Culture Shock and Adjustments

I've written a lot already, I know. But here I am, facing the monitor again and much ready to scribble and put into words the thoughts that cloud my mind. What I am about to share is a very odd story. It may sound funny and absurd, but just let me be.

As usual, I was awakened by the sound of my alarm clock today. I usually set it to beep at 6:00AM in the morning since breakfast at the Miller Dining Hall (the place where I eat my meals) is served from 7AM-8AM. Quite early, huh? I got up, and unfolded the blinds by the window. The sun isn't up yet, but it's own its way. I grabbed my towel and rushed to the bathroom. All the residents in the 10th floor have a common bathroom, a large one. It has 6 toilets, 5 wash areas with a huge mirror across them and 10 shower areas. No one was inside yet and that was okay. My co-scholar from Thailand who happens to be in the 10th floor always whines about the bathroom. Shower areas are covered with just a piece of thick shower curtain, and he doesn't like the idea that much. He always says, "In Thailand, we always have doors in the bathrooms." I share the same sentiments with him, but what can we do? We're not in our home countries so we really need to adapt. But I tell you, it's really really awkward. Haha. I hit the shower and turned it as warm as possible. I shower so quick these days. I don't waste time. Time here is so valuable. You can't be late, especially in dining halls. You'll be starving yourself if you do.

I was about to enter my room when I noticed something posted on the door. It's a note--a pink one. It has a heart on it and it contains my name handwritten along with my room number. Then, I read the words that made me feel very awkward. Encoded, the words say, "RASHID, YOU LOOK COLD. WANT TO USE ME AS A BLANKET?" I was shocked. No, really really shocked. I looked behind my back and checked if there's someone. There's none so I immediately took that post and hurried inside the room. Inside, I dressed up and sat at my study table. I kept on staring at the message. Poor Rashid. Why do you feel so frightened? My mind was then clouded with a lot of questions: Who wrote and posted it? What could be the person's motivation? What is done to frighten me? To test me? Uh-oh. And then I realized that I'm in the United States. Is it really normal here? CULTURE SHOCK. That's it. I have to report this to the Residence Hall assistant. I may look stupid, but I have to.

But there are a lot of beautiful things here in the United States:

1. Computer access with internet connections are found almost everywhere in the campus and they’re for FREE.

2. While the rest of the world whines about the continuous oil price hike and the inflating price of oil per barrel, the United States (particularly in small cities like Bozeman) offers FREE bus ride to anyone along the city. Sounds cool, eh?

3. Whenever you're down the street and happen to cross an intersection, you're always given that privilege to cross first even a vehicle (which is way closer to the alley than you) is approaching. They always make you cross first. The vehicles stop and wait for you. The drivers even share their friendly smile to you. In the Philippines and in most ASEAN countries, you can never do that or else, you run the risk of injuring yourself. Haha. My co-scholars from ASEAN can attest to this. Even the one from Venezuela. We are all amazed and we give our smiles back.

4. Everything in the United States is BIG. The food serving, the toiletries etc. Once, we ate in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There's RICE in there. Each of us ordered of course. When the orders came, again, we were all astounded. That serving can feed a family of 5 in the Philippines! And I have to eat it alone. Haha. I ended up taking a portion of the food to the dormitory.

Enough for now. More to come later.

Filipino Pride and More

It's a Saturday. I woke up late. Offices are closed. Thus, no courtesy calls, no field visits and no transactions. I am free today. Monday will be a very busy day for me so I want to live this day to the fullest.

I don't really know what to write for now. I have a lot of stories to tell--new discoveries, new realizations, funny experiences. I don't know where and how to start. Perhaps, a narration of what transpired days before will do.

I was very glad to know that Ella and I are not the only international students here in our university. In fact, there are hundreds of us here from all over the globe. I met some of them at the Language Institute where we took an English as a Second language (ESL) Placement Exam. Aside from the other UGRAD scholars from other countries who are also here (Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia and Ms. Venezuela), there are also Arabs, Turkish, Chinese,Latinos and Latinas, Koreans, Japanese and a lot more. Some are here to study English and English alone, like that guy from Kazakhstan who was sent by the company where he works to study English here. Two ladies from Turkey are here to review for the TOEFL Exam (Test of English as a Foregin Language). I was astounded to know that in Turkey, you can't proceed to a university without beating a 525 TOEFL PBT score out of the total 700 or a 71 out of the 120 for TOEFL iBT. The other international students were so amazed when they learned that in the Philippines, English is already used as a medium of instruction as early as Kindergarten . In their countries, they use their own language in classroom discussions even inthe fields of Maths and Sciences except for English of course. Hehe. This indeed gives us an edge over them.

