How to Spend Spring Break (The Best Way)

Spring break is nonexistent at EMU. This is primarily for one reason, it takes place the first week of March. The first week of March is not spring for obvious reasons. Somewhere I read it was actually "mid-semester recess." This is a better term for this week which though it falls directly mid-term, is still in the middle of winter. The Monday of my spring break, it snowed, hard, in Virginia.

There are three ways to spend Spring Break.

1. Hit all the beaches in Florida (and/or Mexico), get drunk, lay nude in the sun, party, and have an AWESOME time!!! Whoohoo!!!!!


2. Go home where your family will no doubt have a long list of chores for you. They might actually be excited about seeing you again but they'll still make you work.


3. Visit friends or extended family, do homework and enjoy the peace and calm. Read a book.

My spring break is the later. I get to visit family that I haven't seen in almost two years, I get to kick back and work on papers due the second half of my semester. Ideally, I would kill to visit some random place I've never been to before (that's the overseas dweller in me which can never be successfully repressed). But duty first and I do have a lot of homework and my preference is to spread a little bit of homework over a long period of time to generally avoid stress and all-nighters. This is also the overseas dweller in me, always be prepared in case of evacuation, power outages, or a pandemic flu.

Spring break is designed to be just that, a break. For me, it's a break from trying to understand an alienating culture and remember what it's like to think without external coercion. But if kicking back and getting the academic out of your mind in Myrtle Beach with all your pals works, more power to you. I wouldn't enter into it expecting to make decisions free from external coercion, just remember that.

How Reverse Culture Shock Hit Me

As the end of my fifth week as an American college student draws to a close, I've begun to realized I've developed a pattern.

Monday: "That was a interesting class! I love this country!"

Tuesday Evening: "I hate this country! Everyone is so opinionated and I can't relate!"

Wednesday: sigh..."I should do homework...nah...I need coffee first."

Thursday: "Who am I kidding?! What the heck am I doing in Virginia?!"

Friday: "The weekend! I'm going to get so much done!"

Saturday morning: "I love sleeping in...maybe I should walk to Food Lion."

Saturday evening: "Weekends suck! Everyone goes home! I can't go home! I hate my life!"

Sunday: "I love church. I love my church friends. America is a decent place."

And it repeats, going into week six.

As a TCK, life in a small American college is a series of ups and downs; the desire to be American combined with the desperate attempts to find something familiar. Life here has only made me more aware of my multiculturalism. While EMU celebrates diversity, it doesn't exactly know how to encourage the manifestation of it...unless you plan on marching in a peace rally or play bluegrass on the guitar. EMU is a small school. If you're not related to someone, you must have attended high school with them or at least been best friends with someone they dated.

I'm still discovering how my unique TCK inspired identity fits in here. This is only fitting because as classes increase in intensity, I realize the social is reserved for the freshmen and sophies. This is where I want to be, I remind myself several times a day. If I drink enough coffee, maybe my life will make more sense.

Today is Thursday...typically a rather low day but today is actually pretty good! So while I continuing my attempts to understand all I encounter, I can attest to the fact the reverse culture shock isn't a myth...

How Americans Perceive College

Since returning to my country of origin in the United States, I discovered any interesting truth. People suddenly understand me. It's not because I came from Pakistan (gosh no!). It's not because I'm suddenly a better speaker (verbally I'm a total retard). It's not because I'm suddenly more American (yea right!). It's because I'm going to college.

People understand the concept of college. You get into your little old car, pack all the stuff you ever owned including the kitchen sink, you party your heart out, you stay up all night, you pack on a few pounds, you meet someone and get married and hopefully in there somewhere you learned enough to earn a slip of paper at the end of four years to make it all worthwhile. That...is college in the mind of mainstream America.

I don't really know what college means to me yet. 18 months distance learning taught me the value of education and the need for application into the environment in which you live. I enjoyed the learning process and more then anything I enjoyed practicing time management. Having finally arrived at college as it exist in the traditional sense, I find myself baffled as the learning remains but there is a limited environment in which to apply your findings. There exists only a campus of fellow students who may or may not have chosen college for reasons other then that elusive slip of paper. We certainly are encouraged to practice application, yet for me it feels strange after living in the drama of Pakistan and Zimbabwe. That it itself is a huge adjustment for a little overseas dwelling person like me!

I have a lot to learn about life at college. I already know about college but life at college is another subject. While I'll be taking globalization and justice, peacebuilding theories, and program evaluation among others, I'll be learning and analysing what exactly gives college it's charm. To me, that's of huge interest!

