Multiculturalism and why it is hard to teach

America has often times been called a “melting pot”. It’s roots may even be traced back to the founding fathers. There is a belief of national unity, that can be traced back to embracing diversity:

“Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people”

Multiculturalism began as an idea inspired by the “pragmatism” philosophy from the end of the 19th century. Pragmatism is understood as assessing theories and beliefs in terms of their practical application and success. This pragmatic view was partly to justify the mass immigration in the late 19th century. This is not to be confused with cultural plurism which is an existence of smaller cultural niches within a large dominant culture.

We can see an encouragement in modern day grade school teaching about diversity from an early age. However, what needs to be understood about American education is that it has never been simply to “impart knowledge”, but it also has the approach of “making children into americans” (cited from here).

“John Quincy Adams wrote that immigrants ‘must cast off their European skin, never to resume it.’ Horace Mann argued that ‘a foreign people — cannot be transformed into the full stature of American citizens merely by a voyage across the Atlantic.’ One of the strongest motives for building public schools was, therefore, the need to make Americans out of Europeans.”

However, a small change can be seen in after the 1960’s with the civil rights movement. Now, Americans changed their teachings of history. A very commonly cited example is the colonization of America. Instead of treating it like a wonderful advance in civilization, they paid more heed to the misfortunes that happened to the Indians living here at the time. Now the question here becomes, what exactly is a multiculturalist approach to teaching history? Is it teaching that American colonists were bad to dislocate the native Indians? Or is it teaching that while an advance in civilisation was a worthy contribution but the dislocation of native Americans was also an unfortunate and consequent casualty?

A similar problem arises when addressing slavery in America’s past. Once it becomes accepted as an “unparalleled evil”, it is easy to question all of America’s history. Once an acceptance of multiculturalism manifests in a modern society, the people whose ideas created America immediately become questionable, because the truth is that one of those ideas/practices was slavery.

Teaching a multicultural history is hard. Schools that are becoming more and more diverse try to teach history by addressing all perspectives, but it becomes uncertain exactly what to learn from this kind of history, because after all, we study history to learn from it. While yes some people may argue that teaching a different perspective is not difficult, and is in fact needed, the problem becomes apparent when trying to approach implied historical knowledge from the perspective of certain cultures. In the same Journal of HIstorical Review that I linked previously, they explain this problem in context of French and British people. The mere geography of London, or famous geographical locations (Waterloo Station, Tralgafer Station) are coined by defeat of the Frenchman, and a triumph for the British aka something to be proud of. But from the French perspective, these are not moments of embarrassment or defeat but memories of the British and all the horrible things they have done. It becomes confusing to teach a history like this, and almost makes the student run in circles.

This article written by James Banks from JHU school of education (I found this through many different search engines and sources… Banks seems to be a big name in multicultural education) explains how teaching with “diversity” can be improved. It is based on studies at University of Maryland and University of Washington, and supported by Carnegie Institute in NY. Its a systematic approach that article one so cynically pointed out with learning a multicultural history. I like principle 3 in their “student learning” section the best.

Principle 3: The curriculum should help students understand that knowledge is socially constructed and reflects researchers’ personal experiences as well as the social, political, and economic contexts in which they live and work.

This addresses a historiography aspect that I wouldn’t have known about if it weren’t for the international baccalaureate curriculum that I was in. While I am still in the generation of education that is changing to approach history and multiculturalism in this way, I have found myself interested, and somewhat understanding of the problem that article 1 pointed out (Because I chose this topic willingly). I think it’s interesting to see that before we can even address multiculturalism as a goal to strive for, we must find a way to teach why it was wrong not to have it in the past.

PSU Plague 2.0 Strikes…& I seek reinforcements from herbal remedies

So the PSU plague has hit us all again. First a weird mutation of it got my roommate. She was coughing, sneezing, super tired and with fever. Even if we share the same box of a room somehow (and luckily) I got a different version…Either way, the PSU plague and all its cousins are back at it. I suppose our immunity takes a little bit of a tumble every time we come back to a place we share with 45,000 people…and germs we share with 45,000 people…As a side note, a friendly reminder: Sanitize, people!

(However, I get really mad when people yak about how people should skip class if they’re sick. I’m sorry, but all my classes have mandatory attendance, and that goes to a whole other level of who to blame. But, if I go down, you go down with me!)

Anyway, I learned a few things from my grandma and my mom that have helped me combat it so far. Ayurveda is a 5000 year old traditional hindu type of medication. While I have no idea how these people discovered that it worked, I can tell you a little bit about its history, and how modern science has proven some of it to work.

