MIR

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American Fathers

It’s been almost 120+ days, I am here in Northwest College Powell, Wyoming, adopting different cultural values in accordance to my moral and cultural values, experiencing new technological advantages, learning new concepts related to my field of Business Administration, interacting with different countries people. It’s so far been a very wonderful experience of my life and has modified my creative abilities to survive in different situations and scenarios.

Thinking about the program requirements, meeting deadlines has been a push for me to see things differently, while thinking about what to write In a blog, I was actually looking for something Intriguing because It is my last blog writing as an assignment, although I have planned to continue writing on this blog.  Finally, came up with this idea to share a stereotypical statement I had when I came here and how the situations here changed my mind to reject that stereotype.

Cultural differences, I always imagined Americans (male population) to be less family oriented, more towards earing money, thriving towards success in business and stuff, these were my thoughts before I got here.  I met 2 most wonderful fathers, in the campus, my friendship family Phil Johnson and Seth Morgan. Watching them anywhere in the campus is such a positive site. Their bond with their children, sense of responsibility surely changed my perception about the men of U.S, coming from a male dominant society ,where men are mostly the ones to earn money and take care of the expenses and all, watching young fathers caring for the babies ,doing all the stuff a mother does , simply makes me happy.

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Exchanges Are Best Opportunities For Learning About Each Other

I am an "exchange student." But I didn't believe the power of being in an exchange program until last year, when I participated in the U.S. Department of State's Undergraduate Cultural Exchange Program.

After my own experience, I now believe that exchange students can help change some of the assumptions and preconceived ideas in their societies because people are more likely to accept the change from within their society rather than from the outside. That is why I strongly believe that an exchange experience is one of the most powerful ways to promote human beings and help end those centuries' long conflicts that take our focus away from the real problems.

I'd like to share a couple of the hundreds of experiences I had while in the United States that continue to amaze me.

When I came to Powell, Wyoming on August 14, 2015, I was a Pakistani student who did not have much experience outside my own culture. I learned a lot going to college in the United States for one semester. Although the experiences in the classroom was awesome but I learned a lot outside of classroom, especially when I travel to large cities of United States like New York, Chicago, Orlando, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. I never thought that I will travel across the world and be invited to meet different people. I went to California State University Monterey Bay for my re-entry workshop. Which were one of the unforgettable days of my life. I met with my fellow participants, and spoke with them.    

During my stay I was invited to attain re-treat of Christians on South Dakota . The days I spent there showed me once more that coming to the United States was the best decision I have ever made. I learned about different religions, which is something I couldn't have done as easily in my country where 98 percent of the community is Muslim. I went several times to different churches and learned about different practices and beliefs and I was able to share my practices and beliefs with others. These four months taught me to be more tolerant and I think I helped people understand more about my heritage.

These are just a few of my experiences. There are too many to list. But through all the diverse community service activities, my time at school, with my friend ship family and with new friends,  I have observed different faces of the United States. From people who live in Beverly Hill to people live in streets of New jersey.

Being thousands of miles away from home was not always easy. Like everything in life, my experience had its ups but also its downs. The hard times helped me grow up and move away from my comfort zone to gain maturity and independence.

Throughout this whole journey, the person who supported me most is my host advisor. She was always there for me whenever I needed her, always making sure that I was adjusting, and enjoying my stay here.

Finally, I felt that I had seen America’s true face. Now, I knew more about this country than what the news told me.

The lesson I learned will stay with me forever. Cultural exchanges are the best opportunities to learned about each other.

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Racial and Ethnic Diversity

Seventy two percent of total population of United States is white. The black or African-American represents 13 % of the total population. Five percent are Asians, 0.9 % are American Indians and Alaska Natives, and 0.2 % are Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander. This statistics is based on 2010 census. The forecasted census of 2060 shows some dramatic changes in this area. The white Americans will be 43.6 % of total population, Hispanic’s population will be 28.6 % of total population, Black or African-American’s will be 13 %, Asian will be 9.1 %, and there will be not much increase in the rest of ethnicities.

