A Nigerian man helped me with the laundry machine yesterday.
A Pakistani man showed me how to use the bus and brought me to his neighborhood, a predominately Pakistani neighborhood.
In this Pakistani neighborhood we ate at Lahore’s Kebab & Pizza House run by Kashmiris from India.
I’m the only native speaking English student in Intercultural Communication.
I’m one of two native speaking female students in the department, but the only American.
I’m one of four native speakers in the entire department, two are American.
My department has students from Korea, Taiwan, China, Brunei, Vietnam, Spain, Algeria, Germany, Pakistan, the UK, the US, Japan and Iran.
I went shopping with my Ghanaian neighbor and we met his Nigerian friend in the city center last week.
I hear Arabic, Spanish and French on the bus.
A Chinese woman asked me for advice.
I’m working on a project with a woman from Iran.
My Sri Lankan neighbor advises me as I attempt to make dahl. She tasted my dahl and approved.
I share my fridge with a man from Korea. He told me where I can buy Japanese udon and miso.
There is an American down the hall who lived in Arden Hills, MN and went to college in Iowa. So did I.
The Chinese restaurants in my neighborhood all advertise “Fish & Chips”.
The “Fish & Chips” shop in my neighborhood sells chicken tikka and naan.
In high school ‘diversity’ was across town.
In college we talked about ‘diversity’ in our seminars, we looked for it on our campus but we didn’t see it.
In my professional experiences, diversity has been limited to interacting with 1-2 different culture groups at once.
In the last three weeks, I have interacted with more people from different cultures, religions and countries than in my entire life.
Sometimes you don’t need to travel to find the world, you just need to know where in the world to go.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Exploring old Brum
The Japan to India 2007 tour is officially over. And here I am, in Birmingham, England about to start classes. After hours and hours of worrying about visas and procedures and documents, I made it into the country without even a skeptical glance. It was almost disappointing considering all the documents I had printed, ordered, requested and copied to prove my legitimate status as a student for the coming four months. But I'm here. I arrived in good 'ole Brum (as it's apparently known) two days after arriving in the UK. I spent the first day recuperating from travel with relatives in Sussex. I spent the second day with a friend's family eating gourmet food in Swindon. And now, I'm here.
I woke up to sunny skies today! A miracle! To keep myself occupied and to soak up that precious Vitamin D, I layered on the coats and jumped on the train to explore the city center. It is an active downtown full of people of all shapes, sizes, nationalities, religions, and cultural backgrounds. There were Sikhs driving buses and eating hot dogs, Indians shopping at the Chinese grocery store, and hordes and hordes of people from all walks of life looking for the best bargains in the open markets! On one street corner there was a kilt wearing man playing the bagpipes and across the street their were Hare Krishna's playing instruments and chanting. The obvious diversity of the city after traveling (and living in) very homogeneous cultures is a pleasant change.
At the library I picked up all the brochures I could find about lovely ole Brum. There seems to be a lot going on and if I have the time (and money) I can take in museums and theater galore. Not to mention explore places like Stratford-Upon-Avon, Coventry, and Warwick. My schedule could get pretty busy in the next four months and that's without classes!
I tried to take in the sights and sounds of this new town. And how best to do that than by eating food from a cart--the local greasy stuff. I got chips 'n curry. This really translates to a slightly curry flavored sauce smothering a plate of french fries. It was ok, but for $3, it was about the cheapest food on the street. After standing on the street and stuffing my face with grease, I needed a different kind of cultural experience. So I ordered a latte and sat at Starbucks people watching! But I won't be doing that very often. A tall latte is about $6US! Eek!
My new humble abode for the next four months. I am only onw of about 80 people (including 20+ children) from 25+ countries living here. I have a small room with a shared bathroom and shared kitchen. My very friendly and helpful neighbor is from Sri Lanka. Others I've met on my floor are from France, China and the Congo. But my fridge buddy is a kimchee lovin' Korean--fridge stinks!! The trials and tribulations of international living!
