Campus: This year, NYU Abu Dhabi moved into their new campus on Saadiyat Island, which brings together several buildings for multiple disciplines along with the residence halls all in one huge complex. The campus is completely new and has several great recreational facilities for students to use, including, but not limited to, a swimming pool, an indoor gym, an indoor running track, and a great library. There are also facilities for students to use in terms of music, visual arts, and other forms of art. One of the only drawbacks to the new location is its distance from the main city of Abu Dhabi and the fact that Saadiyat Island in and of itself is not that developed yet. Student Life Aside from classes, you can meet several different communities at Abu Dhabi depending on the type of activities they are involved with. One of the best parts about Abu Dhabi is the diversity of its residents, where each person has their own story. People get to know each other very well, especially inside the school, and because each person has their own story, life in Abu Dhabi is different for every person. It’s interesting to see how Abu Dhabi is the place where all these different people and all these different stories come together. Moreover, because there is such a diverse range of people to meet, Abu Dhabi is a great place to practice languages, especially Arabic, Urdu, and Hindi. Student life on campus is vibrant because there are several clubs and organizations to get involved with and several other activities a student can pursue in school. NYU Abu Dhabi and its administration are generally very supportive of student interests and hence any student initiatives. Students can get involved through the 60-70 student clubs on campus, different sports programs, intramural sports, competitive sports teams, and other organizations such as the community choir, the school band, and community service initiatives. Generally, students who go to Abu Dhabi find that there is usually some way to get involved with their area of interest, and if there isn’t already a way, Student Life at Abu Dhabi is very supportive of starting one. Food: Most restaurants in the UAE serve halal food, and the food on campus is usually halal as well. Within the Abu Dhabi students, there are several restaurants that have become favorites: Foodlands, which used to be about a 5 minute walk away from the old campus, is frequently visited by NYU Abu Dhabi students and is especially famous for its shwarma. There are also several famous Pakistani restaurants serving South Asian food. Another recommended restaurant is Tarbouche, which is inside the World Trade Center Mall. These are places NYU Abu Dhabi students regularly visit, so there is a good chance you will run into friends and fellow classmates over there. And while there are no student discounts offered at these restaurants, food in Abu Dhabi is fairly cheap. These restaurants are in fact NYU Abu Dhabi student favorites because they serve good food for affordable prices. Festivals or Holidays to Experience A great holiday to experience in the Fall semester is UAE’s National Day, which is celebrated on December 2nd each year. It is a very unique experience because it is the one day where almost everyone in the UAE gets a day off, including people who work in laboring jobs or construction jobs. All the students and professors get a day off as well. At night there are fireworks around the main beach area, and the city can get pretty crowded and festive as people celebrate. Another great holiday to experience in the Fall semester is the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which is a great chance to just see another side of Abu Dhabi’s culture. Holidays like Eid and National Day are also celebrated at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus as a student led celebration. For example, the campus usually has an annual NYU Abu Dhabi National Day Festival where there are performances and speeches and students can try a wide variety of local food. NYU Abu Dhabi also celebrates other festivals and holidays of the world, but these celebrations are usually student-proposed and run. Students who want to celebrate particular festivals are generally supported, and there are also several cultural clubs on campus that host events all year round. A tradition developing in Abu Dhabi over the past two years is Cultural Night, which doesn’t necessarily coincide with a festival but is an opportunity for students from different countries to get together and share their culture through food or performances. School Traditions: One of NYU Abu Dhabi’s most popular traditions is Open Mic Night, which usually happens at least two times a semester. The best part about Open Mic Night is that anyone with any sort of talent is able to step up on stage and perform, and it is a great way to find out new things about friends or classmates and to explore different talents. Open Mic Night is enjoyed by everyone, as performers and members of the audience have a great time. Another tradition is that after every semester, there is an end-of-semester dance. Traditionally, the dance at the end of the Fall semester is hosted by the Inter-Residence Hall Council (IRHC), and the dance at the end of the Spring semester is hosted by Student Government. The dance is a great time time to just get dressed up, relax, and have a great night with friends as the semester comes to an end. Welcome Week, of course, is an annual “tradition” at the beginning of the year, but the events during Welcome Week change every year depending on the programming. Frequently hosted programs include taking the students to Dubai to visit the Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Mall, and other famous locations, but there have also been desert trips in the past and there’s also usually a welcome reception with speeches from community members such as NYU Abu Dhabi Vice Chancellor Al Bloom and Student Government members. Before moving to the Saadiyat campus, there was also a tradition of an annual sleepover, as the previous campus was separate from the residence halls.

