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Nice and late, but here goes my last blog post. Looking back I have a lot to be grateful for with the opportunity to take classes and live in San José, Costa Rica. This SLA experience not only prepared me for my field research, it gave me riches in both my academic life and my personal life. Academically, I took two great classes. One refined my Spanish speaking and grammar, while the other fed my interest in Afro-Caribbean histories. In terms of my personal life, I found my older brother (which I’ve never had) and a second mother in my host family, Angelita and Leo. They embraced me into every aspect of their lives, taking me to mass, on errands, to the gym, to meet their larger family, and to neighborhood parties. All the while they have been interested in building me up as a person/student and hearing where my research leads me. This opportunity prepared me for research in other ways too. I had to befriend the humble, quiet little spiders in their home before I could deal with the MONSTERS I encountered in the rainforest during my research. But in all seriousness I am grateful for the ways in which the SLA opportunity has thoroughly enriched my life and career.

I would say that I met and exceeded my goals for intercultural development. I never expected the multicultural reality that is Costa Rica. I met people from Jamaica, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Argentina, South Africa, Tanzania, and the US, all under this common name of “Costa Rican.” We talked about shared forms of resilience and what humanity needs to reach for next. After taking the two IDI tests and analyzing our responses, I realize that it is often more complicated than putting labels on cultures. It’s difficult to say that this cultural group is more xyz than that cultural group because individuals are so diverse even within a specified culture. I exceeded my goals but not in a complacent sort of way, more in a way that shows me that I’m obsessed with this lifestyle and frame of mind. I’d like to be ever-growing, ever-changing with the diverse perspectives around me. I don’t think I’ll ever be done exposing myself to new perspectives around the world, and we’ll see where that interest takes me after I graduate from here.

Hola a todxs!

For this blog post, I’m going to share my experience of asking a Mexican friend, who we’ll call Ana, what she thinks about Americans. Because I do interviews as a core part of my research, here’s a disclaimer: this is not a research interview, and it’s coded to be anonymous. I met Ana for a cafecito and asked her some questions about her impressions of Americans. For context, we had this conversation in Oaxaca Centro. Ana is originally from CDMX (Ciudad de Mexico), and has worked in hospitality for many years. Ana has met many Americans, primarily in tourism settings.

Ana shared with me some familiar impressions of Americans that I have heard before: we are loud, demanding, and sometimes inconsiderate travelers. One of the examples she gave me was really interesting: she noticed that often Americans don’t move for locals on the sidewalk, even when locals are carrying heavy things such as carts or water jarras (jugs) (which is often!). Having been raised by immigrant parents, I have for much of my life been keenly aware of these American stereotypes, and have tried to avoid embodying them. I’m sure I haven’t done that perfectly; I inhabit many spaces and identities, and being American is one of them.

As Ana and I kept talking, she shared with me some positive thoughts about Americans, including that we’re more open minded. This surprised me, especially in the wake of the U.S.’s political conditions for the last few years, and the increasing tensions and issues arising with the U.S.’s foreign policy that directly affects the lives of many Mexicans. I think this heterostereotype of open-mindedness contrasts Mexican and American culture in a specifically gendered way; in Mexico, the culture (especially for women) has more intense expectations for modesty and traditional roles in domestic life. In general, I would agree with Ana’s assessments of Americans, while maintaining my perspective of curiosity that wants to know more about how these dynamics, and perceptions of these dynamics, develop and change over time.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Was I prepared for my summer in Jordan in any way? Absolutely not. There were extremely tough days, my classes were hard, and the culture was strange. However, I got more out of this trip than I could have ever imagined. At the beginning of the summer, I was annoyed and scared by the call to prayer blasting throughout my neighborhood. By the end of the summer, I saw the beauty, dedication, and devoutness of this ritual. 

Every week I was there, the strangeness of the Jordanian culture turned to beauty in my eyes. I not only learned the language, but I was able to experience a culture of religion, history, and pride. I shared funny moments with my classmates trying to navigate the city, order food, and just survive in this unfamiliar place. What was arguably more powerful was what I learned about myself and my culture. In America, many people see our culture as burgers, beer, and football. However, Jordanian culture is anchored heavily to family and religion. In the US family sizes have shrunk and Sunday is no longer a day of rest. High achievement, innovation, and money lead the lives of many Americans, yet these themes were not present at all in Jordan. While I was shocked initially, I learned that sharing a meal with family and devoting your entire Friday to prayer was far more important to the Jordanians than anything else. The family unit truly was a unit here, and people did not leave their houses until they were starting a family of their own. Along these lines, many Jordanians took us Americans in as a family. They said that because we are far from our families, we could be a part of theirs. This to me was beautiful. My professor and a lady we met at Church both said that I could call them “Om”, the word for mother in Arabic. 

On the other hand, I learned the not-so-beautiful parts of the culture. I saw firsthand, how the lives of women can be hard due to the obligations within the family structure. Also, the lack of a robust government structure meant public transportation and social services were scarce. Like the US, Jordan is not perfect, but being able to live there and experience the good and bad was critical to my formation as a human being. Despite cultural and especially religious differences, I was able to conclude that the thing that unites us all is our humanity. While some people did not like us because of our religion or the fact we were Americans, there were many who acknowledged this difference and accepted the beauty of it. Words cannot describe my experience this summer, but it was the most formative experience of my life. This experience has allowed me to think about what it means to be a better global citizen for others, how differences in culture can affect everything, and how how to appreciate something that is so different.