Going into the semester and finding out that we would be working with students from UAE made me a little apprehensive and also interested to see how it would go. I was worried that too much of the semester would be dedicated to diversity servicing where we would talk about surface-level differences between our lives and UAE students lives. I was happy to find out that this would not be the case. The most experience any of us got interacting with UAE students came in the form of the SDG project which was a great way to get to know these students in an organic way. The biggest thing to realize was that they are just students like myself. There were differences in timing and speech, and a big difference in religious affiliation affecting the everyday, but as people we were all the same, more or less. I, unfortunately, was unable to attend the first zoom meeting at the beginning of the semester and so I did miss out on some crucial moments of personal sharing, but from reading what other people have posted and said it seems that most if the differences were surface level or on a non-personal level. The government in the UAE is a monarchy and so there isnt elections, meaning the news is less politically inclined, which is a big difference between them and us, but theres no attributes that anyone shared in the UAE that would lead me to believe that someone from the US would operate any differently than they do. I’m glad for the opportunity to work with these students and it really does emphasize the fact that people are somewhat the same everywhere you go.