was really nice and funny too.

The Fundamentals of Accounting was another elective course I took. However, ACC 201 was a free elective unlike CSC 384. You see, my catalog does not require me to take accounting, but I decided to do it anyway cos it interests me.  Dr. Jonathan Muterera taught this course. He is really good at teaching, and very funny too. In fact, I feel his style of teaching is just one of the very best; he breaks down the problem and explains it in such a simple manner that even a complicated problem looks easy! We (the Samuels') really like him a lot. He talks about partying lots of time; his attitude made me thoroughly enjoy being in his class. I was grateful to God for my grade in this course. It was difficult I must say, esp the final exam. But God is faithful, and He granted me a good grade in the course. I loved everything I learned: preparing financial statements, analyzing financial statements, etc Nino and Noshi love accounting and such stuff. Really, I think Dr. Muterera's teaching style is the best I've ever seen. He makes everything soo simple and quick to understand :)

Enterprise Resource Planning was also a really good course. I mean it laid a very good foundation for courses I'm taking this semester. Dr. Bollou did a great job teaching us; he introduced us to SAP (which wasn't easy to learn) and the fianl project was just wonderful. There were three groups in the project - one studied the ACIT, another a bank, and my group studied AUN. What we were meant to do in the project was to study an organization, identify the problems, and propose an ERP solution showing how an ERP would help solve the problems identified. The best part was that I got to learn new terminology that is proving to be of great help for courses I'm taking this semester. I enjoyed the course, thank God. I think I like all my courses last semester (as usual)........yawn..........

Uufh, I don’t like writing such long entries, but kya karein? (what to do?) I hope I didn’t bore anyone with this.  

12 years - yeah, it’s a long period alright but then, I’m glad I finally got the chance to travel to another state. I went to Abuja with dad and my siblings to see Nousheen and Hamman off to AU in Washington DC (as you may recall they are going there for the Spring semester as exchange students). I was expecting Abuja to be so much better than Yola. Abuja is actually better than Yola, but guess what? I found Abuja to be less interesting compared to Yola. I believe my reason for liking Yola is the fact that I grew up in Yola. I have too much here in Yola that I hold dear, too many memories, and I really like the scenery here. The greatest advantage Abuja has is the buildings and the good order of things, perhaps even job opportunities. I love the way everyone follows rules (so unlike Yola), and the way people are dedicated to working and making Abuja a better place. But the prices are very high in Abuja. Food in the hotel was like super expensive; Nino keeps on saying that Abuja has made her fat, haha.

This is Mona, Noshi, Me, and Raju outside Wonderland

This is Nino, Noshi, Mona, and Raju walking aroudn in Wonderland

This is Raju, Mona, Noshi, and Nino at Wonderland

This is Mona and Nino walking around Hilton Hotel

This is Noshi in Wonderland

This is Raju, Noshi, and Dad at Transcop Hilton Hotel

 Abuja is very clean too, with lots of places to go. We visited the National park where we had a close-up view of Aso Rock (the rock, not the presidential house), Wonderland, Millennium Park, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Amigo shopping plaza, and the most beautiful thing of all – the Central Church! It was the most magnificent building I have ever seen! Looked like it dropped straight out of heaven! Especially the interior; chandeliers looked like they were made of crystals. The rib vaulting was fantastic as were the flying buttresses and the huge organ for playing music. It had a very large capacity for believers from different denominations to come and worship. Dad was overjoyed when he saw the Church. Really, I wish I’d taken pictures. I couldn’t cos the camera wasn’t working. I’d say the interior looked pretty much like the Cathedrals we read about in our History of Art course – Cathedral of Reims in France, St. Dennis, Chartres Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral of England, etc. Thank God we were able to visit such an awesome site. The other places we visited were also lovely – I enjoyed Wonderland and Millennium Park a lot. One thing I noticed (apart from the rest that I’ve already mentioned) was that there are a lot of Lebanese people in Abuja, esp at Wonderland and Amigo. I guess they own those places. It was nice to see a whole lot of foreigners in any case.

Anyways, the trip was good and beneficial in the sense that I realized that I had a lot to be thankful to God for - AUN being in Yola, living in Yola, and growing up in Yola. Perhaps I might want to work in Abuja; I don’t know yet, whatever God wills

                 

                                                                                   These are some of the pics we took while touring Abuja

I remember dreaming of going in an airplane, flying to Europe for the holidays with mom, dad, and all my siblings. I had this desire after the trip in 1992 to Pakistan when we all traveled through Switzerland. It really was beautiful; I enjoyed every bit of it, Praise God! I never traveled out of Yola after 1995. Even after 1995 I still dreamt of going to Europe or the US, but my dream never came true. It does feel sad at times cos wishing for something and not getting it really breaks your heart. But then I cheer up after a while knowing that it is God’s perfect will for things to be this way, and I end up thanking God for everything He has done for me. The thing that cheers me up most is that I know I don’t need to travel anywhere on any airplane cos in the end I’ll actually fly up to heaven with my family and be with the Lord forever. Isn’t that the most amazing thing ever? I mean it’s more than a dream come true; it’s the best that anyone could wish for. And I thank God that even if I don’t have everything I desire in my lifetime, He will fulfill my dream of heaven. Thank you Jesus!

Do you have a dream that you would give anything to fulfill? Ask God, and He will give it to you according to His will. Even if your dream never comes true, always remember that there are greater things in store for you; if you fight the good fight of faith, God will surely reward you with greater joy than what your dreams could ever give. Trust God always and lean not on your own understanding.

I'd say this semester is different, in certain ways. For one, Nousheen and Hamman are not here with me. We miss them a lot! But I'm soooooo glad they're in the US enjoying all the wonderful things there! Thank God for that :-) Secondly, this is the first time I'm taking a course all by myself. Not that it's anything strange/special, just feels different. Usually, I have either of Nousheen and Saima, or Hamman and Nayyara in my classes. But anyways, this semester looks weary already, haha. I'm taking Leadership and Ethics (PHI 300) with Dr. Osam Edim; Introduction to World Literature in Translation (ENF 231) with Dr. Andrew Rooney; IS Security & Auditing (INF 351) with Dean Kah; Procedural Modeling and Blue Printing (INF 361) with Dr. Felix Bollou; Operations Management (QBA 202) with Dr. Benjamin Botchway; and Psychology with Dr. John Carroll. It all looks exciting right now, but loads of readings to do. All the same, I think it's too early to decide what this semester is going to be like :) Thirdly (you must have thought I was finished, haha), Dr. Sergey won't be here this semester. That's really going to be a loss for the university. I mean he contributed a lot in the school of ITC - managing the moodle site, managing all the IT labs, supervising in the ACIT, etc. And we students are going to miss him the most, esp those in Software Engineering and Computer Science. He always helped students with any problems they had with getting software to be used in different courses. I heard that he might still come back next semester. I pray he does cos he was very helpful to everyone and so good with everything.

Talking about Hamman and Nousheen, I've had lots of pics and info from them about the US already. All the exchange students that went from AUN spend most of their time together - Nousheen, Hamman, Oma, Judith, Lydia, and Luke (I see them all in pics together!). I just have to mention that all of them saw Obama live a few days back! He came to AU with the Kennedy family to deliver a speech! Judith actually shook hands with Obama! And seeing the Kennedy family too was great! I guess I can't write about all that (or post pics) just yet. I'll definitely add an entire entry on everything that's going on over there soon. You see, the semester truly is super busy. I don't know; I might end up dropping one course next week if the load gets too much. God willing, I won't have to :)

There're about 5 entries that I haven't finished writing and so haven't posted yet. I'm waiting to finish compiling pictures for some. I've finally gotten my own camera!!!! Now I can take all the pictures I want, anytime. Praise God!!! I've even signed up on flickr. I'm looking forward to adding more entries with lots of pics :) Got to go now, I've over-spent my time on this entry already (8 minutes over). Have lots of assignments to finish.......Hoping to post soon :)

Remember I mentioned a programming competition to be held in Abuja in one of my previous entries? Well, I have too much work on my hands and have decided that the best person to talk about what happened at the competion is Nino. Isn't that good for a change? You must be bored to death by now cos of my usual boring writing. So here is what Nino had to say about what happened:

The result wasn't as good as we expected. We came 7th (my fav number); surprisingly at the competition the number assigned to our team was also 7. I thank God for it as it was His will. Some agriculture university won the competition; good for them especially given they are just an 'agriculture' university. However, there were reasons for the competition and results ending up the way they did. The organization and the setup was not altogether as should be and this presented alot of road blocks for our team and probably others. On the whole if these problems in the setup has been prevented, it is hardly questionable that the results would have been VERY different indeed. There were 25 other universities altogether from across Nigeria who took part in the competition.

Nevertheless, having taken part in the competition was a great experience. Having the support of Dr. Kah and Dr. Fonkam was the best part. They both showed their appreciation of the effort we put in the competition. Despite our ranking, we all really felt very glad with the confidence our mentors put in us and their encouraging remarks. We are really blessed to have such people with us to be our mentors in AUN, who don't just excel in their profession but are such wonderful people. So you will see (from the award pictures) that we all looked happy at the end of the day!

Our team was in Abuja for four days. The compeition's results were announced on the third day's afternoon. After all the burden taken off our shoulders, we were able to do a little bit of sight-seeing in Abuja. Faiza took us around Abuja and introduced us to a lot of her family members; it was wonderful to meet them all and her brother and sister accompanied us on our trips.

Abuja is very scenic and beautiful especially the architecture and roads. The plantation is wonderful and the trees you see on the road kerb and with the street lights are not indigenous to Abuja, but I think were brought in. However, you can see them all around the city.  Abuja is built on a town plan and all new building projects are aligned with this  - a lot of construction is still going on there, so people say that it keeps on changing every visit they make. Among the places we visited were Wonderland (an amusement park) at night on Saturday, and the Ya'aradua center and The Millenium Park on Sunday.

It is a marvellous thing that the government cared to make the place look so grand! For me what I liked best was the rides and looking around at the buildings - banks, hotels, churches, etc and of course the stadium. However, I was so absorbed with just looking that I don't recall where what was located. I only remember that the entry point to Abuja city has the stadium. The smooth, three-lane roads are a complete contrast to Yola roads and so is the traffic. People are law-abiding in terms of driving rules and I think there would be little chance for road accidents if people in Yola were the same.

Isn't she just great? Maybe I say that cos she's my sister. All the same, I'm sure having a different writer made reading my blog a little more interesting, hmm? Ycan decide that while I finish the entry with pictures of the the event.

AWARDS

This is Dr. Kah, Faiza, Hamman, Nayyara (Nino), and Dr. Fonkam (left-to-right) I think the rest of the pics become quite obvious now :)

WONDERLAND

That's Faiza and her sister. This is not so obvious :)

MILLENIUM PARK

This is Hamman, Faiza and Nino (your left-to-right), and Hamman, Faiza's brother and Nino in the picture above it

YARADUA CENTER

ON THE AIRPLANE

FINALLY

Well, my birthday came and went, and I didn’t tell anyone at AUN about it. When most of my friends found out it was my birthday the previous day, they were like "Why didn't you tell us?" Actually, I didn't want to give anyone the impression that I was requesting presents, or stuff like that. Anyways, the day started in the normal way, then it went from normal to bad, and sometime in the late afternoon it became worse. But then suddenly in late evening, everything changed! I was just sitting outside all alone waiting for the bus remembering my past birthdays. Couldn't stop thinking about mom, I really really missed her. Then I looked up at the sky and saw exactly what would cheer me up - I wasn't expecting it but here were the clouds I had been praying for! God blessed us with rain that night. Actually, I had been praying for rain on my birthday for like 3-4 days. Thank you Jesus for sending the rain, it made my day! It didn't end there; after a few minutes I was off to ride my bicycle when Dr. Evgeny Grakhov (my CSC 384 professor) comes up to me and wishes me a very happy birthday. I hadn't expected anyone to care really, especially not one of my professors. And then, here is one of my favorite professor wishing me happy birthday! I felt really glad (he even gave me some sweets as a gift) I found out from him that 5th October is also Diana’s birthday. Diana is the daughter of Mr. Stanislav Kublakov, the administrative assistant to the President. She is a cute little angel! I just love to see her with her mom and dad; it's just so beautiful.  Wish I had some picture of her to post here. But unfortunately, I don’t.

When we got home I got 2 more surprises – Mona, Nousheen, Nino, and Hamman gave me a beautiful jewelry set! It was just lovely! I hadn’t expected it. Then dad told me that he also had a present for me – he had ordered a cake on Sunday for my birthday! I was so happy cos I just love cakes! Hmmmm, I knew that things would soon be well and thanked God for everything I got that day.

Then, finally, the best gift of all came later that day. At night before going to sleep, I prayed to God to change me and make me who I was before mom passed away; to take away all bitterness and sadness, to make me joyful once again. And in the next few days I changed! It was evident even the next day, I just felt different - much more cheerful! I can’t thank God enough for His mercy. I wouldn’t be who I am today if He hadn’t changed me. "Thank you sooooooooooooooo much Savior!"

My friends also wished me when they found out it was my birthday the previous day. Thanks everyone. Thanks for making my day special. And above all, thank You Jesus for everything I have, and everything I am. I love You because You first loved me. It’s just the best feeling in the world, to know that God loves you. It’s amazing, so amazing! There’s nothing that can compare to that, absolutely nothing! To make you understand what I’m trying to say, I’ll leave you with this wonderful poem to reflect on (got it off a greeting card) :

You ask why I follow this Jesus?

Why I love Him the way I do?

When the world’s turned away from His teachings

And the people who serve Him are few.

It’s not the rewards I’m after,

Or gifts that I hope to receive

It’s the Presence that calls for commitment

It’s the Spirit I trust and believe.

The Lord doesn’t shelter His faithful

Or spare them all suffering and pain,

Like everyone else I have burdens,

And walk through my share of rain.

Yet He gives me a plan and a purpose,

And that joy only Christians have known,

I never know what comes tomorrow,

But I do know I’m never alone.

It’s the love always there when you need it;

It’s the words that redeem and inspire,

It’s the longing to ever be with Him

That burns in my heart like a fire.

So you ask why I love my Lord Jesus?

Well, friend, that’s so easy to see,

But the one thing that fills me with wonder is

Why Jesus loves someone like me.

     

That's me with my gift from dad (first pic), and me again with my gift from Raju, Mona, Noshi, and Nino (jewellery set - white top)

At the end of the last academic year, more faculty and administrative staff left AUN. Among these were Dr. David Huwiler (President), Dr. Banerjee (Economics instructor) and his wife Animita Roy (Registrar & Accounting instructor), Dr. Jennifer El-Mattrawy (Director Student Affairs), George Peterson (VP Finance) and his wife Paula Peterson (Faculty Club Manager), Svetlana (Logistics Director), Abubakr Buera (Management & other Business courses instructor), and Amy Greene (Writing instructor). I’m really going to miss them all cos I like them a lot. However, Dr. Banerjee did say he might come back after a while since his leave is only temporary.

Dr. Buera and Dr. Banerjee taught me, and I enjoyed their classes very much. I’m going to miss the funny (& sensible) things that Dr. Banerjee used to say. Like Dr. Banerjee, Dr. Buera was also really nice both in and out of class. Dr. Banerjee’s wife was also really nice. I still remember the times when we went home with her in the university bus at night. I can recall an excellent guessing/riddle-solving game we played with her and Dr. Evgeny. I'll definitly miss those times. Amy Green never taught me but she was a very lively and sweet person. I know I'm going to miss her too! I feel the same for Jennifer Mattrawy - I feel the university won't be the same without her. She made me feel very much at ease in discussing whatever issues I had. And Dr. Huwiler is one of the nicest persons I’ve ever met. Mom and Dad also liked him a lot. I pray that at least one or two of them attend our graduation ceremony. 

The first picture (on left) is Dr. Banerjee, the second is his wife Animita, and this third picture shows both of them and Cheryl Pavlik

First picture is Jennifer Mattrawy and Maria, second (left) is Svetlana, and third (right) is Amy Greene

First pitcture (from left-to-right) is George Peterson & Dr. Garofalo, second is Dr. Buera, third and fourth are Dr. Huwiler 

The new people occupying some of the empty positions are Dr. Smith (acting President), John Carroll (registrar and director of student affairs), Dr. Tarek (acting dean of arts and sciences - I’m happy for him), a few others that I can’t recall at the moment, and a few whom I don't know by name.