City Life: Who you meet in the city and the type of people you will see depends on where you go and at what time of the day. The younger people usually come out in the evenings, when its nice and cold, having just gotten out of the school. It is also a common sight to see the young people play cricket on the streets. However, in the daytime and when it’s hot, the streets are generally empty. Students on student visas are not allowed to purchase alcohol, but a favorite night time activity for NYU Abu Dhabi students is hanging out at a restaurant with friends till the early hours of the morning. A recommended hang out place is the Lebanese Flower, where students generally go for dinner with friends to cool off after a week of school. Lebanese Flower is popular because it has great food for affordable prices, and there is also a great atmosphere because it is popular with Arabs and hence is a great place to practice Arabic. Nightlife in Abu Dhabi is different because there is no mainstream club culture, but there are other different activities people enjoy. Culture: One of the best ways to truly experience the local culture at Abu Dhabi is to get to know some local Emiratis. Abu Dhabi is an extremely diverse city, and while that is a good thing, it can also become a difficulty because everyone has a different lifestyle. Abu Dhabi’s culture is essentially made up of a fusion of different elements, because on the one hand there is the local Emirati culture with strong traditions, and on the other is the combination of cultures brought by people from all over the world who reside in Abu Dhabi. An Emirati friend can help you see the culture of Abu Dhabi in ways one cannot experience otherwise. Moreover, going back to previous topics like nightlife, Abu Dhabi is one of the only places where one can stay till early hours in the morning having shisha and shwarma with friends in a still very bustling place. NYU Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi as a city is a very unique place in that there aren’t too many places in the world where you can sit down for dinner with 8 other people, all of whom are from different countries and speak different languages. Recommended Places to Visit: Obvious tourist places to visit in Abu Dhabi are the ones that can be found on any list online, such as the Sheikh Zayed Mosque (Grand Mosque) and the Emirates Palace. Another unique experience is taking a walk along the Corniche, which is a man made constructed beach surrounded by several fountains and parks and is popular for evening strolls and cycling. Abu Dhabi also has a huge number of malls for shopping fanatics, and another student favorite activity is going to the fish market which opens really early in the morning in the port area. The fish market is a great way to see all the ships coming into Abu Dhabi, and is a great way to interact with people from all around the world. Right next to the fish market is also the plant souk, or plant market, which provides a very unique atmosphere and unique style of shopping.

Weather The weather generally is hot all year round, but what hot actually means ranges during the time of the year. During the Fall, there weather is usually very humid and the temperature is generally between the high 30s to low 40s Celsius. The weather gets hotter in the summer, especially during Ramadan season when the temperatures can reach even about 50 Celsius degrees, especially in the desert. During J-Term or the start of the Spring semester, the temperature is at its lowest, between high 20s to mid 30s, and there is generally a nice breeze. Transportation and Travelling: NYU Abu Dhabi provides an on campus shuttle bus service which goes all around the city and is free for NYU students to use. The bus covers a good area of Abu Dhabi and hence is a good way to explore the city. Taxis are also usually a good way to get around the city because they are generally cheap, reliable, and safe. Other public transport does exist in the form of buses, but it usually takes a bit more investigation to find out the bus routes and timings. Language in Abu Dhabi is not a problem because everyone generally speaks a fair amount of English, hence getting around the city is usually easy. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are both great hubs for international travel, hence students take a lot of international trips during breaks. For example, several students travel regionally, travelling to countries like Oman and Qatar, while some students also go further out to visit countries like Turkey, India, Sri Lanka, Jordan, and Ethiopia. Abu Dhabi is a great place to find affordable tickets to places all around the world. Moreover, while these holidays are usually student funded, NYU Abu Dhabi as a school also provides several travelling opportunities especially through class trips. For example, a class studying about the Nepali Civil War and their current political situation got to take a weekend trip to Nepal, while a class studying urban landscapes took a trip to Istanbul. NYU Abu Dhabi uses international travel as an opportunity to learn something outside of the classroom and in real life.

Presence in and about the Global Network: Students at NYU Abu Dhabi are very aware of the Global Network and the necessity of bringing the network together, hence initiatives like Student Government work towards this goal and keep the campus updated on what is happening at the other NYU sites. While there have been several attempts at having collaborative projects with the other campuses, the biggest problem NYU Abu Dhabi has faced has been in terms of logistics such as several time zones. Regardless, student clubs and organizations at NYU Abu Dhabi are generally eager to reach out to their counterparts at the other NYU campuses and to start programs not just restricted to their campus but those that expand throughout the Global Network. In terms of how the wider global network understands Abu Dhabi, there have been several developments throughout the recent years affecting Abu Dhabi’s presence in the GNU, but as NYU inaugural class begins to study abroad next year, the Global Network is bound to see an increase in the amount of exchange and dialogue between Abu Dhabi and its sister campuses. On Century Avenue would like to thank NYU Abu Dhabi sophomore Joseph Chu for his help with this pocket guide and wishes him the best for the rest of his time at NYU Shanghai and for all future endeavors. This article was written by Lathika Chandra Mouli. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Tirza Alberta