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It has 8 branches:
1. general medication (kayachikitsa)
2. pediatrics (kaumaara bhrtya)
3. surgery (shalya tantra)
4. ophthalmology (salakya tantra)
5. ailments caused by what can’t be seen, or in other words, microorganisms (bhuta vidya), but its cute because bhuta means “ghosts/spirits” so they assumed that what can’t be seen is a spirit
6. antidotes to poison (agada tantra)
7. rejuvenation/anti-aging (rasayana tantra)
8. sexual health (vajikarana tantra)

Ayurveda’s defining quality is that it is a holistic approach at homeostasis, and it strives for a balance between three elements (dosha) both physically and physiologically:
1. Wind, aka impulse principle (vaata)
2. Heat, aka metabolism (pitta)
3. Fluid, aka carrying of nutrients (kapha)

dosha

It achieves this homeostasis through various assessments.
There are a lot of different vocab words for how they consider each aspect of the human body, and the practices are quite regimented as well, but I won’t get into it. Basically, it is very similar to modern medicine (declaring of all tissue types, etc), and having a procedure for its practice (diagnosis, treatment, etc). Within these classifications, there are sub classifications.

Branches 1, 4, 5, & 7 are all relevant when being a college student, I think. It’s always nice going to India and seeing the realities of ancient traditions manifesting and hearing the wisdom of these fables of sort and learning that at times, they actually work. On my past trip, I made it to the market in the mountains and there were hundreds of natural remedies picked straight off the farm sitting in front of me. I took it upon myself to learn a little bit before coming back to college.

1. Treating a sore throat/A facial
Turmeric is spice made from turmeric root of a plant in the ginger family. It tastes kind of peppery alone, but a spoon of it in a glass of milk with sugar will not only soothe a sore throat but might also help cure it (depending on why its sore). Also, it can be put on skin issues because its antiseptic. The active ingredient curcumin is antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and an anti-oxidant.

turmeric

2. Digestion
Ajwain seeds contain a high amount of thymol which release gastric juices from the stomach. They are kind of spicy, but since I’m so use to it I just eat about 1/4 of a teaspoon of them raw…

ajwain

Ajwain flower

4. Iron
Because a lot of Indians are vegetarians, they need to seek out small doses with high iron content. Cardamom is a huge source of iron in Indian cooking, and often times its brewed in with tea!

cardamom

5. Anesthesia
Clove bud oil is about 80% eugenol, a compound that causes anesthesia. Usually people eat these when you have a tooth ache to numb the pain.

cloves

6. Eyesight
While most people know carrots are the key to good eyesight, I’m assuming no one has heard that saffron can improve eyesight as well. My mom always use to give me hot milk with a few sprigs of saffron (it is the filment of the saffron flower) and sugar (probably just to get me to drink milk) but sold it to me by saying I’d be able to get rid of my glasses. I couldn’t find that compelling evidence online, but its an amazing spice and smells delicious, so it needed a place in my post.

Saffron Harvested In Kashmir

saffron

saffron flower

While I can’t remember any more, I thought I’d share how turmeric is my key to making it through the Penn State plague. I hope no one else has to carry around a box of tissues like I do :/

Happy 68th Birthday India!

Independence day for India is August 15, marking independence from the British rule, and the partition of Pakistan and India as official countries. So while it’s 68th birthday past a few months ago, its relative “youth” dawned upon me on my visit. For example, America has been around for almost 250 years at this point, so I would expect it to have its government organized and uncorrupted. It is understandable that India is quite the contrary. While movies like “Slumdog Millionaire” shined a negative light on the country. While yes the “slums” do exist the government needs an avenue to start to even put a dent in this problem.

However, any action will only be successful with a proper dynamic within the government. Last week’s passion post was about how I felt like I had been deceived by the country’s unusual choice of leaders, etc. I used the example of how one of the people in office did not even hold an Indian citizenship. Now when I visit this young country, I do see reform happening.

I fleetingly asked myself the question that if in some future, I decided to live in India, is there a difference I could make? Well, frankly, the answer might as well be no (for now). I discussed Indian politics with some members in my family and the system is quite complicated. There are as many parties as you want, not 2 opposing parties like in the US, and there isn’t necessarily a system where one party holds the “majority” (like in congress or the house here). The prime minister has to jump through many socially political loops. While that exists in all politics, I can understand why the idea of “connections” is extreme for doing well in Indian politics. Even besides that, the prime minister governs a billion people who speak 14 different official languages, (200+ unofficially). That’s a sixth of the world’s population! There has actually only been one prime minister who could speak all fourteen and I can’t imagine doing the job that he did. At least he could personally communicate with every state in India.