We also have some new faculty this semester - Dr. David Parker (my CMD 131 professor, a really nice person), Dr. Jonathan Muterera (my really exciting ACC 201 professor), Monday Datong (my STA 301 professor, also very friendly), Dr. Vladislav Scherbinin A. (another cool Russian professor!!!), Dr. Norman Wright – Dean of Business and Enterpreneurship (he’s totally cool), Dr. Bollou’s wife Artlet (just as nice as Dr. Bollou), and lots of others. I hope that that no one leaves at the end of this academic year, or at least not before I graduate. I know I’m being somewhat selfish cos I know that people leave only cos they have to. But I hope that most of them are still here when I graduate, God willing.

Look at the time! It’s 12:38am and I’m still not asleep. I don’t know why the pressure of exams is beginning to worry me. I have a CSC 384 midterm this coming Thursday. I only pray to God that this exams goes well. Can’t wait to see my scores on the History of Art exam . And by the way, I wasn’t feeling too well last week and that is why I didn’t post any entries. I didn’t even write the programming exam. I just needed time to revise, and since I wasn’t feeling well, I never got the chance . The exam was meant for selecting students that would participate in the programming competition. I just heard on Saturday that Nino, Hamman, and Faiza are selected for participating in the competition.  The venue is Abuja and the competition takes place around November 3rd, 2007. I was very glad for all three of them. God willing, one of the AUN representatives will win .

Anyways, I have to go and sleep now (yawn). Hope to post soon...........God bless you

Hmmmm, I’m really enjoying this 3-day holiday. Right now am at home. It’s 12:50pm and I’m listening to the wonderful song “Amazing grace how sweet the sound” by Chris Tomlin. Can’t tell you how relaxed I feel. I thank God for his mercy and love and pray that the Lord will be with me always.

Here is the continuation from last Friday’s entry...........

System Analysis and Design by Dr. Bollou, like the other courses, was a very important course for my major. I thoroughly enjoyed the course, especially the project. I was very glad when the instructor gave us the option to choose our own group members. My group was totally cool! I had Nousheen, Saima, and Oma in my group, which made work a whole lot easier, phew! We worked on doing an analysis of the bookstore here at the university.  We stopped at the design phase because the course was not supposed to go into coding, implementation, and testing. On the whole, I loved it! Some of the amazing things that we learnt in the course were doing a DFD, an ERD, and cost-benefit analysis. There were lots of other topics like systems planning, requirements modeling, data & process modeling, development strategies, output and user interface design, data design, system architecture etc. I guess I learnt a lot of important stuff in this course. I loved the exams, especially the questions where we were required to do a DFD and ERD on a case study. I didn’t like the multiple choice questions too much. And oh, Dr. Bollou promised us lunch at the Faculty club, but due to one thing or the other, it didn’t happen. I hope we have one this semester though. I do like Dr. Bollou a lot because he makes sure that his students know what they are doing. During the project he scheduled meetings with the groups so that we would know what we were doing, why we were doing it, and how we should do it. I mean he wasn’t required to spend that time explaining things to us, but he really set time apart only so that we would understand the whole thing well. I am really grateful to God that we got a good grade on the project, and in the course! I guess it wouldn’t have been so good if Dr. Bollou hadn’t taken time to explain and guide us. Thank you Jesus for such wonderful professors

Dr. Felix Bollou

QBA 201 was pretty much like Intro to OS in terms of the flow of the course. Dr. Botchway was the instructor for this course. He made everything so very easy for the students. I mean he went through each step again and again just to make sure that every student understood what was happening. He did try his best and I was very pleased with that. Dr. Botchway is one of the nicest persons I’ve met. Anytime anyone of us had a problem we just went to office with our concerns and he was always there to listen, help and even adjust his own schedule to help us. We learnt about descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, graphical & tabular techniques, sampling techniques, probability, probability distributions (random, discrete & continuous) etc. The course text was also wonderful; I think one can learn a lot from the course text alone because it’s very self-explanatory. I think I’ll also go over the course text this Christmas holidays to refresh my memory, I will be needing lots of stuff from that text in the near future.

Dr. Benjamin Botchway 

And lastly, MGT 201 was a very different course from the ones I had taken previously. It was a pure business course. Dr. Buera took us in that course. The best thing about this course was the class session itself. I really enjoyed listening to Dr. Buera because it felt like listening to some argument or story rather than studying in a class. His examples were just wonderful. He focused on problems in Nigeria in most of his examples. Some of those were very funny too, especially those that about corruption in Nigerai. He would always question “Why, why is it like that?” I can understand that, I mean it’s true. Most people here don’t care why things are bad in Nigeria, they just continue to live their lives. Anyways, back to the course – Dr. Buera also emphasized discipline and obedience in class, which I really liked. I also liked the idea of the extra point assignments. Furthermore, he gave the choice that some students could do a project instead of the final, this helped lots of students to catch up. I however, chose to write the final cos he adviced me to do so. In the course, we learnt about functions of management, evolution of management thought, principles of management, managers, planning, ethics & social responsibility, organizational culture, communication and negotiation, diversity, human resource management, organizational control etc. Dr. Buera was concerned about the students and always gave them advice in a fatherly manner. I think I’m going to miss those class sessions with Dr. Buera. At least I can go over the course text to make sure I remember the important concepts (if not all) before next semester.

 Me, Dr. Abubakr Buera, Saima, and Nousheen (left-to-right)

Well, there you have it, every course I took last semester. I was very pleased with all the grades I received. All the glory belongs to the LORD because without Him, I could never have had those grades. So "THANK YOU JESUS FOR EVERYTHING!"

I kept to my plans this week and have updated my blog. Why, isn’t that surprising? My next entry will be on the good news I talked about in my entry last Friday. That'll be followed by "the summer I spent in Yola" (with loads of pics). Thanks for your time and God bless

This week was one of the busiest I've known! So much work! Not that I'm complaining or anything. Dr. Kah's homework was the longest homework I've ever done in my entire life! I enjoyed doing it of course, especially reading the Standish Group article - CHAOS Chronicalls 1995. The article was all about why IT projects fail, and how to prevent failures from occuring. The part that I really like was the comments given by different IT professionals. When interviewed about why IT projects fail, an application analyst commented "Brain-dead users, just plain brain-dead users." HAHA, that's the funniest comment I've heard coming from an IT professional! A project manager described a very funny situation - "The project was two years late and three years in development. We had thirty people on the project. We delivered an application the user didn't need. They had stopped selling the product over a year before." - This is what IT projects can end up being, haha. Chaos, chaos, chaos, everything is chaos - That's what the whole article is about. I enjoyed all my classes. I think this is going to be one of the finest semesters ever! Accounting, ERP, History of Art, Project Management, Database Systems, and Statistics - all are just totally awesome! Thank you Jesus for giving me such wonderful courses AND professors I sincerelly praise God for everything in the past week and am looking forward to a good week ahead. My next entry might come sooner than Friday this time, God willing. That's cos I have very good news to share......

Anyways, moving on to the purpose of this entry ............ 

Last semester I took 5 courses - Telecommunication & Data Networks (INF 252), Introduction to Operating Systems (then INF 350; now INF 250), Systems Analysis & Design (then INF 360; now INF 260), Quantitative Business Analysis (QBA 201), and Fundamentals of Management (MGT 201). The understanding of each of these courses is crucial for an IS major. The knowledge gained here will form the foundation for many courses ahead, so I had to be cautious to carefully understand each one of them. Unfortunately somewhere in the middle of the semester I kind of started forgetting stuff in 2 or 3 courses. But thank God, I did well in all of my finals and earned my highest GPA ever! Praise the LORD God Almighty! I never thought I could do it, I just kept on praying to God to help me during the finals because that was the time that mom had passed away. I knew that I had to be just what the LORD and my parents wanted me to be, and God did answer my prayer! Isn’t that just amazing? I can’t thank Him enough. "Thank you Jesus!"

Let me begin by describing how the Telecommunications and Data Networks course went. INF 252 was taught by Dr. Augustine Odinma, one of the most highly qualified professors here at the university. He worked at Bell Labs as the Director for Africa and Europe. Now isn’t that amazing or what? I was like totally impressed when I realized that a person who had had such a high position would be willing to come and teach in our university. I really like him beacuse he is always concerned about students learning the course, and not just passing it. He treats everyone in a fatherly manner and that’s one of the things that sets him apart. I like his style of teaching cos I learnt a lot. Infact, I learnt everything so well that I remember lots of it even after such a long time. I’m sure that if I just “brush” over the course text I’ll recall everything. The course text that we used helped a lot. I think it’s one of the best (or possibly even the best) textbook I’ve read. The author did a great job. Anyways, we learnt about network connections, network cables, data & signals (conversion techniques), LANs (topologies software, & internetworking), data packets, network traffic, network architecture (OSI & TCP/IP suite), multiplexing, errors (detection and control),  MANs, and WANs. The exams and tests were done in a different manner - we had only short/long answer questions. This was great for me cos I don’t like multiple-choice questions. One of the best things about the course was the field trip we had. That's a whole new entry on its own so I'll leave the description for a later time. For now let me give a brief description of what it was all about -  we went out to town to the various appartments of the university to view the equipement kept for internet connectivity. We also visited most buildings on-campus (both temporary and permanent) for the same purpose. You can read details and see pictures in one of my later entries. On the whole, I really enjoyed the course and am looking forward to the part II of that course i.e. Telecommunications & Data Networks II.

Dr. Augustine Odinma

Moving on to the next course, Intro to OS was a very easy-going course. Dr. Okunoye took us in this course. He was a visiting professor and is not returning this semester. There’s one thing about Dr. Okunoye that you have to know, he is one of the funniest person ever! Infact, I can't recall ever seeing him upset. He always said funny things in and out of classroom. The atmosphere in his classes was one of great ease. I really miss his jokes. We even gave him a surprise birthday party organized by our classmates. Everyone (except myself and Saima) danced in the party, I think someone even shot a video of the whole event. I’m sure Dr. Okunoye must have been pleased with everything the class did for him, and we were all happy to have him as our professor  Back to the course, we learnt about different processors, comapred various OS, also learnt how to do different installations, and lots of other stuff. The best part was the group presentation we had to do at the end of the course. Every student was required to pick a topic and make a presentation. Me and my group picked memory management and gave our presentation. Though it wasn’t as good as it could have been, it was ok. The good thing was that I learnt more about memory management than I would have if I just read it from the textbook. Making the presentation required research and that’s how I got to know a lot about it. Actually, my sister Nino was taking Computer Organization and Architecture that semester and she was the one who gave me a very good source for my information. She also helped me to understand various concepts. I was really glad we had done all this work. In essence, it was a good course, and I’ll try and go over it again this Christmas holiday so that I don’t forget everything 

This picture is taken in the Mac lab, and in a very funny way. As you can see cute Patricia was going to take her own pic when Dr. Okunoye just jumped in from no where. Seriously, he is very funny and I miss his jokes

I'll write about the other 3 courses in my next entry. For now, I'm at the Admissions office for my work hours. So let me continue doing that. I only pray that I'll have enough time to do everything I want over this weekend. I'm so greatful to God that Monday's a public holiday! It's Nigeria's independence day on 1st October. My birthday will be 4 days after that, can't wait for it! Hmmmmmm, no classes today. I can relax as much as I want, yes! Thank God it's Friday!

Well, this entry is going to be super-short cos I don't have enough time for anything these days with all the readings, homework and other stuff going on. This semester I'm taking six (6) courses. History of Material Culture I (CMD 131) with Dr. Parker, IS Project Management (INF 321) with Dean Kah, Enterprise Resource Planning (INF 341) with Dr. Bollou, Probability & Statistics (STA 301) with a new professor, Database Systems (CSC 384) with Dr. Grakhov, and Fundamentals of Accounting (ACC 201) with Dr. Muterera. That makes a total of 18 credit hours, which of course is not a big deal. The problem starts when I have to go for 10 hours work-study every week. That's not all, I have joined the media club and I think that too will take up more of my time. In addition to that, this semester every course is just about readings. I mean we are required to read a chapter before we come to class and we can be given a surprise quiz any moment. I've been struggling hard to keep up with the readings by loosing sleep and leisure. I guess this is what it feels like to be a junior - totally time and sleep lacking, haha. God willing I'll be able to cope with everything and earn good grades.

For once I don't have pictures of registration and I don't think I have time to go looking for those either. Anyways, this semester things went as usual, actually I wasn't very involved with anything so I can't say if there were any improvements or not. I do know that Admissions check-in was smooth as always. We accepted about 300+ students but only about 190+ have showed up for registration so far. I'm not soo sure of the statistics cos I'm concentrating on my classes which have already begun with loads of readings. All the same, registration for new students was very good, better than ever. But registration for returning students was the usual not very good process. But who can I blame for that? Don't ask me cos I can't say. God willing, next time it'll be smoother.

Here are some pictures of orientation that the admissions staff took:

Coming back to registration, returning students are never really content with the classes they get, they just have to keep coming to change an instructor, section or course. It's the same complaints and reasons they have (Students here just never stop complaining)  - "I don't like instructor X cos my friend told me so"; "8:00am! How can I get up soo early in the morning for classes?"; "I don't like afternoon classes cos I'm not an afternoon person"; "I can't do 4 classes on Moday!"; "Is there any space in a section of Instructor Y? Could you please move me there, I can't go to the Dean to get permission. Please, won't you do this for me?";"I've been here all morning and no one's attending to me, I can't stay in the long line of waiting students";"Can you please give me afternoon classes, and please make sure I don't get Instructors A and B" and it continues, I wish they understood that we have no control over what section, time, day, instrutor and what have you. It's almost impossible to make them understand that WE don't have the authority to change anything. You can see the kind of answer they give when we refer them to the Dean or advisor. Nevertheless, I guess they'll understand someday, God willing. There was some incidents that got me really upset. One was when a student said that she had to take a course and that there was no other way. We did tell her that all sections for that course were full and that she had to take SPECIAL permission to get there, cos it just was not possible. After making all the trouble and finally being admitted to the section, when I printed her schedule and gave it to her can you believe what she did? She had one look at her schedule and said "I can't take this course, drop it please I don't like the instructor!" I got soo upset that I just spoke and said "First you make us go through all this trouble and now you don't want the course?" I mean why do people have to be like that? I can understand that certain professors might not be too welcoming, but I can assure you that if only you pray hard and work hard, everything will go well for you. From my experience, it's not soo much the professor that one needs to consider, it's the effort, time and dedication you put into the course, and your faith in God. If you have these two things then you need not be afraid of taking a course with any professor. Of course I know that certian professors are better than others, even I have my favourites, but I wouldn't mind going to any professor's class if it is what God wants me to do. I just end up liking the professors for one reason or the other, that's God's blessing because on my own, I can do nothing or be anything. Just like the Bible says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". Students say that Dr. Quarccoo is tough, but when I was in his class, I can tell you that he was one of the finest professors I've known. I mean calculus was exciting and I enjoyed the class sessions soo much that I looked forward to being in class. I don't know I managed an A- in his course(Calculus I) cos students tell me it's almost imposibles to get anything like an A- or A in his class. My sister Nino had a B+ in his Calculus III class, she really enjoyed his class, and she still thinks that he made Calculus a very interesting course. You see, if you trust the Lord Jesus, He always makes a way for you. Sometimes the road may be rough, but the final destination is soo beautiful that you forget whatever you had to go through to get there. As it is written "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding". Pray and everything will go well with you, just as it went with me because I wouldn't have gotten anything close to a B+ in many courses of mine if I did not trust in God to help me through. Change courses and sections if you want, but don't do it on the basis of your friend's opinion, cos "you are not your friend" as my little sis Mona said to one student. Even Ben Carson describes PEERS as "People who Encourage Errors Rudeness & Stupidity" in his book The Big Picture. You don't always need to listen to your peers cos sometimes these so-called "friends" might lead you astray. Listen to God, and it will go well with you.

Anyways, I guess that's about all that happened during registration this semester. My next entry will be on courses I'm taking this semester, and other entries about Yola will follow soon. I've decided to blog every Friday as I don't have any classes then. God willing, this time I'll be able to keep with my plans. Thanks for your time!