The states I visited so far are New York, New Jersey, Montana, South Dakota, Florida, Illinois, and Wyoming. I observed that in Wyoming the majority is European Americans who are white. According to a general observation, New York is a diversified state where you will see people almost belongs every ethnic group. When I visited Time square, and Brooklyn bridge, I have observed a large group of people around the world. This is because of tourist attraction Places. I observed the majority of Black-Americans in New Jersey City. As I Visited Orlando, Like wise Time Square, and Brooklyn it is  also a tourist attraction. So, there were a lot of Asian I have seen. Chicago, Illinois is also one of the metropolitan cities of the United States. So, it is also full of diversified ethnicities, but the majority of this city also belongs to white ethnic group. The northwest of united states is having majority of white-Americans. I observed the minority groups of Black-Americans and Hispanics in Wyoming.

The Black-Americans are in minority in almost many states of America. My stereotypes about this ethnic group is that Black-Americans are dangerous people. Secondly I had a stereotype about them that they are working as lower staff, and are the first line managers. My stereotypes are totally based on what I have perceived from media. But after travelling in the subways of New York, Chicago, and Lynx of Orlando at late nights, my stereotypes become more strong because I have observed that the tired sleepy Black-Americans with labor dresses travelling towards their homes. After conversation with Black-American I can say that they are training themselves and their children for the diversity. I have observed in public places that races, and ethnicities are the prevalent subject in USA. I have seen the Black people setting together in the parks, bus-stations, and in cafeterias.

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Being Different in a Different Place is a Different Thing

Being put outside of your comfort zone is a scary thing, but I have realized now that really it is just an opportunity to try new things.

The first few days in the United States of America was is fascinating and mind-blowing. Everything seems fresh, there is a lot of new people and everything is incredible. This is happening to you because you are new in a new place with new people and a different culture. After a few weeks everything becomes mind-numbing because American people are not like the people of Pakistan. The social compositions and cultural backgrounds are different. So, people become) tedious for me and I start being uninteresting for them as well. I think this is a very big challenge for a lot of international students because they really do not find friends to hang out with. The social life in American colleges is bit different. It depends on the size of college, location, and student population. You need to make smart decisions regarding your social life on campus. American students drink alcohol and smoke socially, but you need to know your limits and values. I found clubs and sports as a good source for socialization in American colleges. I am interested in outdoor activities like climbing, caving, hiking, camping, river rifting, and zip-lining. I joined an outdoor adventure club. I found people with the same interests in this club and I made a lot of new friends. Now I have built a community of nice people on campus and I go to hang out with them. Meeting new people every day and keeping my mind open helped me to know more about American culture.

Also one of my favorite things being an exchange student in United States is how you get to be part of a community that opens doors for you to meet people from all over the world. All of a sudden you have people from what seems like every country in the world or close to it.

Finally few of my experiences in NWC in last month:

The most difficult adjustment for me in the last month was the American food, Still I am trying to adjust myself. Making social circles was the easiest experience of my last month. The invitation for dinner was the biggest surprising and, the incidence of Umpqua community college was the biggest disappointment for me while in USA. I am looking to make as many friends as I can. I am expecting the least disappointments for the rest of this semester as a student of NWC . I wish I could be here for one more semester, but I hope it would be marvelous.

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My Dream World

My dream world would be a colorful world just like a Disney world. It must be like a garden of flowers with children playing freely and people interacting without fear of the unknown.

I am dreaming about a world, where nations will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character. In my ideal world there will be no poverty, zero hunger, good health, and well-being. Quality education would be ensured to all social classes. Man and women would be considered equal. No discrimination will be based on sex, color, region, and race. I am dreaming about a world where there will be no need of nuclear weapons. Government  would not even need to make arms to protect themselves. There would be no concept of war, injustice, and barbarism. There will only love, care, and smiling faces everywhere. There would be only peace in every corner of the world.

Education would be the only source which will drive this world to my dream world. Education means a lot to me. Everything I am so far is because of education. Education motivated me to travel 6,973 miles away from my home. I belong to a family who always supported women’s education but they prefer to invest on male education because of financial issues. Achievement, ambition, being the best, courage , enthusiasm, open communication, leadership, wisdom and vision are the important values for me while pursuing education in United States.  

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Liberal Arts

The studies or skills that intend to provide general knowledge and comprising the humanities, arts, social sciences, and natural sciences that oppose to professional or technical subjects. The universities in United States focus on liberal arts. There are very few universities in Pakistan which are focusing on liberal arts. Forman Christian College University, Lahore is one of those few Pakistani universities which are focusing on liberal arts. In this university individuals are free to study any subject or can switch their majors at any time, while in the other universities students are not allowed to study other subjects than their major. If you are engineering student and you want to study business classes than it is not possible for you to do that. The educational system is not flexible as like American educational system.

