Good morning everyone or good evening depending on where you are right now. My name is Laura Shram and I'm the director of professional development at Rackham Graduate School. We have two amazing student panelists who'll be joining us today. One of them we are having a little trouble with their audio and video they they had to log out and hopefully they'll be logging back in. Because we only have an hour together and we have a little bit of a presentation at the start we are going to get started. So the goals of today's session are for us to just share a couple insights from the scholarship about graduate education on common challenges that folks face in transitioning to a graduate program. And we also are going to hear from a couple of experienced international students about how they successfully navigate at their transitions. And I'll be putting out some questions to them but we also hope that you all who are here will feel comfortable asking questions of our panelists to so if you have questions about transitioning this is the place to be. So Julie Passelt is a leading scholar in graduate education and I'll be using her conceptual model of graduate education to frame our discussion today. She has a model of the common challenges that graduate students face in their time in grad school. So today I'm going to walk through the common academic challenges that people face transitioning to graduate school. I'll go over sociocultural challenges which result from conflicts between our social and cultural backgrounds and the social and cultural context that we're in in our graduate studies. And lastly, I'll discuss to psychosocial challenges and psychosocial challenges are about the interrelation between social factors on the one hand and our individual thoughts and behaviors. And I want to note that these are complex challenges and there may be combinations of academic and sociocultural and psychosocial domains but for simplicity's sake I'm going to talk about these three categories separately. So first is academic challenges students often report that the academic challenge in graduate school is unlike anything they faced in their previous studies and this can be very stressful for students who've gotten here because they have always been high academic achievers. The academic challenges really are rooted in subject matter learning students have to develop and demonstrate the ability to engage in original field specific research. And often it's the first time that we're not just learning about our fields but being asked to create an original contribution to the field. And students are expected to master their field or for doctoral students even advance the field once they've achieved mastery. So it's really stretching our capacities as students and scholars, academically speaking. So there have been many studies of graduate students at a single point in time and Dr. Purcell's framework is grounded in those past studies. No scholar or group had previously conducted until very recently a multi-year study to track across time how students experienced their graduate programs and RACM implemented such a study four years ago now the Michigan Doctoral Experience Survey or MDES is what it's referred to. So we are in the fourth year of the study we're past the midpoint and it'll span five years when it's complete and the data from the study really illustrate what scholars already suspected about the challenges of transitioning to graduate school. So this is a finding from the study that relates to academic challenges. Our RACM research on doctoral students finds evidence of decreased sense of self-efficacy due to the transition to graduate school. So what is self-efficacy? Self-efficacy measures students' confidence in their ability to learn and become independent scholars in their discipline. So we find evidence that the subject matter learning challenges negatively impact students' sense of self-confidence in their ability to be independent scholars. And this reflects what Dr. Purcell argues that the academic challenges are significant and very normal in your first year of graduate school and you may feel initially like you're less confident than you thought you were coming into graduate school as you tackle these new academic challenges. So next I'm going to go over sociocultural challenges which result from conflict between our internal states and the social and cultural context we're in in graduate studies. So there are often conflicting norms of challenge and support and let me explain what that means. US higher education is what scholars refer to as an apprenticeship model where faculty provide and then withdraw support to their students to help build their independence. So you may come from a place where faculty give tons of constant support to you as a scholar in the past. In graduate studies in the US, faculty yes give support but often withdraw that support in order to help students build their independence which can be very challenging for new students in particular. There's often also conflicting academic and personal values so some academic values in US higher education are sort of published or perish. In other words, you must publish your scholarship, what's called placing students in research focus tenure track jobs so really the desire by faculty to see their students get jobs in places like where they are teaching. So these are some of the values that you might confront in your home programs and among faculty, whereas personal values might be providing foreign spending time with one's family, giving back to one's community of work life balance and so on. I'm going to add that values dissonance is even more pronounced for those from different nations and cultures where our national or familial cultures might have very different values than the dominant values in academia in the United States. So lastly, there are several psychosocial challenges and that means factors that are at the intersection of our individual mindsets and our social context. So the first one of these is a term called imposterism. So imposterism is a phenomenon where you believe in yourself as an intellectual fraud, and it often involves someone finding it very difficult to internalize their achievements. Any students feel like they're a fraud that they don't belong. They're the stupidest one in their incoming class. They don't know how they got into their programs. This is very common feeling in the transition to graduate school. And second are identity threats. So what are identity threats. This just means students from historically marginalized groups can have the additional burden of bias incidents, microaggressions or lack of role models who share their social identities. I want to note that international students, depending on your departmental context, whether there are lots of other international students or international faculty in your program may also face these identity threats. So I just want to note that these challenges too are interconnected. So the research shows that those from historically marginalized groups tend to also report higher frequency of imposterism. So when we don't feel like we belong or when we're constantly feeling threatened in our program, it's more common for us to experience a sense of being a fraud and not belonging and not being good enough. So there are many challenges from academic to sociocultural that can impact our mental and physical health. So Rackham's research on doctoral students finds evidence of diminish mental and physical health due to the transition to graduate school. So on your screen on the left, you can see students self reported mental health, both male and female students, the males are the blue line, the females are the green line, and physical health kind of mirrors as well a dip between the first and second year. These effects are consistent across departments and fields of studies so it isn't the case that you know engineering students are reporting a harder time than social science students. It's really across the board students are reporting lower mental and physical health as they transition to graduate school. In addition to overall mental and physical health the study looked at stress, students self reports of levels of stress, and again from years one to three students do reports somewhat more experiences with stress so higher levels of stress in the transition to graduate school. So I want to share a couple of resources before we open it up to our amazing panelists. The first time I ever sought the help of a psychological counselor was during my graduate studies and I was having a very hard time. Just managing the academic workload and experiencing significant levels of stress more than I ever had previously and this is normal is what the research shows. And this is the reason why Rackham, engineering Ellis and a all have embedded counselors that you can reach out to. We have a link on the slides that will send out to everyone where you can learn about who might be a counselor you can reach out to as a resource if you're really experiencing a high level of stress. The university health services also has wellness coaching and these are folks who can help you with just, you know, a couple of sessions of talking about stress management techniques and how to take care of yourself during what is often a stressful transition. New this year is a Canvas course for all incoming graduate students called Grad School 101. You should all have access to this when you log into your Canvas dashboard. And you'll find links to resources on health and wellness, what Rackham can offer you budgeting and finance. There are also some mini courses including one and creating a good relationship with your advisor and how to navigate career development as a grad student. And you'll see more and more mini courses that are rolled out for you on that Canvas site throughout the year. So that's a great resource that you can kind of log into and find resources anytime in a range of areas. And lastly, one of the strategies shown to combat imposterism is to connect with a peer group where you feel safe sharing about your common stressors. And this is especially true for those who move from a different country or even a different region of the country where you might be cut off for the very first time from your social and family support networks. Our Rackham sponsored student organizations are graduate Rackham International who co-sponsored this workshop with Rackham. Also the Rackham student government and students of color of Rackham. There are lots of other great organizations at the program and school or college level. So I would urge you to seek out what other organizations might be a good social support network for you. So I'm going to now open it up to our panelists. It looks like is Mohammed here, Kristen and Viva. Oh yeah, here he is. I know it sounds like he's had some challenges in terms of just getting connected but Mohammed Abdullah is a mechanical engineering graduate student he'll be one of our panelists and Viva is in engineering education research and the two of them. I'll put out a couple of questions to them but then I encourage folks to put questions in the chat if you have questions for our panelists. I thought it would be interesting to hear Viva and Mohammed, just from each of you to tell us a story about your biggest challenge in your first year and how you faced it. Viva, do you want to get us started and then I'll pass it over to Mohammed. Sure, thanks for the introductions Laura. I, so I, I don't know if this is like the biggest challenge but it was really, it was, it was interesting to navigate. So I did my bachelor's here in North Carolina and then I transitioned to a program, a master's program at the University of Michigan. And I, and I didn't realize like there's a procedure to change from one university to another when you're on