I woke up to sunny skies today! A miracle! To keep myself occupied and to soak up that precious Vitamin D, I layered on the coats and jumped on the train to explore the city center. It is an active downtown full of people of all shapes, sizes, nationalities, religions, and cultural backgrounds. There were Sikhs driving buses and eating hot dogs, Indians shopping at the Chinese grocery store, and hordes and hordes of people from all walks of life looking for the best bargains in the open markets! On one street corner there was a kilt wearing man playing the bagpipes and across the street their were Hare Krishna's playing instruments and chanting. The obvious diversity of the city after traveling (and living in) very homogeneous cultures is a pleasant change. 
At the library I picked up all the brochures I could find about lovely ole Brum. There seems to be a lot going on and if I have the time (and money) I can take in museums and theater galore. Not to mention explore places like Stratford-Upon-Avon, Coventry, and Warwick. My schedule could get pretty busy in the next four months and that's without classes!
I tried to take in the sights and sounds of this new town. And how best to do that than by eating food from a cart--the local greasy stuff. I got chips 'n curry. This really translates to a slightly curry flavored sauce smothering a plate of french fries. It was ok, but for $3, it was about the cheapest food on the street. After standing on the street and stuffing my face with grease, I needed a different kind of cultural experience. So I ordered a latte and sat at Starbucks people watching! But I won't be doing that very often. A tall latte is about $6US! Eek!
My new humble abode for the next four months. I am only onw of about 80 people (including 20+ children) from 25+ countries living here. I have a small room with a shared bathroom and shared kitchen. My very friendly and helpful neighbor is from Sri Lanka. Others I've met on my floor are from France, China and the Congo. But my fridge buddy is a kimchee lovin' Korean--fridge stinks!! The trials and tribulations of international living!
Saturday, January 05, 2008
New Years Transitions
This year I spent my New Years holiday in Mamallapuram, India, on a British Airways flight and in Sussex, England. Here's what it looked like:
New Years Eve--Our last family meal together poolside at Ideal Beach Resort. The buffet dinner came complete with a choice of continental, Chinese, tandoori, S.Indian, N.Indian, or Sri Lankan cuisine. While eating dinner we were entertained with classical music, classical dance, a folk performance and comedy sketches by the staff. It was a very festive meal in a beautiful resort in Southern India--a day of good-byes to people and places!
New Years Day--Just hours later, I was walking around the countryside of Sussex with my aunt and uncle. I saw beautiful tree lined lanes, old churches, sheep and horses grazing and it was significantly COLDER!
New Years Day Dinner--chicken, beans & mushrooms and cous cous! A delicious reintroduction to western cuisine with family I haven't seen in years! It was a very warm welcome to a new and very chilly country!
New Years Eve--Our last family meal together poolside at Ideal Beach Resort. The buffet dinner came complete with a choice of continental, Chinese, tandoori, S.Indian, N.Indian, or Sri Lankan cuisine. While eating dinner we were entertained with classical music, classical dance, a folk performance and comedy sketches by the staff. It was a very festive meal in a beautiful resort in Southern India--a day of good-byes to people and places!
New Years Day--Just hours later, I was walking around the countryside of Sussex with my aunt and uncle. I saw beautiful tree lined lanes, old churches, sheep and horses grazing and it was significantly COLDER!
New Years Day Dinner--chicken, beans & mushrooms and cous cous! A delicious reintroduction to western cuisine with family I haven't seen in years! It was a very warm welcome to a new and very chilly country!
Friday, January 04, 2008
Christmas in Madurai, India
Christmas of 2007 will go down in the family history book as unique and special. As a family we made a conscious decision to celebrate this year with as little of the traditional materialistic fanfare as possible. On Christmas Day there were no stockings, no cinnamon rolls, no tree and no presents from Santa. As much as I love all of those traditions, it was refreshing to wake up and acknowledge the day as most any other day. Instead of focusing on unwrapping unneeded items for hours with obligatory 'ooh' and 'ahh' or 'i've always wanted....' (but not really meaning much of it), we headed off for a day of fun and celebration with some truly amazing kids and volunteers!
Instead of cinnamon rolls and coffee we ate masala dosai, onion othappum and idli at our favorite local restaurant, Meenakshi Bhavan. We took one of the SEED Plan volunteers and her mother out with us to celebrate the Christmas morning! We only found out later that it was the FIRST time her mother had eaten in a restaurant. At the risk of sounding colonial, it was fun to be able to give her an experience she had not had before. It wasn't a fancy restaurant, it wasn't extravagant by any stretch of the imagination, but her life situation has never given her that opportunity to be served. She has always served others.
