Currently viewing the tag: "culture"

Better Abroad is Coming

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betterabroad_final(3)We’ve been hinting about a new project here at Melibee for several months and today we’re sharing the video to introduce Better Abroad:  An Education Abroad (R)Evolution!

Pop over to Better Abroad’s home page to learn more!  If you want to be part of the (r)evolution, please help us spread the word by sharing this post or the home page for Better Abroad.

Heartfelt thanks to the Melibees for their countless hours preparing for the official launch and to our partner in (r)evolution, Amizade Global Service-Learning!

 




Perks (and Questions) for a Cinco de Mayo Birthday

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cincodemayo

cincodemayoCinco de Mayo is often an excuse for a “cerveza-fest”. In this guest post, Melibee’s Kate Kirk asks some important questions about what Cinco de Mayo and other celebrated days REALLY mean.

Growing up in the United States, I’ve always experienced a lot of festivities surrounding my May 5th birthday. Regardless of my location, be it East or West coast, my work and school would often have Cinco de Mayo celebrations, and local restaurants and bars would host festivities as well. I know … I Ioved it! This year’s work-related festivities include a party complete with fresh salsa, guacamole, sangria, and even a piñata! I admit, sometimes I feel a bit special with all the extraneous fun activities happening on my birthday. After a while I learned that this cultural tradition is not always so mindfully used.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates a victory of the Mexican Army in 1862 against French forces in the state of Puebla. Historians agree that Mexicans and Latinos living in California at the time of the American Civil War first commemorated the day in opposition to French occupation in Mexico. Interestingly, modern U.S. popular culture often mislabels it as Mexico’s Independence Day! However, Cinco de Mayo actually isn’t a national holiday. It’s only celebrated in the state of  Puebla. Quite a contrast to it’s widespread recognition in the United States!

As fun as it is having festivities in the United States on Cinco de Mayo, I question our intentions with celebrating another culture’s holiday. As with holidays like St. Patrick’s Day, I often see it as an excuse for people to consume mass quantities of alcohol, make fools of themselves in public, and even get DUIs. What’s worse, U.S. companies seem to capitalize on this holiday in an effort to make easy sales. Little of the celebration feels like a true homage to cultural heritage. I fully promote celebrating Mexican heritage and identity, but I honestly do not see that as an integral part of many U.S. festivities on cinco de Mayo.

What can be done about this attitude? As I’ve mentioned, schools often organize Cinco de Mayo events. Perhaps a greater effort can be made to explore the history surrounding the event. Schools and organizations could create events that foster dialogue as well, inviting individuals and historians of Mexican heritage to speak and entertain questions. On an individual level, we can be more self-aware. What exactly are we celebrating? Why is it important and worth commemorating? Through cross-cultural dialogue, research, and self-reflection we can become more thoughtful, globally conscious individuals, which enhances our appreciation of celebrations all the more!

katekirkAbout the Author: Kate Kirk works at the Language Institute at Georgia Tech and is one of the Melibee team members. In the past she has worked in international education and student services across the US. She is a perpetual learner and enjoys elective studies in various subjects including global education, music, and philosophy.




Third Culture Kids : We are Family

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Third Culture Kid Familes in Global Transition

Third Culture Kid Familes in Global TransitionToday’s guest blog post is by our very own Lisa Zenno, our resident TCK – Third Culture Kid.  It is beautiful to see her bloom in her role at Melibee and to explore her voice through poetry!  Read on…

families in global transition conference

Ellen,Ruth and Lisa (Photo courtesy: Ellen Mahoney, founder of Sea Change Mentoring)

It’s been two weeks since I came back from my first conference at FIGT: Families in Global Transitions.  I first heard about this conference from a former intercultural Melibee, Vanessa a couple months ago. (Gracias Vanessa!) Families in Global Transition is the first educational resource for families,  organizations and service providers. FIGT’s core beliefs lies in the idea that the positive value of the international experience maximizes both human and global potential and that resilience can be learned. I was afraid I would not belong, as I went as an independent attendee, not affiliated with any school/research, and/or any company; just an individual TCK eager to learn. Little did I know that everyone at FIGT would take me in as their own. FIGT starts as a conference full of strangers, foreigners if you will, but by the end of it, we are family.

The following is a poetic reflection inspired by Will and Kane’s workshop of spoken word.  I’ll develop this reflection further and more in depth on my personal blog if you’d like to tune in on that as well.

Freshmen ‘13

Ruth Van Reken, co-founder of FIGT

Prof. Xavier if you will

created a safe haven

for scholars, researchers, and individuals

to unite

to share

to explore

trends and research for what it is to transcend globally

the ‘cerebro’ lies in all our stories, our findings

the hidden ties, the hidden powers

lies in all of our lives

all this knowledge

all these underlying understanding

it’s hard to make the implicit explicit

yet, we try

age, race, gender does not matter

together we are one

TCK or not

whether you traveled to asia, europe, or south america,

our emotion, our feelings, our past

unites us

‘a-ha’ ~ “nods” ~ “exactly”

no place to call ‘home’

but does that make me a

mutant?

a foreigner?

no, just different.

but that difference

intrigues others

to listen.

curiosity

crosses boundaries.