Ella and I have already taken the TOEFL iBT exam back in the Philippines. She got 90 and I got 115. Nevertheless, we humbled ourselves by still taking the exam and we both ended up falling asleep during the exam. Haha. Nakakahiya.The exam was composed of four parts--interview, listening, writing and reading. Grammar and proper language use are also incorporated in the exam. It was a pretty easy exam and Ella and I finished it 30 minutes before the time while the rest of the group struggled with their papers. I was really feeling superior that time. We Filipinos really have an edge when it comes to the practice of English as a medium of instruction. In fact, the test proctors (who happens to be the teachers of the ESL classes) made a funny joke which boosts my pride as a Filipino. She said, "Rashid, you might as well teach in the ESL classes. You performed really really well! " Yes, they checked and evaluated our performance in the exam and that's how we'll know whether we should take ESL classes or not along with other classes that we will take in the university. If you achieve Level 6 and 7, you'll no longer take up ESL classes (or you'll only have some refreshment classes). Schedules of classes will be released on Monday.

After the placement exam, we all hurried to Walmart (that's the equivalent of SM in our country) to do our grocery. More than any other, I bought a new camera since my old digicam was damaged. It was a pretty good bargain, $130 for an 8MP Olympus camera. I also bought noodles since I hardly eat the kind of food that they serve at the dining hall. Eww...I really need a lot of adjusting to do. CAN YOU EVER IMAGINE EATING LAY's (that potato snack similar to V-CUT) during lunch? We ate that. Does that even qualify for a lunch? Tsktsk. Good thing they also serve unlimited fruits (apples, grapes etc.) and unilimited drinks, chocolates, ice cream, donuts and a lot more at the dining halls.. Someday, I'll get to be used to these kinds of foods, I hope.

I don't want to write very long blog postings. I don't want to bore you with these writings. Short write-ups will do. I'll just cut this story short for now and I promise to continue the story next time.

A Journey to Remember

My 18-hour journey to the Unites States is over. I am finally here--safe and sound. However, this isn't the end of the journey. This is merely the beginning and I know that there are a lot more things to come--more experiences. More stories to tell. More complications. New learnings and realizations. At this point, allow me to give you a glimpse of my whereabouts (so far) and a brief narration of my journey.

It was 5:00AM (Philippine time) when my alarm clock at the BSA Suites hotel rang. I had a hard time lifting myself off the bed. I am still very sleepy. I barely had a sleep. Michael and Kuya Vincent (yes, Michael of CHARM and Kuya Vincent of COE) brought me to Music Box that night for a send-off party. It was sweet of them. I was very glad to know that Ronilo (of MSU-HP, the quizzer and Kusina Entertainer) was one of the most sought-after performer of such comedy and karaoke bar. He was extremely amazing. You'll never deny him a standing ovation whenever he performs. By the way, he uses the screen name "Celina Brocka". Funny right? If you happen to visit Manila, go and watch him at the Music Box. You'll be proud of this Mindanao State University-Marawi talent. Someday somehow, he'll have his own sit-com soon. =)

Michael and Kuya Vincent accompanied me to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (I forgot to tell you that both has joined me at the BSA Suites that night). We left at around 6:00Am since my flight was at 9:00AM. After the hugs and the reminders, we finally parted. I entered the airport, alone, yet very brave.

After the never-ending checks and X-Rays, I boarded my flight to Japan via Japan Airlines. I traveled with Ella, a UGRAD grantee from Xavier University. Like me, she's also going to Montana State University. However, we were not seated together. It was because she checked-in earlier than me. Anyway, I was seated by the window. In the course of my 4-hour flight to Japan, I never really have talked to my seat mates. I don't know why. Silence. That's all. The food that they served on board wasn't that appetizing. I starved myself, yes.