This summer I worked at the ACIT (African Centre for IT) and the Admissions office.  At the ACIT I was part of a team of 9 (then sophomore, now junior) students - Hamman (technical/project manager), Patrica (designer and assistant project manager), Oma (analyst), Nayyara (coder), Nousheen (designer), Fiza (coder and analyst), Judith (analyst), and Osaetin (coder). I was assigned the job of a designer along with Nousheen and Patricia. however, I was also part of the analysis and programming, as were others like Oma, Patricia, Nousheen, Faiza and Judith. It was like most of us did a little of everything just to get the experience and believe me, it did helped a lot. I mean I've learnt a lot after working there. We were working on 2 projects - one was about developing a healthcare information system and the other was about creating a portal for a group of organizations to enable data sharing. We used JSP and SQL in both projects. Both were web applications and we used the hibernate concept in jsp to link the web interface to the database. Anyways, I'll write more about it in another entry and might possibly put some snapshots of the protoptype (if given permission to do so). We had fun too, wasn't like we were working around the clock! There were some very funny moments, some boring moments, some lonely moments, and moments of frustration. On the whole, I enjoyed the experience, Judith says she'll definitly miss it all, I think I will too. I can remember one very funny moment when Oma, myslef and Judith were discussing on the way Chineese people talk and the way Japaneese talk. Then Oma imitated how the Japaneese speak and I couldn't control my laughter, it was just too funny and all of us were laughing soo hard that Oma even fell off her chair! That only made things worse, cos I had to run out of the room to catch my breath, haha, I just couldn't stop laughing! It's was all really very funny.....Anyways, here are some of the pics we took from back then........

In the first picture there is Nino and Patrica (left-tp-right), with Oma and Judith in the Backgroud (left-tp-right). The second picture shows Nino, me, Judith, Faiza (left-tp-right)  and Nousheen (bottom). The third picture is of course Osas and Hamman (Raju). The rest are pretty obvious.

On the other hand, at admissions we were busy preparing for and accepting new students for the Fall 2007 semester. In addition to that we also spent some time doing Banner Training. The university has puchased the Banner software and admissions was the first department to recieve its training. A lovely consultant from New Zealand came to help us learn the basics, and frankly speaking I learnt more than just the basics. She's very good at it cos she knows how to engage her audience, she even gave us chocolates to make us come early to the trainning sessions, isn't that cool or what? The registration training will take place sometime this semester, I'm not sure when but am looking forward to it.

In essence, things went well except that there was mostly no transportation available to any workplace (ACIT or admissions). So we mostly decided to walk all the way to the destination.  It was a long summer, but I took lots of pics and stuff and enjoyed a lot with my family. However, there were lonely moments and sad times too, God rescued me from yet another horrible moment in my life this summer. I'm grateful to Him for everything and I know He'll continue to save me and guide me, thank you Jesus!

I'll put in my next entry in a few days, and entries with pics I took this summer will follow. Thanks for reading, God bless.

A few weeks back, we went over to Dr. Fonkam's for lunch. Really nice of him to invite us. We were having some repairs at home too so it was a good thing to leave and let the carpenters do their stuff. Anyways, I really enjoyed my time there. It was one of the best lunches I have ever been to:)  I particularly enjoyed playing table tennis with Dr. Fonkam's little daughter. She's 8 years old, half-brazilian and only speaks protugese. She has started to learn English and can understand it now. A pleaseure to meet her I'd say. We spent the time watching funny movies - my fav was faulty towers, a british comedy series- hilarious! The food was super-tasty! We had jellof rice, beans, vegetables, salad, puf puf, and fried plaintain. I thoroghly enjoyed my day. Thank God for such moments in life. I still miss mom a lot, wish she was here. She was the only person I know who understood me and really watched over me like I watch over others. I just pray that God will help me be who I should be, and be with us through this difficult time. I do sincerely thank God for having her in my life, and everyone else. BTW, here are some pictures we took:

PS - I haven't written about what's happening in AAUN recently, I guess I'll do that in one of my next entries. Thanks for your time :)

I have been sick for the past 2 weeks or so. I don't know what I should be writing about, it's almost like I've lost my enthusiasm for blogging. It rained yesterday so we (me, dad and my siblings) went out for a ride and had our lunch out at ABTI ventures. We all had a great time viewing the lovely mountains and coulds. There's this particular vicinity called Upper Benue that we went to; it's just awesome! The scenery from over there is fabulous esp when it's couldy/rainy. Wish I had a camera so I would have taken pictures and posted here. The food at ABTI ventures was also great - Fried rice with pineapple, beans stew, chips, salad, and chicken (fish for my siblings, they love fish. I also like fish ONLY when it's fried). We really enjoyed it except that Dad doesn't like to eat-out. It was the first time we went out together after mom passed away. I really miss her, we all went out together always and it was smashing to spend time with mom and dad out at lunch or going to places, but I know that where she is, the Lord Jesus is there with her and I need not worry too much. Sure all of us will miss her esp dad, he misses her even more than I do, but God is good, and He'll surely see us through. I'm grateful to God for the most beautiful parents in the world! I mean it, I couldn't have wished for better parents. He truely is an awesome God!

Talking about AAUN - there is an exchange programme for students to study abroad at AU Washington for one year or semester. The top students have been selected (about 12 in number) to apply. I heard 3 have already been accepted for the Fall 07 semester. I was really glad for my friend Judith when she told me she had been accepted at AU and with a full scholarship for the fall semester. She's such a lovely and hard-working person and she truely deserves it, we are all thankful to God for that. I've applied for Spring 2008 and am praying for God's will. It will be nice to finally see what US really is. Even if I don't get to go, I'll be able to meet more people from the US that are coming to AAUN for a year or semester. From what I've heard, a lot of students in AU were interested in spending a semester or 2 here at AAUN. This is definitly something to look forward to.....

All the same, we're having summer school for the first time here at AAUN. Many students have enrolled for the summer for different reasons. Some think that spending the ever-long holls at home would be a complete waste of time, others "dread" certain professors and are eager to take the course when someone else who is less scary is teaching the course; others still feel that by doing courses in summer they'll be able to finish the required credit hours. My little sister Mona (Saima) is also taking Calculus I this summer. Actually it was me and my other sisters Noshi and Nino that advised her to take the course this summer so that she wouldn't feel overloaded with courses next semester (she'll be taking 6 courses and doing Calculus at the same didn't seem the best thing to do). I guess I'd also love to do summer courses, it's just that I'm not "finacially-fit" for it. God willing I will be able to take a course next summer.

I've been recieving lots of emails from students newly admitted into AAUN for the Fall 07 semester. Surprised I was at first, but I guess it's nice to hear from different people once in a while. I've already added a few to my Yahoo messenger contacts. It's really no bother to help.

Hoping to blog soon, God willing.

It's really hard to understand why things happen the way they do. I lost my mom on the night of 2nd April, 2007. It was the saddest moment in my life, yet I could not cry because of shock. I just don't understand why God chose this time to take her away, I wish I could have done something about it. But unfortunately, I could do nothing. I thank God that I at least got to see her an hour before she left.......we ended classes early that day thankfully. I don't know why I have to feel so bad about it, I mean I know she is with the Lord and I have struggle to be there too......but I just don't know what to do, I had soooo many plans of all 7 of us going to Europe or US this summer.....why did God not answer my prayers? I really don't understand any of it, all I know is that what God has done, He has done for the best because His will is perfect. I can't see the whole truth and that's why I question Him soo much, but I'll always remember this : He loves her more than I.

I really thank everyone at AAUN for their support and love during the one week when we (the Samuels') really needed encouragement. We missed one week of classes, but the wonderful professors said that it was no problem at all. And not just AAUN, but everyone in Yola who's cared for us during that week, especially our neighbours and mom & dad's friends in Adamawa. Everyone has been of great help and I pray to God to bless and reward each and everyone of them for their love and kindness.

I thank God for everything, it just brings to mind the words of a wonderful song "God is good all the time, even through the darkest night, His light always shines". Thank you Jesus for everything, and my prayer is that the Lord guides us all till the end of time, amen.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog.

"Finally I have some pictures of the new site! I got a few from the public relations ofiice, and the rest from the admissions office isn't that cool? Anyways, I couldn't go to the public relations office cos they've been super busy with orientation, not that admissions' not super busy too but I reckoned since I'm working here I could just ask. Thank God I have those now."

That's what I wrote on October 27, 2006. I was supposed to post the entry back then but as usual I became lazy, plus I didn't have enough pictures. I think the real reason is that classes are busier than ever, I mean I just spend time reading some textbook if I'm not in class. This semester is definitly the most tiring. I wrote my INF 360 (System Analysis & Design) midterm exam last night. It wasn't all that great but God willing I'll get a good grade. I still have a INF 252 exam coming up this Friday. Don't know if I'll be prepared enough for that. I really need some rest, perhaps this weekend would help, God willing.

Anyways, now that everything's ready you can see for yourself what  the new campus looks like, enjoy!

The Multi-Purpose Building (MPB)

The Arts & Sciences Building (AS)

Lets go on the journey from the entrace to the cafeteria.........First is the entrance to AAUN, then's the football field that comes on the way as you move from entrance to the buildings. Next is the Multi-purpose building, and after that the Arts & Sciences building. Further along the way is the girls dorm, and next to that is the boys dorm. The cafeteria is the last building on the journey. (Picutes after the MPB and AS are taken withing those bulidings. The first 2 are of the MPB, the remaining 4 are in the AS)

Of course I'll post some more pictures soon, right now this is all I've got. Next time I'll include pictures of the Library, club house, admissions office, ICT center and others. I'm soo happy that Mr. Usman (at the Admissions office) agreed to give me his camera to take pictures.....now I can get all the pictures I want....hmmmm, Praise the Lord!

Good thing we had a break from classes. Unfortunately it wasn't a break from studies as we had midterms awaiting our return to school. But anyways, I'm grateful to God for the time I got off......could have utilized it better but who cares, God willing my score on the midterms will be good. We have already written 2 midterm exams, I have 3 others to do now that the break is over, not to mention the 3 projects that are yet to be completed... God help us!

I guess I spoke too early about the monkeys, they are actually still allowed to roam the campus, which is not good. I think I should talk to the student government president about it, otherwise the monkeys will always be there to scare students and that means going late to class or not being able to move freely on campus. But I'm surprised that the faculty hasn't done anything about this issue eventhough they know about the monkeys. And please, it's not like I have anything against animals or monkeys, it's just that these two can harm.....on the contrary I love animals, as long as they can't harm me. Just this morning I was almost late for my INF 252 (Telecoms and Data Networks) class because the 2 monkeys were sitting in the way. I had to take my brother Hamman with me cos the monkeys don't usually chase boys.......but the moment I started walking I began to pray (that's what I always do when I see them monkeys). I know it sounds very funny but it's definitly not funny when the monkeys jump or chase. Sometimes it's actually funny though, haha. Anyways, God willing everything will work out fine.

Over and before the break, I found out this really good feature at BibleGateway site..... one can actually listen to the Bible! Isn't that great! Now I can listen to the Bible anytime I'm free in school, praise the Lord! Talking about holiday, I can't wait for the summer break to come. Then I can spend time enjoying myself and with mom and dad. I also watched the Filmfare Awards (Indian movie awards like Oscars in US) and I was glad the winners were people I wanted to win. Kajol (my fav actress) won the award for best actress for Fanaa, and Hrithik Roshan won best actor for Dhoom 2 (one of my fav actors, like Aamir Khan). I also like Shahrukh, infact he was my fav before I watched KANK (after watching KANK he went down on my fav actors list - It is a terrible movie). I don't like Karan Johar anymore either and was very happy when the award for best director went to someone else (same for best actor). All the same, the awards were nice and I enjoyed watching them. Of course I shouldn't spend too much time talking about movies, so I'll move back to studies once again. Like I said earlier, this semester I have 3 projects to complete - in INF 252, INF 360, QBA 201, and regular case projects in INF 350.

For the INF 252 project, we need to find out about how the campus network is connected to the AAUN building networks off campus such as in the faculty housing in Jimeta, or the club house. We've had 2 interviews with the network administrator already and hope to have a few more before we present the final report in April. This is a really cool project and I seriously enjoy it (guess cos I love networks - I'm hoping to concentrate or minor in networks).

For the INF 360 (System Analysis and Design) project, we are meant to investigate and analyze the existing system at any one of the departments. Me and my group have choosen the Bookstore. We are still working on Part I of the project which involves basic understading of problems encountered, as well as business functions and processes. We will begin Part II by next week. I also like this project cos we'll get to do all the DFDs and ERDs, which is totally awesome! I just love doing practical work! You know, that's just one HUGE advantage of AAUN - we get to do practicals and not just focus on theory. Thank God for this wonderful university.

In the QBA 201 (Quantitative Business Analysis) project, we have already conducted a survey at the cafeteria to know students opinion about food served there. We have also done our presentation and finished almost all fact-finding activities. All that's left is to complete the project report and submit it next week. As always, I loved the practical aspect and the use of SPSS in doing the analysis of the data. I think SPSS is super cool, wish I had the full version though.

In INF 350 (Introduction to Operating Systems) we are required to complete case projects at the end of every chapter. However, these projects are different from the other ones I mentioned earlier. I got to learn more about using Macintosh in this course (we do lab practicals where we can practice on the Mac PCs) .........also learned more about Windows but I do hope I learn Unix.

Goodness, look at the time! I have to read for my MGT 201 midterm exam..............hopefully I'll put in another entry soon. I know my entries are starting to get dull cos I don't have pictures and too many topics to discuss. But don't worry, I'll get that done when I find time.

It's not like I was doing it on purpose - I've just had too many quizes, exams, projects and assignments to complete, plus I had other work  to attend to (I'm working at two offices now: Admissions and the ICT center) I mean we have a minimum of 2 quizes every week, and maximum of 4, and loads of other stuff. Dr. Shilgba reminded me to update my blog and am glad he did, otherwise I wouldn't have added these two entires. Anyways, I have 6 unposted entires cos I need pictures for each. I'll get those my self if I can find a camera from anywhere. Thank God there are no monkeys on the campus now - that added to delays. I had to check to see if the coast was clear before moving from one building to another......thank Jesus I don't have to do that now! The monkeys were allowed to roam the campus and they were scarring students (mostly girls). Even some of the faculty didn't know about the monkeys untill very recently. Anyways, someone has finally taken care of the situation, phew! Well, I'll keep posting entiries whenever I find time. The only reason I can post is cos we are on Spring break - a 7 day rest, praise the LORD! I'll post in a new entry soon enough, so keep reading....thanks for your time!

Don't know why, but I think I should write about courses I took last semester. Hmmmm, let's see which one should I start with? I know.........

The database course INF 231 (Fundamentals of DBMS) was a cool course, I mean I learnt a lot on my own. What added to my knowledge of databases was the project we did in the course: that really helped. The project involved making a database for the cafeteria records. Dr. Akinkumi even invited the president - Dr. Huwiler to our presentations. Of course we didn't implement the project but it was a good experience all the same.

We also did the INF 102 (Software Applications I) course which like the DBMS course, was very good. The project was my favourite part: it taught me way more than anything else. I was very happy when Dr. Quaye assigned it - that was one of his best techniques to get students to learn. BTW, my group project was about developing a course allocation software using MS Access for the Registrar's office. Dr. Garofalo (VP Academics) even came to our presentation. Actually, Dr. Quaye invited every administrative staff from the various departments that were involved in the different projects. I'm still working on the software at the Registrar's office - making some changes and additions. I think some reports from the software will be used during pre-registration, but am not sure.

Another course I liked was INF 206 (IT Systems: Hardware & Software). Dr. Evgeny Grakhov was our instructor for this course (he's a Russian!). Initially I found it difficult to understand him, but as time went on I got to learn loads, esp in the networking area! On the whole, the course was great and so was the professor! I guess that's cos we got to do lots of practicals both in HW and SW.