“cultural integration and the illusion of closeness”

was the theme for this conference.

keynote speaker Pico Iyer said it best

“home is a project, a place where you become yourself’

“home is a piece of ‘soul’ not your ‘soil’”

It’s not where you come from

but where you are going.

#figt13 tweets

facebook, linkedin, skype

we are surrounded by

communication

but

face-to-face

is the most important.

the KEY to bridging gaps.

Ruth’s first question to me

“What’s your story?”

instead of

“Who are you?”

opened, no, held the door

for me to enter.

I felt her hand reach out,

reaching to bring me

‘home’.

I can’t wait

to go back

‘home’

next year.

Remember though,

This is just my story.

Do share yours.

lisazennoAbout the Author:  Risa Zenno is a TCK who goes by Lisa.  She works at the Art Institute of Seattle as an enrollment processor.  In her spare time, she loves volunteering time for international education. She is a mentor to young people through Sea Change Mentoring. She considers herself a life-long learner and hopes to continue expanding her interest within international education.  She also just celebrated her one year anniversary as a Melibee!




Outlawed in Pakistan

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Outlawed in Pakistan Documentary about rape and law

outlawedinpakistanI’m two films in at my annual visit to the incredible Full Frame Documentary Festival in Durham, North Carolina – and wow, this is proving to be an outstanding year for documentaries!  I rarely stop at the festival to write immediately after seeing a film, but “Outlawed in Pakistan” warrants it.  On a gray day in Durham, this film seriously socked me in the gut and woke me up.

With the recent news of more gang rapes in New Delhi (India), Ohio (USA) and most recently, in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), this timing of this film raises the subject about how we, as societies, are allowing women to be raped and then forcing them to fight for justice with difficult legal battles, at times, under impossible situations.

This is the case for Kainat, a 13 year old Pakinstani girl, who accuses four men of gang raping her.  With the support of her immediate family, she speaks out about this violent crime and files a court case against her accusers, aiming simply for “justice”.  In a tribal justice system, Kainat is “outlawed” by the village elders.  They attempt to silence her with money and are infuriated that her elder brother has not killed her for her accusations and “impurity”.  And if that is all horrific enough for you, here is the trailer to give you a sense of how difficult and emotional, but NECESSARY, this film was to watch:

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If you were in the audience of this film today at Full Frame, you’d have heard the audible gasp and sniffling when it was revealed that her brother was murdered. I think you may have also heard my heart drop on to the floor and crack in a million pieces when Kainat is forced to make a living of $2 – $3 US dollars per day as a seamstress because she can no longer go to school. Or when she blames herself for her education, family  and life being “destroyed.”

Thankfully, organizations like War Against Rape, are doing tremendous work to educate and empower women and societies around this subject.  They remind us all that it is never the fault of a woman when she is raped and that she did nothing to provoke it.  EVER.  In Kainat’s case, they also provided pro bono legal representation.

This is a film that should be shown in schools – ages fourteen and older are appropriate in my estimation - as it provides insight into the trauma of rape, the search for justice, how legal systems vary around the world, the role of family/support across cultures, and the power of a young woman’s voice. Perhaps that is what I am most moved by – Kainat’s incredible strength and wisdom (as well as innocence).  Her family, despite social pressure from all sides, is entirely dedicated to her seeking justice, despite the personal sacrifices that they must bear in the attempts. This is very much a film about using your voice as a woman and as a citizen, even when the journey is all but impossible and the outcome is all but desirable.

Interestingly, this film was paired with another excellent documentary, “Camera/Woman“, which shows the difficult life of a divorced woman in Morocco. camera/woman documentary Morocco Unlike Kainat, her family is not supportive of her choice of work as a camera operator at weddings because it keeps her out late at night and people “are talking”.  The contrast of two women’s families reactions to culturally taboo subjects are jarring and educational, and these films can easily be woven into a lesson plan for courses in women’s studies, anthropology, sociology, gender studies, cultural studies and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 




Lessons Learned: An Internship Abroad in the “Real” World

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1234Given the recent attention on international internships (from the feature in the New York Times to MelibeeU’s upcoming webinar with Pamela Ruiz) I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my own international internship experience lately.  As a French major undergrad, I knew that studying abroad was going to be a critical component to my education (heck, it was the #1 reason I chose to attend Florida State University (FSU)  – their reputation for study abroad programming and scholarship opportunities was unparalleled in the state.)  However, working in an internship abroad was as foreign to me as the plate of escargots I would have the occasion to taste in my sophomore year in college.