Life there is so different and although all first semester I blogged about my passion being India, I am a little ashamed to say I didn’t know as much as I thought about it. Sure, I understood the culture, the people, the country’s ideals, but I didn’t understand the life of the common man. I can attest to my sudden realization because I am now living alone in college. My cousin’s college selection was even limited, because why should he go to a state that speaks another language? While I hoped to make somewhat of a local dent in India’s success, I realized I don’t know the life of a common man there. However, hopefully after some time I will find myself living in my favorite place for some time.

I somewhat ironically say a belated “Happy Birthday” to India. I can understand why I have been “deceived” as I called it, considering it is still such a young country. The government is making moves to fix what the world views as its problems. Theres the obvious poverty, and from what I’ve noticed, corruption. The new president, Modi, is making moves (to put it simply). He has a very positive image, and he uses it strategically. Protest and public display is a very dynamic method of sending a method in India. Modi can be seen “sweeping the streets” granted for two minutes, with him endorsing his plan of “Swachh Bharat Abhyan” which means “Clean India Plan”.

Modi

When you think about it, a cleaner India will at least lay a framework to solve perhaps the dirty water problem that primarily affects poorer sectors. This will fix “poverty” in context of lacking resources. Recently, he is trying to make it illegal to have female fetuses/babies killed (as grotesque as that sounds…sorry). Although it is extreme, his campaigns have more of a social agenda than practical one. Modi’s politics is seriously bringing India into a new light. I have heard about him not only on my trip to India, but also in various clubs here at Penn State. I am happy to see this country I love so much moving in this direction. I appreciate its growth and what its done in its 68 years of existence so far. Perhaps Modi’s somewhat extreme promotion of certain issues is exactly what this country needed to leave its “youth”.

Middle East Tensions

My best friend ever is Lebanese. We both went to high school together in Pennsylvania, but while I am still a far 3 hour drive from home, she went even farther to Texas for college, and her parents and family back to Lebanon, their home town. Her cousins in Lebanon call me her Atlas friend, because even if we’re in different states or different countries, we have technology to thank for our remaining closeness.

The the quick spread of information also made it easy for her to find out that the south of Lebanon had been bombed by Hezbollah, a terrorist group in Lebanon.

This blog post contains articles in reference to all the events I discuss. I am not necessarily here to write a current event article, but instead the effect of these current events on multiculturalism, so please feel free to click on these articles for further clarification.

Hezbollah Kills 2 Israeli Soldiers Near Lebanon

I can’t imagine how horrifying that must have been for her, but this brings me to my point: the failed attempts at multiculturalism in the middle east. Her family’s hometown should be a safe place to live. Grudges and continued tensions from a conflict that started in 1948 should not be existent in 2015! I wanted to discuss the ambiguous notion of “terrorism in the middle east”. After 9/11, the US in general became very aware of the idea terrorism and often times associated it with the middle east. It has unfortunately been a place of conflict for decades now, but I am glad to have been enlightened on the conflicts there by my inspiring history teacher from high school. He is a Schreyer alum, and is the actually the person I owe my interest in Penn State to. That history class not only taught me important lessons from the world, but also gave me the opportunity to blog about recent civic issues in this RCL class!

In the very recent past there was the bombing in Lebanon, a terrorism attack in Paris coining the hashtag “je suis charlie”, and in the past few years results of the Syrian civil war have wreaked havoc on Syrians and neighboring countries. I can attribute these problems to a failed understanding of multiculturalism, which can be traced back to the beginning of the beginnings of the Arab Isreali conflict.

What Je Suis Charlie Has Become

From that same history teacher's recent trip to Paris @balladinplainh

From that same history teacher’s recent trip to Paris @balladinplainh

Je suis Charlie was a response to the terrorist attacks against a satirical newspaper charlie hebdo who disrespectfully portrayed the prophet mohammed. While the attacks are not justified, it is arguable that they were provoked. Because of the negative connotation associated with Islam, the newspaper may have felt less remorse making fun of the most respected prophet of the religion. Je Suis Charlie simply advocates a disrespect of Islam, and is that justifiable?