an I 20. Every university has its own procedures. And so that's like something that I have to familiarize myself with so if anyone is like you know considering transitioning from undergrad to grad or like a master's to PhD I would just you know in advance look at what your graduate school the procedure is that it's not really difficult it's just like you know you need to know that it exists and that you need to follow it. So that was something that was like a little I was thrown off by it. Yeah, and we didn't even talk about that as one of the common challenges but yeah just navigating the policies procedures, particularly for international students who have additional burdens of worrying about your visa and employment regulations, I think those policies and procedures can be a significant source of transition stress. Yeah, what about you Mohammed. Hello, good morning everyone. I mean audible. Okay, great, perfect. I'm Mohammed Abdullah as Lauren to do is thanks for having me over here. I'm in PhD mechanical engineering, but also now I'm part of like environmental and sciences, and just talking about the biggest challenge. I'm also an international student, hailing from Pakistan. And I came over here in 2017 from a master's program in mechanical engineering and the biggest, or I would say like the first, the foremost challenge was just like getting along in the community like the kind of personality that I am like and particularly coming from like completely different country different educational system and an entirely different community, different language culture and a lot of. It's kind of a lot for me to take in process and then get along with the all of the community. So, yeah, it was just getting along with the community finding and connecting with new people and developing and making like meaningful connections just beyond the academic not just with your class fellows for projects and assignment but like real life, long or like meaningful connections with other people. That was the challenge, I face I would say. Yeah, and that really drives home the socio cultural challenges that are, you know, double triple for international students like, you know, all students face these challenges, and yet it's much more significant when you're leaving all your social and family efforts and just like you said trying to find community both in your program but also in the wider community in terms of your personal life, whether that might be a spiritual community or your interests and hobbies all of those things are really important. Yeah, Viva, were you going to add something on that. Yeah, I was going to add. It's actually very important for you just for your you know academic career or post academic career to really form meaningful connections in general. And I feel like it can be disheartening when in the beginning you know you don't feel like you're making as many friends or you don't know as many people but I feel like over time you'll realize that like like minded people, you'll come together with them, especially like, you know, joining different student orgs on campus was really helpful to me because that's where you can see people with similar values. Outside of classes so I would like recommend looking at what's out there based on your interest. Yeah, that's super helpful for each of you and maybe I'll have Mohammed answer first this time what do you wish you had known in your first year. Yep, that's I'm pretty confident about is about the resources availability for all of the students and particularly for the graduate students. I don't think there is any segregation between undergrad and grad student but in general resources available for the students and particularly for your mental health. And also including the physical resources like recreation building or like other resources from the caps, like one thing in particular I can mention is, there's like a room in the pure pond Commons where you can just simply go and relax yourself. You will light folks over there like particularly for the winters that as it can get a bit depressing over here and the winter is coming. And there are some massage chairs as well. So the caps is really an amazing resource over here I would say so do look into that Laura has already shared go through all of us resources and just go and use it. What about you, Viva. Okay, I love that you brought up caps because I, there's also this thing called Wolverine wellness, which I was like going through like a pretty bad breakup in the first semester which is like, you know, tough to navigate with everything else and you can have an appointment and go talk to someone and it's completely free. It's also like a lot of people might you know have stigma against like seeking out health for mental health but it's really like just like talking to talking to like a impartial person and it can be very helpful, especially when you are really overwhelmed with school and research and like other life stressors. It's a really great resource. And something else that I really found useful was, you can rent equipment from the recreational center so if even if like you know you don't, you don't have your own like hiking stuff or bikes or you know whatever outdoor outdoor equipment you might need. You can rent them and you can go out there. Michigan has like really great outdoor spaces. Those are like great to explore. See, this is amazing because I have been on this campus since 2003 when I started as a grad student and I didn't even know you could rent things from RecSports so I'm learning. I think it's a branch of, yeah it's a branch of RecSports so just look up like rentals you miss outdoor or something. I just found it as you were talking. I was like I didn't even know about this so I just put a link in the chat. Yes, that's amazing. What advice would you each give to incoming students? We have lots of them here today. If you could share a piece of wisdom, what would you say? Do you want to start, Viba? I would say don't be afraid to ask for help.  There's just so much you don't know. So just anything, you have a doubt just ask someone like texted me yesterday and they were like, oh, what is the norm in American culture about gifts? And so like she was a new international student and I was like, that's a very valid question because like I struggled with it when I first got here because I was like, it's different from where I come from. So, you know, any question that you can have just like text a friend, they're not going to, you know, say no. I think you just said something that I want to reinforce and that's, you know, we have our faculty mentors and the graduate coordinators in our program who are all amazing resources but really do lean on your senior colleagues whether that's in your program, or folks that you can do through grin or other student organizations because it's often those peer mentors who can really supplement where you feel safe asking questions like that that might feel like, well how can I ask my faculty advisor about like gift giving culture in the United States like that's a great thing to be able to ask a peer mentor and if your program has a formal peer mentor program which many departments do I would encourage you to sign up for that. It has a peer mentor program to if I see Mohammed and Viva nodding so if you feel like just given the challenges of finding new community that you haven't been able to find a friend who you can ask these questions to, I'd encourage you to sign up for a peer mentor through grin or other means available to you because those folks can be such a great resource just in helping getting your questions answered. Mohammed what about you, what advice would you give that was great advice. I will just like keep on adding on to that like just because it was also like the struggle that I had, and also like, yeah kind of like hard step to go through. They would just say like, take your time process and just observe and understand, and just talk, speak. It would really help you go through the states transitioning states or challenges, if any, I mean, not necessarily you would have challenge, but if you are having it's more than normal, even not like, in all international students with some like even domestic students with that. So don't worry about that and just like try to connect new people try to utilize their resources. When you talk to one person you could just get to know about two other resources and when you go to one of those two resources you just get to know like two or more. It's kind of like trickle down tree effect, which you would see the benefit of if you just like start taking one step, no matter how small or how big the step is just initiate the step. And yeah I was going to mention the mentorship program that Laura had already mentioned. So, you can become international green has already established and we have been doing this for the past couple of years. So you can like, being an international student connect to other international students who have already been over here in this community. So that might help you understand what their process was. Maybe they would have the head gone through the same state that you are going same challenges. That can be really, really helpful. And again, this is not the only option your department might also have like some mentorship program like in our mechanical department they also do this mentoring program. So you not only have the outside of academic mentorship program but also you could have already have some academic related mentorship program as well. And as I was mentioning that, feel free to connect with your lab seniors. If you're working in any lab, if you're not even working in any lab, just find some random senior or like just find some random person and then ask them. If not just go to the coordinator or the like the staff in your department, they are really helpful they're super helpful they have been over here helping the students. So they are experienced in helping you so they would know a lot more. And please you will know like at least one more thing about the resources available today. Yeah, I know when I was a new graduate student and I'm just putting this in the chat. Something Mohammed pointed out is there are also staff in your departments that are their job is to help you navigate the resources and find the support that you need. Typically their title is something like graduate coordinator. You've likely encountered this person already whether it's emailing about your admissions or, you know, logistical things related to orientation but they are supposed to be doing a lot more than just pointing you to orientation. So that's someone if you again don't have a peer mentor yet and you're feeling really socially isolated. Just like Mohammed said taking one step and talking to one person that might be a great person to start with, since they are, they're not grading your work they're not evaluating you they really are the person in your department or program that's identified to help support graduate students, you know, in finding resources and getting connected to research and things like that so with that I want to make sure we have plenty of time for questions from our attendees. You can feel free to use the chat to ask questions of Viba and Mohammed. So either put your questions in the chat or folks if you're comfortable you can mute and just share out your question verbally so either way. How do students get up here mentor with grand yeah do do either of you want to share a little bit more about how to get connected to that program. Yeah, I mean, we already like our and have been sending emails to the new students about various opportunities and events and like, etc that we organize. So if you have not already received that email we can like, I'll just copy and paste the form over here. Yeah, Laura has already shared the website so you can