After three years of college and coming to the realization that a double major in French and Russian was not getting me towards fluency (or a job) anywhere fast, I took a step back and decided to keep with French and add International Affairs (IA) as a second major.  With FSU’s IA program, I could still keep Russian as a focus but explore my budding interest in politics a bit more.  Though I had heard that FSU awarded two passes to intern at the British Parliament each semester I never really thought that could be me.  Until, that is, one night at my local bar.  Yes, I know many educators would probably cringe, but I was that nerdy student who had decided to apply for an international internship while at the bar.  Ok, so there is a bit of a back story.  I was just back from my summer study abroad program in Paris and was struggling particularly badly with the re-entry process this time; my friends (understandably so!) just could not tolerate one more utterance of my fabulous life in Paris.  Their lives in our small college town had continued on while I was away practicing my guttural ‘R’s’ in a Parisian institute.   I came back a different person and they seemed, well, foreign to me.  I didn’t feel like I fit in any more.  That is why after deciding to add the more political focus to my education, I printed off the internship application for the Parliament internship pass and headed to the bar to meet my one friend who had traveled abroad before.  After a soul-searching discussion about what would I really be missing for a semester at home and coming to grips with the fact that I *could* survive in a foreign work environment for a whole semester (my longest study abroad experience prior had been four weeks) I completed the application and turned it in the next day.  Before long I was being asked what political preferences I had and buying a cold-weather wardrobe that could see me through the bitter London winter (remember–Florida guy here!)  I had succeeded in obtaining one of the Parliamentary Intern passes!

My office buildings–the Portcullis House (left) and the Palace of Westminster with towering Big Ben (right).

Though I can identify several things I learned about myself, about starting a career, and about other cultures, I am quite certain I’ve not even scratched the surface as to all the takeaways I gained from completing this international internship.  Sure, there are the superficial romanticisms of the gig that included working in the Palace of Westminster and being the right-hand man to a real Member of Parliament, however I learned so much about myself as a person and what I wanted out of life that still shocks me today.

For one, I became a more politicized and patriotic person.  Though I was interested in learning about politics before I went to the U.K., I still was a novice and did not quite know where I stood on certain issues.  What’s more, I harbored much disdain for the American way thanks to my transformative, albeit limited experiences, in one other culture.  Interning at the British Parliament allowed me to reflect on issues I had not really taken a stance on.  In exploring political issues such as education and immigration in a different context and being asked about my home country’s policies, I was forced to take ownership, become more knowledgeable, and in turn, have a stance on the issues.  Interestingly enough, this was also the time of the primaries between Obama and Clinton in 2007.  As part of my internship I was asked to go door-to-door campaigning for the Liberal Democrats’ London Mayoral candidate.  Of course, when the lovely English people answered the doors and heard my American accent they wanted nothing more but to know why on earth I was in Surrey campaigning for a London Mayoral candidate when such a historic election was taking place in my home country.  In a way, being abroad I was made to think more deeply about my home culture than when I was actually at home.  And let’s not leave out the mention of how actually completing a political internship showed me that I did not necessarily want to jump into a political career right away.  My internship experience was incredible, but taking a semester to try the job out before I bought it was a critical factor in helping me to think carefully about what my next steps would be after college.  I saw that I was so interested in talking to my fellow students about culture shock and travel–could this be a career?

I need not mention the fact that taking me out of Collegetown U.S.A. and dropping me in one of the business capitals of the world and having to wake up 6 AM every kyleinlondonmorning to commute was a strong lesson in learning the ways of the real world.  I used to lament my teachers who would drone on about “When you’re in the real world, you’ll see…” What do you mean when I’m in the real world…am I not existing right now?  No, Kyle, you were in a lovely semblance of that real world.  The true real world is slapping the alarm that goes off at 6 AM and making your way out into the icy February London air as you learn that you actually have a taste for coffee that early in the morning because you need something to keep you awake on your hour-long train ride to the constituency office and then, oh yes, back again at the end of the day to fight among the throngs of commuters coming and going into the city.  Not to mention as you enter the study center you see your peers who are studying abroad all enjoying themselves in the student lobby.  That is when you notice the divide between the world our parents and teachers keep us protected in and the real world.

Interning in London might not have been the most exotic thing I could have done with my time in college, but it certainly shaped me into being a more prepared student for the global workforce that has become a hallmark of almost every higher education institution’s mission statement.  While as an international educator I do believe that we should be doing more to ensure that our students are getting more than just a resume boost from study abroad programs, the very nature of working in another culture helps to ensure that at some level, cultural reflection and integration are taking place.  I worked alongside other Parliament interns who were British and my age, tried my best to understand when my Member of Parliament was speaking seriously and otherwise just employing the famous British dry humor, and attempted to understand an iota of a phone conversation with a Scotsman who might have called in during my time in the office.  I learned that when I’m asked to update my Member of Parliament’s diary that he does not expect me to recount his day’s adventures but rather update his calendar, that the British National Health System has real struggles with ensuring accessible dental care for all citizens, and that childhood obesity was not just a problem relegated to the U.S. Thanks to London hosting the then forthcoming Olympics, I was involved in research pertaining to this phenomenon.  Interning abroad is a way that can mix the importance of preparing students for the much-coveted job placement after college and the ideals we as international educators have of ensuring that our students truly learn about culture.