I think liberal arts education is valuable because a person can find his/her interest at any time during their university studies and can excel. In other systems you are compel to study that what is offered by the university.

There is the educational change era in my country during 2000 to 2008. In this period of time education was promoted in Pakistan, especially higher education. There are two parallel educational systems working in Pakistan. One is public sector and the other is private sector. Educational institutions were encouraged and they flourish in this era. There is more than 132 universities in Pakistan. It is accessible to a common man to go to public university, which is comparatively cheap but there are limited seats for students in public universities. So student has to compete for these seats.

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CONTEXT OF CULTURE: HIGH & LOW

I attempt a quiz to know about my behavior that where I fall in these two categories. My results of this quiz was according, my high context score was 33 and my low context score was 38. The difference between these two scores were five. If I will talk about the association, I am in high context because I belong from a society where relationships depend on trust, build up slowly and are very stable. One can easily distinguish people inside and outside one’s circle.

As far as about interaction I agree with my results of my quiz because in my culture there is the lowest possible use of non-verbal communication. People prefer to communicate verbally and messages are mostly carried by words. I also agree with my results in territoriality part as well. We do not stand close to each other until and unless we have a close relation. Privacy really means a lot to us. Mostly, people of different sex even dos not shake hands. We cannot touch each other while communicating.

Time is really an important factor in all over the world but we do not care as much as Americans do. The change is really fast and expecting the same pace results as well. Finally when I came to learning, it is mixture of high and low because groups are preferred for learning and problem solving, at the same time efficiency really matters.

Low context is the dominant communication style of the society, where I grow up with or I interact with most so far. I feel comfortable in low context while communicating. There are advantages and disadvantages of both contexts. It depends that which culture we belong to. One must be flexible in this regard while studying in foreign. When you are going to a foreign country for study, you must first study the culture of that country.

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City that Never Sleeps

Whenever I hear the name of the city that never sleeps “New York”, it reminds me the worst incident ever. It was September 11, 2001 when world Trade Center was attacked by a terrorist group. It was attacked by series of four attacks. This attack was suicide attack on the world trade center on the morning of Tuesday. The 19 terrorists have hijacked the four planes which were departed from California. The planes were American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93. The American airlines flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 has been used to crush the 110 story building of world center, which is located in New York City. The united Airlines 77 was crushed into the pentagon which is the headquarter of United States Department of Defense and the last flight which was United Airlines Flight 93 was trying to enter into Washington D.C but was crushed near Shank Ville, Pennsylvania because passengers tried to overcome the hijackers. This incident has changed the map of the world and it is known as 9/11. The United States bear the loss of 2996 people including 19 hijackers and caused at least 10 billion of property and infrastructure damage. The United States responded this attack by launching “War on terror” and attack on Afghanistan to depose Taliban. After three years of this attack Bin Laden claimed the responsibility of attacked in 2004 and United States troops started to find out Laden and they killed Laden after a decade in May, 2011. This attack effects the economy of the world and especially the economy of lower Manhattan. It cause the close of the Wall Street till September 17, and New York stock exchange was badly affected due to this incident. The world trade center was repaired in May 2002 and pentagon was repaired after one year.

This was the reason which captured my attention towards New York and from that very point I have had a dream to visit New York, which became true after 14 years. I got a chance to visit New York on September 04, 2015 to September 07, 2015. I fly from Denver International Airport at 11:59AM to LGA Airport New York and landed at 04:15PM. This was as according as I was expecting. After having dinner with a Pakistani family we left to visit Time square. When I reached at time square, for a while I thought it is not real. I was feeling myself somehow in dreams but I was literally very happy at that time. This place was full of colors and what I was observing is the uncountable squares of lights. Though it is a place for the wealthy class of the world but I have observed a lot of homeless people and baggers over there. This was very disgusting for me because I have never ever thought about it, that New York is a city where there are homeless people as well.

The second day in New York City is the day, which I consider the best day of my life. Because I have visited to the places to whom I was very crazy. This was the day when my craziest dreams came into true. The time I spend on Brooklyn Bridge was awesome. The view of Manhattan was really very good and the time I was with my friends in the cruise was unbelievable. This all was new for me but for a while I was considering that I am here for many years.