easily go over there. Reach out to any person you can also email me I can leave over here and then I can personally share the program details with you. It's just like simple form, asking about your program and background information and that should be it, and we'll be able to like peer with you with some already mentor program. So yeah just reach out to the green at you missed out edu and just shoot out a simple email that hey please send us information, and I can also like meanwhile, we're talking I can also like pull out the form link and send it over here. Yeah, that would be great. Any other questions. I always say the zoom silence is more silent than regular silence. Oh yes look we have a grad coordinator here so seeing Nicole is making sure that she knows how to support you all in her program. Hello. Yes. Yeah, I have a. I cannot just tell my, you know, challenges and share with you guys and see that. Yeah. Maybe I can get some help. Yeah, go ahead and share. Yeah. Firstly, I'm a student, a first year master's student in the statistics, and I'm an international student from China and I don't have any experience in, you know, to study a board. So I think the most challenging part firstly is to understand what the teacher is saying in the lecture, you know, to have the experience to listen to a maybe two hours lecture, and the whole time the teacher is just to give going our give our information on some knowledge. So it is firstly the challenging part and secondly I think that I have struggling with my homework, but it's not that hard but but it's very challenging to know what the teacher, or the instructors really want you to do in your assignment. Yeah, so I don't know their. I don't know their expectations for us, and how we were going to finish our assignments. And above that academic parts, I think there is also changing although our department has a lot of, you know, students in my from my country, but it's started to be competitive among, you know, apply for PhD or get a new job or something that we will face in the future. So it's very, it is a little bit tension here, and everybody just want to, you know, get their road clearly behind of them. So I think, and make me a little bit stressful at this time. But I'm lucky that this to students. They share about how to, you know, about warring wellness and that caps thing, I think, maybe I will try them and you know just find my inner peace. Yeah, that sounds very stressful I just want to name it sounds like yeah you're navigating, like just that exhaustion of like being in an English language context full time for the first time like not having done this study abroad. And, you know, maybe feeling like it's highly competitive with your peers where it feels less comfortable connecting to peers in your home program, and on top of all of that not being sure what that expectations are around assignments. Viva or Muhammad do you have anything you want to say I have a thought on a resource but I think you two are experts even more than me so I'll let you share first. Anything. Oh yeah. Yeah. So hi everybody my name is Andres. I'm also a first year PhD student in biological chemistry. I, I have the same feeling that the girl who was talking before the main. So I was a little bit insecure about my listening ability during my classes. But something that I haven't using is the this resource that I put in the chat with basically when the professor is talking, it's going to do the transcript for the class so after class you can check that that is something that I haven't using during these two weeks, because it's kind of insecure about my listening so when the professor is talking. It is doing the transcripts and you're going to have access to the audio and also a transcript there. So you need to use your computer and actually using your email address from the university. You need access to almost six hours of recording so you can use that to get transcript and then you can study after class that's something that I haven't using because I have the same feeling. Yeah, that's great. So maybe yes specifically on just linguistic adjustment do either of you have thoughts related to that Viva or Muhammad. Thank you so much for this resource even like I did not know that so thanks for that. But the thing that I found helpful is reaching out to professor or the instructor, whoever you're in the class with this telling them know what the issues are that you have been facing or simply don't understand or follow the material. More likely than not they would definitely do something make some arrangements to help you. They can probably provide you the detailed description of what they are going to speak what they're going to talk maybe also share with you their slides with the notes in it if there anything. There's only one resource that I could think of like this reaching out to them and then letting them know that, hey, I've been sitting over here in class for the past two weeks, but I haven't been falling much of it I simply do not understand so maybe if you could try to speak slowly if they have been speaking fast or like this different thing or anything that they could accommodate you with they can most likely they would do that. I was also going to suggest reaching out to the professor, because they're usually very responsive to like they want to know like if someone is having any kind of trouble or struggle in their class they want to know so that they can help. I mean, sometimes, some professors like don't care as much which is always, you know, it's not a good feeling when you come across that. But I noticed that like sometimes taking a fewer number of classes can also be helpful as you're transitioning, especially because you have to like, you know, adjust to a new culture and kind of deal with like the mental load of that. I think eight is the minimum amount of credits that you need to be enrolled isn't it like you need to be full time. So, if you can take like just the amount of credits, you need to be full time maybe like you know to find ways to reduce like your academic load sometimes can be helpful as you're like navigating the early stages I know I've always taken like with undergrad or any grad level I've the first semester I've always taken like very little just because I wanted to. involve myself more in like my lab or like other activities so I can like transition better. Yeah, I would add one last resource that you may already know about but the English Language Institute is a resource for all students even though some folks often see like oh it says lsn a and I'm in bio stats like I do I have access to that and you do have access to it and they have lots of different programs from like workshops to conversation circles so the conversation circles is one that again is just having informal conversations with someone who's not in your program who really cares about international students and just helping them with their speaking and listening. And it's kind of a safe space to do a little bit more of that language immersion so I put a link to their website in the chat to so you could, you know, reach out and see what they even have academic advisors there like elie academic advising kind of has a link on the main page you could ask to meet with one of their advisors and just say you know my time is extremely limited. I'm a master's student what are what like one or two things might be helpful for me related to just getting acclimated to listening for hours to like advanced. And because it's in your academic discipline to so there might be you know highly advanced specialized jargon and terminology that some of the domestic students also aren't familiar with so I would just name that like academic jargon is very different from conversational English and that is normal and normal academic challenge to adjust to. And I, I do think one thing I wanted to emphasize that both be gone Mohammed said is being able to talk to the faculty members so what I heard about the expectations for assignments being unclear. I think that when the office hours are for the course where you're feeling unclear about the expectations and you can go to that faculty members office. During those hours sometimes students think, I go if I go to office hours that's a sign that I don't know what's going on and I'm, I'm not smart that's not what it is at all. Because many students need clarification and need to ask questions of the faculty member and that's why all faculty set aside a period of time where you can come in and ask those questions one on one outside of class so I would encourage you to take a look at the percentage of those office hours that is very normal in United States higher education and often folks who maybe their faculty in their home country didn't do office hours or even you know folks in the US who are coming from public schools where teachers didn't do one on one appointments with students may not realize that that's normal and good to go to those office hours and say hey we have this problem set and I'm really unclear on how this is being evaluated and you know just bring that question and that safe space where you can do that during office hours. Yeah, these are great questions did that answer your question you done. Yes, okay. Other questions that folks might have. Oh interested in someone's interest in the recreational resource that you talked about Viba do you want to say more about that. Yeah, I'll drop the link for it after I finished talking. So I believe you can rent bikes or kayaks or like, I think it's like you have hourly rentals and I think you also have like every, you can rent them per day. I've been interested in renting bikes, just to like get around campus. Sorry, I got distracted by the chat. So, that's like one spot that I know on campus like recreation rentals but like, if you want to go kayaking you can also go to the Gallup Park, or as some of the parks in the city. And they have like paid rentals that are very I think accessible. And like if you want to explore like more of. Yeah, I think someone dropped the chat for the link for thank you, Mohammed. So, like even if you are interested in like the UP the upper peninsula of Michigan is very beautiful if you love outdoor being in nature. It's just like there's parts of Michigan that have really good like beaches or outdoor like hiking spots. So I would just, and Laura also dropped another link for it. So you can definitely like especially the a to gov page has all like listing of all like all the parks and recreational spots around campus. I think there's just so many, like from the hyper local this rec sports link to what's available in the Ann Arbor to what both of you by Mohammed put in the chat like Michigan as the state has a really amazing state parks system. So I can look up to the state parks information. I find like the state parks, if you don't have a vehicle that might be like a little more challenging to access but kind of connecting with friends who might have a vehicle or renting something for to do something on the weekend, just over this past weekend I was in with my husband celebrating our anniversary and I fell asleep on the beach, which was awesome. So when I was a new grad student, I didn't go to West Michigan until my fifth year of graduate school and I didn't even know that there were beaches in Michigan. So I wish someone had told me. Actually, yeah, Holland also has a to live festival, usually, I think in mid summer, which is really pretty if if that's something you know, people like to see. And also I would suggest like, there's a lot of winter activities to do in the winter months. And I think from the rentals that I mentioned you can also rent skis and snow shoes. So, another popular thing that I, I didn't know this was a thing it's like, you know that thing where you walk in snow with the, the skis, it's just walking. Like the snow shoeing is that what you're referring to be bought. Yeah, I can't remember the name of like the activity right now. Yeah, I think it's snow shoeing.  