{"id":9,"date":"2023-09-08T21:19:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T21:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/?p=9"},"modified":"2023-09-08T21:19:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T21:19:09","slug":"reflections-on-an-inter-continental-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/2023\/09\/08\/reflections-on-an-inter-continental-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on an Inter-Continental Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, at the center of New York City. My childhood was colored by subway rides, loud neighborhood bars, and cultural excursions with my mother on the weekends. This week I was given the opportunity to talk, over Zoom, with two students from the American University of Sharjah and a fellow Dickinson student. None of the girls I talked to grew up in a similar place to me; one was from a small town in New Jersey, another from a rural town in the UAE, and finally one who lived in Virginia as a child before moving to the UAE. In the past two weeks of living here in Carlisle, I have already been frequently reflecting on how different it is here in comparison to my childhood neighborhood. It has been a nice adjustment to greet strangers on the street with smiles and \u201cgood mornings,\u201d and a slightly harder one to walk the twenty minutes to Walmart for most basic necessities.\u00a0As I have been processing this substantial difference in my own life, I have now been able to compare my lived experiences with my exchange program peers. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the basic level of our childhoods, there were profound differences which we discussed. I have had two cats, the largest animals we could comfortably fit in my apartment since I was five years old; alternatively, my peer Hind, from the UAE, showed us a picture of her camel as her sentimental item from home. While pet species is not incredibly significant, it stood out to me as a simple example of how different people\u2019s lives are depending on their home and their culture. Later in our conversation, we discussed our transitions to college and residential dorm life. Hind and Mahra spoke about their experiences living at AUS, and how, when compared to other schools in the UAE, it is liberal. An example they mentioned was their curfew time of midnight in their dorms, and that other universities have much earlier curfews than them. This stood out to me as a\u00a0notable\u00a0difference between our experiences here in the United States and their experiences in the UAE. While there may be colleges here in the U.S. with dorm curfews, it is most definitely not as widespread a practice as it is there. I have always considered college to be\u00a0my\u00a0next step on the path to becoming an adult; the training wheels for living on one\u2019s own. Society has told me that since\u00a0I am no longer living with my parents,\u00a0I must be responsible for myself, but also that I can make my own decisions, even if they are questionable. The fact that college students, even seniors like Hind, in the UAE have a curfew stood out as a profound difference to me on a cultural level regarding our status as autonomous adults. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, one of my exchange partners from the UAE spoke about Westerners\u2019 perception of her country as a highly urban metropolis full of the world\u2019s tallest skyscrapers. She was, in fact, from a rural town, not a giant metropolitan city. She was able to dispel my assumptions about what it would be like to grow up in the UAE, and we were able to discuss the differences between living in a rural area and New York City. My view of what life is like in the UAE has been greatly expanded by talking to both Hind and Mahra, and I truly think that learning about their lives, in contrast to mine,\u00a0will assist me in this course when I am putting myself into the shoes of others who have experienced what I have not. Lastly, although this does not answer the prompt, the most powerful part of our Zoom call was learning how much we have in common. Despite all our differences, I found it incredibly easy to talk with and relate to Hind and Mahra, and I think we were able to connect on a personal level despite being halfway across the world from each other. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Lower East Side of Manhattan, where I have lived my entire life (Gotham Magazine, https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fgothammag.com%2Flower-east-side-nyc-neighborhood-guide&psig=AOvVaw0_FG-5y8v-PXZa9CVzY4AH&ust=1694291606143000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBEQjhxqFwoTCMjBkp7um4EDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAI)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sharjah, where my exchange partners attend school. (The Independent, https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/travel\/north-africa-middle-east\/uae\/sharjah-city-travel-guide-best-hotels-city-restaurants-things-to-do-a8882856.html)<\/p><\/div>\n

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My boy cat, Dodger.<\/p><\/div>\n

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My girl cat, Lissie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, at the center of New York City. My childhood was colored by subway rides, loud neighborhood bars, and cultural excursions with my mother on the weekends. This week I was… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5300,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5300"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mullenwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}