Kyle Rausch

Kyle Rausch

About the Author:  Kyle Rausch works for Arizona State University’s Study Abroad Office in Tempe, Arizona.  In the past he has served as Immigration Specialist and Passport Acceptance Facility Manager at Florida State University where he is finishing his MS in Higher Education Administration.  He is also an “elderbee” at Melibee Global.




Sweet Chocolate Covered Valentine Memories

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sweets in quito ecuador

sweets in quito ecuadorValentine’s Day is typically about your love of another person.  Here at Melibee, we are choosing to explore our love of sweets and how these evoke memories!  Melibee’s Lisa Zenno approach to the subject will leave you dashing off to the sweets shop as well as visiting the cross -cultural foodie side of you!

I love sweets, who doesn’t? I almost always have room for dessert even when I’ve stuffed myself with a delicious entree course.  I’ve always had an inquisitive passion for food.  Many who know me call me a foodie, and I take pride in that.  I’m even prouder to admit that I don’t forget flavors.  I can recall flavors even if I’ve tried it only once.  I can taste something and retell stories of where and when I’ve eaten this particular food.  Deja vus are indescribably confusing when they’re happening, but deja manges are rather pleasant, as I get to re-experience the same emotions and feelings when I taste the memories.

This year, instead of highlighting the omnipresent heart shaped chocolates you can find on Valentine’s Day, I’ll encourage you to explore sweets by sharing some of my favorite memories brought on by sugar.

brigadeirosSmall bonbons coated with brown sprinkles wrapped in small paper cups.  I remember I was in Cancun struggling to mingle with others at a family friend’s party.  The host’s wife came up to me and offered me one.  I remember quite vividly how one bite of this tiny bonbon took me 10 years back.  I told her, “Wow, this reminds me of my childhood.”  She smiled, and said, “I know.”  This family friend is part of a family we’ve had ties with since I lived in Brazil.   Turned out this bonbon called Brigadeiros was a staple item at children’s parties.  I recalled having great fun, listening to Xuxa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLevJh1ZJQI) dancing with pompoms, while devouring these little bonbons.  The taste was exactly the same.   It’s amazing I remembered it after not eating it for 10 years! The whole night was about reminiscing our Brazilian memories: a sort of re-entry into our childhoods.

fondantThere is nothing like being invited to Maxim’s, an expensive French restaurant for a 13th birthday dinner, and having the waiters warn you that your made-to-order birthday surprise was going to take 20 minutes to come out.  Talk about anxiety, excitement, and surprise.    The awe moment of watching the soft middle ooze out of the cake, still steamy was incredible.  Guys, if you want to impress your significant other, this is the way to go ;)  Girls, this cake is not hard to make, and it’ll make anyone’s experience a memorable one.

icecreamIce cream has always been my best friend. A pint of ice cream was present in moments of sadness, anger, frustration, and worry. Sitting side by side with a spoon in hand, my friends and I all took turns passing around our own pints of ice cream.  We talked, we cried, we shared, we sometimes even sat in silence.  I’ve had numerous girl talks over ice cream.  I’d say it was a needed ritual in college.

custardCustards and I go a long way.  My first birthday cake was a homemade “panbi” – a Japanese coined term, a bread biscuit filled with egg custard in the middle.  I never knew what it was called until a couple years back.  To me, it was always known as the birthday cake.  Puddings and/or panna cottas have always been a favorite of mine.  I suppose I like contrasts in temperature when I eat my meals.  I’d prefer finishing a meal with a cold rice pudding, and/or ice cream, than a warm apple pie or a triple chocolate cake.  The one item I can’t help but eat while I visit Japan is Japanese pudding.  The silky texture with the caramel sauce is divine.  Japanese pudding is essentially custard pudding, similar to flan in Mexico.  Custard pudding can either be baked or steamed.  I prefer steamed, but that’s my 2 cents.  There are crazy amounts of variations in flavors of the pudding.  It’s mind boggling.  Black sesame, pumpkin, tofu, cream cheese, green tea, earl grey, vanilla, mango, jersey milk, the list goes on and on.  I can admit, I probably ate at least two types of pudding a day during my stay in Japan!

I love to eat, there’s no doubt about that, but most importantly, I love the memories I have when eating.  All my memories are filled with photographic snapshots of the setting, mood, flavors, and the unique experiences I shared with family and friends across cultures.

Here’s to wishing you a sweet day everyday full of joyful moments.

Lastly, what sweets are close to your heart and why?  Please do share in the comment section below!

lisazennoAbout the Author:  Risa Zenno is a TCK who goes by Lisa.  She works at the Art Institute of Seattle as an enrollment processor.  In her spare time, she loves volunteering time for international education. She is a mentor to young peopleand tries to help out many ‘challenges’ on www.sparked.com such as creating powerpoints and helping with translations.  She considers herself a life-long learner and hopes to continue expanding her interest within international education.  She is also a Melibee!