Last year, I learned about the Arab-Isreali Conflict in history. I was seriously confused at how coexistence was so difficult. The conflict can be quoted as starting in 1948, marking the partition of Isreal from Palestine and the end of the British Mandate in Palestine. The grudges held from Isreal’s victory in the 1948 war created a web of tensions between the different Arab nations in the middle east, leading from one event to the next. Eventually this ceased somewhat to developed after the Yom Kippur, or 1973 war where there was a ceasefire initiated by the US. At the time, cold war was in its détente, and the US was paranoid that the Arabs would get its hands on nuclear weapons.

Now the problems of multiculturalism can be highlighted from the beginning of the conflict. Jewish people adapted “Zionism” (a right to return to ones “homeland”) to argue why a land blocked off called “Isreal” was theirs. First of all, while the Isreali people did make somewhat of an obnoxious move, claiming a part of a country’s land as their own, the Palestinians hate towards this sector resulted in an “Arab support group” of sorts for the Palestinian people. From this affiliation and on, antisemitism prevailed. Not only was this around the end of WWII, where many displaced Jews from Europe had no where to turn, but also the Arab countries turned an ignorant front to the Isreali struggle. The UN also made it an even bigger mess by drawing random borders for the various Arab countries. While officially on paper Israel painstakingly signed peace treaties with all bordering Arab nations, some extremists were still not happy. In the end, these conflicts resulted in Arab terrorist groups. The first known group would be the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation which emerged in the 1970s. Most recently, the conflict manifests with “Hamas”, and “Hezbollah” terrorist organizations which continue to launch attacks on Israel.

The lack of multiculturalism can explain why Lexi must be so concerned about her parents in Lebanon. It borders Israel, so she can expect attacks by Hamas, or Hezbollah to be bombing the borders of its Arab countries. While the Israel claiming zionism is proper justification for a Palestinian exodus, the Jews have a right for a location or country to call their own, especially if it is around one of the holiest places for those who practice Judaism. The Middle East is a mess. While Western countries attempt to make beaureaucratic amends with UN resolutions, and pleas for peace, the real instillment of peace will happen when anti-semitism stops clouding the judgement of Arab groups in the middle east.

Deception

Over winter break I was able visit India, the inspiration for my blog. I went to Pune, Maharashtra, which is on the west coast of the country. While the 36 hour journey was painstakingly uncomfortable to say the least, it was all worth it in the end. India inspired me to write this blog, and write about international mindedness in America. I needed this trip as another spark of inspiration, another reminder of my privileges, and of course for its vibe/weather. While the 80 degree weather did make it easy to enjoy, there were many fulfilling parts of my journey. I was able to climb mountains, watch sunrises from temples on these mountains and seriously connect with my family. Because it is a metro area, there are always ways to appreciate the community even on a short visit. Attached are pictures of sunrise from the mountain temple. I want you all to see because while in person it was moving and beautiful, hopefully I was able to capture at least some of my awe in digital form.

When I speak of this sort of “spiritual awakening”, I will try my best to explain. The people there seem to have an inherent appreciation for nature, which in turn contributes to a calmness or spirituality. There are small superstitions (although that word has a negative connotation, there is no other way to describe what I am about to) which are inspired by occurrences in nature. For example, it is important for the doorway of a house to be facing east, the way the sun rises, to let the positive energy of the sun into the home. While yes it was beautiful to see the sunrise from a mountain in a holy place, it was even more powerful in a place where its energy is so respected. There were people meditating up there while taking in the sun’s energy, and it was just a really great place to be after a hard first semester.

This is one of the many positive energies that I love about India, but its “glory” I guess, can be deceptive. I learned some weird controversial things about one of the most famous and esteemed people from India: Gandhi. I realized that although he doesn’t have any direct heirs, his family adopted Indira Gandhi (née Nehru) ‘s lover, Faroz Khan, a Muslim man. Then taboo, and a marriage that could not be accepted in the country, Gandhi adopted Faroz in order to change his last name, and that is how the Gandhi name is now in Indian politics. Indira gandhi, for those of you who don’t know, is an honored name for the Republic of India. Despite having descended from Nehru, the first prime minister of India, she had some very exciting accomplishments herself. However, her son, Rajiv Gandhi, somehow managed to “pick up” a Greek waitress on his exploits in Europe, and even while she didn’t have Indian citizenship she was given a position in the government. Meanwhile, Rajiv’s daughter is married to one of the most controversial and corrupt real estate “swindlers” in India and still maintains a position in the government. While I understand that these are normal things that happen in any society, I don’t appreciate that a country I love so much is represented by such unprofessional people simply because of their name. I even heard scandalous stories about Gandhi himself. Because he is such an insanely sensationalized person in India, it was really hard to find evidence of whatever social crime he was accused of doing but I managed to find disturbing articles about how he needed to prove his celibate life by sleeping naked next to his naked niece. I don’t know how he found time to think of such convoluted and weird practices while gaining independence from the British, but this is something I read to be true.

