So I originally wasn’t planning to update because nothing terribly exciting has happened since yesterday but I got an email from my mom and it started me thinking. She’d asked me if I remembered that today was the anniversary of 9/11 and even though I’d written the date several times in class it hadn’t clicked. There are several people here from around New York but none of them had mentioned it either. I think it’s just now hitting me that I am in a very different place right now. Everyone around me speaks English. They watch American movies and TV shows, listen to American music, and even at times dress like Americans. Yes there are many things that are different but there are so many similarities that it was easy to forget some of the cultural differences.
This morning during breakfast the Australian news was playing and the headline was the death of the king of Tonga. There are several students here on campus from Tonga and so that news hit very close to home for them. Given the situation I’m sure that his death also made news around the world including the US but how much so does other news here reach Americans? How much do we really know about what is going on in the rest of the world? How much do we care?
Over lunch I was visiting with one of the Fijian students. I realized that I know absolutely nothing about their history, their culture, the struggles they face. It’s as though we live in our own little bubble. The sad thing is that even though they do learn a lot more about our history and culture than we do of theirs, a lot of it comes from movies and TV. It’s a scary thought.
Another interesting note about culture. People have asked me about the food here. It’s ok. It’s not the most amazing food I’ve eaten in my life but neither is it unbearable. It’s got a pretty good mix in my view. I love the fresh fruit- mangoes, papayas, little bananas, coconuts. To’ona’i was also quite delicious. I’m told that the fish is also very good but I haven’t had much of a chance to try any. Most of the food on campus is Indian to cater to the on campus students who mainly hail from Fiji. People here don’t eat out much since it tends to be expensive so many of the restaurants serve most Western or Asian style foods. There is also a McDonald’s in Apia, the main town in Upolu. We were trying to decide where to go for dinner on the weekend and asked some of the students what their favorite restaurant in town was. The almost universal response? McDonalds! All of us laugh because if given the choice of fast-food restaurants I don’t think McDonald’s is the top on any of our lists. Another interesting tidbit about McDonald’s. I met a girl in the village of Solosolo last week who went to American Samoa for a while for the sole purpose of working in the McDonald’s there. It’s the little things that really force you to think. Is it the food they like or the association?
