connerye

A common theme that arose in both breakout rooms was the theme of travel. When sharing our objects I discussed how I chose headphones signifying the use of music for background noise. I explained that this background noise was often used as I drove or flew from different destinations and my love for travel. Similarly, a student from the United Arab Emirates shared a painting of Venice to also represent their love of travel.
When sharing experiences regarding travel our breakout group found that the reason for travel in both the UAE and the US was similar. We first talked about the use of travel as a means to get away from where we were living to find “peace in chaos” as stated by one of the participants. Often college students feel stressed in both the UAE and the US and both cultures use travel as a way of breaking our routine through seeing new sights, meeting new people, and experiencing different cultures. This escaping from routine allows for stress to momentarily be escaped.
Escape from the seasons was also a common theme. Students in the UAE discussed that travel was common in the summer due to the extreme heat in the region. The opposite is true in the US as many people will go to Florida and the Caribbean to escape the winters.
I asked students from Sharjah if travel was restricted to the upper classes in the UAE. They stated no and explained how the majority of the UAE is well off financially and can afford the costs as well as time off from work to travel. This contradicted my generalization that much of the Middle East does not have the resources to travel.
While unrelated, another interesting point came up in our second breakout room. A student from Sharjah was explaining why they chose to place a pin in olive tree fields in Jordan. They explained this choice came because their grandfather owned land with olive trees. They frequently traveled back to see both their grandparents and the beautiful land. Another student from the US responded that it’s interesting that they chose to place a pin in the olive tree field because their mother does work in promoting Jordan-Palestine relations through olive oil production. This then created a dialogue about how the US often thinks of countries in the Middle East in a geopolitical sense. This narrow way of looking at these different countries fails to take into account the deeper meaning of these countries. Furthermore, it ignores the ties people have to the countries and different cultures and customs in the region.
When she thinks of Jordan, she thinks of olive trees not its conflict with Palestine. This combined with my generalization of the role of travel in the Middle East illustrated to me the need to not Orientalize the Middle East and the danger of looking at the region purely through a Western lens.
We also discussed how students in both the UAE and the US often return to their home countries while traveling. This illustrated to me that both the US and the UAE are a melting pot of different cultures. This theme came up when we discussed food as well, as both the US and the UAE have a variety of restaurants with different types of food from across the world. This also challenged my view of the Middle East. I often think of people living in the Middle East as having strict state or religious identities. This was proven wrong by the fact that many of the students at Sharjah had to travel from other countries to attend the University combined with the fact that the Emirates is very diverse.
Overall, I felt we found more similarities than differences in our worldviews, especially evident in our reasons for travel. These conversations on things as basic as travel showed me that I have so many biases in looking at the region. I now understand that these biases will likely be proven wrong. This zoom call illustrated the dangers of looking through the Middle East through a purely Western lens. I am excited to keep learning more about the cultures of the region and feel that the best way to expand my knowledge of the Middle East is to continue to challenge my preconceived notions of the region by looking deeper into the cultures and norms of different groups in the region.