It was a rude awakening for me to learn that the world’s perception of India as “impoverished, corrupt” etc, may in fact be due to the world’s perception of its greatest conquest: Gandhi. Personally, it still presents the same aura that I described earlier from when I was watching that sunrise, but when comparing its nitty gritty infrastructure to America, for example, the free world, I realize the gaps in my grand perception of the country.

ParvatiParvati

Recent controversial race issues and tragedies

While my blog concerns international existence within a primarily caucasian country, I think I’m going to take this time to deviate a little and focus on race and not only an international ideology. Recently, there was a huge uproar when considering the Ferguson and Eric Garner case’s verdict. From what I’ve read online, there is controversy for whether or not Michael Brown had stopped provoking the officer before he shot him. Either way, assaulting a police officer is never punishable by death. This is what lead me personally to believe that the officer so freely shot a human being to his death because of his race. Yes, I agree this verdict and the account of the incident is controversial, but I don’t think the protests are unfair in using the Ferguson case as an inspiration. While many of the protests started immediately after the Ferguson decision (2 weeks ago), just yesterday an officer who killed Eric Garner in NY was also let to walk free. While the Ferguson case is incredibly controversial, I think the Garner case is heart breaking. I’ll put a picture of the script at the end of the post showing Garner’s last words. They’re haunting in that he was completely helpless and killed with a chokehold, a now illegal move for the NYPD.

What angers me the most is how people who have experienced no form of discrimination in America talk so freely about how “racism doesn’t exist” anymore, etc. While I won’t quote anyone, many of my peers on social media like twitter and yik yak feel like their blatantly racist opinions are right. For example, one time on yik yak I saw someone write “Whites>blacks”. Also, I’ve noticed that many people side with the cop because they agree that Michael Brown was a criminal. I don’t understand how these people can simply overlook the fact that this robber was killed as opposed to arrested and put behind bars.

Recently, there have been two silent protests at Penn State. People have laid down on the ground acting dead with the hashtag associated with the case “black lives matter”. Majority opinion at this university is to bash these people silently protesting and using the argument that the verdict has already occurred and there is nothing to be done about it. I feel like these people simply don’t understand the point of a movement. I’m sure that in elementary school, in order to attend an institution like Penn State, they were taught about slavery and the civil rights movement. One single protest is not the formula for immediate change, but the point is to raise awareness. If people can only find time to complain and point out the flaws in a silent protest (which there aren’t), I’m afraid of who the peers I surround myself with are. I know as a country America is always attempting to be the “land of the free” but racism can’t be cured from a society without change in the societies ideology. I always thought that as generations cycle through, progressive thoughts hopefully do the same. What terrifies me the most is that young people, my young peers, may have the same ideology as people from the 1950’s. This controversy has shone light on the fact that somehow I am still surrounded by ideologies that date over 50 years, and honestly that’s scary to me.

#Icantbreathe

#Icantbreathe

College Reflection

I’ve learned how to project my voice in writing a little more. I like how this course is not solely focused on writing but I was still able to learn from it. I feel like if I had been required to write an essay a week or something I wouldn’t have found that quite as valuable. I also really liked learning about ideology. I appreciated the small tangents that our class took, like meeting the education representative or having the ideology reading. I honestly miss reading scholarly sources because many of my courses now in science lack that, so that reading was a good refresher. Also, we use ideology so much in arguments etc but I never truly knew what it meant until now.
Similarly in my math class I find myself fascinated by the study of math the same way. Instead of just learning a process, we learn proofs that explain how a certain process works. It makes for a more fundamental understanding of the course. Although that class is probably one of my most challenging classes, I have come to appreciate math so much better.
In general I think I have struggled most in my non science/math classes (which is a good indication that I picked the right major I guess), but I never expected being worried about my grade in English or Econ, but it has come to that. I think in these sorts of classes there is a higher emphasis on reasoning which I may have not practiced as effectively in my science/math classes. Hopefully I can find a balance next semester.

