Foreign Devils!

International students make life so much more interesting. Aside from the obvious benefit of them constantly wanting to party there's the benefit of learning how people think and do things differently. Things like how everyone except Americans seem to say something before they eat, like "bon appetit" or "guten appetit". It's the food equivalent of "cheers" I suppose. They are puzzled why we don't say anything and the closest they can come up with is "enjoy your meal" which I would only say if I were the one serving the food.

On the topic of food, the Europeans will still give me crap for how difficult it is to eat healthy here in the US because everything is bad for you. Since their point of reference is the dining hall and not the UofA food court, they're full of it. You get pasta, Asian noodles, soup, salad, vegetarian options, sandwiches, wraps as well as french fries, hot dogs, pizza and hamburgers. I see the Danes going back to get some hamburgers after a salad and lamenting how bad they are for you. Or the Swedish girls saying (adorably), "I am so weak for sweeties!" as they sneak a few cookies back to their room. The reason that it's hard for them to eat healthy is that we have a wide variety of food here and our desserts are delicious—they have healthy options but they go for the more flavorful ones. Just because we have the most delicious food and they are powerless to resist it doesn't mean that it's our fault that they don't eat right. There's a perfectly flavorless bin of granola they could help themselves too if they really wanted to...

Another peculiarity I've learned only recently is that the Germans actually believe that it's not cheating if you don't get caught. One student was telling me how astonished he was that during an exam the professor walked out of the room and nobody started talking! In Germany, he says, everyone would start asking their neighbor for answers and pull out their notebooks to find an answer. I was unable to explain to them how copying your neighbor's answers on a test is cheating, though the guy who was in the class and cheated by pulling out his textbook said I made him feel guilty since he didn't know it was such a bad thing here. So once and future teachers, make damn sure you spell out the bit about academic integrity at the beginning of the semester.

I'm also being introduced to some strange German colloquialisms. For example, if someone is being a smart ass the Germans would say "he showered with a clown this morning" or "he had a clown for breakfast." Both of these images are rather disturbing: I'm imagining standing on one side of the shower shampooing my hair while a clown (not naked, thankfully) is just standing there on the opposite side staring at you with a big painted smile. Then there are the things that the Germans are at a loss for describing in English and come up with some downright hilarious new words. The soda machine becomes the "Coke ATM" and the juice machine is the "juice cow". I don't mean to make fun of them, anyone who has lived in a foreign country has done stuff like that (like me referring to clouds as "the white things in the sky" in Swedish), but they're just too good to forget. And let us not forget the priceless accent mixups, such as a Frenchman explaining to us how great some car is–it even has laser (leather) seats! Or my roommate Chorch from Churmany who plays the chass trumpet. I try to correct them when I can, they're my friends after all and I don't want them to make a fool of themselves at some big executive meeting when they're out in the real world. But they rarely make the corrections and so, much to my amusement, I will still hear the stereotypical Swedish exchange student declare, "I'm so weak for sweeties!"

Remember, Remember the Fourth of November

Barack Obama won the election and for the first time in at least 8 years, if not ever, I am filled with joy, optimism and of course, hope for the future of the US. All of the international students were wondering yesterday afternoon when we would find out who won the election and I told them depending on how the results go, we might know tonight or tomorrow morning. I must admit I did not think the results would be known so soon and so when everyone else was going to the bars to celebrate I stayed in, pretending to read while I watched the map fill with red and blue. I then decided to play a game to get my mind off the election since I didn't think there was any purpose in worrying the entire night who would win. Not a half hour later I hear people screaming and cheering outside "OBAMA!" I didn't make much of it at first, "Let's not count our chickens before they hatch," I thought. But the few voices outside grew into a raucous crowd, I looked out the window and saw people dancing in the street and cheering from their open windows. I checked my computer and sure enough the headline read "American Elects First Black President". And that's when it really hit me: it happened, we the people brought about real change through our vote.
I quickly assembled a group of friends to rush to the bar downtown to celebrate. On the way there I asked them if there was ever this much enthusiasm and excitement, honking horns, people cheering and dancing after an election in their country. The Europeans said the only time they see things like that is when they win the World Cup. The South African girl said that she had only seen it once before: when Nelson Mandela was elected. We got to the bar just in time for Obama's acceptance speech. Where the bar had once been loud and full of boisterous cheer, a sudden silence fell over the crowd as we listened to Obama's speech. Applause rang out as he delivered his words and vanished in a hushed awe when he spoke again.
I was personally touched by Obama's speech because his words reminded me of something my mother used to say. She told me that when she was little, when she was frustrated trying to do something and she would cry out "I can't!", her father would tell her that as an American (and not an American't) yes, she could. And so for me Barack Obama spoke the words of a heroic grandfather I never knew when he told America "Yes, we can!"

For me, the change Obama promised came the moment he was elected. When we got to the bar and got our drinks, the crowd of internationals already there greeted me with handshakes, toasts and "Congratulations." Congratulations, for just being an American. That's an amazing feeling. I have never stopped being proud of being an American, there's just too much to be proud of for even Bush to have undone that, but it's good to be appreciated by the world again. Everything seems so much brighter now, even the many patriotic songs being played by the UMass marching band that are coming through my window seem fresh and inspiring, like they were when I first learned them in grade school. Simply amazing...