Diana Ramirez
02/24/10
Myself as an Outsider
I am Mexican and when I finished high school, I decided to go to Europe and spend a couple of months in a little Village in the South of Spain, a beautiful medieval town called Bocairent in Valencia. I stood in a small house in the middle of the town with a Spanish friend. I was very surprised by the way people lived. They didn’t have electric heating, even though winters are very cold. They warm up their houses with coal’s ovens, they put a thick blanket on top of it in the middle of a room and everybody sit around the covered oven and put their feet underneath it. When I first came to one of our neighbors’ house I had no Idea what they were doing all gathered together under a huge blanket. I accepted to seat down, put my feet underneath the green blanket without knowing what to expect. When I felt the heat in my feet and then my legs, I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing the blanket and looking underneath to see where the heat was coming from. Everybody started laughing! They couldn’t believe that I didn’t know what was going on.
Another day, I went to the grocery store to buy meat and salad for my dinner. The owner, a little fat lady, looked at me in the eyes and told me that today was Monday and that I should know that they “kill” only on Wednesdays, so there was never any meat in town before Thursdays. I immediately apologize for my ignorance and asked to buy some salad. She seemed offended by my request, and said that only rabbits like to eat salad.
Of course they didn’t have, who would buy it? She said. I took some potatoes and eggs instead, and I made a “Spanish Tortilla” for dinner that night.
I know now how does it fill to be an outsider in a foreign country. Even though I spoke Spanish and Spain is considered to be Mexican’s cradle, I felt like a complete stranger in that beautiful medieval town.
First, when I arrived to San Diego, I lived in a home stay for 1 month, and this was my first time to live with a foreign family with a different culture. About my reflection with this experience, it was a little bit hard to me to enrolled with them, but after a couple of days they helped me to become one of them by trying to stay with me most of the day, and they took me in a ride all over San Diego to let me know they area. They are really a good lovely family.
ReplyDelete“I AS THE OUTSIDER”
ReplyDeleteIf I remember a place where I really felt like an outsider that’s Senegal. My wife and me went there one year and a half ago and we spent 10 days there. We like to visit places very different from ours, and with different culture and customs. Senegal is one of them.
But, to choose a concrete situation, I can relate one that make me really feel like in other planet: one day we decided to rent a bicycle accompanied by one guide from the town where we were at this moment. He drove us to a very little village where there were taking place a sort of popular festival. This festival consisted of “friendly fights” between men of different villages and each time is one village who receive the others. It is accompanied by songs, dances and very spectacular clothes.
When we arrived there were hundreds of people all over a hill and we were the only whites. All of them, except children, seemed not to notice our presence even if we were like the typical occidental tourists. Everybody was expectantly waiting the arrival of the other village’s fighters and their women. When they arrived dancing and singing, everybody shouted to them loudly and the festival began. There were 3 or 4 fights at the same time and, as they explain to us later, everything is very establish so old men mark the rules to avoid any problem between both villages.
At the beginning I was a little bit afraid and astonish. I even thought that there was a real battle and we were in the middle of nowhere surrounded of people thirsty of blood. Little by little I felt more comfortable and I enjoyed a lot having the opportunity to see this incredible cultural expression. I was only concerned by the fact that we were like “rich tourists” who goes to see how the wild people life in the poor Africa. I hope they didn’t think that about us, but we were people who want to share experiences with them.
This episode helped me to understand how does African people feel when they arrive to a foreign country like Spain. Their culture is so different that they should be impressed when they are “surrounded of people thirsty of... ”.
The country that make me felt as an outsider was Switzerland. I remember that I went to the store to buy a yogurt, and when I went to pay for it. I was confused with the Swiss Francs and l got nervous because I spent so many time counting the money. I remembered a long line behind me, and finally a old women help me to count it. When a left the store I star laughing because I say and that happen to me choose for a yogurt, and yes the yogurts in Switzerland are very delicious.
ReplyDeleteThe situation that makes me feel outsider was when I went to the south of Brazil the called Florianopolis. I was expecting a bad feeling about the place, but in fact I got surprise. People was so nice and friendly. The streets were so clean, look like I was in other country. I had a great time and the food in this place was amazing. Everyplace that I went to eat the food was delicious. I want to go there again. When I was there I could feel time passing and the experience that I had I will never forget. Besides this I love beaches. Florianopolis is the places where we can find gorgeous beaches. I saw a lot of surfs and some was famous. Sometimes in some beaches they have competition which is well know all over the world. another thing that is interesting to mention is that the people in Florianopolis are so pretty. My experience was never thing about a place that you have never been as a bad place, because you can always get surprise, sometimes your friend opinion could not be the same as yours!