I was like, Oh, we're just walking. But you know, I would definitely encourage people to like go out in the winter, especially with like, you know how how like seasonal depression can set in like it's really it's really helpful if you can keep yourself active and outdoors. Yeah, I noticed a follow up question in the chat about are there any sources for brand new international students to explore Ann Arbor, like the city local food attractions local community sharing similar backgrounds etc. I mentioned earlier the grad school 101 site and there is a page on there. I'm clicking back to make sure I find that the correct. But there's a link in that course that you all as new students should have access to it's called the Ann Arbor community and there's, you can just kind of click through and see all the resources there related to exploring the wider community. I don't know Viva or Mohammed if you have kind of just broadly good resources for people looking to explore Ann Arbor more just the city and getting to learn more about the community and what's available. So what I did when I came over here because I had like not so many friends well a few from communities are asking them was really helpful if they have been around over here for a while. And then I just went to like the city of Ann Arbor website, they have a lot of resources and good recommendations like I got to know about the parts over there about the packing activities and so many other things that I did not know that even like a few of the seniors did not know existed. So do check that out I would say and again maybe ask other people who have been around over here. And also like we will mention about the Tulip Festival so there's like Nichols Arbor item over here. They also have like pointing garden over there so it's kind of blooms and I guess in May or April somewhere that also like kind of good outdoorsy excursion activity if you're just feeling tired so and want to have a walk over there and see some beautiful places. So it's a free entrance for everybody. And regarding one thing I had been like holding up was that getting around in Ann Arbor, yeah definitely out of Ann Arbor you might need some car or something like that. But there's a greyhound that can take you probably a few of the places. And within Ann Arbor, make sure that you can use the ride the city buses they're completely free for you to just have to swipe and card. They can take you pretty much almost all of our the city of Ann Arbor they can take you to Gala Park, Argo Park, these are like two famous parks and outdoors activities in Ann Arbor. I would also recommend joining like your local departmental organizations so for example, I'm part of the grads we which is the Graduate Society of Women Engineers, which it's more the engineering for engineering graduate students.  So I would suggest checking out like, you know, organizations in your program, and like more like department specific. And I, I'm trying to look for a link which I have saved and it has like all the resources for winter supplies so I'm going to go I'm going to look for that if someone else wants to answer that the next question. Yeah, Mohammed well while Viva looks for that link someone was just concerned about like what do I for people who haven't lived in a really cold place like this what are some winter essentials. Yeah, so I attended this one. I'm attending this one class and I'm in sustainability and one of the class was just all about getting the resources around here. And somebody just mentioned, Oh, I went to a store to get the winter jacket and it was $1,000. I'm not going to get that. So yeah, don't feel like get overwhelmed about that. The key tricks over here that I have learned and generally everybody would recommend probably is just layering yourself up. So like in the, if you have already noticed that within the construction with links you might not feel that hot or that cold, only if you feel like go outside you would feel like this intense winters. So layering can help you prepare for that. Just wear like two one or two layers and if it's too cold outside, you can wear another if it is not that cold inside you can just easily take it off. In the stuff I would say like you don't really have to go to the super expensive stores. There are places around like, I found old Navy, there are like two different stores around here. I found like winter code for like, I guess 50 or 60 bucks so I didn't have to pay for like 1000 bucks over here. There are some other stores like TMX. You might not have a huge door ID over there, but you can definitely find good and cheaper stuff over there. They're like, they also have two branches or whichever is convenient and easy for you just take the ride or the city bus over there. Yeah, I mentioned old Navy, TMX, there is Briarwood Mall as well, but that might be a bit like could get possibly a bit expensive or not. So that's that. And yeah, there are other stores like Marshall's I guess around here that you can probably check. But yeah, buying multiple layers, layering yourself would kind of like help you instead of just spending an exuberant amount on just like one winter code, which you might only be needing for like I guess one or two months, like which are the peak winters. So layering would definitely help you go through the longest period of the winters over here from October to like all the way to April or May. Viva, do you have additional thoughts on that? Yeah, I'm so sad I couldn't find the Google Doc, so it's literally like a bunch of students that came together and put together a Google Doc of like the do's and don'ts. But I did find a good resource from the University Health Center that talks about winter survival tips. And I would say like people, you know, are will tell you it's terrible it's so cold. And while that's all true, you can you'll be fine. Like, you know, you'll be able to make it. So I wouldn't, you know, worry about like worry is stress about it. Like Mohammed said, like definitely layering helps a lot and I think it took me almost two years to learn that so definitely layer your life will change. And I think having a good pair of shoes is important is what I've noticed is more important than having a good jacket because there's like about a week or two where it'll be, it'll be snowing a lot. So you have to probably stretch through the snow or like icy sidewalks. So I would just be careful with when the sidewalks are icy because that's more that's worse than actual snow. So if you're not used to walking on ice, you might slip and that's not those can injuries can be nasty so just like walking slowly and having good heels to have a good traction is really important good shoes that have traction is really important. So Mohammed has just about just a couple minutes early. So as he's doing that I just wanted to thank him because this has been so great to hear from two experienced students so I know, speaking of walk time, need some walk time to get to his next appointment at 10am so thank you, Mohammed. And I know Viva has probably time for one other question if folks have another question for our panelists by Mohammed. Thank you so much. It was great meeting you. If people need I can leave my email address over here just to them to seek any help that I could probably help with that. So I'm just leaving my email over here feel free to reach out to me from green or personal or department or whatever I could help and I would be happy to do that. And thanks again for having me it was really great meeting you all. Bye. Any final question that we have this website from UHS is great. Actually, because yeah I don't know how many parents we have but there's some good comments in there to about how public school closures work if there's like weather. I know that it's very rare, but it does happen that the university might shut down due to inclement weather. I would say maybe that's happened once per year at most during my whole almost 20 years, my gosh, in Ann Arbor now so it's very rare but it does happen just so folks know that if it's incredibly icy or unsafe the university itself might also shut down. One thing I want to add is figure out your attack situation, because even as international students you might have like you know tax obligations, federal and at the state level so there's usually workshops that happen around this time and around tax the year which is like in March or April, I always forget the month. Yeah, they're doing April so usually folks prepare them in March and we did just have a workshop on this on September one, but we recorded it much like we're recording our session right now so that recording will be posted on the grad school page that again folks should have access to on your campus because yeah being in a new country and understanding tax obligations is can be very stressful and we know that and so we do offer twice a year, a workshop specifically related to taxes with someone who's a tax expert at the graduate school. So keep an eye out for either that workshop or the video of the workshop even if you couldn't attend. Yeah, so that's kind of a parting piece of wisdom any other parting wisdom be by I don't see any new questions in the chat. Um, I think yeah just like keep making sure that you know you are checking the International Central website periodically for any like related announcements. And I think they also have good resources with like for current students and like incoming students and like different even for a J1 students so I always reach out to the International Center if I have any question even if it's like the slightest like, even if it's like very you know small and feels like I'm bugging them but I just like ask the question so definitely feel free to reach out to them if you have any like questions with I 20 or your status and stuff. Yeah I'm so glad I can't believe International Center hasn't come up and probably all of you just getting here know that it exists but they do have really lovely kind of informational sessions and international coffee hours so again. If you're just feeling like you don't know who to ask something to the international coffee hours that I think they have weekly is yet another place where they'll just be an expert there a staff member who understands the challenges that international students and scholars face and can point you at least in the right direction and just be a safe space to drink coffee I suspect they're all virtual but drink your coffee or tea in your own space and oh it looks like no they're holding them outdoors I'm looking at the one that's next week so. That's another great resource for international students and they aren't just a resource for visa questions just like Viva said any question you can go to them and they'll at least point you in the right direction. So hopefully this session was helpful for everyone today. Glad so many of you were able to join us and I want to again we already think Mohammed but I want to thank Viva. She also helped us identify another panelists for the session and kind of co planned it with us so she really was a collaborator in the session yes I'll add a link to the grad school one oh one in the chat. If anyone is not able to access grad school one oh one. I please email me I'm going to put my email in the chat. And I'll pass it along to my colleague Paul are tall a who created grad school one oh one he got the data from our registrar's office for who should who should have access to the course so it may be due to a glitch in the registrar data that some of our incoming students didn't get access so email me if you log into your canvas and you don't see something that says grad school one oh one and I will get you access. Thank you everyone.