I also took ECO 202 (Macroeconomics). I dropped Chemistry II and decided to take this course instead (I guess still miss my chemistry class). Anyways, Dr. Mattrawy taught the Macroeconomics course. I cheered up when I got to learn more about demand and supply, GDP, GNP, sectors of the economy, consumption and saving schedules, Inflation, money supply, Investment, fiscal policy, aggregate expenditure model, etc I really enjoyed studying some topics. Dr. Mattrawy explained some topics really well, and I think I'll never forget some of those terms in Macroeconomics now that I know them  

One of my favourite courses last semester was MAT 121 (Calculus I). Dr. Quarccoo taught that course (he's a Ghanian) and I really like his teaching method. He was a little too fast in covering topics, but somehow (even with his exams every 2 weeks) I was able to learn lots of stuff! We did Trigonometry, Limits, Differentiation, and an intro to Integration among others. However, for some reason I was glad after writing my final exam (cos I had completed the course). I guess cos it was too much work, esp the assignments. Even though my exam papers were not always that good I still think it was one of the best courses I've done. Infact, in this course I had the lowest score I ever had in any exam - 18/50 (36%)! I know, it's pathetic, but I prasie God this score didn't affect my overall grade! Anyways, Dr. Joseph Quarccoo was just sooooooo very funny during classes that the fear of getting the answer wrong was greatly reduced.....at least I thought so. Despite the bad score and enormous work, I definitly miss my Calculus class!

Finally, the sixth course I took last semester was CSC 106 (Principles of Programming II - Java), another one of most favourite courses taught by one of my most favourite professors. Dr. Fonkam as always, was superb at expalining the prinicples and concepts in Java. However, we didn't go too far ahead in the course but I did get to know threading, and some other pretty cool stuff. I just miss Java! I wish I could have taken Data Structures this semester, but unfortunately I couldn't cos the times for Data Structure and Intro to Operating Systems clashed. And I couldn't drop Intro to OS so I didn't enroll in Data Structures.  Dr. Fonkam is taking Data Structures and I'm sure it's as lovely as Java! Infact, data structures is a kind of continuation of Java II. But anyways, I know that the Lord's will is perfect, so I'll be happy with all courses I'm taking this semester and hope that I might take the course in the future.

Speaking of courses this semester, I'm offerring only 5 (phew!) - Telecommunications & Data Networks with Dr. Odinma, Introductio to Operating Systems with Dr. Okunoye, System Analysis and Design with Dr. Bollou, Fundamentals of Management with Dr. Buera, and Quantitative Business Analysis with Dr. Bothchway. I'll write about these course in one of my later entries. Going back to last semester.......taking 6 courses gave me a hard time, and on top of that I spent lots of time on my work study What's more, some of my classes were on the temporary campus and that meant walking there whenever the bus was gone or when I missed it. I don't know how on earth I managed to get things done then..... assignments and exams. Even my GPA was the best I've had yet. I don't understand it, and I guess I don't need to cos I know that the God I serve is able to do above and beyond what I could ask Him to. My Lord Jesus is most wonderful, I mean He always helps me in whatever situation I find myself. I can't thank Him enough for everything He has done in my life. By His grace, this semester is much better, praise the LORD! I have only 5 courses all of which are on the permanent campus, and I don't have to overwork myself for my work-study job either! Thank God for His grace, I am really grateful to God for everything

My favourite professors is looking at the section count of each course in school of Arts and Sceinces, I guess he wants to see how many students have registered for his courses, haha ~ this registration was really smooth eventhough it was seriously delayed. We started 3 hours late, which is definitley not good. But I really really praise the Lord Jesus that he answered my prayer and made everything go well, thank you

Jesus! We registered only new students so far.....tomorrow we begin with returning students and that's bound to be much rougher than today. Anyways, at least this registration went well, I sincerely thank God for that, phew!

Well you might be wondering whom I refer to in my first sentence, try and guess perhaps you might get it right. There are many advisors (professors) present here this time, Dr. Banerjee and Dr. Roy (his wife), Dr. Arvidson, Dr. Fonkam, Dr. Bollou, Dr. Sergey, Dr. Grakhov, Dr. Hansen, Dr. Tarek & Dr. Rasha, Dr. Samuel, Dean kah and Dean smith (etc).......here comes my favourite professor now........

Just had a chat with my fav. professor....he was (as usual) telling me how I choose a major that no one cares about,haha he is just so fond of joking about majors......he says we should all be in his major (which practically speaking is really cool, my second choice after IT would definitely be this major). He's very funny even in class, just makes the whole place so lively.......... taught one of my very favourite courses ...... you still haven't got it have you It's an easy answer if you've been reading my blog...... of course I've had more than one favourite professor and that makes it difficult to guess who this is.....I guess all you can do is keep guessing, haha!

Anyways, this time I really don't have pictures as of the moment, but God willing I'll get those soon enough. Looks like the IT faculty are again having the larger number of students registring, they do look tired and so does everyone else including me……my eyes are red and my back aces terribly. I haven’t eaten properly neither have I had good rest (or sleep to be more specific). Tonight I must sleep no matter what, but I know that tomorrow’s the tougher part of registration, we’ll be registering returning students and that’s totally complicated. Anyways, it’s better to be thankful than to complain cos  I know what the Lord has given me……… as the Bible says “give thanks in everything for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” , Amen!

The Next Day.............

It’s not as organized as one would wish for, but I guess it’s not all that bad.....at least this registration is somewhat better than last time...... I just pray that we organize ourselves better next time. We registered around 90 new students and this makes our student population a total of 360+. That's really good news! The school will be much busier now with lots of people moving around. We've also had some new faculty......In school of IT we have Dr. Odinma and Dr. Okunoye (both are from Nigeria). And from what I know we have two new professors in school of Arts and Sciences - Dr. Fokam (no I didn't spell it wrong cos it's not Dr. Fonkam the IT professor eventhough Dr. Fokam is also from Cameroon) and a new Biology professor. No new professors in school of business that I know of and I think there are some more for IT coming in by next week. Anyways, here are some pics from the registration..........

You should go have a look at Hammna's blog, I think it's super! - And BTW, that's us at registration right above (Left-to-Right - Nino, Mona, Me, Noshi) of course Hamman couldn't possibly be in the pics cos he was the one taking pictures!

It did work out really smoothly! This orientation was the best yet! No "glitches" from my point of view but one could argue that registration isn't over yet so perhaps we can't conclude that orientation has been perfect just yet. However, admissions check in was as organized as can be - parents and students came in, provided necessary documetns, updated and verified all information, and left for finance check-in. I guess everything at finance also went just as nicely as at welcome and admissions check-in. Me and Nousheen were at admissions check-in. Nayyara, Saima and Hamman didn't work in the orientation, they were busy with getting registration set. The orientation process went thus: first students came to the Welcome Check-in to get their registration numbers and some other stuff. From there they proceeded to the Admissions check-in (which happens in two offices). The next stop was the finance check-in station. After that, I think students and parents were taken for a tour around the campus and the university club. Later on in the day, students and parents attend a brief discussion with returning students and some administrative staff and faculty. I guess that's about it, not sure what happens next. At least I think I'm sure it happened this way, haha. Anyways, thanks to the Lord I managed to get pictures of the whole process from Admissions office, awesome! All pictures were taken by Mustapha (a sophomore student here who also does his work-study at the admissions office). I think the pictures are great, have a look:

Student at Welcome Check-in

Students at Finance Check-in

Students and parents on tour with Dean Smith (Dean of of Arts & Sciences)

Students and parents tour the University Club

Students and parents have discussions with faculty and returning students

I hope the pictures are good, at least I was finally able to put some. BTW, the picture right above shows one of the auditoriums in the multipupose building. In fact, all check-in stations were in the multi-purpose/general purpose building. The picture that shows Dean Smith on a tour with parents and students was actually taken in the Arts and Sciences building. We'll be having all classes scheduled there this semester. Sound great! Well, it was great seeing no chaos ......hmmmm..........God willing registration will also be smoother this time..........

Doesn't seem correct somehow "This Spring Semester", there're no signs of spring right now, only dust. We call it the harmattan season. Anyways, it's early morning and orientation is here once again...... good thing it's so much more organized now, thank you Jesus! Hopefully everything will be smoother this semester (including registration). Me and my siblings got to work on the admissions and registration databases over the holidays, it was really cool. That was because we had gone through two database courses last semester which made a whole lot of difference. These were the first ever holidays at AAUN when I was not at all eager to return for classes..... anyways, I guess once the semester starts I'll be more enthusiastic about my courses.

The good news is that I finally got some pictures from the Public Relations The bad news is that I didn't yet get pictures of the new campus But anyways, I'll get that soon enough too. This means that my next entry is going to include some of pictures I got. God willing I'll be adding more entries in the next few days.

WOW! The end of yet another year, and I really thank God for that! I'm grateful to God for everything in last year and hope God continues to guide me (and all of us) through this year. I do feel somewhat sad, don't know what's been happening but I pray that all goes well. God willing. 

This time it's really not my fault this entry is coming so late. I was sick for the past few days, and before that I was on Christmas holidays so you see, I didn't have time to write in anything. There! I've defended myself well this time. I still haven't been to the Public relations office to get pictures and other information (lazy as usual), God willing I will within this week or the next. Can't believe I've turned by blog into such a back-dated mess . Anyways, have a wonderful Christmas and joyful new year!

PS - This reminds me, I just wish people would really celebrate Christmas for Christmas, and not other reasons like christmas trees, decorations, snow, presents etc. Wonder who introduced santa into Christmas anyway, someone with evil intent of course so that he/she could take the true meaning out of Christmas and decieve children (and others) into believing rubbish. Anyways, I always get angry when I see such things.....the truth twisted or completely changed to lies.........

I just can't help saying it, but with everything I see this season I just have to - Christmas celebrates the birth of CHRIST JESUS into this world, it's the time when our Savior was born. People should know that, and from what I see on TV and the Internet, it seems like most people all over the world don't know that. I guess Christians should inform others of what Christmas truly is and what the Christmas season really brings- it brings the greatest joy and the happiest news that the Savior has come and that's what we celebrate on Christmas. We can now be saved thanks to God's wonderful love and mercy..... We must always be thankful for the love God has shown us through Jesus.....Remember folks, JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!

I'm putting in this entry to find out if I have a reason to keep updating this blog or not. Well, it's obvious isn't it? If no one reads my blog anymore, then perhaphs I might not update after this entry. If someone does read, then I might continue updating it. Of course I haven't been updating it regularly (as always), but now that the exams are thinning out I'll get more time to spend on my blog. Anyways, moving on to a topic more worthwhile to read, we had a Dean's Quiz competition in the school of IT. Dean Kah made the arrangements and informed the students that were to participate. We were even filmed while the competion was going on! At first I was aware of the camera so I wanted to look ok and not do something horrible with my face, but as time went on, it was hard not to forget there was a camera around. Information Systems majors were given a problem on creating a database for the university's cafeteria. The computer science and Software Engineering majors were given a different problem (define and explain some terms using Alice or something, don't know Nino and Hamman were there so they would know better). I got more and more confused as time went by, because I thought the business rules were not very clear. I'm sure I must have done strange expressions with my face (that will definitly make me look bad on camera). All the same, who cares how I look on the camera, as long as I got my database right. Eventually we got to finish the database. Of course it wasn't complete but our time was over and that was the best we could do. A few days later, I was informed that no winners would be announced because of (ahem) time constraints we had in doing the database. I thought maybe the database we (the IS majors) created were so bad that they couldn't even be graded, haha. Anyways, it was a really cool experience all the same.

Eekk, I still have a Java homework to complete, so keep reading cos I'll keep updating  Thanks and God bless!

Gosh! I can't even begin to say how very tiring this semester is. It's like I don't even have time to think, well actually not more than 15 minutes, and that's just not enough for me. The past two semesters I had time to sit idle for 30 minutes, to chat with friends, to sleep and REST. This year its just all about moving between campuses. Catching the bus consumes all the time. Anyway, I shouldn't be complaining as it's the Lord's will that I do this much work. To tell you the truth, at first I thought 6 courses will be too much, but I ended up taking 6 courses and 18 credit hours. Now I see why I was advised to take less credit hours. I decided to drop Chemisty (my favourite course) and am taking Macroeconomics instead. How I wish I could still have been in Chemistry, but I guess it's God's will for me not to take Chemistry this semester. I certainly miss Dr. Tarek's lectures, he's like one of the best professors ever! And not just him but all of my former professors: Dr. Adegboye, Dr Botchway, Dr. Buera, Dr. Hosseini, Dean Kah, Dr. Seider, Dr. Dobson, Dr. Ikoku, Professor Pavlik, Dr. Sergey and of course Dr. Banerjee. Thank God that Dr. Fonkam is still my Java professor, I really really like his style of teaching...he's one of my most favourite professors (and so are all the professors I've had first and second semester!). Anyways, got to go read for my Calculus test which is coming up tomorrow. The new professors are also really nice. I just hope I get good grades at the end of this semester. Hopefully I'll post an entry soon if the occurance of quizes goes down, haha...........

PS - Haven't done anything about posting pictures of the new site, yes I'm that busy (or you could call me lazy, haha). Anyways, I'll try to do that for the next entry.

Registration didn't go as smoothly as before, but on the whole it was ok. Freshmen this year did seem to think there were quite a few number of problems, but hey, we're moving to a new campus and there are bound to be some glitches. Thank God it's over now, phew! But classes have begun, and I've never had to work harder in my life! My first class was Software Applications I by Dr. Quaye, 8:00am in the Windows/Linux lab on the permanent campus. He began the session with a very different lecture: mostly talked about what we did in the holidays, and gave a very brief overview of the course. I'll have to say Informations Systems Networking is a cool major, and it's bound to get nicer as we move along. This fall I'm taking IT Systems Hardware and Software, Fundamentals of DBMS, General Chemistry II, Principles of Programming II - Java, and Calculus I. I'm doing 19 credit hours this semester cos I can't let go of the chemistry course. We're supposed to take 18, but I have Dean Kah's permission to do 19. I only pray and hope I'm able to survive at the end of the semester with good grades. God willing I will. Actually, students missed their flights to Yola, so classes were slowed down for the first week, that's why Dr. Quay was entertaining us, haha. The other classes also began slowly, obviously the professors didn't want the students absent to miss anything important. But by the second lecture, the speed was back to normal, as most students had arrived by then. The Calculus course seems the hardest, but I really like the way Dr. Quarcoo explains things. Dr Grakhov (one of the new faculty) took us in the Hardware course. It's one of my favourites, and I think Dr. Grakhov explained everything really nice. I also had my Java II, DBMS, and Chemistry classes. Java II as usual was fun, Dr. Fonkam is really good at explaining programming concepts and principles. Dr. Akinkunmi (another new faculty. We have lots of new faculty this year) is taking the DBMS course and he is really cool. I can't wait to move on in that course. Dr. Tarek as always made chemistry really interesting. I just love chemistry and am not willing to let go of it (as I mentioned earlier). Well I guess I won't be able to take it next semester. But only God knows, so I'll leave it all to Him.

During Registration - Top picture is Dean Kah (Left) and Dean Smith (Right). Below is Me getting tired, haha along with everyone else that worked on the whole registration and orientation process. I completely forgot to metion that Dean Kah is acting dean of School of Business and Entrepreneurship and also dean of School of Information Technology and Communications. Dean Smith is dean of School of Arts & Sciences. They're both just awesome! I couldn't wish for better deans. Of course I still do miss Dr. Hosseini a lot, I wish he had still been with us, but I guess it was God's will for him to leave. We had more work this time around compared to the last 2 times. And thankfully, we got everything done in time. It could have been better, but God's way is the best, Thank you Jesus!

What else, hmm,let me see....... oreintation was good. We have registered about 140 new students, that makes our student population a total of 300+. Awesome! The new site is absolutely neat! Sorry I didn't yet get permission to post pictures, I need to talk with the Public relations office about that and get those posted as soon as possible. But, I don't know why the new campus feels lonely, probably cos there are not many trees there. Anyways, you can see for yourself when I post the pictures. Since I can't think of anything else to write and I have to leave to catch the bus, I guess you'll have to wait for my next entry to know more about what's happening here at AAUN. Of course you can always goto to other students' blogs, some have been updating regularly. Really got to go, keep checking for updates, but mostly on week-ends. God bless you and me, Amen.

Two days back......

