Diversity Exploring Part II

A Few Residents from Asbury Overseas House

(Countries Represented include: India, Venezuela, China, Italy, UK, USA,

Congo, Egypt, Vietnam, Korea, Norway)

Since I’ve moved in, my Sri Lankan, Ghanaian, Russian, Korean and French floor mates have moved out and been replaced by an female Egyptian doctor, a Christian Egyptian, a Parisian man originally from Togo, his girlfriend from Gabon and a British woman who lives in the Ukraine.

The Egyptian doctor helped me find the local GP when I was sick. She also brought me a plate of veggies with mayo one night. She studies cardiovascular disease.

I’ve had several interesting conversations about ‘liberalism’ with the Christian Egyptian in our wireless internet room which prompted me to put stickers of Hindu gods and “save Tibet’ on my laptop which prompted him to give me a few interesting looks the next time.

I met an Indian family from Madurai living in my house. And another family that used to live in Chennai.

My sticker of Lord Muruga on my computer sparks lots of conversation among the Indian children when I’m checking Internet in the common room.

During a house potluck dinner I complimented the woman from Madurai on her delicious payasam in Tamil.

Several weeks ago my German classmate invited several of us over to her flat to watch the Eurovision Decision-England. As usual I was the only native speaker among Polish, Spanish, and Korean women.

On the bus to London I sat next to a Muslim Tamil-speaking man from Sri Lanka.

On the bus coming back from London I sat next to a man from Nigeria.

I went to a birthday party for a woman from Iran. She showed us pictures from her wedding and taught us Persian dancing.

Several days later she came to my birthday dinner and brought her Persian music—more dancing with women from Germany, Spain, South Korea, the US and Iran.

While my mom was visiting, several people stopped us in stores to comment on our ‘cute’ American accent. One woman had diamond and gold studs embedded into her teeth.

In the course of my moms four-day visit we ate pub grub, Bangladeshi curry, Persian chicken with tea for two, a Full English, and enjoyed a New York family restaurant.

I gave a presentation on “English as a Global Language” with a classmate who moved here from Algeria when she was in middle school and didn’t speak ANY English. She is now studying to become an Arabic-English translator.

This same friend from Algeria invited me to her house and baked me sponge cake, biscotti, and jam cookies. While I was enjoying tea and cake, we heard the call to prayer and she went in another room and prayed.

I was invited to an Iranian New Years dinner with students from Mexico, Indonesia, Spain, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, the US and of course, Iran.

The next night I went out drinking with the above Iranians. At the table there were Americans and Iranians drinking beer, vodka, and whiskey while comparing international gestures of offense. If only the US President Bush and the Iranian President Ahmadinejad could have a similar light-hearted conversation.

I have had lots of great conversations about fundamentalist Christians with the American on my floor who is studying theology. We were kindly handed Easter ‘booklets’ by our British floor mate.

I attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade in the city center with the above mentioned American. In addition to the dance troops, bag pipers, and every other person with painted green faces, there was a Sikh drumming group and an African music group in the parade.

The rich international community and experiences I’m having in Birmingham continue to surprise me! It is unlike anything I have experienced anywhere in the world. The only sad thing is, I don’t feel like I have many British friends as part of THIS experience. Although I know lots of Brits from my three years in Japan so I don’t feel as if I’m missing out too much! If I had the money I could spend my days traveling the UK visiting them all…alas the funds have quickly disappeared and I’ll be living out my last weeks in Birmingham enjoying the diversity and multi-culturalism.

Diversity Exploring

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.

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!

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!