ychydig o'r sganddol. If you watch television or you go on the internet, if you read the newspapers, when is it that you start shouting or crying or whatever and it's impossible that this is happening in this western free prosperous society? Well I think in a way what's perhaps been revealed recently by the collapse of the model, the neoliberal model, the collapse, the Wall Street thing that was being signified that stands for a much bigger catastrophe in a way that's based also on a kind of delusional kind of thinking that we've all been caught up in. It's not just that one can't divide us and them. In a way there was a kind of logic that drew everyone into it that has perhaps now been exposed in its delusional aspects. Which of course the media also often play into in terms of the world that represents the crisis. That's one scandal we definitely have to address. Rory, is there any scandal you can point that it's real scandal that this is happening in our society? A very interesting one over the last ten years which fascinates me from an advertising background is that in a sense what you've got to be really afraid of is those vessels of persuasion which aren't ostensibly persuasive. Advertising and propaganda. People understand there's an ulterior motive and they have a certain resistance to them or at least a certain cynicism towards them. There's a very peculiar assumption that pervaded the entire western world. I mean it's worth remembering that the banks were totally irresponsible lenders but they also had completely irresponsible borrowers on the other side. I don't know if you can actually put the blame entirely squarely in one place or the other. And there's a very peculiar narrative which pervaded all news media which is that property wasn't a form of consumption. It was an asset. And that a rise in property prices was portrayed as universally good news on the news. And that always struck me as strange.  We see it as a cost of living. And there was something very peculiar there if you looked at sort of endless programs that suggested the highest end of man was to install decking outside his house and to improve his own home. And what was peculiar about that is it wasn't a point of view. It just became a universal assumption. And that's when these ideas seem to be actually most dangerous. But it is worth making that point that we talk about irresponsible lending and we're absolutely right to do so. And we're absolutely right to criticise the neoclassical economic model which is a psychologically blind model of human action which did quite a lot of harm. But there were peculiar behaviours in other places as well. Roger, so far both Daniel and Rory are talking about a scandal of a kind of economic model. Are there other scandals? Scandals or is it... What would you say that this is the real agrace le fan? I mean, what's... Yes, I think the... I guess my view is not very fashionable. I think that the real scandal of Western civilisation today is atheism. And I know that some people might say well, there you are, more power to scandal in that case. Just as I think the real scandal of the Middle East today is theism of an irrational kind. And I've always hoped that we could hold on to our inherited sense of the sacred without going over the top as our Muslim friends do. And it seemed to me for a while in my youth that this could even be achieved. But I recognise that it hasn't been achieved and all these things that have just been said by Rory and Daniel, the growth of, if you like, of contagious irresponsibility. Not only in economics, but in personal life and social life. All this, in my view, proceeds from that fundamental loss of the sense that some things are sacred. We'll get back to that as well. Now the world has always been a dangerous place and remained a dangerous place. Always scandals in the world and there are scandals today as well. But what is a scandal and what is not is also determined by our own perception whether we see something as a scandal. And in this respect I would say that our world is not that bad. Because for us, for example, the genocide is a scandal. Masmer, that is a scandal. For Humairos or for CP Afrikanos, that's a no scandal. Obviously, if you conquer the land, get to destroy it. Everyone to murder, that was fine. That was heroism, no scandal. So I think if we include in the problems of the scandal certain things which our followers did not consider as scandals, I don't believe in progress, it is partially a kind of progress in comparison to the 20th century which was, in my mind, the greatest scandal of modernity. With all these totalitarian societies, with all these millions and millions of corpses in Europe, in comparison with this dictatorship, with this mass murder, we are not living at the present moment in the scandals world, although there are many scandals in this world. Alan, in irrespective of... Eichnus moved, if I may say so, from communism in your youth when you were a student of Lukach to somebody who is... You no longer consider yourself a communist, do you? Of course, of course not. Of course, at that time, when I considered myself as a communist, I believed in the Paris menu script of Karl Marx, that is the unity between Gatung's vision and individual person, which is a total utopian, maybe not just un-realizable, but also in my present view, undesirable. But I believed in this, but never believed in real existing socialism. That's a totally different question. And I never used the term Marxism-Leninism, as was Marxism what never a Leninist, because Lenin discovered, Lenin invented the totalitarian party. Everyone imitated him, invented the totalitarian party. So I did not call myself Marxist. Lenin but Marxist, yes, because I had my own Marx. This Marx is very utopian, like your Marx. It was very utopian, it was a beautiful idea and conception, which I still believe a wonderful dream, but I don't think it has political reality. Alan, Rysyn, one of the book you published, The Communist Hypothesis, where you argue that communism is still a good idea. From that perspective, what do you see as the big scandals of the society you live in? I think the most important scandals in the world today, but not only today, from the beginning of history, in fact, is that we perfectly know that practically all men and women in the world are able of doing something, of creating something, of thinking something, and this ability is practically reduced to nothing for a great majority of human beings today. It's not a question only of poverty, of oppression and so on. It's a more radical question, which is that the humanity is very distant from its proper possibility of creation and of life and of existence. Maybe in contemporary capitalism we can clearly see that millions and millions of people are, from the point of view of capitalism itself, no useful at all. They are practically nothing, in fact. That is the scandal. The scandal is when millions of people are considered practically as nothing, not only in their existence, but in their capacities, in their possibilities. So I think, like Marx, in some sense, that you are now too in a prehistoric sequence of humanity. And we must begin the history of mankind really. And communism was only for Marx the name of this process, the name of this possibility, the name of the true beginning of history after many centuries of destruction, struggle, class struggle, revolution and so on. And for him, capitalism was just the form just before the possibility of a new beginning. And I think we must recognize the truth of this idea because we can observe that the capitalist which is today at the scale of the planet cannot be the construction of a future.


to my channel and welcome if you're new here. Happy Saturday. It is Saturday so you know what that means. It is grocery haul day. I have quite a fun haul for you. I actually went to four stores and I have a ton and I mean a ton of new food finds for you. I'm going to be sharing with you all the goodies that I picked up and also my meal plan and meal prep for the upcoming week. So if you're new, don't miss a single video. Make sure that you are subscribed and your bell notification is turned on. Thumbs up this video if you love grocery hauls and let's jump in to this week's grocery haul. So here is this week's grocery haul. So I ended up going to natural grocers which is my local like Whole Foods Sprouts type of a store. I did Walmart pickup, also hit up Target and Trader Joe. So what is not shown is a case of Coors Light for my husband as always and a case of Diet Coke for him as always. So let's jump into this rather big grocery haul. This is upside down because it came open. But this is that same pack of kombucha that I always get that has the two ginger berries, two gingerades and two trilogies. But when I was at natural grocers, they actually had all their kombucha on sale for 250 which is the lowest that I've ever seen it. Come to find out it was their anniversary. So I did get a few other freebies from them. I got a free reusable tote. I got a free chocolate bar that I'll show you and then a bag of like sample like healthcare samples. I haven't even dug into that yet. But since I was there and it doesn't go bad, I grabbed a ton. So I think I grabbed three of the unity which is the cherry coconut and lemongrass. I love this one and that one is seasonal. And then there's another unity and then I picked up a couple of the ginger berry because that's really one of my favorites. And then I have not had the strawberry serenity in a minute. So I had to pick that up as well. And then I think I also yet grabbed a hibiscus ginger. I have not tried this one. So I am stocked up on my kombucha. I probably won't even need to get any next week. But I could not pass that really good deal up. Of course a repurchase of the Good Foods plant based queso dip. You guys, this is the best queso dip ever. And you know my love for siete, but this one wins. This one is even better than siete. And the main reason I went to natural grocers is for good culture cottage cheese. I picked up four of them. I was hoping they'd be on sale, but they weren't. But I did grab four. They don't expire until mid-September. So I'll definitely eat them. I literally eat this every day. So four of those. And then at Target, a repurchase of the Perfect Bites. I actually really like these. And sometimes I just want a little something before, after my Jazzercise workout. And I can have half a serving of these and it tides me over. They're really good. They have seven grams of protein and 20 super foods. And basically they're these little bites. So there are just many versions of the Perfect Bar because the Perfect Bars are really high in calories and points. So I love these. And anytime I go to Target, I like to pick them up. I did grab another three pack of the organic grass fed grass finished ground beef at Walmart. Only because I'm afraid meat prices will continue to rise. And so I wanted to grab this while it was still only $17. So I just cut up the three packs and throw them in my freezer. For my husband's lunches this week, he wanted like an Italian BMT sandwich. So he wanted bologna.  So that's what he's going to do for his lunches, salami, pepperoni and bologna. I did grab another bag of the light Mexican blend from Trader Joe's. I have several recipes this next week that calls for this cheese.  