What Coffee Teaches Us About Culture

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coffeecafespainculture

coffeecafespaincultureGrab your coffee and enjoy the perspective of Melibee’s own Maria Snyder, today’s guest author. Maria’s experience living in Spain provides a unique lens to the subject of coffee, culture and how we teach it to students.  She raises an excellent question – do we push for global education or provide surface learning about culture?

Even during a brief visit anyone can see that the café and bar culture is a big part of Spanish life. People tend to meet not at each others homes instead having a drink or a bite to eat out. Having lived in Spain for ten years I have picked up on changes in habits and values, including this cafe culture. Despite falling in love at first sip with Spanish coffee, my initial visits to the cafes and bars were problematic. They were inevitably filled with thick clouds of cigarette smoke. It was a culture shock no doubt and defined part of my experience of Spain at the time. Then, bit by bit, new laws started changing things. First came smoking and nonsmoking sections, until finally the government put a flat out ban in place. Now it’s like being in a completely different place with all the smokers sitting outside or having a drink by the door. Another change to the café culture has been the slow introduction, in my small town at least, of to-go coffee. Although Starbucks has firmly implanted itself in Madrid and Barcelona in recent years they have yet to come to smaller cities. Here you still see baristas and bartenders walking down the sidewalk, carrying a hot ceramic mug of coffee to their clients working in a local shop and the cafe tables regularly fill mid-morning, but more and more I have noticed a few cafés selling paper cups of coffee.

These are little details, of course, but they demonstrate that “culture” constantly changes and is not uniform across a country. It is neither monolithic nor static. And, although these changes seem superficial, they do show transformations around values relating to health, time, and sustainability. Of course, most people would probably agree that culture changes over time and is hard to pin down. But does this nebulous nature really get explored adequately? Do we consistently challenge static views of culture in international education?

It is easy to neglect such changes when teaching people about other cultures, instead focusing on general information that focuses on a one dimensional view of other ways of living. One way to address this deficiency is to jump from international education to global education. Global education and international education are not synonymous. International education focuses on learning about an area of the world (its people, history, languages, culture) while global education explores issues and concepts than affect people throughout the world and focusing more on the power structures that are forging them. International education is fascinating, it is most accessible to people and fun (imagine the typical country “fair” with a table of food and a flag from different places around the world), while often providing a crucial first step for global education. But it is often, for the most part, too reserved.

cafeSpainIf you want to challenge students’ concepts of static culture and to inspire them to break away from what Dr. Anthony Ogden calls the “colonial student” experience where they observe other peoples as if they were archaeologists, look to global education as the means. It is inherently political, searching for the root of imbalances in power and aiming to increase justice by actively attacking inequalities. The educator becomes an activist. The goal is for students to move beyond a static, pretty view of culture and get a bit dirty, analyzing issues to find interconnectedness across country boundaries and to really dig in and move beyond passive study. Educators can look closely at why changes in culture are happening and what they mean, and link them to global trends. Returning to one of the examples above, we could tell students that Spanish has a vibrant cafe culture and they should go take part and believe that we have given them sufficient information to “know” Spain. Or we can get deeper into the subject and really look at how this culture changes over time, who is affecting the changes, and how a smoking ban has ripple effects in the tobacco industry and government tax income, how it affects citizens’ health and free choice, and consider the possibilities or lack thereof for such a ban in other countries. Or, in the case of to-go coffee, students can look at the environmental consequences of such new trends both in and out of Spain.

In other words, there is an opportunity to look at changes in culture on a local level and connect them to world wide issues, giving special attention to who causes the changes and if they are democratic. Looking at cultural change through the lens of global education can introduce students and citizens to the next step of taking action for a more just world.

Interested in further learning on this topic? Here is a brief list of global education resources for educators:

Maria Snyder of Melibee GlobalAbout the Author: Maria Snyder is an English teacher in Spain and a strong believer in the power of international exchange. She adores the Spanish language and writes her own blog too.  She is an Elderbee in the Melibee hive too!




Re-entry: Finding the Heart of Home

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ecuadorhome

ecuadorhomeToday’s guest post is by Heidi Bohn, a fellow School for International Training graduate. She and I have a serious interest in reflective re-entry.  With so many people returning home after a study abroad or other type of international experience, this piece is particularly timely.

While I’m pretty certain Webster’s Dictionary has a tidy and specific definition of the word “home”, my own travels in the last year have done nothing if make it one of the most complicated terms I know. Home became my belongings in a 15’ x 12’ storage unit. Home became my car. Home became the bed I slept on any given night. Home became a village in rural Ecuador and the cluster of ad hoc edifices my indigenous host family invited me into for nine months. It became their struggles, their languages, their humor, their support, their love; their way of life, for the most part, became mine.