How a Blog Refects the Author

As most post, this one will be informative (or at least that's what happens with...some...a few...maybe none of my posts are informative). With my life taking a new turn, so will my blog in refection of new experiences and new ideas.

Over the holiday season I returned to the United States to finish the last two years of university. With the first two years out of the way by using online programs, I'm physically attending Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg Virginia as a student in their world-known Peace and Justice department. The subject falls in line with much of what I might have shared in this blog and I'm honored to be part of the program and attending a university which celebrates diversity.

Upon my return to the States I discovered what I've long suspected, I have a muted inner-American. This was only confirmed with my craving for foreign food, the discovery that life without mosque noise is bizarre, and perplexity in the knowledge I'm now an ethnic majority. After life in foreign lands I'm innately multicultural. Yet despite the fact I now reside in my country of origin, I continue to view my new world and the world at large multiculturally and will pass on the insight to you.

I'm already facing new adventures including the need to learn the local language. Virginians are proud of their accent. I intend on finding many more adventures at university. First of all, living in a dorm with strangers, adapting to American food in a cafeteria and adjusting to a new climate, are challenges enough.

How New Years Divides Us

Happy New Year to anyone who thinks it's New Years! Perhaps this seems strange, I'll admit I'm being very strange indeed but needless to say for some people, it's just an ordinary day. I say this because I've found calenders, dating systems, and new year celebrations to be some of the most diverse around the world.

Contrasting Christmas, New Years has the most flavor of any holiday. The Muslims have their own calender dating from Muhammad, the Ethiopians have their own calender and clock (living there had many communications difficulties. The Chinese are the most famous in terms of the alternative calenders.

As a kid I thought the ball dropping in NYC was absurd. I thought staying up till midnight was fabulous until study habits changed and staying up till midnight became a normal part of life. As a kid I loved getting free money in red envelops with the rest of the Chinese children during the three days of New Year. But one thing I've never grown tired of is celebrating New Years, in whatever nation, on whatever calender and at any time of the year. This does create problems concerning the establishment of revolutions so in that case, I selected January 1 as my New Years. Happy New Year!

How Christmas Unifies Us

As my favorite day for blog updates comes around (the blessed Thursday) I find myself celebrating one of the oldest, most renown and important holidays of the year with the greater part of humanity. It's an exciting time, and different types of festivities can be noted in every culture. For expats, Christmas is the most important holiday and a period where many of us take our home leave back to our home countries so we can be with family, friends and those who matter most to us.

I will offer one cross-cultural observation, did you ever stop and consider how many people on earth at this very moment are celebrating Christmas? It's one holiday which transcends continents and many cultures, an imported into some nations but then ingrained in their cultures. That in itself is remarkable. The Aussis may hit the beach, Americans pray for a "white Christmas" and the Germans set up their Christmas markets yet in the end we are all marking the same date, the day that Christ was born.

How you spend Christmas is no doubt slightly different then mine. But that's just part of the magic and significance, Christmas is for everyone. Even those who don't note is as a national holiday still in their own way mark the date because that's how ingrained it has become. Love it, enjoy it, and God bless us....everyone.

How to Finish an AA Online

I can finally say I've finished university. I have graduated, I can breath in a deep breath of air, enjoy the freedom, revel in the delight and joy of no responsibilities...or can I? Actually I'm only half done. I've finished my first two years of university with an AA degree, half way to a final four year degree. Nonetheless, it's a degree, it's a great place to be and by transferring in four classes and taking a summer semester, I completed two years in 18 months.

Having now finished the mountain of former problems blend into a mirage of memories including bad internet, bad math homework, a few locational moves, couple of tankers worth of coffee, and maybe even a few fits of rage at whatever thing was supposed to function but wasn't...I live overseas...remember? The mirage notwithstanding, I'm glad to finish and be on to new adventures. It's time to try something else.

I learned a few tricks for online success. 1) Drink coffee, lots of coffee because if you don't you'll be sorry. That's all I can say. 2) Work ahead, the internet often dies, the teachers are late responding to email the school site goes down so you've got to stay a few days ahead. 3) Play the "I live overseas card," okay...I used this trick with the profs when I truly did have an excuse and it worked well though playing the card normally meant there was a problem with resulted in more work for me so in the end it's a negative thing.

Sadly I didn't get to wear the funny graduation outfit. I'll have to wait another two years for that privilege. I'll have to work even longer, harder, endure strange food, more professors who take forever to grade homework and more poorly written papers by other students who constantly forget to justify their page margins. But now that's just a part of life.