And then at Walmart, I just restocked my ciggies because like I've mentioned, it's the only store in my area. I can find these. So this is the mixed berry. I grabbed two of those and two of the vanilla. I love this yogurt. It's a good whole milk yogurt and it's so satisfying and creamy and delicious. So highly recommend. And then at Target, I decided to try the Cho Bonny Flip. This is the mint chocolate chip. I have quite a few new finds for you guys actually. And this is one of them. I have never tried this. So I'm going to give it a shot. I only grabbed one, one because the ingredients aren't the best, but I thought that I would use it more as a treat or a dessert. So we'll give it a shot and see what we think. And then I also picked up this lactose-free Green Valley Organic Sour Cream from Natural Grocers. This is just four recipes this next week. And then down here from Trader Joe's, I picked up some more crumbled blue cheese for my Jen salad as well as for my lunch prep. You guys wait till you see what I'm making for lunches. Natural Grocers. I also grabbed the Siete grain-free tortilla chips. This is the sea salt in avocado oil. These are my favorite tortilla chips and they are super clean. I thought that I would get these to go with this. So how good of a little snack would that be? So I picked those up. It's one of the least expensive places in town for these chips. And then I also saw these there as I was going down the chip aisle. These are the Boulder Canyon avocado oil classic sea salt kettle chips and they're rich. So I thought this would also be good in this. So these ingredients are perfection. So potatoes, avocado oil, and salt. That is it. So of course points were here on the screen. So two new new to me flavor of chips. Another loaf of the deli sourdough bread. You guys know my husband is very favorable of this. This is actually his new go-to bread. And then a lot of you commented last week because I did not buy Clio bars. I'm completely out now. I had I think four or five left and I didn't want to waste them and then just buy something I didn't need. So I now need them. So I grabbed four strawberry and of course four vanilla of my Clio bars. I love these. Two more packs of the Market Pantry taco seasoning for the dogs. We put this where they dig.  So if this is sprinkled on the ground, the rocks, the dirt, they won't dig there. So I grabbed two more packages and then a couple of canned goods at Trader Joe's. I saw this Mount Olive, which I love Mount Olive products, but this is their organic sweet relish. Oh, it says new. So this is a new product. I love sweet relish so much. And I thought I'm going to try this because it's organic. It's in a small little jar.  So I grabbed that at Trader Joe's. And then I also picked up a can of the organic tomato sauce. I need this for a recipe. And then at Target for a recipe, I grabbed the Muir Glenn diced organic tomatoes that are fire roasted bacon bits for a recipe. I think the recipe called for like four slices of bacon crumbled bacon bits is just so much easier. So I went ahead and grabbed those. And then while I was at Target, of course, what Target trip is complete without partake cookies. Again, the birthday cake are my favorite. These cookies are the crunchy birthday cake. They are two points per cookie. They are gluten free. They are delicious. I love these. So these are like a nice little sweet treat dessert. So I picked those up because when at Target and then this is a new find. I actually saw this on the Target app. These are the Kodiak cake gram bear bites. Now they have these in honey, which is the ones that I picked up. And they also had them in chocolate. So basically a spin on graham crackers. And I thought that these would be really good dipped in that brownie batter hummus that I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I still have a little left in my fridge. And these are just great snacks. They're 100% whole grain non-GMO ingredients. So since they were on the Target app, I grabbed them and wanted to give those a try. And then, of course, a repeat purchase for my husband. He loves these little mini apple pies. So I just popped these in his lunch. And then, of course, another thing that I generally buy whenever I go to Target are the Yasso ice cream bars. These are my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough. I actually bought two packages because they really are my favorite flavor. And they are five smart points per bar. They have decent ingredients, not perfect, but decent. And I really like them. They do have five grams of protein, which I love in a dessert. So they were on sale right now at Target for $3.50. So this is a new find. These are the Bubbies Cookie Dough Ice Cream Bites in Chocolate Chip. Look at that. Basically, it is edible cookie dough with vanilla chocolate chip ice cream inside. Yes, please. There are six in this box. The ingredients aren't too terrible. Again, anytime you buy like a packaged sweet treat, you're going to have a couple of ingredients that I don't love. But that's where 90-10 comes in. So I can't wait to try these. I found these in the freezer section at Target. And then at Walmart, four more cans of green beans for the DOG's. They get these at dinner instead of table scraps. Of course, I grabbed another bag of my purely Elizabeth's chocolate sea salt and probiotic granola. I'm obsessed with this granola. It is so good. I love it on this sickies yogurt, just like a tablespoon of it. Love it. So I grabbed that. Another new find at Target is this Good and Gather Original Beef Jerky Trail Mix. So this has beef jerky almond, I'm sorry, almonds, cranberries, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds, kernels, oh, sunflower seed kernels, and dried sweetened mango. Sorry, it's hard to read through the camera. But it wasn't too bad in calories. And it gives you five grams of protein per serving. And you can have an ounce for the calories. So I thought that wasn't bad. And this would be a great thing just to have on hand for a super quick snack. I've actually never seen that at Target before. Another new find is this True Fruit Whole Cherries White and Dark Chocolate. So this is freshly frozen cherries that they have put in white and dark chocolate. Real fruit, all natural, clean ingredients, antioxidants, and 90 calories per serving. So you can have three pieces for 90 calories. So here are your ingredients. Again, not bad at all when it comes to ingredients. Actually pretty clean, like it says here on the package. They also had raspberries. So if I like these, I will definitely pick up the raspberries next time. Found these as well at Target in the freezer section. And then a repeat purchase of the Smash Mallows. These are the dark chocolate dipped cold brew. I love these and that little dessert that I make with the Trader Joe's ice cream cone and chocolate chips. These are so good. They are dipped in chocolate. It literally tastes like a mocha coffee. It is so good. One of these is plenty for a sweet treat.  So I had to grab another bag of those. I really, really like these. I still want to try the raspberry, but I just can't break away from the coffee. And then at Natural Grocers, I'm obsessed with these meat sticks. I showed these to you guys a couple of weeks ago. I love these. You can have this entire package for 75 calories, 10 grams of protein. This entire package is two points for both of the sticks. Or you can eat one stick for one point. So they were still on sale. So I grabbed five. And then this is the turkey, but in the spicy. So this one is two points as well. So I thought I'd try it. I'm not a big spicy food person, but it sounds so good. These are amazing. If you can find them perfectly clean ingredients. And then this was the free chocolate bar that I got at Natural Grocers when I checked out. So I grabbed it. I'll just divide it out as a sweet treat. You can actually have three squares for 180 calories. So we'll see how much one square is just for kind of a sweet treat. And then I grabbed some turkey pepperoni because we are going to be making pizzas on that yummy crust that I get from Imperfect Foods. So I picked that up. Now everything else is produce. A organic green pepper, two apples for breakfast meal prep. Surprise. Surprise. My organic lemons for my water. Shredded carrots for a recipe this next week. Save myself a step and just bought them shredded broccoli, which is also for a recipe. And then romaine lettuce for a salad recipe. A big juicy, delicious watermelon before they're out of season. And then some frozen veggies from Walmart. I have the multicolor cauliflower blend and then two bags of the California blend carrot broccoli cauliflower. So that's it my friend for the food portion of this grocery haul. Let me show you the few things I picked up that are non food related. And I'll tell you about this special going on right now at Target again this week. You guys, I forgot a couple things picked up. It doesn't exit target. And then also these Annie's real age Mac and cheese cups for my husband. These had a coupon on the Target app. So now that is all of the food. Let's take a look at the non food.  So I decided to go ahead and buy $40 worth. I think I actually was over that, but I needed a few things anyway. So it was perfect timing. So here's what I grabbed. I did pick up these ever spring New Zealand wool dryer balls. So I have been wanting to get a set of dryer balls forever and never do it. And I saw on YouTube that it actually saves you money, which it says right here on the package reduces static and drying time. And our sheets get super staticky. So I'm going to try them and see if they help with that. And then some air freshener for the bathroom. And then I had to grab this hand soap for the kitchen for fall clove and nutmeg. It's seriously the cutest packaging. So I grabbed that. We need a toilet bowl cleaner for our third bathroom. So I picked up the seventh generation. And then I've been looking for anti-back spray. I've been really unable to find it really anywhere. And I do use this on my quartz counters in my kitchen whenever I have like chicken or, you know, something that needs to have an anti-back spray. So I picked up this method one in bamboo. I really like this brand. And then some cool cotton fabric smelly goodness for your clothes. And lastly, some of the up and up brand of the laundry detergent packs similar to Gain. So I picked up all of that ended up with a $10 gift card. So really I spent 30 instead of 40. So here is this week's meal plan. This is the week of August 15th through August 21st. I can't believe August is almost over. But on Saturday today we are going to be going out for dinner or supporting a local business or it's my high calorie high point day. So we always go out for a meal. Sunday tomorrow I'm going to be doing the ranch chicken with bacon and broccoli. This recipe sounds so good. You will see this in Wednesday's what I eat in a day. So this next Wednesday. So stay tuned for that. I will probably actually do healthy fried rice on Monday and then leftovers on Tuesday because I do jazzer size at night on Tuesday. So these I will probably flip flop those two. Wednesday is meatball squash boat. So that's what I bought the spaghetti squash for. So again, that sounds really good. Thursday is a skillet taco salad. The romaine was purchased for that the sour cream. So it's basically going to be a fun spin on a taco salad. And then Friday is leftovers. And on the back here of the weekly menu is where I plan out my meal prep. So you will be seeing all three of these recipes on Monday in my meal prep video. So stay tuned for that. For breakfast this week I'm going to be making apple oatmeal. But I'm going to make it a protein oatmeal. So I can't wait to share that with you guys. For lunches I'm going to be doing buffalo chicken burgers aka buffalo turkey burgers because I was not able to find ground chicken at the store. So I'm going to substitute ground turkey but essentially it's the same thing. We're going to do blue cheese and buffalo sauce. I can't wait. And then I'm really excited for a snack. I'm going to do homemade granola bars. So I want to do a healthy clean eating version of a granola bar. So again, stay tuned for all three of these recipes in Monday's video. Thank you for joining me on another weekly WW grocery haul. We had quite the fun haul this week. Lots and lots of new food finds. I will let you guys know that I tried those frozen chocolate covered cherries. Those are so good. Like seriously amazing. One of them is the perfect sweet treat especially on a hot day because they're frozen. They are delicious. So I'll definitely be repurchasing and picking up the raspberry. So stay tuned on Monday for meal prep and next Wednesday for what I eat in a day where you will see that really good ranch bacon and broccoli casserole. So again, if you're new, make sure you stick around. Hit that little subscribe button and the bell next to it so you're notified when new videos are uploaded. Make sure you're checking out the description box below for all the discount codes, links to my favorite things and the link to head over and join my Facebook group. We'd love to have you join us over there. Give this video a big thumbs up if you are here for the grocery hauls. And I'll see you all in tomorrow's video. Have a fantastic Saturday. Bye!