Missing my frenchies

One of my best international experiences was participating in a French exchange through my high school. French has been a huge part of my life whether it was with writing 4,000 word essays in French on French architecture, visiting a few times, or even my experiences in college. In the French exchange my brave French teacher from high school managed to take 20 of us students to France and back and host our correspondents for a week at our school. It is amazing how she was able to bring us there and back without failing. On the other hand, her correspondent, the French kid’s English teacher was not so organized…He made little effort in pairing his French students with a suitable match, and was barely organized in coming to the US. He expected my french teacher to take his students around making plans for whatever tours he wanted to go on. Because the French students were getting such an unfair representation of fall in America, my classmates and I took it upon ourselves to come up with fun activities for us all to do as a group. We bonded by going trick or treating, attending a bonfire, playing laser tag and shopping at the local outlets. Fashion in France is a very expensive thing so they appreciated this a lot. I liked being an “American” which the French students looked to for advice and help because they knew I was practically married to the language and they knew I would be a good translator if necessary.
While I can ramble on about the exchange for a while, I wanted to discuss one occurrence in particular. In America, we pride ourselves on a “STEM” initiative in schools and getting more young students involved to pursue such degrees in college and beyond. In France, there is no particular emphasis in education. Honestly, I think this makes them a little ignorant. As a country, I wish they would take a little bit of a stronger initiative with their education system. The environment in Europe is generally very lax, while here words like “innovation” “inspiration” are constantly in discussions on the young people. Either way, when we went to the Philadelphia Premium Outlets, the Limerick nuclear power plant is evidently right beside it. My french friends were terrified to be breathing the air that came from this plant. They were terrified to even know that I live so close to it. Yes while I do live in a 15 mile radius of the plant which can be dangerous if it malfunctions, the possibility of it malfunctioning is very slim. Either way, they were so misinformed in that they thought the steam released contained radiation. The radiation created is reserved and controlled and allowed to decay. This isn’t even that essential to the nuclear reaction that takes place to create the energy that powers our light bulbs. I was astonished to see how misinformed my peers from another country were. So after doing some research, I noticed a large “greenpeace” movement in the south of France advocating against the extremely efficient nuclear energy. I was motivated to write a letter with real facts and scientific evidence and was even more surprised when a few months later I got a letter back from the President of Greenpeace France in Paris. I was astonished and so proud that I could apply my French interests internationally and in relation to my scientific interests. Hopefully I have similar international inspirations and experiences to come.

TED talk reflection

I thought the TED talks were very interesting in our class. To me the most challenging part was making the style conducive to what a TED talk sought. I watched many videos trying to figure out exactly what style to uphold. During the ted talk this seemed like the most challenging for me as well. I did not want to make it a speech but instead wanted a relevant angle with what I was talking about. Hopefully it was more than just a history lesson. It was also difficult making sure I stayed stationary to be in the frame of the camera and not to go over time. I did like however, that the assignment concerned more the video than a presentation style like a speech so the technology did help in giving a timer. I found that very helpful because that way I wouldn’t have to stress about the speed at which I was talking and more about the content. I know in media conveyed to the public there is a lot of presentation aid like tele prompters and timers and lights to make the subject appear very evenly etc. It is interesting to note how different a production is from a speech. I didn’t like when people referred to the TED talk as a speech but I learned a lot from the technology and the way it can make a discussion successful. While it is difficult adjusting to using all these tools, I will be sure to find more useful ways with these awesome resources.

Food!!!

Being a freshman in college, and having previously been away from home/parents for over a month, I didn’t expect to get homesick…till I got here. Not only do I miss my cats/parents/friends/bed, but I also dearly miss the food. Yes, everyone gets homesick, but my case is a little particular. I’m assuming most college students here miss their parent’s cooking. With my situation, I miss my parent’s cooking, but their cooking is a solution to missing food from India. Now I have gone through the extensive process of freezing small containers of rice and spicy condiments in hopes that I can satiate my desire for Indian food.
It is crazy how easy it is to be displaced from “home” and to adapt to a new home. In reality, I’m going to be spending more time here than I am at home for the next four years of my life. Being homesick is nothing what I expected. I never thought that as social as the college experience is, it might be difficult to adapt this as a new life. To be completely honest, this manifests for me in the food. My mom would be so excited to read this post right now especially because I never constantly audibly expressed appreciation for her food. I really miss Indian food and being able to joke with my Indian friends at Indian parties about our favorite ethnic dishes. While I could go to a restaurant in town, it is simply not the same.
While I am feeling this at college being away from Americanized Indian food cooked in my home, I can’t imagine what my parents went through when they came here for the first time. It’s interesting to me how even the smallest things, although I’m not very proud to admit, become very relevant human desires that one cannot overcome too quickly.