My group consisted of an Italian participant, an American, three from Morocco, one from Palestine, and one from Lebanon. The Italian participant barely spoke at all, and the American was open, but since we are already saturated with American culture, there wasn’t much new to learn there. The real disappointment for me was the Arab participants. I constantly felt they were just saying what they were supposed to say. They spoke in clichés, like We are happy today because life is beautiful. I didn’t feel I learned anything from them that wasn’t already taught to us in school. Even when they discussed realworld problems, like the rising prices in Morocco, they spoke about it with a level of naivety that was frustrating. We all know the world is getting expensive; they didn’t offer any depth beyond that.

Their take on Artificial Intelligence was particularly shocking to me. They spoke about AI with a lot of simplicity, as if they were stuck in 2020. One participant argued that AI would never take over jobs or change the landscape, completely ignoring the massive shifts that happened in 2022 and beyond. It felt like I was talking to people who weren’t keeping up with the reality of the world we live in.

I tried to push the conversation outside the typical Arab world scope. We discussed the idea of people who move abroad and completely disown or detach themselves from their original culture. One Moroccan participant mentioned his cousin who moved away, lost his identity, and couldn’t even speak Arabic anymore. While the group wanted to stick to the ideal that we all love being Arab and must hold onto it, I challenged them. I pointed out that some people actually want to distance themselves from their culture, and that is a valid reality. It was a logical question because this was our final project, and we were discussing how we live, yet the conversation felt shallow. It felt ridiculous to me to spend two hours every week listening to these superficial takes.

The field trip to the AUC Tahrir campus confirmed a theory I’ve been developing. In the past, when I traveled, I would see foreigners but we never really interacted; everyone stayed in their own bubble. I used to think of foreigners as strangers or even aliens from outer space. But interacting with them closely has proven that we are all just humans. If someone says something funny, we all laugh. We watch the same shows, hear the same jokes, and see the same news. Because of the internet, if you are under 25, you are consuming the same content and sharing the same global awareness regardless of your country. We aren’t strangers anymore; we share the same cultural baseline and consume the same content, just in different forms.

A highlight for me was the make-up session where I spoke with professors from different backgrounds. I was genuinely surprised by an older professor who was fully aware of AI and used it actively. I respected that immensely because it showed that teachers will always stay up-to-date.This was a sharp contrast to another professor who felt that if you are confident in your work, you don’t need AI.

Finally, regarding the format: If I had to choose between online and on-site, I would choose online a million percent. It is much easier for me, and I find myself much more focused. Being online allows me to solve problems and take notes simultaneously while having a better view of everything. For me, online sessions are simply more productive.