فشرف بالشتغالي بالعلم ولا تبغي به ما عشت يا دا دا دا لا وياله من شراف عظيم الحمد لله رب العالمين له الحبد الحسن والثناء الجميل وشد الله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له يقول الحق وهو يهد السبيل وشد أن سيدنا ونبينا محمد صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وأصحابه والتابعين لهم بيحسانين إلى يوم الدين أما بعد وان now going to be doing the third book إن شاء الله تعالى to finish today in the program called بابط العلم a precision in knowledge we finished previously two books القواعد والاربع النقبة الفكر today we are going to be doing this book three principles وأدلتها written by الشيخ محمد من عبد الوهاب رحمه الله تعالى سم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم إعلام فحمك الله أنه يدب علينا فعلم وأرض عين مسائل الأولى العلم وهو معرفة الله ومعرفة نبيه ومعرفة ودين الإسلام بالأدل ثانية العالم بي الثالثة الدعوة إليه الرابعة الصبر على الأدافي والدليل وقوله تعالى عوض بله الشيطان الرجي بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم والعصف إنه إنساننا في خصف إلا الذين آمنوا وعمنوا صالحات وتواصلوا بالحطة وتواصلوا الصبر قار الشافعي وضحمه الله تعالى لو ما أنزل الله حجة على خلطه إلا هذه الصورة فاكفتهم وقال بخاري ورحمه الله تعالى بابه العلم قبل القول والعمل والدليل قوله تعالى فعلم أنه لا إله إلا الله وستغفل لذنبك فبدأ بالعلم قبل القول والعمل دعوث رحمه الله يبدأ خصفه بالبسمة مختصرا عليها وبدأ بالبسمة بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وخلطه لم يقوموا بقال الحمد لله أو أي شيء أخر وهذا كما قلنا قبل هو في مجموعة للسنة والسنة التي هو في مجموعة هو سنة الفعلية هو في مجموعة للسنة فاكشن باست سنة يعني عندما يقوم بالمجموعة للمجموعة عليه الصلاة والسلام ورسائل ومكاتبات أنه يقوم بقال يقوم بقال بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم فهذا هو السنة التي تقوم بقال ثم يقوم بقال أنه يجب علينا تعلم أربع مسائلة أنه يجب على كل شخص one of us أن نعرف أشياء نحتاج أن نعرف أشياء كل شخص يجب أن نعرف أشياء المسألة الأولى المسألة الأولى هو العلم نعلم ماذا نعلم نعلم للمجموعة نعلم للمجموعة هو إدراك الشيء على ما هو عليه إدراك جازمة أنه يجب أن نرى شيئا كما هو إدراك الشيء على ما هو عليه إدراك جازمة أنه يجب أن نرى شيئا كما هو مع المسألة الأولى أنه يجب أن نرى أنه يجب أن نرى إدراك خطاب الشرعي ومرده إلى المعارف الثلاثة يعني أن إدراك يجب أن نرى شيئا كما هو إدراك ومرده إلى المعارف الثلاثة يعني أنه يجب أن نرى شيئا كما هو معارفة للعبد ربه العلم تعرف ربه ودينه وعرف ربه ونبيه وعرف ربه صلى الله عليه وسلم لذا إذا كان يقول العلم هو يفعله في مؤمنة الشرعي في مؤمنة الشرعي العلم الذي يجب أن نرى في حالة الشرعي يوجد دعاء العلم الذي يجب أن نرى أن نرى بشريعة يوجد دعاء أول أحد هو العلم الذي يجب أن نرى أنه يتوضي إلى الله معارفة صلى الله عليه وسلم هذا هو أول وهذا هو العلم الشرعي والأخر هو هذا الذي يجب أن نرى أنه يتوضي للمؤمنة الشرعي أنه لا يتوضي للمؤمنة الشرعي لذا المؤمنة التي يتوضي للمؤمنة الشرعي معارفة للعبد ربه ومعارفة ومعارفة لدين الإسلام وان now is the religion of Islam because this جارن المجرور بالأدلة بأ is حرف جر الأدلة is اسمه مجرور جارن المجرور is all connected to it's connected to what the authors already mentioned before which is معارفة الله ومعارفة ونبيه ومعارفة to the religion of Islam it's not only the last one which is that you have to know evidences for which is all three is connected to all three of those you have to know them with evidence evidences and the author when he says that you have to know them with evidences brothers pay attention to this is very important when the sharia has requested from you to know these three pay attention knowing Allah knowing the prophet knowing the religion of Islam with evidences with evidences and the knowing is of two types that's needed from you one is called معارفة الإجمالية and that is a person coming to learn and studying what is known as أصول الشرع وكلياته the comprehensive matters related to the religion in other words the person he learns this issue in a comprehensive manner he knows that there's evidences regarding it he may not study in details but in general he knows as a comprehensive point that there's an evidences for it he knows for example that this is obligatory on everybody he knows that he also knows what's فرضو عينه on each and everybody he'll say ذور yeah everybody has to pray it this is a comprehensive knowledge that he has and there's another type of knowledge which is المعرفة التفصيلية it is detailed knowledge that's required for it and this goes back to أحادي المسائل when you look at each an individual matter he knows every evidences for it the knowledge that the author here is talking about is المعرفة الإجمالية it's the comprehensive knowledge that the person has to know the army doesn't have to know each and every مسألاء he doesn't have to have knowledge of it the one who needs to come with the معرفة التفصيلية is who it is the Alim the Mufti, the Qadi the Teacher and others as for the other person who's from the general mass if he has a معرفة إجمالية a comprehensive knowledge then that's sufficient for him the second yeah the second thing that the person has to know is where he has to come with is العملو به implementation of it the fourth thing after knowledge the second thing is العملو به implementation به goes back to knowledge implementing what you already learnt what it means implementation is the definition for it is ظهوره it has to be apparent on you خطاب الشرق على العبد wherever the shari'a addressed you with it has to be apparent on you and the addressing of the shari'a as of two types خطاب which is known as خطاب خبري the shari'a told you information it told you that the hour is going to come الله said وأن الساعة آتية الله ريبة فيها that the hour will come there is no doubt there is no doubt there is no doubt there is no doubt ريبة فيها that the hour will come there is no doubt about it وماربك بظلام للعبيد الله is not one who oppresses his slaves this is information خبر الله is informing you of there's an action needed regarding it what's the action that's needed from this one تصديقا وإثباتا you believe in it you believe in it and you affirm it and this action is actions pertaining to your heart it's عمل القلبي and action of the heart needs to come here which is to believe in it اثباتا ونفيا wherever the shari'a affirms you affirm wherever the shari'a negates you negate wherever the shari'a states to you in terms of news and it tells you that's going to happen the action that's needed from you to come with here is what it is it is that the shari'a is addressing you here by requesting from you to come with an action he wants you to do an action is requesting you to do something here this is the one which is needed from you to do is you have to do you follow his command and you stay away from his prohibition so he tells you to pray he tells you to fast you fast but you also have to believe in it you can't just say I pray and I fast also what's needed at that particular point is the ruling regarding it you have to believe it for example somebody prays ضهر and he goes I don't believe it's wajib but I'm praying anyways when you're praying Allah doesn't just want the action merely from you but also the belief is with it that's what action means the third one is calling to what calling to the knowledge which you have attained the third thing that's needed from you is what we need to know brothers is Dawah stands on 3 pillars Dawah stands on 3 pillars any Dawah that doesn't stand on these 3 pillars is a Dawah which is fasheela a Dawah that is working towards corruption it's a Dawah that is going to bring about more harm than it's going to bring about any benefit and that is in one ayah in the Quran Allah says سبحانه وتعالى قل هذه سبيل أدعو إلى الله على بصيرت ألا ومن اتبعني وسبحان الله وما أنا من المشركين قل هذه سبيل the first pillar is that your Dawah is the path of the messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم قل هذه سبيل this is my path your Dawah has to be in accordance to the Dawah of the messenger the things that he did is what you do and the things that he stood stay away from you stay away from قل هذه سبيل this is my path the first pillar is that Dawah has a path the question here that we have to ask ourselves is the path for Dawah توقيفي in a sense where are you allowed to add anything to it and deduct anything from it if you want the answer is no you can't the path of Dawah is set if it wasn't set the Prophet wouldn't say this is my path to Dawah Dawah is a path that's set in the messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم the 23 years he was calling the people to the religion was Allah telling him how to do it was Allah not telling him how to do it Allah was and Allah was guiding him to it صلى الله عليه وسلم the path of Dawah is مرصوم it's set you're not allowed to introduce anything in that path for you قف حيث وقف القوم stand where the previous nations stood وقل بما قالوا and say what they said so this is where the scholars then take out are and a sheet