We rented room in the house of Mrs. Karima Rbeiz. The room was lovely and overlooked a garden with a pond at its center. The wooden kitchen forming part of the room added to its comfort and lowered our expenses. The room was pretty much like an independent residence.

Once settled down, I walked my sister to the American School for Girls and helped her register. I explained to her that if she didn’t come to school on foot with her friends from Ras Beirut, she would need to take to tramway to Bab Edris and then walk through the Grand Serail to get to the school.

I returned to Room 112, office of the Dean of the Arts and Humanities Faculty, and completed my registration as well, a process that took a couple of minutes as usual. I requested the Dean to exempt me from attending morning prayers as I had classes to give to American missionaries in Zqaq el-Blat.“Did you agree on this hour specifically?” The Dean asked.“Yes, Sir. I need this job to earn a living,” I replied.“You are free to go”, he said and took a small piece of paper and wrote down “English, Arabic”, then told me to choose the remaining courses. I picked Islamic Studies with Assad Rsotum, Chemistry and Zoology, then went to the registrar’s office and paid my first-semester tuition in Palestinian pounds. A few were left in my pocket to pay for the books and buy a Primus kerosene burner, a pan and some eating utensils.

Everything went smoothly but I still needed to mull over two things: show my ability to grasp knowledge and attain good grades and earn some money for the second semester. I went to the President’s office and inquired if last year’s students were interested in resuming their Arabic studies this year. He said: “They are. The number has even grown bigger and you might have to assign them 2 hours every day.”