At Libya's Academy for High Studies it is time to catch up with a lost decade.
As Libya emerges from international isolation after the lifting of United Nations sanctions, thousands of students, many of them among the future political and business leaders of the oil-rich country, have just begun a new academic year.
For the academy's director, Salah Ibrahim, the past 10 years of sanctions have felt more like 30.
"Libya was left behind at a key juncture... I can see the negative impact of the sanctions in the difficulty our students have in mastering the internet and new technology," he said.
The United Nations imposed the sanctions for the 1988 mid-air bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over the southern Scottish town of Lockerbie.
In May Libya belatedly admitted responsibility and agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the families of the 270 people killed in the bombing. This led the UN Security Council to lift the sanctions on September 12.
With their country no longer an international pariah state and their leader Muammar Gaddafi seeking to regain diplomatic respectability, Libyans seem optimistic about the future. But they also foresee problems and count missed opportunities and losses because of the sanctions.
"I earn more money now from my work at the airport. Foreigners and locals travel more frequently than before," said taxi driver Hassan Ghandour.
He listed five improvements in his life since the sanctions were lifted: a good feeling about the present, less uncertainty about the future, more money, greater purchasing power and more opportunities to travel abroad.
Mr Ghandour recalled that he had to drive for hours with relatives or friends to neighbouring Egypt or Tunisia to buy medicine.
"At the time of the sanctions, I and many of my friends were afraid to get sick. We thought we'd die because medicine was difficult to find," he said.
Markets in Tripoli are now awash with imported goods, from shirts made in Turkey to mobile phone sets of various Asian origin.
Sallam Sassi hung a streamer that read: "We're price busters" above his shoe shop.
"It's abundance now. Medicine and everything else is available," he said. "But we have to attract customers, competition is becoming tough."
Ghandour said he could buy more imported goods as prices were lower due to a stronger dinar.
The US dollar is worth 1.3 dinar at the official exchange rate but most people trade on the black market at a slightly higher rate of 1.4, which is tolerated by the authorities.
"It is not banned. I'm doing a normal business," said Kamal Semmar, a black market trader in Tripoli's old city.
Libyans said most imported goods were sold using the black market rate, except for basic consumer goods, also imported but heavily subsidised by the state.
The government spends around 700 million dinars a year on subsidies, roughly 10 per cent of the state budget, according to official figures.
Under new Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem, the government has embarked on a reform of the ailing non-oil domestic economy and is promoting a move to a market economy.
It has outlined a wide-ranging plan to privatise from January more than 360 state firms, including large steel and petrochemical companies.