permissible to do Dawah through it in the sheets they say it's not permissible because the path of Dawah is what the Prophet could have done that he could have taken that path did he choose to? no توقيفي خلاص ولهادي سبيلي is my path the second pillar the second pillar is the first one many things fall under it the sheets fall under it doing Dawah through demonstration and waking the people up is it no it's not accepted because the path of Dawah is set as we said again it goes back to that point لا مجالا للرأي فيه it's not open for any opinions and discussions the second is إلا الله you're calling to Allah the second pillar the eyes telling you هلهادي سبيلي ادعو إلا الله I call to Allah you don't call to politics you don't call to yourself and your organization you don't call to your sheikh you're not calling to a sheikh that you've set and you're saying everybody follow this sheikh you're calling the people to who what's your job إلا الله you're calling to Allah a Dawah has to be based upon calling to Allah سبحانه وتعالى if you're calling people to other than Allah then this is a Dawah as I said it's going to bring about harm then it's going to bring about any good and last but not least is it's based upon insight insight here means knowledge any Dawah that's not done with علم and it's done with جهل is a Dawah which is فاشلة scholars have said previously this ayah has summarized أصول دعوة this ayah has summarized the foundation and the أصول of what دعوة should be about anybody if you want to see if he's got a Dawah correct this ayah is what he needs to look at each point I did so much things that can be said about it and there's many other more evidences that can be brought because as we said before the time won't allow us the time won't allow us and this itself should be done المسألة الرابعة the fourth masala that everybody has to come with and have knowledge of الصبر على الأدى فيه patient upon the harm which you endure in knowledge الصبر على الأدى فيه the patient that you have to come with is whilst you're seeking knowledge also whilst you're implementing that knowledge and also whilst you're calling to that knowledge all three of them they need patients the patient goes back to في العلم تعلماً وعملاً ودعوةً the knowledge which you're calling the people the knowledge that you're learning as we were talking about it today in the شرح of تعظيم العلم what did we say? knowledge what does it need صبر صبر what تعليم teaching and educating the people also needs it needs patients it's hard to leave your house sit in front of people and teach them وعملاً and also implementing is hard last but not least ودعوةً أمان came to عبد عزيز من عبدالله بنباز عريه رحمة الله من الله is never ending ما سيبقى upon him he was the Imam of our time عبد عزيز من عبدالله بنباز أمان came up to him and he cried to him and he saddened because he was giving Da'a for so long and he felt like all the doors were closing on him and he never felt like his Da'a was bringing out any fruits and that's something a Da'a always feels am I blowing into mid air am I watering the desert sometimes feels like that so this man he felt that way and he came to عبد عزيز من عبدالله بنباز and he told him this is how I feel بنباز took his palm بنباز was very old but look what he said and look how deep it hit and that's how the Ulama see things he took his palm and he said يا أيها الذين أمروا صبرو وصابرو ورابطوا واتقوا الله لعلكم تفلحون he said have you come with these four four characteristics once you find these four characteristics in you and you come with it then Allah will give you success the first of that is يا أيها الذين أمروا صبرو will be patient first one is patience come with these characteristics of patience and that's the characteristics he never leaves off and the sheikh the person can't say to عبد عزيز من عبدالله بنباز I came with all four if he did he would not have been in the first place if he was patient he would have still carried on many people connect their دعوة based on number and how many people they've got following them and that's what they think that they are successful in their دعوة if they've got a large amount of people following them then they have truly made a base of دعوة a prophet is going to come and no one is with him does that mean that that prophet that prophet is a profession نبي الله نوح وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَمْنَا نُوحًا إِلَا قُومِ فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ إِلَّا خَمْسِينَ عَامًا نوح was sent to his people for 950 years and the only amount of people who followed him were people who could go on a boat with animals in there as well the ark which had animals and people that was what took religion from him نبي الله نوح 950 years he was giving دعوة for he's never connected their دعوة to the fruits of their work and that's why many people drop off from giving دعوة they stop it because from the get go they connected it to the followers and how the people are the way you need to look at the people is that the people are like a sick patient who doesn't want to take his medicine and sometimes when a person doesn't want to take their medicine and if they don't take it, they're going to die you force that medicine on them the reason why you're doing that is for what so they can live so they can become better, healthier so it's not always about giving the people what they want الله says in the Quran وَقَضَى رَبُكَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُ إِلَّا إِيَّا هُوَ بِالْوَالِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانَا إِمَّا يَبْلُغَنَّا عِندَكَ الْكِبْرَا أَحَدُّهُمَ أَوْكِلَا هُمَا فَلَا تَقُلَّهُمَا أُفْفِ وَلَا تَنْهَرْهُمَا وَقُلَّهُمَا قَوْلًا كَرِيمًا وَقُفِضِ لَهُمَا جَنَا حَذُذُلِ مِنَ الْرَحْمَا وَقُلْ رَبِّرْحَمْ هُمَا كَمَا رَبْ بَيَانِ سَغِيرًا رَبُّكُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا فِينُ فُوْسِكُمْ يَوْ مَمْ الله says I know what's in your heart when you're dealing with your parents some of them are fascinating they took from this that if you force on you go against your parents for something that is in it they're good and that's what you want Allah says don't worry I won't hold you account for what you've done I will hold you account for what you intended ربُّكُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا فِينُ فُوْسِكُمْ Allah says I know what's in your heart I know that when you were forcing your mum to take that her parasita more and she was telling you I'm going to curse you if you'd give it to me and saying mum you can curse me if you want I'm going to give it to you that force that you're forcing on your mum that is not disrespect that's your own mum that you're forcing a worldly good for her فَمَا بَالُكَدًا what do you think about أمم نايشن فوسن down their throat تَوْحِيدَنْ سُنَّا because it's there saving them from the hell fire there's nothing wrong with it it's in it in there good now don't let my statement be taken out of place I don't mean have soo'ul adab and bad etiquettes and bad dealings with the people and try to use that as an excuse manners is needed in the way you portray your message and the way you say it but people have misunderstood manners with concealing the truth and I think أليباب القرافية كتاب الفروق there needs to be put a veil on it added differences and the frook between what's matters and what is it mean being there for you and giving you what you need that's very important so the definition of patience is حبس نفسي is to imprison your nefs على حكم الله on the rule of Allah حكم of Allah is what you imprison your nefs on the hukum of Allah is two types حكم which is قدري and حكم which is شرعي حكم means rules and regulations and legislations صبر means to imprison yourself on Allah's legislations Allah's legislations is categorized and it's divided into how much it's divided into two حكم which is a legislation which is universal it's a universal legislation that's number one number two is number two is شرعي legislation the author here his statement here he means both of them when he's talking about imprisoning your nefs on the hukum of Allah he means the قدري and he means the شرعي the قدري in what angle sometimes you become sick that's a universal sign الله سبحانه وتعالى has destined for you to be sick to lose a loved one that you love your father your mother the second one is what the second one is شرعي which is the أحكام of the شريعة ابن القيين brings three out of that from the شرعي ابن القيين brings three out of it sorry two out of it ابن القيين brings two out of it the first one is الصبر على طاعة الله patience upon Allah's الله's obedience doing as Allah command you سبحانه وتعالى getting up for a fejar praying Salatul fejar with وضو patience it needs the second one is الصبر عن محارم الله patience from the things Allah has prohibited سبحانه وتعالى