"Although I try, I cannot concentrate when my family and friends and associates are under the occupation of a ruthless dictator," Almudhaf said.
He said some of his Kuwaiti friends have dropped out of classes since the Iraqi invasion and flown to Saudi Arabia to join the Kuwaiti resistance. But most have registered for the fall term.
Barbara St. Urbain, director of International Services at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, which has 25 Kuwaiti students, said: "The embassy has told them the best thing they can do is stay in school, because when things stabilize, they'll have to go back and rebuild their country."
But Omar Parham, 21, who left Kuwait four months ago to attend Cal State L.A., doesn't know if he will ever go back. Parham, a Jordanian, has lived all his life in Kuwait. He had planned to study medical technology, and he had expected to get money for tuition from his father, an employee of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense.
"We have no rich government to take care of us," he said. "I still have some money for food, but in three months I won't have any money. It is very difficult for us here now."