But for any of us who have lived an expatriate life, we know this immersion into another culture does not happen swiftly nor graciously. It is usually a series of stumbles and setbacks, infused with an assortment of frustration, gallons of tears, and endless confusing lessons. To that end, many theorists have attempted to capture the process of culture shock since around the 1950s. Oberg and Gullahorn and Gullahorn laid the foundation visually with their U-curve and W-curve graphs. Their work is now ubiquitous in cross-cultural adjustment and reverse culture shock theory. Such omnipresence has seemingly led to a general and wide understanding about culture shock, and its rather commonplace existence. Rather straightforward, it makes logical sense that living and adjusting to a different culture would prove difficult and cause emotional, physical, mental, and cognitive distress. There is an expectation it will occur.

But what is it about coming home that catches us off guard? Perhaps unless a Third Culture Kid, you have a strong sense of what you call home: your culture and subcultures, your language(s), rituals, routines; an unconscious normalcy in which you pass your days. When abroad, the days can be exhausting trying to learn or perfect the local idiom, attempting to understand the customs, adjusting to the food and climate, or no hot water for bathing. Days are spent exerting ourselves with activities we simply move through effortlessly in our home culture — understanding the bus schedule and customs; not drinking the water from the faucet; how to wash your clothes by hand on a stone sink and a bar of soap; how not to be bitten by mean dogs; expressing yourself fully (or even enough) in another language.

Eventually, however, we learn new vocabulary and local dichos. We know the ins and outs of the bus route and that they collect money after you cross the Panamerican. We are taught how the dogs back off when rocks are thrown, and you find some system of washing laundry (including where the Laundromat in the nearby city is!). Discussions and relationships with your host family become deeper and more intricate. People and places become familiar. Neighbors know you and you know the shortcuts to the next town. Author Craig Storti reminds us that new routines, rituals, and norms develop, replacing those with which you arrived. What once felt foreign is now a kind of home.

Heidi and her Ecuadorian family saying their emotional farewells. (Photo courtesy of Heidi Bohn.)

Heidi and her Ecuadorian family saying their emotional farewells. (Photo courtesy of Heidi Bohn.)

This is precisely the crux of reentry and reverser culture shock. As Marion Knell explains in her book Burn Up or Splash Down: Surviving the Culture Shock of Reentry, “The use of the word re-entry makes the assumption that this is a return to something familiar…”. Unlike entering a foreign culture where one has expectations of adjustment challenges, returning home can be deceivingly difficult. Sojourners come home with new perspectives and cultural knowledge informing their understanding of themselves and the world as well as a replaced sense of home.

Some research also suggests that the more one begins to relate to or identify with their place in the family and the community, and culture, the more likely those differences will be visible in contrast upon return to the United States. Knell states that “When it comes to re-entry, we must factor in the culture a person has lived in and the degree to which the person has identified with it.” Forging those deep relationships is rewarding and essential to settling into one’s new world, but to the extent they are rich and integrative there is also a disintegration that occurs upon return.

So, what is it that inspires those of us with a deep sense of wanderlust or even trepidation about leaving our comfort zones to take the leap into the unknown of expatriate life? As Storti reminds us, “reentry…can’t begin to diminish the luster of an expatriate experience. Indeed, it is in some ways precisely because the overseas experience is so rich and stimulating that reentry becomes a problem.” In fact, often grounding the choice to live abroad is growth and the desire to change our way of thinking, being, or understanding the world. It serves us by bridging cultures, challenging assumptions, and affording the sense of truly living. “After all, frustration, loneliness, and unpleasantness are very often the precursors of insight and personal growth.” (Storti)

It is our desire for such powerful experiences “…that ha[ve] the potential to allow for personal growth, to provide mobility for social action and civic engagement, to enhance skills for…professional life, and lastly the ability to further… knowledge about the world and [our] place within it” (SSA, 2008, p. 5). Equally significant as pre-orientation, orientation, programming and processing activities, and other design components, reentry training or resources serves to synthesize and integrate the intercultural experience, expanding one’s life and contributions, and understand the extent of one’s growth from the time abroad.

Upon my own distressful and inspiring travels through reentry and reverse culture shock, I read a lot, established the expectation of reverse culture shock, and prepared as best I could. However, I still left part of me in Ecuador. Not just my home or my family, nor the memories, knowledge, or experiences, but my love for and understanding of them; who I was before them and who I now am afterwards.

I am in two places at all times now. I may be here, but home is where the heart is.

heidibohnAbout the Author: Heidi Bohn holds an M.A. in International Education from SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont. She completed her thesis capstone project on reentry and reverse culture shock, examining relevant theoretical foundations and building a reentry curriculum and tool kit for long-term volunteers with the Tandana Foundation in Ecuador.  She currently coordinates the International Education program at SIT Graduate Institute, volunteers doing Spanish translations and various projects for the Tandana Foundation, tending her own blog, and is thrilled to be back playing basketball in her local league. After a career in social work and another in marketing, Heidi has found her home in International Education, a spectacular blend all the fields.




Cooking Bengali Culture

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cooking and culture

I am a foodie.  I’m also an international educator.  Put the two together and it means I enjoy reading cookbooks, cooking and of course, eating!

