University of North Alabama - Diorama Yearbook (Florence, AL)

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:VERY AFTERNOON at two, the television room n the Commuters ' Lounge becomes the gathering lace for a group of soap fans. Here. Mary Gist. Van $askins. and some fellow Guiding Light addicts ean back in their seats to enjoy their favorite show. U three, they turn the room over to some Edge of •light groupies. (Photo by Tim Rowland) MOST PEOPLE cat lunch at twelve o ' clock, but not Angela Echos. She goes to her room, cuddles up with a stuffed animal, and gives her undivided at- tention to Days of Our Lives. Many students on campus schedule their classes around their favorite soap operas. (Photo by Sheila Hines) Essay A soap fiend confesses... I have a very serious personal problem. The most serious aspect of this problem is that no one can help me. I went to my doctor, but he didn ' t know what to do. My family ' s attorney laughed when I turned to him for advice. My own priest didn ' t take me seriously, and neither did Retreat Hospital. However, I have not lost hope, because I know I am not alone; my burden is shared by many. I am a soap opera addict. Many people laugh when I confess my addiction, but to me and my fellow soap fiends, it is not a joking matter. Every morning, I have to force myself to leave home and come to school; each day, it becomes more and more difficult for me to do so. Registration was a harrowing experience for me this time, but with a little persistence I managed to schedule my classes so that I can get home in time to see my favorite show, General Hospital. Unfortunately, I can only see One Life to Live three days a week: I may never find out what happened to Larry at that medical convention in San Carlos. I am seriously thinking of dropping my French literature class, which coincides with two of my soaps. How can I concentrate on Voltaire and Descartes when I know that Laurie is on trial for a murder she didn ' t commit on The Young and the Restless and Jessica is about to marry a man she doesn ' t really love on Days of Our Lives? I am not proud of my obsession. Because of it, I have lost friends, cut classes, and let cookies burn in the oven. My family is threatening to disown me. My grades are suffering, and so is my health. After an entire day of watching soaps, I am left pale and weak; I frequently suffer convulsive seizures. My sleep is disturbed every night by terrifying nightmares. I dream that the Salem Strangler is stalking me with his red silk scarf or that Heather Weber is coming towards me with the same gun she used on poor Diana Taylor. My obsession has also wreaked havoc on my social life. I haven ' t accepted a luncheon date in two years for fear of missing a single episode of one of my soaps. Now, with the advent of nighttime soaps like Dallas and Falcon Crest, I don ' t know what I ' m going to do. Obviously, I can ' t go on like this. I must learn to live without my beloved soaps before they completely destroy my life. Since it has been made apparent to me that no one else can help me with this terrible problem, I must help myself. After considerable thought, I have devised a few plans; surely one of them will work. First, I will try to overcome my addiction to soaps through the tapering off method. This week, I will watch only four episodes of each of my soaps; in a few weeks, I will cut down to three, and so on. If this method doesn ' t work, I will try the substitution plan. Whenever I feel the urge to watch a soap opera, I will don my sneakers and run several laps around the block. If both of these self-helpers fail, I shall go to a hypnotist and beg to be hypnotized and given this suggestion — You detest soap operas! You loathe them! You hate them! If you ever watch another soap opera, you will turn into a bottle of Lemon Fresh Joy! Perhaps the easiest way for me to overcome my addiction would be to help others who share it. For instance, I could establish a Soap Opera Encounter Group. We soap fiends could meet once or twice a week and discuss our obsession and the problems it causes. We could enlist the aid of a psychoanalyst in an attempt to discover why we are so dependent on soap operas; by dissecting our problem in this way, maybe we can solve it. I could also found a Soap Opera Hot Line to serve as a back-up system to our encounter group. Whenever one of us feels the need to watch All My Children or Texas, he or she could call the Hot Line to serve as a back-up system to our encounter group. A team of sympathetic listeners would be standing by around the clock to give moral support to any soap fiend who needs it. Perhaps with team work and professional help, we can be cured. Fellow soap fiends, unite! We have but one life to live, all my children, and we can ' t spend it all in another world from the rest of humanity. We have a terrible problem to overcome, but we are young and restless enough to do it. With hope as our guiding light, we shall cross the edge of night in triumph and be normal for the rest of the days of our lives. — MIchele Savage Sludenl Life 27

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For a special group of students, changing languages, making new friends and adapting to a different lifestyle are all a part of Cj-Qsgi g q Rordcr, Our school system in India is so much different from schools in the U.S. that it was hard to adjust at first, stated Bhajan Muda- har. ' M had always heard about the greatness of this nation. It became a dream of mine to come and visit. Now that I am here, I know what they mean when they say ' The United States of America, ' remarked Mazen Ho- moud of Jordan. Bhajan and Mazen see life on campus through different perspectives than most stu- dents. They, like other foreigners, have had to adapt to a totally different lifestyle. According to Jan Faucett, secretary to the Director of Institutional Research, Grants, CONVERSING IN SPANISH are Arlcnc Fuentcs and Maricbelle Villalobos from Puerto Rico. The cousins have lived in the U.S. for two years. Room- ing together in Rice Hall provides them an opportu- nity to speak their native language. We start learning English in elementary school. Its a re- quirement for graduation. Mariebelle states. (Pho- tos by Tim Rowland) PLANNING to get her master ' s degree in business. Bhajan Mudahar from India studies in the SUB. Bhajan and her husband Mohinder. an economist with I.F.D.C.. and their daughter Bali, a first grader at Kilby. have lived in the U.S. for eight years. Girls at home customarily kiss you on the cheek. But here they only tap you on the back or hug you. —Eateban DavUa and Planning, there are six students on camp- us with an F-1 or F-2 Visa, meaning they must be reported to the government as aliens. These include one from Japan, one from Co- lombia, two from Nigeria and two from Jor- dan. There arc, however, others here on visi- tation visas or with the International Fertilizer Development Center, which brings people from around the world to this area. Bhajan Mudahar, an alumna with a bachelor ' s degree in fashion merchandising, is back in school for two more courses. She and her husband, Mohinder, an economist with I.F.D.C., and their daughter, Bali, a first grader at Kilby Training School, have lived in the United States for eight years. Even though he has an uncle working here with T.V.A., Mazen Homoud has had to deal with the changes more on his own. The 21-year-old junior majoring in politi- cal science and sociology has lived in Amer- ica for almost two years. His first year was spent at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indi- ana, before coming to Florence. Since his father is an ambassador, Ma- zen has also lived in Chile, India, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, the U.S.S.R., England and China. This time he is here alone. Sophomore Arlene Fuentes, sophomore Mariebelle Villalobos, and senior Esteban Da- vila from Puerto Rico are visiting students in the sense that they are not from the U.S. mainland. However, since Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States, Marie- belle states, We are American citizens and don ' t like to be classified as foreigners. Arlene remarked, I am surprised at how warm the students are here. I have to say hi one-hundred times a day. Also, I had never seen squirrels on university campuses before. Mariebelle, Arlene ' s cousin and room- mate in Rice Hall, had difficulty understand- ing the southern accent at first. Now, she said, I have a southern accent myself. When I go home, my parents laugh at it. Esteban has been here for three years, one year longer than Arlene and Mariebelle. The differences he noticed were of a different kind of subject matter — girls. Girls at home customarily kiss you on the cheek, he said with a grin, but here they only tap you on the back or hug you. With their differences in cultural back- grounds and physical characteristics, foreign students are a valuable part of campus life, adding to the blend of different lifestyles and giving us an awareness of the unique societies that surround us. — Vickie Lindsey Student Life 29