The orientation's started! Cool...... I got to rest for 2 days at home while it was going on. Now am here (on the third day) to help admissions office with some work. Noshi, Nino and Raju were helping the first 2 days. Now Nino's resting and I'm here. Everything seems to be going fine. God willing registration will be smoother than last time. Of course there are still some delays, but I guess that will be well before time. Anyway, working with admissions was a superb experience, I got to know a whole lot about databases. Like I mentioned earlier in an entry, all 5 of us (me and my siblings) helped create a database for the admissions office and update their records during the finally-ending holidays. Didn't finish updating everything so we plan to get the records done after registration. We have also been working on the registration database, and am glad to say that that too is done, thank you Jesus! The new version is soo cool, wow......Nino's done most of the programming, she's very good at it! Matco project (first phase) is finished too! How awesome! It's like all the work has finished in the right time frame, thank God! Of course we'll still be improving on most of the stuff, but thankfully the hard part is done........

Today......

Quite a number of new students coming in, great! Nice to see AAUN growing like this. I can't wait to go to the new campus, It's bound to be awesome! I just found out that our IT classes are scheduled in the IT labs (about 4 cool labs). I guess I'll get to go to different labs cos I'm an Information systems major.... I'll post pictures of the permanent campus soon after we've started classes. Right now we're(me & my siblings) super busy with work, doing admissions and registration at the same time. Noshi's had an extra job with Victor for the laptop pick-up. Gosh! That really is a lot, but everyone seems to be too busy. God willing registration will go well, once that's done everything will be organized and well. Ekk! Got to go work now, I'll write in an entry as soon as classes begin (that's 4 Sep, 06). BTW, tomorrow's registration for new students and Sunday's registration for returning students. I pray to God that we don't encounter too many set backs.....

Lately the top news on CNN has been the Israel and Lebanon conflict. Most news channels are focusing on that war. Many lives have been lost, and soo much destroyed. Poeple end up pointing fingers at each other, but they never realize that it all started because of something either one or both of each side did. The recent events in the middle east were quite disturbing....Pray to God there will be peace and that His will be done. It's sad to see people dying like this. I hate wars, but I know that sometimes a country is left with no other choice. I don't wish to justify anyone that goes to war, it's only God that knows our thoughts, and only Jesus who will judge us in the end. But I can't help feeling sorry for those who get involved in these disastrous conflicts. Yet I know that Jesus loves them and cares for everyone more than I or anyone ever could. I thought about writing an entry on the events in the middle east, and just before I started, I read this entry from one of the AU blogs in Washington DC. This student also writes about the Israel-Lebanon conflict. I guess you could go check out his blog. http://admissions.american.edu/public/contentPage/contentPage.asp?navID=17&parId=2944&docID=2824

However, I did realize something from these events, the media never tells the whole story. I was watching CBN and TBN last weekend and I heard news that CNN and other major channels had left-out. I mean I don't know why the media always chooses (or prefers rather) to leave out certian information. In the Israel and Lebanon war for example, it was not made clear that the war started because of the hezbollah firing rockets into Israel (I didn't know how to spell hezbollah, got it off Kay's blog). Israel didn't just start war for no reason, they were trying to defend themselves. Of course wars are never good and I pray they never happen, but I know that God's will is the best. Thank God Israel withdrew, now there might be peace. I do know that almost everyone has a problem with Israel, and that's why they try to harm the Israeli people. It's been happening ever since God bought Israel up out of Egypt lead by Moses. As for me, I totally love the Israelites. I feel they are very special and I just love them all a lot. I just wish everyone would live peacefully, but I guess that won't be till this earth passes away. Anyway, I don't know the whole truth about the recent events in the middle-east, but I can say that what the media portrays is only half of it (mostly biased). I do believe that in the end the truth will be revealed to us, at judgment that is.

There's an American univeristy in the middle east, hope all is well there. And BTW, I know this entry is completely off AAUN, but thought I'd just add it, afterall, these events are talked of everywhere.

War is not the answer, I just wish everyone could understand that. Of course not everyone knows the truth so not everyone can understand that, but may the Lord Jesus reveal the truth to to us all. I know my saying this will upset or anger many of you reading this entry, but I know the Lord I serve, and I believe in him. I'm not ashamed of saying this and I never will be, because I know who I have to answer to in the end..... I can look stupid before men, but not before God.

Lately I've been thinking about last year, and I realised that I had completely forgotten to write about profits each business group made. Actually I was waiting for some pictures before I could post this entry, anyway now that everything is ready....... let the entry be written......

Everything about profits was disclosed on the SBE Business Awards Night, before then we were kept in semi-darkness, haha (The Grill most of all didn't want anyone finding out their financial figures, seemed somewhat funny to me, afterall it's not a top-secret thing like they wanted to make it look like)....anywho, the awards night was held during the exams. Some of us thought that we would be wasting precious minutes if we did attend which we could sepnd reading for an exam. Almost everyone had an exam the following day, but we all decided to attend the business awards night anyway mostly cos we wanted to find out who "won" and who "lost" (I'd like to say here that who lost was, ahem, quiet obivous). It all went very nicely I'd say, there were snacks and a speech by Dr. Husseini..... all of the groups were commended for their hard work.....more to the point, Master Minds had the highest profit (about 120000 naira, can't recall the exact figure), no surprises there. The Grill had the second highest profit (about 110000 naira, just 10000 short of the Master Minds). Third in line was Manioc with about 60000 naira profit and last but not the least, Maravilla. We had a loss of about 240000 naira, how sad. You might wonder how that happened, I guess it was the horrible planning we did for the whole project. I mean we thought we had a functioning bakery ready for us as was told by our president Malachi. We spent quiet a lot of money renovating it only to find out later that it was in such a bad state that we would need a whole lot of time and money to make it ready for production. We had to find another bakery real fast and that's when Maryam helped us. She talked to her uncle who allowed us to use his bakery (Alkama Bakery) for baking our bread.  Malachi decided to step down and Maryam was made new president. It was really hard work making up for the money we'd lost so far. We managed to get back about 300,000 naira in 3 weeks (Amazing!). We made money faster than any other group, and I guess this bread-baking business does bring in money. But unfortunately we didn't have enough time to make a profit. Did feel sad, but I know that God's way is the best. If there is anything I can say about Maravilla, it's the fact that our company was more of a company than any other group. We had all these official documents, procedures, and almost all members participated in the business. From what I know, not all members in other groups participated in their businesses. I was thankful to God that though we didn't make a profit, we did manage to run a business successfully.

Anyway, back to the awards night...... like I said, it was a nice sort of place to be in the middle of exams week. I was happy to see Malachy being cheered, and Maravilla being commended for it's hard work. In short, all the groups did great, but even with the good work, there were some troubles present. Anyway, on the whole, felt great to know that we didn't waste our time on the Maravilla project (thank God it's over though, haha).

Sorry the pics are a bit small and the resolution's kind of bad ....

Dr Hosseini's speech was very encouraging, we will definitely miss him, especially during the registration. He did help a lot with the registration process last year, we certainly coudn't have done much without him. He supervised us and helped us understand the whole process. Dr. Rosa (Dr. Hosseini's wife) is one of the sweetest persons you can meet. She was Admin. Assistant to the President. She also left with Dr. Hosseini, I will miss her a whole lot. Here's wishing Dr. Hosseini & Dr. Rosa all the best, and God bless them.

Dr. Rosa                            &                 Dr. Ahmad

PS - Hmmm, I've wriiten this entry super late, guess I was too busy enjoying the holidays, haha.............anyway, the next entries won't be so late cos I have registration, orientation, admissions, end-of-holidays, and classes to write about next week. Hopefully if i don't forget I'll stick to my schedule for each of these entries. Hmmmmmm, just feel like thanking God for everything, most especially for His love....."Thank you Jesus for loving me, and everyone else".

In the past week we started work on the registration for fall 2006. We're also working on the admissions and MATCO, haven't finished yet though. We have to make lots of changes and the work to be done has increased. Hopefully it will be completed by the end of August. I'll write more on all that in another entry I guess.

The break is coming to end in about a month. For me it was all really awesome. The best part was that I didn't get ill (with malaria) this time. Before this summer-break, I usually fell ill during the holidays.....too much mosquitoes you know. Thankfully, this time I didn't and I'm sooooooooooo grateful to God for that. Lately I had been feeling a little sad and scarred (for no reason at all - at least I didn't know why), but then, Jesus made everything well. You know I often wonder why people think that we Christians are lost, and don't know the truth. The truth is that we feel God's presence and His hand in our everyday lives. We believe in Jesus because we have experienced something so real and seen the truth about the Lord, in everything and most especially in our lives, I mean it's just amazing once you get to know Jesus, it's the best thing in the world and there isn't and can't be anything better. Of course you can't understand it all unless God shows you the truth, for Jesus is "the Truth, the Way and the Life". His love is just so wonderful, and am very grateful to God for His Love and grace in our lives. I don't know why all of a sudden I decided to write all this, but I felt it would not be right to forget about mentioning it. I know many of us are going through difficult times, when we feel that God has forsaken us or that we don't deserve His love, or when we feel hurt and we don't even know God.....but the truth is that God loves us and that's why He sent Jesus to die for us. Now Jesus is alive and in heaven, and He will raise us on the last day to be with Him and God forever more. He also promised to never leave us nor forsake us, and we should always trust Him no matter what, because His Word is true. We should always count our blessings, because they outnumber and outweigh our problems. God has done so much for me and my family, so many miracles and countless blessings. I can't help thanking Him for everything and I can't thank Him enough for His wonderful love and grace...........thank You Jesus, I don't know what we would do without you.

I noticed that my blogs seems to be getting out of order, maybe because I don't post regularly. Well, I thought it was obvious that since it's summer-break, I'm not likely to put in too many entries. Anyway, If you think that I'm going to stop adding entries, then you're wrong! I intend to continue posting as long as I'm in AAUN, and perhaps even after that, God willing. So keep reading, if you're interested and thanks for your time.........

PS - Always remember that God loves you (John 3:16)!

Four of the AAUN staff have decided to leave, Barry Morris, John Hughes, Angela Franklin and Ahmad Hosseini. It was a great pleasure to have had all these wonderful people work here. I"m sure all of us will miss them dearly. We are all grateful for the their help in starting up AAUN. Barry Morris was the Dean of Students, Angela Franklin the Director of Admissions, John Hughes the Director of Human Resources, and Ahmad Hosseini the Dean of School of Business and Entrepreneurship. Barry Morris was just great, so friendly to students (and I really admired his personality, looked like someone out of a movie esp his accent). He had such good way with the students, just amazing! Angela Franklin's from Senegal and it's always nice to see her (I like to meet people from different places). She was also always ready to help whenever one went to her, made us feel quite at home (She has a very sweet and lively little son too). I remember how we used to hear John Hughes tell us about different places as we sat on the morning bus to AAUN. Other professors also joined us on the bus, it was all great fun listening to conversations. John Hughes had these fascinating incidents to tell us, some of which were very funny ...... It was great to have him on the bus, hearing about Ireland and all the wonderful places he'd been to. He stopped using the bus once all the cars of the faculty arrived, we will certainly miss them all. Dr Hossini most of all, I guess that's because he spent a lot of time with us (SBE courses). He helped in the registration, which couldn't have worked without him. I felt sad when I heard they were leaving, and I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to them (except Dr. Hosseini)........Well, I guess instead of feeling sad about it, I'll be glad that I had the pleasure of knowing them, and working with them. The year certainly wouldn't have been so much fun without them, here's wishing them all the best where ever they go, and God be with them always. Hmmmmm, am so grateful to God for everything.

(Top left) Angela Franklin, Dr. Ahmad Hosseini, (Left Below) Barry Morris, and John Hughes.

Sorry I haven't been writing anything lately, the thing is the internet was down at the library, not like I did it on purpose........well I guess I'll add a 'proper' entry on Friday, this one's just to tell everyone that "I'm alive and well", haha....no actually for letting you know that I plan to continue updating my blog. Accept my apologies for not writing last week.

PS - Italy won the worldcup! Yes! I was so glad for Italy, and Germany also, thank God!

The MATCO project is coming nicely, we're almost through with developing the database. All that'll be left to do will be testing and training. Awwal's going to do that, he's also working on the MATCO project along with us (Hamman, Nino, Noshi and me). Like I mentioned earlier, Hamman's the project co-ordinator and he's been helping a lot. I'm doing part of the GUI and some other stuff. I am thankful to God that I got to learn MySQL in the process of doing the MATCO project. MySQL is fun really, it sounds hard but it's very nice. Though I haven't learnt everything there is to know, from what I know, I feel it's really good. When we've finished and tested the database, we'll train some staff at MATCO on how to use it, and then our first phase will be over. That's obvious isn't it, since this is just a prototype, we'll continue to work on it till we have developed a full healthcare information system, God willing. We're thinking of using Java, but am not sure what we'll end up using. Once completed, the software will be available to other healthcare instutions as well. Wouldn't that be great? Hmmm, it's nice to complete a task......

We're also developing a database for the admissions office. It's a really good experience - I got to learn the normalization rules and relationships in databases. I've got a good start for next semester's database course, thank God. The four of us (Hamman, Nayyara, Nousheen and myself) are working on the database. It'll be finished and implemented pretty soon, God willing. There's the registration to look forward to also, since we'll still be helping with that. It's bound to be fun! On the whole, these holidays are not bad, in terms of school-work. MySQL was nice, the configuration of laptops at the IT department was also fun, and the database stuff I learnt from doing the admissions database is just brilliant! I only hope I am able to prepare for other courses like Chemistry, Java and Calculus. God willing everything else will go well too, Amen.

I've been meaning to add some entries but that's not likely to happen since I don't have the pictures at the moment. Unfortunately I'll have those by August, so I'll have to wait till then. On the bright side, I've gotten some pictures for another entry which I will add next week (hopefully). BTW, today's the first quarter-final match of the worldcup, Germany vs Argentina, how sad. They're my favourites (and Brazil) and it'll be really sad to see one of them leave, but then it's God's will and so I will not feel too sad. Spain (as usual) broke everyone's heart when they lost to France, why do they always have to do that? (Sigh) But I don't want to feel too sad, at least now it's France vs Brazil instead of Spain so I don't have to worry too much, I pray Brazil get a good victory over the French. But then, I also wanted Spain to defeat France, afterall it was God's will that France should win..... well, I pray that the best team wins the cup.....God willing, it'll be Argentina, Germany or Brazil.

It looks like all plans for my "many" entries failed as I didn't post nothing for quite a while now. So much for not being lazy...(sigh)

These holidays are becomming shorter and shorter. On the bright side, I've gotten meself some work to do! Me and Noshi (one of my elder sisters) are working at the IT department to set-up/configure laptops for the next batch of students (fall 2006). It's loads of work as we have to finish 350 computers, but it's real fun all the same. Once we did like 78 computers in 6 hours! It was surprising how fast we finished. Victor (the IT Director) said we were working like a Russian movement back in the 80s or 70s which did 10 times as much work as the ordinary worker, haha..... So we decided to slow down a little since we didn't want to end our work so quickly. However, working slowly is quite boring and tiring, I'd rather work super-fast! Mona (my younger sis) is working at the library, helping with the library's database. Nino (my elder sis) is also working at the library. Hamman is busy with the Matco project, he was made the project manager by Dr. Fonkam (myself Noshi, and Nino are also involved with that). I'll ellaborate on the Matco project and the stuff on the database for the admissions office in some other entry, or you could read more on one of their (my sibllings') blogs, that is if they have made an entry on the topic. Here are some pics at our work-study.....

That's me (in blue), Oluchi (Victor's secretary), and Noshi (in red/maroon) in all the pics. The second one on the top right is Mr. Victor Pinneker, Director of IT.

Although work is entertaining, there's just one drawback: I have to miss out the matches of the world cup. Yes, I'm reffering to the Germany 2006 FIFA World Cup which has already begun!!! It's so exciting! I didn't have any favourites apart from Brazil and Spain at the start. However, now I'd say that even Germany, Czech Republic and Argentina are really great! From the look of things, I'd say the best team so far has been the Czech Republic, yeah even better than the champions Brazil. Unfortunately I couldn't watch my fav Spain play.....had to do my work study (sigh). But the results were amazing! Spain-4 and Ukraine-0! Unbelievable!!! The score-line seems to suggest that Spain is the best team yet, but as I wasn't able to watch them play, I can't make a comparison with the Czech. Anywho, I'd say so far it's either Spain or Czech Republic that have played well enough, afterall they're the only ones who didn't conceede any goals and managed such an impressive score-line. Czech Republic won their match against USA, the score-line was similar to Spain, Czech-3 and USA-0! Great performance by the Czech!