If you know anything about me, you know that I’m also slightly obsessed with India.  So, this past week, when I received a copy of The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles – Exploring the Cuisine of Eastern India I was pretty excited!  This new cookbook is written by Rinku Bhattacharya, a woman I met when I took her cooking class back in New York.  I had asked her to write a blog post about food and culture a few years ago and needless to say, we have stayed in touch.

Grateful for the book arriving just prior to a long holiday weekend, I found myself nestled in my favorite chair reading about the inspirations behind the cookbook (her family – from the past, present and future) as well as the stories of how food plays into the daily life of Bengalis. Rinku grew up in Kolkata but has lived in the US for more than twenty years, so she brings the voice of a Bengali as well as the nuances that a US born American may need to better understand the tools in the cookbook.  For example, she provides modifications for shopping and cooking that recognize food preferences, yet still hold true to the important spice profiles of Bengalis.

There is so much to be learned about culture through food and perhaps Rinku describes this best in her remarks about her Indian husband. She says,  “I brought home a man who might fringe on satisfying the Bengali love for education but who unfortunately did not speak a word of Bengali.  Sadly his Bengali language skills have not progressed, despite being married to me for well over a decade.  He does, however, share my passion for food.  And I have taught him the joys of savoring a well-made morning cup of Darjeeling tea.  I feel that the closest and most practical way I could offer my husband an insight into the Bengali culture was through food.”  Thankfully, readers of this cookbook get to learn right alongside Rinku’s husband! (You can purchase it via the link at the end of this post.)

For those of you less obsessed with India than I, let’s begin the cultural lesson by defining where Bengal is! Bengal is in the northeast region of the Indian subcontinent.  It is often called the “land of the rivers” because of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers  that flow through it. The region split apart in 1947 and 1971, first into West Bengal (still part of India) and East Bengal (East Pakistan), and then again when East Bengalis felt that culture and language were stronger than religion that tied them to Pakistan. East Pakistan is now the country of Bangladesh.

Key to Bengali cooking is what is called panch phoron, the Bengali five spice blend.  It is a blend of equal parts of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds, and fennel seeds.  You can make the blend yourself or you can purchase the blend from your local Indian store.  Here is a blend that I purchased locally (which is spelled Panch Puram here) along with some other key spices :

Ironically, my first recipe from this cookbook did not include panch phoron.  You see, I had an abundance of radish and cabbage from the farmer’s market in the house and had been seeking a recipe for both – and this cookbook has one on page 113 called Mulor Chechra (Radish and Cabbage – with or without Fish Heads!)  I didn’t have a fish head handy, so opted for the “without!”

I’ll share with you the experience of cooking my first Bengali dish. Try not to laugh at me too much – it does get a bit silly and many lessons were learned.

As any experienced cook knows, you should go through the list of ingredients and pull everything you need out of the cupboards to ensure you are prepared. After a visit to the India store in town, I thought I was well prepared!  I even made sure to get the mustard oil required for the recipe.

Lesson #1:  Read the labels, even when the shop keeper brings you to the section for mustard oil.  Why?  Read closely:

Yup.  You see it.  The part that says “Spread oil on hands and use for massage.  Suitable for body and head.”  Seriously, I almost put that in my food!  So, be sure to read the label when you think you’re buying what is “obviously” a cooking oil!  Being the “agile interculturalist” that I am, I substituted canola oil. (Are you laughing yet?)

Before even going down the path of putting a pan on the stove, I did take the time to blend my first spice mix needed for this recipe called “Ada Dhone Jire Bata.”  This is a ginger-cumin-coriander paste that also includes some green chilies.

Lesson #2:  When the book suggests using a coffee grinder, be a big person and go out and buy one.  I decided that the blender would probably be “just fine.”  Ok, it really wasn’t.  My paste was rather lumpy because the blender kept spitting the spices up to the top of the lid and it really required much more work to keep pushing the unblended coriander and cumin back down near the blade.  But alas, it was sufficient enough to continue.

Lesson #3:  When putting hot chilies into a blender and opening it and sticking your face near it to see how blended it is, note that you may actually get some of the heat from the chilies into your nose and mouth, causing a slightly nagging cough for a few minutes.  Not to worry, lesson learned quickly and you will be fine after a couple of sips of water!

Moving right along, I got the “paste” ready and carefully followed the instructions.  Until I realized I forgot to pick up some squash.  I decided instead to double up on the spinach or Swiss chard, until I realized that I only some other fun (nameless) greens from the farmer’s market and used twice the amount of those instead of the recommended spinach or Swiss chard. (Don’t get discouraged here – it still came out delicious!)

I proceeded to heat the paste in the oil and then tossed in the vegetables.  I was so happy to see that there is a recipe that includes cooking radishes, as I had only had them before in raw salads.  Here is the spice mix and then the veggies before the cooked down:

I then set up another pan for the required ghee (clarified butter) and bay leaf combination, fried the bay leaves as instructed and poured them over the veggies.

This is where Lesson #4 occurs: Make sure you have a second set of hands available to take the photos when you are cooking – and especially pouring hot ghee into another pan.  While I didn’t spill it all over the floor, I did manage to take a pretty blurry photo!

