In late August, I took a ten day backpacking trip to New Zealand. Over the years I have had the good fortune of being able to go on family vacations and school trips, but in the land of the Kiwis I learned the difference between being a tourist and a traveler. Gilbert Chesterton once said, “The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” ...continue reading "Becoming a Traveler"
I believe that everyone’s identities are constantly evolving with every step we take. Every time I grab coffee with a friend or listen to a professor give a lecture or even play a game of Ultimate Frisbee with my friends, I learn something new and in turn my own personal identity shifts and often grows. Most of the time the change is so subtle we hardly even take a second look and sometimes something dramatic occurs and our whole world and perspective is forever changed. In my opinion, both are important and both deserve reflection.
For me, living abroad was easily the most incredible experience of my life. Immersing yourself in a completely different culture forces you to reflect back on your own culture and your own upbringing. Throughout my time abroad I found similarities in Australian and American cultures, but I also found a lot of ´interesting cultural differences` as my orientation leader, Steve, liked to say. Recognizing these differences I found myself wondering what about our distinct communities and respective cultures made us different and what made us the same. Along with my Aussie friends, I made friends from all over the world including: The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, England, Russia, China, California, Washington, Wisconsin, Florida, Kansas, Oregon, and New York. I truly learned how much my own communities and cultures had shaped me after seeing just how much these friends’ cultures had affected them. ...continue reading "Every Step We Take"
When I first arrived in Australia, my school took all the international students on a weekend orientation trip to the beach. Part of the orientation consisted of a few presentations discussing what our study abroad experience might entail. The presenter, Steve, talked to us about the W curve of culture shock that many abroad students experience. He told us that the people, rules, culture, and places here in Australia might clash with the culture we’ve have grown up. Steve urged us to never use the phrase “wrong” when discussing these clashes. He asked us not to say “they drive on the wrong side of the road” or “they say tomato wrong.” Instead he told us to simply say “hm interesting cultural difference.” We all laughed at this, thinking of how seemingly ridiculous we would sound saying “hm interesting cultural difference.” I’ll be honest with you I didn’t take Steve too seriously. I presumed that apart from the funny accents and strange love for Vegemite that the Australian culture would be very similar to the American culture I had grown up in. After spending 5 months there, I came to find a lot of interesting cultural differences. I found that Steve was right, they were not good, bad, or even wrong, but simply interesting and I had to learn to adapt and cope with things not being as I thought they should.
Having gone to GW, a very politically aware school, for two years, parts of the culture in Australia did shock me a bit. At times it can feel like they are at least 10 years behind the United States when it comes to social liberties and politically correct statements and phrasing. This put a strain on the identity that I had built up and created for myself back at school. The community at GW had made me feel like I could be and do whatever I wanted without fear for judgment from my peers, but when I got to Australia I began to feel those pressures to not be weird or different, a lot of the same pressures I had felt in the south. ...continue reading "hm interesting cultural difference…"
Community can be defined in many different ways. Over the years the definition has changed and grown for me personally. I have come to find that the people and places that support me and help me to grow in different aspects of my life make up my communities. Here in Australia I have found communities in likely and unlikely places.
The first community, who I have grown to know and love, is my house and the people that I live with. I live on campus in what is known as the Burwood Student Village. I live with nine different people, but luckily we each have our own room! Of the nine people, five are Australian, one is from New Zealand, one is from Hong Kong, one is from Malaysia, and the last one is from New York. We have what we call ‘family dinners’ once a week (as shown in the photo above) and it is a great time to catch up and hang out. I have learned so much from these people about life and culture in their hometowns and I love them all very much. They can be crazy and sometimes even annoying (as anyone that you spend a lot of your time with can be), but this is the community that I can come home to after a long day and I know that at the end of the day (no pun intended) they will always be there for me. ...continue reading "The Communities I’ve Found Half Way Across the World"
To put into words how you identify yourself is quite an interesting task. You see to identify yourself, you must first know yourself and this is not always as easy as it sounds. Every person in this world has a million different forces and factors that make up who they are, but most people, if faced with this question, would freeze.
I can’t say that one thing or even a few things have made me who I am today. Every experience, every moment that I have had has affected me. When defining my identity I have to look at all the different cultures and background that have affected my life so far. ...continue reading "Identifying"