If I could stop the time, thses would be the moments where I will stop it.  

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Welcome to American House

I have been placed in Northwest College Powell, Wyoming by IREX. I have reached in campus on August 14, 2015. International students were being welcomed by Intercultural coordinator in Intercultural house Northwest College. Being an international I was new to the people of Powell, Wyoming. Likewise each and everybody was new for me. The place was one of those factors, which captured my attention. Though it is somehow like my hometown but still there are a lot of differences we have. The weather and atmosphere is quite similar with my home town. The differences which I have noticed over here is, the way of meeting of people, , the way they dressed up, and the way they act and react towards situations. Gradually I started communicating with people and started making friends. After few days a native family of Powell has invited me to their home. I was very excited to visit an American house because I have never been to American house before. I went to their home with my friend as he was also invited by them. When reached their, they greet us and offer a seat formally. At the very first sight I have observed that the American houses are totally different from the houses of my home town. After it they give a tour of their house and introduce us with their children. Anyhow I used to meet them in campus and town. I was some extent friendly with them because I have attained BBQ parties and picnics with them. This was the only reason that I was not feeling uncomfortable over there. They introduced us with their kids, who were really very smart boys. The boys were participating in each and every discussion and even sometimes they interrupted. The parents was not discouraging their children for interruption. This was strange for me because in my home town it is considered to be ill mannered. It was dinner time so they served dinner to us and the food over here was totally different. They potatoes was boiled in the water while we prefer fried potatoes. When the dinner was on our tables they asked us how I can help you. Then we serve by ourselves. After dinner they asked us for coffee and tea. We were agreed for tea and this was awesome and I enjoyed a lot the tea because I was taking tea after a month. We are used to drink tea at least 3 times a day in my home town. We export tea from Brazil mostly. We did talks on cultural differences and similarities. They have asked us about our food and fruits.

This visit was my first experience in American houses, as I was considering American society is individualistic, so they are not helping each other in their homes. They might cook their own food and they only care about their own stuff but my perception was totally wrong. The man and lady were helping each other while cooking food for us. Sometimes they call their children for help, whenever they needed. Every time the response from the children was positive.        

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Traffic System is the reflection of Behaviors of Public.

Wyoming is one of the state of United States which I have never hear about it before my placement in Northwest College. Northwest college Powell, Wyoming is a diversified College. This college is full of international colors. There are sixty international students who are healing from thirty different countries of the Globe. As a part of international students I enjoyed some extra benefits. All of us have to go for trips which are arranged by our intercultural staff. On August 29th, 2015, the intercultural staff has arranged a shopping trip for us. We are supposed to go to Billings, Montana. As Billings, Montana was a new place for us to visit so we all international students were too excited to visit. When I was departing from Pakistan I have promised with myself that I will visit at least ten states of United States. As I have visited District of Colombia, Virginia, and Wyoming. The Montana was new for me so far. Though Billings is a big market but in Billings traffic is also rushed. I was observing the traffic system of Billings which is also same as the rest of states of United States, which I have visited so far. Traffic system in United States is totally different from the traffic system of Pakistan. The very first and noticeable difference in traffic is that that in Pakistan the cars have setaring on right hand sides while in United States the cars are having setarings on left hand side. I randomly cross the road and when I and my Pakistani buddy were crossing the road people were staring at us, at the very moment I feel that something is not right that’s why people are noticing us. When we crossed the road a gentleman says ‘Hello’ to us. After greeting he asked from us that where are you guys from? We introduced ourselves than he said to me that in United States we don’t cross the roads randomly, so we have zebra crossing for that. I asked him where is zebra crossing? He came with us to show the zebra crossing. We reached at traffic signals and he said to me that there is a picture of man on the signal light, when it becomes red you have to wait and when it blinks and changes its color than that is indication for you to cross the road. I thanked the person and goes on his way. This was something new for me which I have noticed first time than I stand on the traffic signal and started observing the traffic signal and traffic system of United States, that how this all system is different from the Pakistani system and what are the similarities of both systems have. First I was finding the similarities that what are the similarities of the systems are. The similarities I observed are traffic signals, roads, traffic police, markets, rushed areas, and we also have a lot of cars as well. Then I came to find differences over here and I summarized that this is the system which really makes it unique from the rest of the world, these are the responsible people who wait for the signals, and these are the passionate drivers who can wait for pedestrians to cross the road.