Note that the veggies are absorbing the fabulous spice blend and they are softening as they cook over the fifteen minutes.  I so wish that WordPress would add an “insert scent” button next to the “insert media” button so I could share the incredible smell coming out of my kitchen!

The finished dish, despite my various screws ups was still delicious.  I’ve explored many ways to cook cabbage and this was, by far, the most tasty.  The radishes became comfort food – they lost that sharpness and instead absorbed the delicious spice blend (and tumeric, which the recipe also called for.)  I think it would have been even better had I been more generous with the chilies and pepper powder.   I will be sure to do so next time, along with purchasing an actual edible mustard oil!

This is the final dish, which I photographed alongside Rinku’s book: 

Like Rinku, I put my own spin on the recipe the following morning when I made breakfast. I added elements of a typical American breakfast by cooking a fried egg and some sausage patties to accompany the Mulor Chechra.  Since I didn’t have a fish head to enhance this dish, I used my own pantry of protein instead!

I’m looking forward to exploring this cookbook further, especially the chapters on eggs and sweets (apparently many Bengali  desserts utilize milk.) There are many stories of how food relates to Bengali culture peppered throughout this cookbook.  It is an education and a feast all in one well priced and well written cookbook.  I am especially grateful for it because there are few English language cookbook options about Bengali cooking that are as comprehensive as this one. As a person who doesn’t eat gluten, I can see that there are countless options for foods that I can cook and eat without worrying about gluten exposure.

Many thanks to Rinku for her contribution to the foodie/culture/education arena!  If you’re interested, you can purchase the book below.

(Disclosure:  I received a free copy of the cookbook, at my request, from the publishing company, Hippocrene Books.  However, I am not being paid to write about this book by Rinku or the publishing company.)

 

 


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The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles (Paperback)

By (author) Rinku Bhattacharya

List Price: $18.95 USD
New From: $11.57 In Stock
Used from: $12.58 In Stock




Study Abroad…Maybe?

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call me maybe study abroad

Today’s guest blog is by Kyle Rausch, our resident pop culture expert!  Kyle and I had a chat about  some videos that I saw online and it prompted a great discussion about whether pop culture is a distraction when studying abroad and how our students really use their time experiencing another culture.

“Hey I just met you, and this is crazy…but here’s my number so _____________”

Chances are that if you can finish that line then you were indeed alive and connected to the outside world during the past eight or so months when a relatively unknown Canadian singer took the world by storm with her infectious pop song.  Carle Rae Jepsen’s breakout first single “Call Me Maybe” was this year’s ubiquitous smash hit that had everyone from the U.S. Marines to the U.S. Olympic swim team throwing their light-hearted parodies on YouTube.  It seems there was no denying the plain and simple fun that Carly Rae had brought the world.

Recently, two more parodies hit the net, this time from study abroad participants:
YouTube Preview Image
YouTube Preview Image

At first glance, these videos just seem to be a drop in the bucket of a played out YouTube phenomenon, however here at Melibee, these videos raised some broader questions about Gen Y and study abroad.

Of course the videos function on one level as innocent fun for a group of American college students during what will undoubtedly be one of their fondest college experiences.  However, what are the cultural implications of carrying out such a project during a study abroad experience?  I have to say, as a recent college graduate/study abroad participant and young professional in international education, I myself was torn between wanting to dance along with these girls in their international locations and use this as a teaching moment.

Though we as international educators certainly want our students to enjoy themselves in what we know to be an incredible life experience, we also want the overarching mission of a study abroad experience to be educational.  Who knows how many hours of filming and editing these parodies took away from allowing these students to see the foreign sites and engage in meaningful cross-cultural dialogue with their hosts. Perhaps more unnerving would be to hear how locals felt about a bunch of American girls clad in their U.S. university gear parading about their hometown seemingly unapologetic about what interruptions they may or may not have caused.  Of course, such a statement might be taking what is just harmless fun to an extreme, but I think these videos are representative of a greater phenomenon that tends to occur when a group of American study abroad students remain together throughout a study abroad experience.  It is very easy to stick with the friends you came with and enjoy the many fun opportunities that await in these locations rather than branch away and get to know locals and develop a significant understanding of the host culture.

I’m the first one to admit I love a good time and want all of the students I work with to go out and enjoy the amazing feeling of being young and abroad with their friends, however I just want to make sure that we as educators are remembering to push our students and to encourage them to remember just how short their time abroad is in relation to developing meaningful cultural understanding. Let’s not give any more of our colleagues a reason to ask whether or not this is ‘study abroad, maybe?’

So, what do YOU think?  Were these videos just harmless fun or does it speak about some greater challenges you have witnessed regarding American students studying abroad?  Let us know if the comments!

About the Author:  Kyle Rausch works for Arizona State University’s International Programs in Tempe, Arizona.  In the past he has served as Immigration Specialist and Passport Acceptance Facility Manager at Florida State University where he is finishing his MS in Higher Education Administration.