I guess I don't even need to say who all these players are, everyone knows (at least everyone who is a soccer-literate, haha). All these players are just wonderful and superb at playing..... there's (from top left) Drogba of Ivory Coast with an Argentinian, Rosicky of Czech Republic (he scored 2 brilliant goals in the match against USA), Owen of England, Ronaldo of Brazil (I know everyone knows that), Balack of Germany, (Below) Figo of Portugal, Ronaldhino of Brazil (he's the one with the ball on his head, cool....), Raul (my favourite player alongside Ronaldo), Carlos of Brazil with Beckham of England, and lastly Nedved of Czech Republic. Those of you who know about football might wonder why I didn't include other great players like Zidane, Eto, Kanu, etc? Well, firstly I can't put a pic of all of the best players in the world, and secondly, some of the best aren't playing at the world cup since their teams failed to qualify. I'm glad Spain and Brazil qualified, phew!

I think most of the AAUN facluty don't really like football, but the students are crazy about it! Even the non-academic staff are really into it. I guess almost everyone in Nigeria loves football. Anyway, so much for soccer. Gosh I've been lazy! I was so lazy that I didn't read anything! Like I said, the hols seem to be getting shorter and shorter, and this world cup and work are not making things any easier (sigh). Even this entry (which super-long) takes too much of my time. I really need to focus on reading because I don't want to get too much trouble next semester. God help me! I guess I won't be writing any entries on my blog except on Fridays. That'll give me time to read.

Hmmm, I always wonder why American football is called football? Is the foot used at all in the game? Nino once asked John Hughes (Director of Human Resources here at AAUN) and he said he had no idea why....maybe no-one does, who knows ...........

I heard we're moving to the new campus next semester (Fall), but I'm not very sure if the library will be moved as well.....haven't heard anything on that yet. Anyways, I wasn't able to get any pictures of the new site to post but one of the blogs listed in my previous entires has a pic that shows the boys dorms. I guess you could go have a look there. Well, I was also told that some of the buildings on the campus are state-of-the-art. The boys' dormitory is completed; a three-story building with really good facilities. The girls' dorm is almost finished. There is a multi-purpose building as well that has a few auditoriums and rooms for faculty. Then there is the awesome cafeteria and the arts and sciences complex. The cafeteria looks superb and huge! The 3-story arts and sciences building is still under construction but its also quite huge. I guess I can post pictures of every builiding next semester, as we are suppose to have classes there in September, 2006. The present campus will be handed back to the academy I guess, but like I said, I have no idea whether the library will be moved to the permanent campus or remain here. I can't wait to see the permanent site when everything has been completed! Wow! The site is really enormous and once every building has been completed, it'll look like the best university I've ever seen! I'm really excited about moving to the new campus, though I'll miss the old (present) one as well.

Hmm, I guess I've done a good job putting two entires in 2 days! Very unlike myself, I mean I'm super lazy..... it's amazing how I did this. Speaking of amazing, I just watched Westlife's video "Amazing", it really was amazing! Westlife are like the coolest band ever (that's not considering Beatles and Boyzone of course, cos they're just as cool). Well I guess I don't have much to say except, (sigh)"Congratulations Nimmy for not being as lazy as always by putting 2 entires in 2 days. That must be a record, how delightful(yawn)" Haha.....

Yes, Maravilla Bakery and Confectionaries might just not be shut down yet, Omorogbe (the production and logistics VP of Maravilla) is planning and working on contnuing the business. Isn't that great?! I'm so glad Maravilla bread has not disappeared from the market. I'll certainly be buying some Maravilla bread once the company is up and running. I guess we all are really really grateful to our SBE Faculty Advisor, Dr. A. Ikoku for all the help. I couldn't help realizing that though other faculty advisors also did a lot for their groups (Grill, Master Minds, and Manioc), Dr Ikoku helped us even more. I can confidently say that his advise and support helped Maravilla become what it was, and in my opinion, he was the best faculty advisor in any group! I mean we couldn't have done it with out him, thanks a lot Dr. Ikoku!

That reminds me, the results are finally out! My result is pretty close to what it was last semester (except that it's somewhat lower this time). I am still thankful to God for taking me through yet another tough semester. And having such good grades in all courses made me feel very happy. Just one course disappointed me though, my grade in the SBE 102 course is a 'B' and I believe I deserved better. Anyway, it is God's will and so am glad. The SBE course was fun and I appreciate having taken it despite the many hitches and problems.

It's not like I don't have any topic to write entires on, I have loads but am waiting for pictures from the public relations office. By next week I guess I will complete at least three(3) of my many entires. At present however, I can't really think of much ot write on. Guess I have to write for the sake of keeping my blog updated, afterall, I wouldn't want everyone to think that I'm out of ideas, haha. Hmmm, I know what I can talk about ......ahem...... the holidays seem to be coming very nicely, some of the faculty that didn't travel for the summer break are going for recruitment and some open house work to different places. Dr Shilgba (the Calculus professor) will be going to southern Cameroon, while Dr Fonkam has already left for some mid-western state here in Nigeria. Dr Fonkam earlier went to Cameroon with a few students for the open house work. What we mostly do on open-house is that the professors and students go places and talk about AAUN, it usually involves students and faculty (from AAUN) having a Q & A session with people from that locality. I guess I might just ask Dr Shilgba to take some pictures this time so that I can place those here (that is if I don't forget). Perhaps I'll write more on this in some other entry and there's some other stuff too that I could write about but I'd rather leave that to next week, for today this is probably enough.

Speaking of today, one of the movies I'm really looking forward to watching is being released today! If you happen to know anything about Indian movies (Bollywood) you would probably have guessed by now that I'm referring to 'Fanaa'! It's Kajol's (my favourite actress) comeback movie, and that's why I'm anxious to watch it. Anywho, I'm sure you wouldn't care much about that, so I shouldn't wander away so much ......

And oh that reminds me, talking about things that happend/happening today, I read a very beautiful email today forwarded to me by Ms. Chioma (Assistant to Dean Kah). It made me realize just how wonderful God is and how thankful I should always be for everything and in every situation...... I don't know how I can show you the email.......hmm, let me think ????????? Hey, why don't I paste a link here? ........ Let me see if I can find anything on the net related to it .......................... Yes! I found a site that tells the wonderful testimony I read, Praise the LORD! Go have a look, it's really encouraging and strengthening for all of us .......

http://passiveincome.typepad.com/dianecweblog/2006/05/nick_vujicic_an.html

http://www.inspiring-quotes-and-stories.com/nick-vujicic.html

PS - Entry on the new campus site and other stuff next week!

I realised that I had completely forgotten to state the profit each business group made. Actually I was waiting for some pictures before I could post this entry, anyway now that everything is ready....... let the entry be written......

Everything about profits was disclosed on the SBE Business Awards Night, before then we were kept in semi-darkness, haha (The Grill most of all didn't want anyone finding out their financial figures, seemed somewhat funny to me, afterall it's not a top-secret thing like they wanted to make it look like)....anywho, the awards night was held during the exams. Some of us thought that we would be wasting precious minutes if we did attend which we could sepnd reading for an exam. Almost everyone had an exam the following day, but we all decided to attend the business awards night anyway mostly cos we wanted to find out who "won" and who "lost" (I'd like to say here that who lost was, ahem, quiet obivous). It all went very nicely I'd say, there were snacks and a speech by Dr. Husseini..... all of the groups were commended for their hard work.....more to the point, Master Minds had the highest profit (about 1,20000 naira, can't recall the exact figure), no surprises there. The Grill had the second highest profit (about 1,10000 naira, just 10000 short of the Master Minds). Third in line was Manioc with about 60,000 naira profit and last but not the least, Maravilla. We had a loss of about 2,40000 naira, how sad. You might wonder how that happened, I guess it was the horrible planning we did for the whole project. I mean we thought we had a functioning bakery ready for us as was told by our president Malachi. We spent quiet a lot of money renovating it only to find out later that it was in such a bad state that we would need a whole lot of time and money to make it ready for production. We had to find another bakery real fast and that's when Maryam helped us. She talked to her uncle who allowed us to use his bakery (Alkama Bakery) for baking our bread.  Malachi decided to step down and Maryam was made new president. It was really hard work making up for the money we'd lost so far. We managed to get back about 300,000 naira in 3 weeks (Amazing!). We made money faster than any other group, and I guess this bread-baking business does bring in money. But unfortunately we didn't have enough time to make a profit. Did feel sad, but I know that God's way is the best. If there is anything I can say about Maravilla, it's the fact that our company was more of a company than any other group. We had all these official documents, procedures, and almost all members participated in the business. From what I know, not all members in other groups participated in their businesses. I was thankful to God that though we didn't make a profit, we did manage to run a business successfully.

Anyway, back to the awards night...... like I said, it was a nice sort of place to be in the middle of exams week. I was happy to see Malachy being cheered, and Maravilla being commended for it's hard work. In short, all the groups did great, but even with the good work, there were some troubles present. Anyway, on the whole, felt great to know that we didn't waste our time on the Maravilla project (thank God it's over though, haha).

Sorry the pics are a bit small and the resolution's kind of bad ....

Dr Hosseini's speech was very encouraging, we will definitely miss him, especially during the registration. He did help a lot with the registration process last year, we certainly coudn't have done much without him. He supervised us and helped us understand the whole process. Dr. Rosa (Dr. Hosseini's wife) was one of the sweetest persons you can meet. She was Admin. Assistant to the president. She also left with Dr. Hosseini, I will miss her a whole lot. Here's wishing Dr. Hosseini & Dr. Rosa all the best, and God bless them.

Yes, this will be the last entry on anything related to the courses I took last semester, so there. This means that you'll only have to skip this entry if you're bored to death by course-talk; not a bad strategy, is it?

Continued.......

Fourthly, the Chemistry course was really enlightening, the toughest course last semester in my opinion. Dr Tarek as always was awesome! The practicals were just soo great that I can't wait to take the Chemistry next year! The topics taught were also very interesting - hybridization, solutions, limiting reactants, gas equations, molecular geometry (my favourite!), intermolecular forces, and much much more. I really enjoyed it.....Dr Tarek was very funny, I can recall one of the "funniest moments of all". During the exam (which was the toughest exam of all, yeah even harder than Java) one of the students asked a question and mistakingly said atom instead of ions, so Dr. Tarek made a very helirious comment, he said that if Albert Einstein heard the student, he would "be rolling in his grave"...hahaha. What with the exam tension and nervousness, I just burst out laughing, so did the rest of the class. I'm really looking forward to Chemistry next semester and what's even better is the fact that we'll be (hopefully) using the Arts and Sciences building on the new site (permanent site), wow, it'll be awesome!

Next on the list is the Writing course which on the whole was quiet relaxing. Relaxing in the sense that the class sessions were not like "lectures" but rather informal discussions..... Professor Pavlik is just so good at making students feel at home, I really enjoyed being her student and will certainly miss being in her class. One of the best class sessions was one in which we had a sort of a debate. It was really fun to see everyone arguing soo much, including myself, haha. Professor Pavlik also invited us (students) for lunch to her house twice when the semester was ending! It was all just soo fabulous! Somehow I'll not really miss the writing course itself, but I will miss her indeed.

Last but in no way the least is the Microeconomics course. This was, as I ealier wrote, the most interesting course! Professor Banerjee is superb at teaching! Every student seemed to like him a lot. The topics we covered included shifts in demand and supply, game theory (really interesting), taxes, externalities, and many more. Most of us never knew economics could be so much fun! I particularly enjoyed game theory: that included sequential games and simultaneous-move games....the graphs were also most enjoyable to do! I wish I could do another economics course next semester but unfortunately, my advisor said I can't. Guess I'll have to wait and see, but all the same, I'm sure all of us will miss Professor Banerjee's lessons, one of the best lessons I've ever had, and that's saying a lot!

Well there it is, all neatly put. I'm happy you didn't close the browser window out of absolute boredom, haha! Writing all this stuff sure is tiring, but the payoff is satisfactory once it's done, phew! While writing some of my entries, sometimes I feel like I should just ...............

Haha!

Just like what I did at the end of last semester, I'm going to write about all the courses I took this semester. No don't worry, I won't be having seperate entries on each course to bore you, instead I'll write a little about every course in just a single entry. There, not that boring is it? Haha....

Anyway, let me start with Java since it is a course related to  my field. Java was great, we got to learn OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) after hearing about it. Dr Fonkam (our Java Professor) was just superb! I mean he didn't rush any topics, in fact he slowed down because grabbing programming concepts (especially object-oriented) was no easy task for most of us. Programming is not easy, in fact I think programming can be harder than calculus at times! Anywho, everything went very nicely, the exam was somewhat difficult though. Some of us will continue Java next year too, something to look forward too and prepare for against nest semester.

Secondly (mind you this is no rating), Pre-Calculus was also just amazing! I really enjoyed being in Dr. Adegboye's class. He's one of the best professors I ever had! (I guess almost all the faculty here at AAUN are the best!) He really explained everything so well that we all enjoyed having taken the course. I loved funcitons, polynomials, partial fractions and lots of other stuff that we learnt. I pray to God Calculus I(one) is as lovely as Pre-Calculus!

Thirdly, the Business course was a good course in the sense that it exposed us to things we weren't really aware of and also helped us to put into practice what we learnt last semester. I have already said so much about this course in many of my entries....by the way, if you happen to read blogs of students from AAUN, surely you'll notice that the Business course (SBE 102) seems to be spoken of by almost every student. To find out what the major complain was, I suggest you go have a look at different student blogs (have links to some in one of my entries). On my part I'd say that though the work was too much and the credit hours the course took were literally 5 hours every day, the only complain that I personally have is that all my time and effort might not be awarded as deserved. I have reason to fear that the grade I'm given in this course will not be what I deserve, I mean I spent so much of my time working on the Maravilla project such that it affected my performance in other courses to some extent. It wouldn't be unfair to have anything less than an 'A' for all I've done. Anywho, I guess I must be thankful to God in everything, as it is written " In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" - 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

Opps! I'm out of time, got to rush to catch the bus, guess I'll write about the remaining three (3) courses in my next entry.....accept my appoligies for boring you and thank you for your time, haha!

The holidays have begun and we have lots of rest to look forward to........hmmmm...... What? What's this I hear.....We have to work on the MATCO project we left uncompleted last semester? NO! But I thought we were meant to have a summer-break? Anyway, perhaps it will help me improve myself in preparation for the next semester. I had planned on staying at home and reading Chemistry, Java and Calculus to make sure that next semester (2nd year!) doesn't give me any trouble. Anyway (sigh), I guess the MATCO project will help prepare for the Fundamentals of DBMS course, that's an encouraging thought, phew! Nevertheless, some of my other plans will be affected, especially the fact that I wanted to sew somethings and cook and sleep... I guess the payoff might just make up for that. My opportunity cost though is also great, meaning I probably won't have much surplus..... On the bright side, at least I'll still have lots of entries to write. Frankly, I have nothing against anyting related to IT, it's just that I might not be able to have any holiday, which is a very sad thought.. (sigh). All the same, I just hope somethings straighten out this holiday. By the way, since I don't have internet access at home, the library has been of great help since it officially remains open for some portion of the holidays, another comforting thought. I heard there'll be lots of books coming in and everything is being arranged against next semester. The Library staff is soo friendly and helpful, Martha, Barry, Sunday, Mr. Benson, Abdullahi (pic below in the library) and the all the rest..... wonder what I would have done without them..... cheers to all of them and a job well done!

Prospects for the next semester do look promising....... thank God for that. Am also grateful to God for the succesful ending of my first year! Hope the holidays go as smoothly as the semesters have gone, God's will be done. Wish I could write more, but have to stop here, hopefully my next entry will come in a day or two, God willing.

Yes! I've finally completed my first year at Hogwarts...Opps! I meant at AAUN! It's feels just so good to know I have only three years left to go. The ending this second semester was even better than the first because we had tougher courses this spring semester. Thank God I'm through with Writing and the Business course! Though both these courses were quiet hard for me, I really appreciate that I took these courses. The business course was very nice, even with all its difficulties and time consumption. I just loved being part of a company, and doing IT stuff in that company was like a dream come true! I always wanted to design something for a company and being the Graphics Designer in Maravilla helped me achieve that. I do thank God for everything and for a semester well-ended. Java was fun, so was Chemistry and pre-calculus. I just loved Microeconomics, infact, that was THE most interesting course this semester. Being in Dr. Banerjee's class was more like listening to the most fascinating discoveries and much less like what I thought were typical economics classes. I am also very glad I had such good facluty once more, couldn't have done it without them. Eventhough I fear my final grade and outcome in many courses, I would still like to thank Jesus for taking me through and for letting me complete my first year successfully! May God be with us all both now and forever more, Amen.

