For international students with relatives in the Middle East, the war in Iraq has been especially worrying.

Dima Nuseibah (senior-advertising) said she was concerned communications would go down between herself and her family in Kuwait.

"In the beginning we were all just a little bit shaky," she said.

Waseem Hanna (junior-mechanical engineering), spokesman for the Penn State Arab Union Society, has an uncle and two cousins in southern Iraq, and said their phone line has been dead since the war began.

But many students who have family in Middle Eastern countries still talk to their families regularly. Haithem Shelbi (junior-chemical engineering) has family in Saudi Arabia.

"I call them often to make sure they are all right," Shelbi said.

He said the region in which his family lives is rich in oil, which makes it dangerous in case of strikes.

"Almost always they pretend to be OK so that I do not have to worry," Shelbi said.

Other students stay in touch through the Internet.

"Every time a missile gets launched in Iraq on Kuwait my sister [instant messages] me and tells me everything is fine," Abdullah Al-Mutairi (senior-petroleum and natural gas engineering) said.

"I'm always anxious. I'm always watching the news," Shuhaibar said.

Faisal Al Ibrahim (junior-accounting and economics) said the majority of Saudi Arabians are living normal lives.

However, most schools in Kuwait have been closed for more than two months and will begin to reopen in a couple of weeks, Nuseibah said. Businesses closed down for a few days at the start of the war and sirens now go off regularly. She said her family members gathered in their basement.

"It was a pretty big deal," Nuseibah said. "The first time was scary."

Kareem Shuhaibar (freshman-advertising) said his relatives in Kuwait hear at least five sirens go off each day. He remembers the distinct noise because he lived in Kuwait right before the first Gulf War -- he left the day before the fighting began. Some of his relatives fled to Lebanon two weeks ago to seek safety, he said.

Some other students are troubled by the current war because of their memories of living through the first Gulf War. Shuhaibar fears for his family in Kuwait, especially because an Iraqi missile destroyed part of a shopping mall he frequented while growing up there.

"I am worried about my family because I was there during the Gulf War. We never knew what was going to happen next," Shelbi said.

Hanna lived in suburban Iraq until he was 15 years old and said it was "horrible" living in Iraq during the first Gulf War.

Many Middle Eastern students anticipate going back to their home countries once they graduate.

However, it is a problem for most students to go home during breaks now because of the complications with renewing visas.

The war has also changed some students' future plans because of travel difficulties.

"Most of [my friends] are planning to do a master's in two or three years, but with visa issues we might do it in Australia or Europe," said Khalid Al-Ahmed (senior-computer science). He said this causes a lot of inconvenience.

"My parents have been looking forward to coming to my graduation, but they might not come here because of what's going on," Al-Ahmed said.