After breakfast we convened at the SEED center with all the volunteers and other visitors and got into two vans headed for the other two SEED centers in Sambakudi and Thathenary. Each center was decked out in decorations, drawings and the students at each center had dances, songs and speeches prepared to celebrate the day!
Our very small contribution to the festivities was cake for each of the centers. In the US cake is purchased by size, in India you purchase it by weight. So in total, we purchased over 9kgs (20lbs) of cake for the 3 centers! It was ALL happily devoured! We also sang with each of the groups. It wasn't very elaborate, but we also sang some pretty enthusiastic rounds of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas". I didn't know it could be so much fun (or loud)!
After visiting the two outlying centers, we returned to Madurai and went back to Meenakshi Bhavan for meals! All the volunteers and visitors crammed into the restaurant and gorged on rice, sambar, rasam, vegetables, papads, curd and sweets. Again, this was the first time some of these volunteers had eaten a 'South Indian meal' as such!
After lunch we had one more event at the main SEED Center in Karumpalai. Two of the kids were dressed as Ms. & Mr. Claus! They must have been cooking under that outfit, but they didn't seem bothered and played the part for the festivities! At one point they did a dance and gave out presents from their little bags. It was all very very cute!
No function or event at the SEED Centers is complete without lots of singing and dancing!!! It is what they do best! It is always great fun to see their amazing choreography and new cinema dance moves!
It was a very very Merry Christmas!! It wasn't traditional, but it was very memorable--spending time with amazing kids and volunteers, being together as a family, sharing and celebrating with so many people in a different country! And there were no presents to return, no decorations to put away, no tree to dismantle, and no after Christmas sales to bother with!! I think this is the kind of Christmas I'd like to recreate in the future!
Instead of cinnamon rolls and coffee we ate masala dosai, onion othappum and idli at our favorite local restaurant, Meenakshi Bhavan. We took one of the SEED Plan volunteers and her mother out with us to celebrate the Christmas morning! We only found out later that it was the FIRST time her mother had eaten in a restaurant. At the risk of sounding colonial, it was fun to be able to give her an experience she had not had before. It wasn't a fancy restaurant, it wasn't extravagant by any stretch of the imagination, but her life situation has never given her that opportunity to be served. She has always served others.
After breakfast we convened at the SEED center with all the volunteers and other visitors and got into two vans headed for the other two SEED centers in Sambakudi and Thathenary. Each center was decked out in decorations, drawings and the students at each center had dances, songs and speeches prepared to celebrate the day!
Our very small contribution to the festivities was cake for each of the centers. In the US cake is purchased by size, in India you purchase it by weight. So in total, we purchased over 9kgs (20lbs) of cake for the 3 centers! It was ALL happily devoured! We also sang with each of the groups. It wasn't very elaborate, but we also sang some pretty enthusiastic rounds of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas". I didn't know it could be so much fun (or loud)!After visiting the two outlying centers, we returned to Madurai and went back to Meenakshi Bhavan for meals! All the volunteers and visitors crammed into the restaurant and gorged on rice, sambar, rasam, vegetables, papads, curd and sweets. Again, this was the first time some of these volunteers had eaten a 'South Indian meal' as such!
After lunch we had one more event at the main SEED Center in Karumpalai. Two of the kids were dressed as Ms. & Mr. Claus! They must have been cooking under that outfit, but they didn't seem bothered and played the part for the festivities! At one point they did a dance and gave out presents from their little bags. It was all very very cute!
No function or event at the SEED Centers is complete without lots of singing and dancing!!! It is what they do best! It is always great fun to see their amazing choreography and new cinema dance moves!
It was a very very Merry Christmas!! It wasn't traditional, but it was very memorable--spending time with amazing kids and volunteers, being together as a family, sharing and celebrating with so many people in a different country! And there were no presents to return, no decorations to put away, no tree to dismantle, and no after Christmas sales to bother with!! I think this is the kind of Christmas I'd like to recreate in the future!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