I heard that perhaps we'll be moving to the new campus (permanent site) next semester, don't know how true that is though..... All the same, goodby first year and goodbye first year courses that I don't have to take again.........

The reason why I love the American system of education is because you get to read different courses from different fields. And in the process of reading these other courses that some think are "irrelevant" to your field, we usually come to the realization of how very much we like our own field of study. Wondering what I'm talking about, right? Well, with all the arts, social science, business and science courses we're taking here, I just can't help appreciating the fact that I'm an IT major ~ it's that sense of satisfaction you get for being in IT after you get to go into these course. Take the business course for example, after being in Maravilla, I just couldn't help rejoicing that I was an IT major! It all came to me when we attended the last ACM meeting, held on Tuesday. It was sooooo AWESOME being there! I just love to hear Dean Kah and other IT professors talk about IT stuff, it makes me feel so happy. Initially I felt that business was just as cool as IT, but after doing the business project, I realised that though business is a very "experience-giving" area, it's a very risky one too; and I just hate risks - I mean why take risks when you can do perfectly well without one? Seriously, if I hadn't had the chance to do other courses apart from IT, I would have regretted not having done one. But with the system here at AAUN, we are exposed to different fields and this helps to make the right choice, and appreciate the choice we've made. Honestly, I like other courses a whole lot (sometimes I can't rate courses because they are all so awesome), but I guess IT courses have now become my favourite, thanks to the American system of education!

Talking about IT, the ACM meeting went very nicely, all IT students showed up and we also had some faculty at the meeting. There were slideshows and we had some discussions too. The best part was the photos that were shown; these photos were unexpectedly taken(withouth the person actually knowing that a picture was being taken - secretly)... some were funny, haha. It was Dr. Kah's idea to have us take these pictures and show them at every meeting, everyone enjoyed that. Overall, the meeting went very nicely ~ the mood was so relaxing and I'm sure many of us IT majors felt very relieved to be where we belong, in the IT community..... hmmmm....

This is a picture of all our IT professors, and they're just awesome! (I mean I just love all the faculty here at AAUN!) From left to right (Top) - Dr. Butakov, Dr. Quaye, (Below) Dr. Agwu, Dean Kah and Dr. Fonkam (my Java Professor).

PS - Also related to our field, check out the links to various blogs by the students here, and please do give comments cos it motivates us to keep on blogging...thanks!

http://blogs.cjb.net/hamman 

http://blogs.cjb.net/nousheen  

http://blogs.cjb.net/nino 

http://mubees.blogspot.com 

http://toyinhaastrup.blogspot.com

http://myaaun.blogspot.com

http://wahee.blogspot.com

 

(I'll try and get more blog addresses later on..... )

The rains have finally come! Everything looks just fabulous! Everyone here at AAUN seemed quiet glad to see the clouds once again after such a long time! We (my family) were just soo happy that we stood under the rain for a long time to enjoy the sweet cool drops and wind(that was the first time it rained sometime in the night on the 24th of April). Surprisingly, we weren't the only ones that were so thankful for the rain, even some of the faculty actually soaked themselves! Professor Bill Hansen and Professor Wallis even had a sort of dual under the rain, hahaa... It's just amazing ~ the sight of clouds, the cool wind and the wonderful drops of rain, why would I trouble myself looking for the right words to describe it when it's all been said already? Here's a cool poem that describes it all......and a picture too....

Rain In Summer - H. W. Longfellow

How beautiful is the rain!

After the dust and heat,

In the broad and fiery street,

In the narrow lane

How beautiful is the rain!

How it clatters along the roofs,

Like the tramp of hoofs!

How it gushes and struggles out

From the throat of teh overflowinf spout!

Across the window pane

It pours and pours;

And swift and wide,

With a muddy tide,

Like a river down the gutter roars!

The rain, the welcome rain.

And by the way, that's not Yola...got it off the net, but sometimes even Yola looks pretty much like that...hmmm... thank You Jesus for such great blessings....

Cool night, but with lots of hitches here and there. Wish it had gone better, but on the whole it was alright. There were funky disco lights and loud earsplitting music, plus tasty hotdogs and burgers on sale. The drinks however were not very (ahem) desirable. Anyway, hope we're able to make some profit off that, though I doubt if that's possible. Eekkk, got to go, have a microeconomics homework to complete, more on Maravilla after this Wednesday, as that's the last presentation we'll make infront of the board of directors.... May God grant us at least a morsel of success, Amen.

How wonderful to have an Easter break! The break here lasted 4 days, wow! Really enjoyed staying at home and getting some rest. However, wasn' t able to get away from Maravilla; had to make deliveries to customers even during the Easter holidays (sigh). Most of the students went home even though the break was just 4 days; but who cares if it was short, anything to get some time off to rest......

But what was even better than the short holidays was Easter itself! How wonderful to remember what God has done for us, to see His amazing Love and Grace. I am soooooooo grateful to Him, for I do not deserve to have His Love, but because of His grace and not my righteousness, I am saved... Thank you Jesus for loving us, who are unworthy of thee...

What better way can to say it than John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

I read this wonderful greeting card, perhaps I'll just place it's content here for everyone to see:

Earth's saddest day

and gladdest day

were just three days apart!

-- Susan Coolidge

HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE!

PS - Sorry this entry is coming late, had too much to do ~ to make up I'll add my next entry by tomorrow. Thanks.

This is the business project that me and my 4 siblings are involved in this semester with about 25 more students. It's all about baking bread, not just any bread, but "good quality bread". Our company structure has been changed quite a number of times, but that was to enable us to function properly. Our slogan for a time became "Produce or Perish", which was quite funny. However, we were able to produce and so didn't end up perishing as some would have thought.

So, what's different in Maravilla. Well, as most local people here in Yola that have tasted the bread demand, where is the cake-like "ABTI bread"?, hahaha, feels good to hear that....However, I'll admit that our bread is not perfect. I would of course call our small buns/breakfast rolls one of the most delicious breads I ever tasted in Yola, but not all our breads are soooooo verrrrry tasty. I guess we have kept our promise of quality, now we have to "market to break-even". Hopefully, we'll at least be able to break-even or else we'll "never be forgiven", as one Grill memeber put it, for not returning the $ 5000 given to us by the University to start the business. God willing, we might even make some profit....

Below are different pictures that'll tell you more about the business, enjoy!!!!!

 Small Buns/Breakfast Rolls               Medium Size Loaf                 Fruit Bread/Golden Bread 

           12 - in - 1 Bread                             Round Bread                                Wheat Bread

           French Bread                    Hotdog Bread & Small Buns        Dean Hosseini with a Bread

PS - Hope you enjoyed the pics, more of these and stuff on ACM coming soon (as soon as I can get other stuff done, Gosh! I'm so lazy...)

Thanks for your time.................haha

Finally after approximately 15 years, it's being done again! Nigeria is conducting a census to determine exactly how many people there are in the country. Great work indeed! Things went quite nicely, only for the fact that the census restricted movements ~ but even that was alright. It was also exented two days, hopefully everyone has been counted.

We had these marks placed on our thumbs to indicate that we have already been counted ~ good strategy. I guess all of the students at AAUN, and faculty, have been counted. Infact, most people I know here in Yola have been counted. It's awesome to know that now, perhaps the Government will now be able to plan most things well. Thank God.

Before I forget, there's going to be a solar eclipse today in Nigeria! How wonderful, but I won't be able to look at it cos I don't have any special glasses. Anywho, I'll write about that later..... got to go for Maravilla Presentation infront of the board and the rest of the school, hope all goes well....

PS - Updates on the business project and ACM coming soon, sorry for not updating as regularly as I planned.

What does it feel like to be on top? Well, that was what happened with Maravilla Bakery and Confectionaries - our presentation was ranked #1! (we were informed by some faculty members). Apart from giving an awesome presentation, Maravilla managed to impress everyone, even the other group: The Grill! Things went very smoothly in our presentation last Wednesday, Thank God for that! I just hope we keep on going and working hard to get the bakery actually running. We also presented samples and everyone just loved them. I pesonally think I've never tasted such good bread in Yola. Anyway, this should make us work harder, may the Lord be with us and guide us, AMEN!

PS - Also wrote a Chemistry Lab quiz last Wednesday..... It was sort of ok but not perfect.

We had a meeting for all IT students last Saturday! Of course not everyone showed up because the emails weren't sent to the correct addresses. However, the meeting was soooo interesting. Dr. Kah surprisingly started with asking us about "Big brother", some show on TV. He later went on to talk about classes. We had a fun discussion session.

Later on, we formed "IT buddy" groups. These are meant to help us become better students in IT and every other course. Each group is made of three students and meets for certain hours to revise what's been covered in class. It will definitely work!

The meeting ended after votes were cast for certain posts in the ACM chapter; it was all really "moist"; we even had lunch! Anywho, I'll write more about the ACM Chapter and on the students elected in the next entry as it's getting late and I still have an essay to write and someother stuff to finish.......

I guess I've been lazy not blogging regularly. I've decided to update my blog every weekend. To try to keep myself from being lazy, I will develop a tactic soon, that is if I don't become lazy again. Lately I was busy chatting with friends, that's why I wasn't able to put most of my stuff in order. I guess I have to reduce that. God willing, I will be able to keep to my schedule.

It's not easy to do a business project let alone an IT project! A group of 5 students and Dr. M. Fonkam, our Java professor, had a second trip to MATCO Clinic Last week Saturday - a systems requirement analysis thing. Doing it from the object-oriented side was somewhat confusing but at the same time a lot easier. This time we undertake the task of developing an information system for the clinic using [none other than] Java! It's going to be super hard to do both business and IT projects at the same time, not to mention the continuous Chemistry quizes and the major essays in writing. Economics and Pre-calculus, on the other hand, are so totally awesome! Not that other courses aren't wonderful, but Economics is no trouble at all, and Pre-Calculus is most entertaining.

Java is cool and quite interesting too. Being a "procedural" programmer, veiwing things as objects felt strange. Of course it seems a little confusing at first, but I'll learn with time (as usual). You see, it takes me some time to learn, as my friend tells me, "You're stupid about 90% of the time" ~ the rest of the 10% I spend asking questions I guess....

Actually, I've resumed tutoring for IT courses. Students are finding Java difficult which is quite normal as it's the first time most of them are being exposed to programming. I'm glad I did procedural languages before doing Java because it really helps to understand the logic behind programming.

Next week Saturday is the mid-term exam for Java, hope it's not super hard........ I pray we all get good grades.

How very sad to have your group ranked last! That was the case with "Maravilla Bakery and Confectionaries", my business group.... Anyway, I like to take failures as a red flag to do better ~ hopefully I will put my best to getting the bakery "up and running". 

In contrast to Business, other courses turned out to be AWESOME!!!! I got great scores and grades in most of the exams I wrote last week, THANK GOD! That does make me feel better....

AAUN Grill Night took place, got some pictures from friends cos I [intentionally] couldn't make it [whisper: thankfully!]. It went well, seems like the Grill is "the only group making profit"- said Shegun the Acting President of The Grill. However, I would like to add that their presentation was somewhat disorganised; ours happened to be rated "horrible" but that's a red flag I keep telling myself ~ I suppose we will improve with time.

Hey, I never realised that most of the time I use "we" I'm referring to me, my borther and sisters. Yes, we all study here at AAUN. Infact we were one of the groups in the business class and the "Greetings Yola" was our idea. We are five plus our parents making seven (the awesome #!) Two parents, four girls and a boy, we've been living here ever since I can remember. Our history is really interesting because I believe as most people hear it they doubt if what we say is really true or not. Of course we have no reason to lie but most people find it hard to believe our story; how we came to AAUN. It all started when I finisehd high school.

The four of us (my youngest sister excluded) wrote JAMB (Nigerians are certainly familiar with that) and applied for admission into a university here in Yola called FUTY. Apart from that, we also wrote PCE for admission into state polytechnic by the name of ADSPY. After a few months we recieved a letter of acceptance from FUTY and ADSPY. Of course, as most people formally told us, some one in their right mind would never choose a state polytechnic over a Fedral university. Our choice happened to be ADSPY for one simple reason: we were not sure what insitution to pick, so we cast lots (with the name of both written on seperate papers) and shuffled the papers. We then PRAYED to God and asked him to reveal which of the two institutions we should go to. After we had prayed, we picked a paper and it turned out to be ADSPY! That's how we went there. Whenever I related this to someone, mostly I would get a "How could you do that?" response. However, it was not our decision but God's. That was the first step in coming to AAUN.

You might wonder how this relates to our being here at AAUN, well, it was from ADSPY that we got all the computer knowledge we needed as begginers. After attaining a ND in Computer Science, (all with distinctions) we decided to work for a while before continuing our education. We have worked at ABTI Nursery/Primary School, and ABTI Academy. It was because we had enrolled in ADSPY that we got to learn so much and had the opportunity to work with ABTI. After sometime, Dr Shaw Principal ABTI Academy, requested that we develop their result processing system. We did that and continued to work.  

Last year September, we saw the start of AAUN. I still remeber how much I wished to be part of it. I never even prayed to God for it because I thought I would be asking too much. However, the LORD had plans for all of us that I thought were impossible, after all "Nothing is impossible with God", and the Lord is faithful and most Gracious. When we heard of AAUN starting admissions, so we decided to send Mona (our youngest) to AAUN since mom and dad coudld not afford it for all five of us. It so happened that when Nousheen (my eldest sister) went to meet Dr Rosa, she was told about scholarships. She also advised us to meet with the VP Academics, Dr. Jim Garafalo and find out how to get one (as we had very good grades). Due to some problems, we could not meet Dr. Garafalo, instead we met the president, David Huwiler! After talking with him for some time, he said he'd like to meet our parents and that from what he had heard about us (probably from Dr Shaw), he was willing to give four of us a HALF-FEE SCHOLARSHIP!!! I was so surprised when I heard that that I almost didn't want to believe it. Late on when mom and dad met the president, everything was settled! We were going to my dream-university!

That's my sister Nousheen, then me, followed by Saima (Mona) in orange, next to whom is Nayyara (Nino), and my brother Hamman(Raju).

Gosh! I've already written too much, I guess I'll narrate the rest of the story in a few days.... (yawn) sleepy sleepy sleepy...

Four weeks gone and my 2nd notebook is on the point of being completely used up. I can't believe this! So many notes, but then, the lectures are superb as well. Just finished two quizes today: Precalculus and Java... The tests were not very easy but on the whole everything went well (Thank GOD!). I still have Chemistry quiz to write on Thursday, blimey! How could I not have foreseen this.... I'm not working very hard. May God help me to improve.

Finished my 1st draft of an essay about language, going good with the Bakery stuff (by the way, it's called Maravilla Bakery and Confectionaries), and nothing too difficult in Economics so far. Hmm, the future looks promising, that's if the Chemistry quiz or Economics quiz doesn't ruin it. Anyway, hope I can update this blog soon....

I don't believe this! How could I possibly have been so lazy? I didn't finish my homework on time plus I didn't prepare for classes in advance. How I wish I would not get so sleepy in some classes; at least the ACs in the classrooms are better now. I don't have to freeze to death thank God. I haven't been updating my blog either. And the worst part is that I still feel sleepy and lazy as I write this.... May God help to get rid of this great evil. (sigh) I still have to type in my notes, finish my homework (which by the way is loads of stuff in all courses) and prepare for quizes plus do some work on designing some stuff.........Yet a little more sleep (yawn) hmmmm........