We arrived at Narita-Tokyo airport past 1 o' clock in the afternoon. We immediately proceeded to our next connecting flight--to San Francisco, California. Narita airport is huge that we have to ride a bus to get to Terminal 1, where we'll board our plane to San Francisco--flight 852 via United Airlines. Ella and I have to wait for the next flight. We were quite early, so we battled boredom by roaming around the airport. We haven't taken pictures though. My camera broke-off a day before my departure. Sad. :( Around 6:00PM, we were all on board. "Good luck to both of us Elle", I told Ella. We were seated together this time. I asked United to do us that favor. Why good luck? We'll be traveling for 9 hours. Imagine that.

I thought it would be nine boring hours. Good thing it wasn't. Thanks to the Disney Channel and the movies that they have on board. Each seat is placed with a mini TV where you can choose what channel (or movie) to watch. We were provided with headsets too. You may also opt for the 'audio' where the top 20 songs are played. Listening to the songs made me melodramatic. "Tattoo" is my sister's favorite song (Rasheda). "No Air" is Ced's favorite song. I heard him sing the song all the time. Then there's "Bleeding Love". The songs they played constantly reminded me of the things and the persons that I'll be living without, for a year. So, I shut the AUDIO down and tuned to the Disney Channel. It was a lot better. Most are comedy Shows--the likes of Hanna Montana, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (I'm not sure with the title) and a lot more. Ella and I ended up laughing together while watching the show. We also watched "The Spiderwick Chronicles". However, went asleep so I ended up bothering Ella to tell me how the story ended. Haha. Suddenly, I felt hungry. I waited for the flight stewards and stewardesses to serve us our meals. I waited long...really. But it was the worth the wait. They served chicken and guess what--RICE with Magnolia ice cream, salads and fruits. Take note: RICE. It's been just a few hours and yet we were already deprived of RICE. Good things United Airlines served rice in one of their meals.

Few minutes before we arrived at San Francisco International Airport, we filled-out our Customs and I-94 forms. Urgh. I thought filling-out forms are over. Hindi pa pala. But they said those forms are very important, so I did. We were about to land when I saw a very familiar structure by the window. I can't believe my eyes. The infamous Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco!Too bad, we can't get out of the airport. We still have much time pa naman. San Francisco was our first point of entry to the United States, so we faced the Bureau of Immigration there. It was quite thrilling, for those immigration officers can still deny you entry and send you back to your country should you fail present yourself well in the interview. But then again, we were traveling under a State Department program, so it was way easier for us. Waz Cha jud xa. Then, we got our baggages and have them re-checked again.

From San Francisco, we flew to Denver, Colorado where we took the plane to Bozeman, Montana. While in San Francisco airport, Ella and I (again, just to kill time) busied ourselves roaming around the airport. We met A LOT of Filipinos working in the airport. It was such a relief (and so so good) to talk with people who speak your tongue. It made me realized that indeed, I am not alone in this part of the globe. We also met a UGRAD grantee from Malaysia who also happens to be enrolled at Montana State. Tatlo na kami. Ang saya-saya! It was also in San Francisco airport where I bought a copy of Stephanie Meyer's "New Moon". Tickee and I have been looking for a copy in the Philippines, but there was none. I was really happy, I finally have one. It made me thought of Tickee.

We left San Francisco and flew to Denver. Nothing important happened in Denver. It was waiting...waiting and waiting. Our flight from Denver to Bozeman was extremely delayed. We were suppose to arrive at 11:40 in the evening. We ended up arriving at 1AM! Gracious Lord! Ms. Debora of the Office on International Programs waited for us in the airport and drove us to the university. She sent us to our respective residence halls and waved goodnight. Just for this summer, I'll be staying at the Roskie Hall, room 1026. I'm alone in my room. I wish I have a room mate. I'll be moving as soon as the Fall Semester starts. I hope to have a room mate by then.

I woke up around 10:00AM, that was when my phone rang. It was a call from Gem, a Fulbright scholar from UP-Los Banos who is taking her doctor's degree in Microbiology here (nosebleed noh?). She said, she's treating Ella and I for lunch. So, I immediately hit the shower and fetched Ella. She stays at the North Hedges Suites, few blocks away from my place. We ate lunch, visited the Office on International Programs (our homebase here) and have our CatCard--our IDs! The ID is what we use in eating in dining halls, entering our residence halls and buying some products. Swipe lang ng swipe!

Tonight, I'm planning to call my family back home. I miss them so badly. I'll purchase a phone card and talk to them. That's going to end my night...say my day. July 24 is over. More to come, I promise.