ReplyDelete“I as the Outsider”
ReplyDeleteI felt outsider when I tried to rent an apartment in San Diego when I came here in January. They asked me my social security number, but I told them I don’t have one. They also asked me to show my credit record, but I had to say I didn’t have credit card here. This was a problem, so I had to wait for them to consider. I was sad and thinking I have a card in my country… I’ve never delayed for the payment…
Eventually, I managed to rent an apartment, but I felt myself completely stranger. After that, I applied for credit card as soon as possible. However, I can’t obtain social security number because I am a foreing student… This means I will feel stranger sometime soon…
Khanh's Response
ReplyDeleteTopic: Me, as an outsider
Me, as an outsider. That feeling has taken over me since the first time I came to US. As I walk around in campus, I heard people chit chatting about a football match at this weekend, about the things going in university such as the budget cut; but, as an outsider, I miss some parts of the story. In classes where all of my classmates are Americans, who are defined in this situation as people whose English is their mother tongue, I can catch up with what the professor is saying but I really cannot catch up with the questions that they asked, as well as the little chit chat between students. As an outsider, I am too shy to break the ice with an American girl who studied in the same Philosophy class with me. Finally, I just let that feeling slip away because of the fact that I am an outsider, especially an outsider who is not confident with his English.
Outside from the inside out. Besides the look of my face, which always makes people asking where I am from, my name is causing a lot of troubles for them, the insider. “What’s your name?” “My name is Khanh, yeah, Khanh”. Because it is very hard for them to pronounce my name correctly, I have omitted the last “H” to make my name become “Khan”. In order to make it easy for them, I usually ask them whether they know about Gengis Khan, an infamous Mongolian tribe leader in the ancient time. “Yes, my name is Khan, K H A N”. Sometimes, it easy for them to call me Kahn, after a famous soccer player Oliver Kahn. I miss the correct pronunciation of my name and I miss high-pitch part in my name.
“Yes, my name is Khanh, K H A N H….. yup you heard it right, it’s K in Kierra, H in house, A in April, N in November and H in house…” and I am an outsider.
"I as an Outisder"
ReplyDeleteThe trip, which remembers me this feeling of being an outsider, was my first trip to the US by my one for an exchange program.
Four years ago, I spent 1 month in Fort Lauderdale in Florida. I spent my summer holidays to this girl, who was my correspondent and who came at my house the year before. I was very excited to see her again but when I arrived, I noticed that many things were different from home and sometimes I was feeling very uncomfortable. My first morning, her parents prepared me a huge plate with some eggs, bacons, sausages and lot of other things. I was used to have only a toast or some fruits at breakfast, so I tried to eat, but it was too much. Her parents thought I didn't like it, and started to ask me thousand of questions as "Is the bacon too crispy? Do you want omelet instead of scrubble eggs? Do you want to add something on you waffle?". I was feeling ashamed because they took a while to understand that the problem was me and that i was just not used to eat as much as them every morning. But thankfully they were very nice and since the next morning I was able to make my own breakfast. I really enjoyed stay and the height is that when I came back to Geneva, the first thing I asked to my mother was if she could make me bakon for breakfast.
Abdullah Al Haddab's Post
ReplyDelete"ME AS AN OUTSIDER”
The country that I felt in it a stranger was the U.S. When I first arrive my English was terrible, and it was
hard to me to communicate with forigners. After that, I wanted to rent an apartment, and because of my bad
language, I couldn't understand the lease agreement. Now, my English is much better than when I first come
to the U.S.
When I arrived to the U.S in Oklahoma city, I was so scared because i dont know how to deal with the people and how can I talk with them.One time I went to a resturant and there was a lot of people in the line waiting for their orders.When my turn come, I don't know what to order and I point to the meal that I want.After that she asked me to choose one type of salad because it comes with the meal.I only know a green salad but she said we don't have it! Finally I choosed a salad and when my order come I figuer out that salad was with a pork meet and as a muslim I'm not suposed to eat pork..!
ReplyDeleteFabricio's Post
ReplyDeleteLife as an outsider
Being outsiders difficult at times; you are in an unfamiliar place without your family beside you. This can complicate adjusting to the new environment. The main changes that I have had to get used to are the food, weather, and language.
The first impact that I had as an outsider was the language. It is really difficult to leave your mother language behind, especially when the new language is completely different from your own. When I first realize that this was going to be a challenge to adjust to the new environment, was when the first words I heard were not in Spanish.
Something as simple as the weather can make a huge impact in you. In Pereira, Colombia the average high temperature is 84 degrees throughout the whole year. This is a really convenient weather and it’s really difficult to find in other countries, that’s why for me it’s really difficult to get used to the new weathers. For example, in the weather that I am used to I can do many things, so if the weather is cold or to hot I will have to change my activities I used to do for recreation.
Finally, another big change that affects the adjusting into a new environment is the food. If you are really used to having a homemade meals, the different of food can mean a lot. Lest say if you are used to wake up and having an outstanding breakfast waiting for you, and now you can only eat a bowl of cereal or some eggs.
Although the challenge of adjusting to new food, language, and weather may seem daunting at times, I feel that I will be able to overcome them and accomplish my goals. I will have to rely on the support of my friends and family to be able to do this. Also, the new friends that you can make can help a lot in any issue you may have.