I sincerely apologize to God knows who for not updating my blog (of course I have no idea if anyone on earth ever reads this or not), I got real lazy plus I had homework and other stuff to do. Anyway, the dreaded moment that I mentioned in my last entry is now past, phew! (Thank God for that!) Wednesday did pass quickly and the days that followed were very exciting indeed! Now I can talk on what it was all about. It was the business plan we were to present for this semester. Our (my group's) idea was to start a greeting cards business called "Greetings Yola". No one voted for oure idea, even we ourselves voted for a another idea that we thought was great. Eventually, (and mainly because of our 5 votes) the Bakery idea won with a total of 17 points. The second idea that was picked is called "The Grill". What an impressive name, wouldn't you agree? The bakery business is called Marvilla Bakery and Confectinaries. Even that's pretty cool. I think the executives on the bakery project are really great, and I'm glad we (me & my intial group) are now part of the bakery project. In fact each of us has a position; I happen to be the graphics designer, not an easy job but I'm very happy with it. I just pray each and every project gains a lot of profit because this whole business idea thing is wonderful. A really exciting thing for students and the school seems to have been really active lately. One of the other two projects selected was about doing a concert and making profit from the ticket sales. The last one deals with buying cassave in this season and selling it later in the rainy season when it's scarce (in Taraba). The Grill is more like a relaxation spot on campus, I'm looking forward to that.... I'd love to see a positive end of all these.. May God help us all to win. Amen!

Actually it wasn't the first day at school, but the first week (and I know I'm writing this late), but apart from that everything went quite well. I am very glad the registration was okey eventhough it was a whole lot of work for a few of us. Anyway, thank God it is almost over now.....

Classes were fun: Chemistry was great, Microeconomics was superb, Java was good, Business was awesome, Writing was nice, and Pre-calculus was just fabulous! I am so happy that nothing was too difficult. In fact, it seems that classes this semester are going to be even more interesting than last. I only pray it turns out to be so. The new faculty are really awesome! One thing that I admire about AAUN is its faculty; they're all just so wonderful!

If you're wondering what these pics are: they were all taken during registration. The first one has Amy Greene, Cheryl Pavlik (my Writing professor), Jeff Collier, Janette Wallis, and Dean Michael Smith. The second pic is of Dr. Suriya Benerjee (my Microeconomics professor). The third's Dean Berry Morris and the fourth is Dean Muhammadou Kah and Laura Dobson (my African Civ professor last semester). The fifth pic is of Dean Ahmad Husseini and the last one has VP Public Relations Elzpeth Smith, the Admissions director Mrs. Angella, and Janette Wallis. It was fun, the first week..... the second is bound to be tiring, and I'm sure the weeks that follow are going to be sleepless. (Sigh) Anyway, I'll just have to pray that all goes well, God willing. By the way, tomorrow's going to be very scary...... when it's over, I'll write about it. My best friend is very apprehensive about it too. She keeps on reminding me, but of course it's worse for her. "Oh God, let it be Thursday today; let Wednesday pass quickly"....

INF 201 was the toughest course I had this semester! Loads of work and stuff, even an after exam project! But even though I felt the project was boring, I've now realised it was a great idea. Afterall, development is good especially when coupled with technology. I realized this when I recalled what our INF 201 Professor and Dean of IT, Dr. Muhammodou Kah, told us about the computerized land tenure system used in rural areas in India. Besides, I think the project helped boost my final grade. I am grateful I did it. We are to continue with the project second semester and try improving it-this means we will be working on it till it is properly completed. This class was the smallest of my classes composed of only 9 students. The SAM training was quite entertaining and so were the online quizes.

Professor Kah's a great professor, a very good motivator and a very interesting person indeed. Really encouraging too but yet, at times he can give very stressful work! The great thing is that in this course, I got a grade I never expected. As always, I am thankful to God for my grade and everything else.

The Entrepreneurship and Business Management course was different from other courses in that we had three different professors taking us: Dr. Abubakar BuEra, Dr. Benjamin Botchway and Dr. Ahmad Husseini (who is also the Dean for the school of Business). Classes were quite interesting. Dr. BuEra said very funny stuff and his lecture was always very interesting. Dr. Botchway told about the Chineese and Japaneese Business techniques; this really made me want to go into Business (as a minor). Dr. Husseini also told us about the Japaneese appraoch in making a deal, plus he revealed some awesome math tricks! Dr. Husseini is very motivating and so very active! The exams were cool, most of them were held in the cafeteria. The pic below was taken during our final business exam. The attendance the pic displays is very impresive of course, the classes however, told a very different story. Many students showed up late, if indeed they showed up at all. Some left class during the 15 minute break we had. I felt very sad to see students do that. I mean, really, if students just forgot about the so-called "fun" for the little time that they are in a class, they would only be helping themselves. Afterall, the whole point of education is learning. I believe classes can be fun too. All classes I had first semester were awesome!

We are also required to continue this course next semester, but, in a very interesting way. All students will form groups of 5 and present a business plan. Two of these will be picked and then the students will be divided into two groups, 25 each. The 2 chosen ideas will be assigned to these two groups. Students will then be required to implement the business ideas and actually start business. This is more like the practical part I would say, but it suits me! First semester was good, eventhough we had loads to read. Second is going to be fun, if and only if we students want it to be so. I would like that my group's idea is selected, but even more importantly, I would want the best to be choosen; mainly because I want us to make good profit. After listening to Dr. Husseini I realised that we have to get this business thing right, to prove to everyone that even we students can do something fantastic. And moreso, for the benefit of students that would enroll here at AAUN in the future. I just wish the students were more enthusiatic about the business idea (sigh). All the same, I am glad that I got through the first semester with a good grade. 

Science courses have always been my favourite right from high school. I loved the Chemistry course mainly because it focused on details that I hadn't learnt at Secondary School. Since it was General Chemistry, I got to learn about the green-house effect, ozone depletion, global warming, plastics, polymers etc. I loved reading about the Hydrogen bonds; really cool stuff.

Dr. Tarek Madkour and Dr. Rasha Azzam took us in this course. The practical part was enjoyable especially one on molecular structures. We also did practicals on plastics (got to wear googles for that one). I think Dr. Tarek and Dr. Rasha were both really great! Dr. Tarek's jokes are very funny. The best part was that Dr. Tarek and Dr. Rasha always kept us informed on our progress throughout the semester. I was literally shocked to see myself at the top of the class throughout the semester! I mean seriously, I never thought I was good at Chemistry. In fact, during registration I had decided on taking Biology and when I was assigned Chemistry I was a little apprehensive about the grade I might have in the end. Surprisingly, I stayed #1 in Chemistry throughout the semester (Dr. Tarek informed us so), until the very end, when one of my sisters overtook me to end the semester with the first position. All the same, I believe I still ended with the highest score in Chemistry compared to my final score in all other courses.

I am grateful to God for my grade and hope to do better next semester when I continue with the course!

Our new Writing professor this semester was Professor Cheryl Pavlik. She is really wonderful! I enjoyed the comments and remarks she gave in class. The funniest part was the examples professor Pavlik usually gave; I almost cried with laughter! I still begin to laugh anytime I remember some of the things she said in class! I would love to have her as my Writing Professor next semester as I have to continue the course second semester. I guess as a whole, the writing course was quite enjoyable and I hope it continues to be so next semester. I am delighted to have had such great professors who have helped me improve as a writer and who have helped me appreciate most of what I previously didn't. Below is a picture we took but with an incomplete class (there were actually more of us).

The best thing was that from all the courses I did first semester, I had great improvements in WRI 101. Seriously, I have improved a lot compared to what I was before. I haven't become perfect because I certainly have errors in my writing: run-on sentences and coma splices, but with time I guess I will meliorate. Once again, I am grateful to God for taking me through the first semester. Thank you JESUS!

Like I said, I'll be adding entries on all the professors I've had this semester, it'll help others that have not been taught by these wonderful professors to know about them in advance. African Civilization, like all other courses this semester, was one of my most favourite courses. I love history and when coupled with politics, I really enjoy it. In this course, I got to learn and realize a lot that I had previously been unaware of. I must emphasize that I like political history and not the horrible scientific history or so-called evolution stuff. What I like most though is my sweet professor, Dr. Laura Dobson! I think she is superb! Of course many students say she talks very fast, but I don't think that was a problem. One of my best friends said "you have to understand that when you like a professor, you will be able to learn and understand the course better". That in my opinion is very true. I think professor Laura Dobson added more to the whole course, with frequent smiles and advice; treating us as friends rather than students, not being very strict.... It all made me feel very much at home. I've simply loved being her student and how I wish I can still have her as my professor next semester. I just loved the final exam! Even though I didn't know all the answers, I enjoyed writing it. 

I can tell you, after having this course, I have half a mind to do a minor in Political science or some other course that deals with politics and history! I can't wait to take Western Civilization, Comparative Politics and/or International Relations! However, I have to take Microeconomics next semester as a requirement for my major: Information Systems and Networking. If God is willing, I may be able to take Comparative Politics next semester. Anyway, I'm glad Western Civilization is a requirement which means I can take it 2nd year along with International Relations. However, it'll be horrible going over the evolution stuff again; I simply hate it. Oh well, there be European and American political history to look forward to, that's sure to be very interesting as there will be no boring theories about how an ape developed a bigger brain, or how it chose to modify its arms and legs just because it desired to do so. I wonder why humans haven’t evolved for so long, I mean if I want to fly, probably after some generations my descendents would develop or sprout wings so as to be able to fly. Perhaps I should daily try jumping off the 2nd floor classsrooms here in an attempt to fly; that might do the trick. Seriously, I think the theory of evolution is senseless, thank God at least it’s called a theory and not reality.

Anyway, my lowest grade turned out to be in African Civilization even though it was #1 on my list of favourite course. All the same, it doesn't matter, I should have done better.  I still thank God for my performance and am glad I'm through with my first semester.

This Christmas is going to be as wonderful as always! Some people seem to think that Yola is a bit boring for spending your Christmas holidays. Though I somewhat agree with them, I would like to emphasize that Christmas is not about presents, Christmas trees, snow, or even dinner - it's about being thankful for one thing: the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. It doesn't matter where you celebrate His birth, but what's important is being thankful for the greatest gift and blessing God had given to us: His Son. So folks, where ever you celebrate Christmas, remember to sing "Happy birthday to JESUS" because Christmas is about the birth of Christ. Don't go singning something like "santa is coming" or "frosty the snowman" because it ain't about santa and his elves or what not. Surely, this season we must all remember the true meaning of Christmas, and step into the New Year with true joy and thankfullness in our hearts for all that God has given and blessed us with! Amen!

Have a Wonderful Christmas & a Happy 2006!

YES! At long last, school is over! I've survived my exams and have successflly completed the first semester! What's really great is that even my grades are not bad; oh I'm so thankful to God for everything! Some of you may wonder why I'm saying this now after almost a week since exams finished; the reason is that I unfortunately had my final exam on Wednesday plus today we submit our group project that we've been working on during and after exams. The project was assigned by Dr. Kah, Dean of IT and had to do with developing a healthcare information system for MATCO clinic. Of course we haven't completed the whole project but we have made a preliminary prototype that we will be submitting today. We'll continue to work on the project next semester and it will be hard and tiring work indeed! Anyway, that won't happen till next semester....HAHA!

Meanwhile, I'll be doing loads of reading during the holidays to prepare for classes next semester especially on Programming in Java, which looks promising. Oh no, I also have to work on the business plan! But thank God, that won't be till after CHRISTMAS!

Apart from studying, I'll catch up on some books I left out like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the Harry Potter series are one of my favourite books). I musn't forget to try and get enough sleep...I reckon too much of staying up late has made me mental.... perhaps I'll recover over the holidays..... Don't want to think what'll happen next semester; I mean, who knows what lies ahead.........

One of my most favourite professors Dr. Judith Seider left for America earlier this semester. This happend because she fell ill and had to be taken to London for treatment. I think she is not coming back, and I do miss her a lot. Professor Seider taught us the Academic Writing course. She is a Jew and since I've never met a Jew before, I was sooooooo glad to have met one at AAUN! She is really great! I mean I've never felt as relaxed in any class like I felt whenever I went for her class. I can recall what it was like in the early days here at school; we had loads of homework and stuff to cope with; however, when I was in the Writing class, everything was calm and I was soooo relaxed. It was the class where all my homework and other school work worries were forgotten, I always felt soo much at ease. I do miss her soo much! Here's wishing her a very Happy Christmas and a fantastic New Year! All of us here at AAUN really miss you!

We watched "Hotel Rwanda" last Friday for our African Civilization course. It was fantastic! Very realistic and emotional. The movie is all about the incidents that took place in Rwanda in 1994; the war between the "Hutu" and the "Tutsi". It was shown from the perspective of a Hutu hotel manager. I believe the movie helped me to better understand the situation in Rwanda back in 1994, and the role of the Western community in the incident.

It's very sad to see that such violence is caused not by differences, but by the distinction Europeans made between two groups of people. Most people aren't aware of this. I am so glad I watched the movie because it brought me to the realization of how badly events in future can be shaped by a decision that might seem right.

I wish that all historic events were depicted in movies or books because they stay in memory for a long time. I believe I will never forget how those events in 1994 happened in Rwanda.

The first time I heard about this course, I thought to myself, "Not very important, I already know this stuff". However, now I see that I didn't know half of what I thought I knew and have learned almost all of what I should have known. I  particularly learned a lot in Microsoft Excel. What amazes me though is the way Professor Sergey conducts the whole course. It's just fabulous! The exam on Microsoft Access was indeed great! I couldn't help realising the fact that I study at an American University! Not to say that any of my other wonderful professors didn't make me realize that, but I just want to stress the point that what I so much like is the way Professor Sergey conducts his exams and quizes. The Access Exam was superb! Students had to download a file, work on it and then submit it over the network. I really enjoyed the exam as did most other students I talked with.

During our most recent lab activity, I was yet again amazed by the "Good morning quiz" on Microsoft Outlook! We went online and there was a time-limit to complete the quiz (displayed on the screen)! And the exam on Microsoft Powerpoint was simply great! We had the time-limit for the objectives part, the score of which was displayed after submission. But for the case study, we were to upload the completed presentation to the course site! Everything was so orgainzed and well planned. I think that as with all other courses I'm taking this semester, ITC 101 is a course that I have really enjoyed despite the numerous homework and lab activities. The credit of course goes to Dr. Sergey Butakov!

We're currently working on C-E (Cause and Effect) essays in our Writing class. Come to think of it, writing is fabulous! I always wondered whether my writing would ever improve or not. Seeing as it is now, I think it won't be long before I can confidently write an essay that's at least worth looking at twice (if not once). After writing all of my essays my most frequent comment is "Did I wirte that?" Of course it's not so great but there's definitely been a lot (see!) of improvement in my wiriting ever since I came to AAUN. The credit of course goes to my very wonderful writing professors, Judith Seider and Cheryl Pavlik, and my very lovely Civilization Professor, Laura Dobson! They have been very helpful in guiding all the writing we've done here this semester, whether it's Chemistry, African Civilization, Entrepreneurship or ITC. I really would like to thank them for making me apprecaite academic writing and all its conventions. The word "Plagiarism" is something I have at the back of mind every time I carry out research before writing an essay.

I musn't forget to mention that by now probably everyone at AAUN is familiar with plagiarism. I would guess that in other institutions in Yola, if I were to say "Plagiarism" someone would confusedly comment "Probably a Greek or Latin word".

Thanks-Giving here at AAUN was awesome! I particularly loved the salad and decorations, everyone was all dressed-up and it did seem so very different from the usual class-days! However, I believe that not everyone was familiar with what thanks-giving is all about. Fortunately for me, I had been informed earlier by one of the many wonderful faculty memebers. I also got to sit where the Head of the table (another very wonderful faculty member here at AAUN) was soooo great in talking about thanks-giving in the US.

Just one thing struck me: the poster that read "dress-to-kill" and the "dates" for the thanks-giving dinner. The connection between being thankful to God for the harvest and everything, and dressing to kill your date (or whoever it is you're aiming at) beats me!

Frankly speaking, I've lived in Yola all my life and I've never seen so many Americans in Yola before! AAUN happens to be the reason behind this. I'm currently studying here at AAUN and it's great! All the faculty have been recruited from different countries, most of which are Americans. It's surprising how quickly Yola is developing ever since the start of AAUN! I'm glad I got enrolled at AAUN, it's got a really cool atmosphere; the professors and students are all so friendly and share a very good relationship. 

However, complains are never absent, the two most common being - the heat and goats!

Our whole class was asked to create blogs by Dr. Kah, our INF 201 Professor. I really like it when we do such projects because they are so much fun!