International Weekend

Sometimes I volunteer for some pretty random things. I don’t know what pulls me to volunteer for certain things over others but when I see an opportunity I like and an open night, sometimes I get involved in some pretty cool, random things.

Take Friday night for example. A couple weeks ago I saw on the listserve an opportunity to be a guest panelist at a conference for international students. I didn’t know much more than that but since my good friend Kathryn Moss had put it on the listserve in the first place and knew she’d be attending, I decided to sign up. Why not? I always enjoy a good cultural Friday night.

I really didn’t know what to expect.

I showed up and got to know the other panelists, all people about my age. Dinner started and we got to try dishes made by the students from all the around the world. I tried meatballs, and breads, and salads, and desserts from Europe and South America and every place in between. I even tried the Vegemite from Australia.

I will never try Vegemite again.

Once we divided up into groups the moderator asked us panelists different questions of what it was like growing up in the United States. We shared stories as part of our responses and described our different experiences.  We talked about stereotypes of American high schools (no, not every high school is like Mean Girls here in the US) and how we dealt with pressures to drink, use drugs, or have sex.

Next it was our turn to talk about our stereotypes of their countries. We played a game where the moderator would say one of the countries represented in the room and the panelists had to say the first word they associate with that country. You wouldn’t believe how ignorant I felt. Some of my responses were:

Germany- supermodels (I had just watched an episode of Project Runway and knew that Heidi Klum was from Germany.)

Poland- concentration camps (sad but true, the only thing I associate with Poland deals with WWII).

Bolivia- uhhhhh…..I have no association with Bolivia. The only thing I could think of is that it borders Ecuador which is where I lived. How pathetic is that??? There is nothing that comes to my mind when someone says Bolivia. I definitely need to work on that.

I won’t embarrass myself any more than that.

Needless to say that I realized I needed to learn more about different countries because I have just as many stereotypes for the rest of the world as the rest of the world has for Americans.

The last part of the night involved a US Jeopardy trivia game where once again the panelists (me included) practically embarrassed ourselves by our lack of simple facts about our country. Luckily the students knew even less than us so we didn’t feel that bad. It was really fun being on a team with students from Germany, Argentina, Poland, and Australia, and getting to know each of them individually.

I walked away from the night with a deep sense of wanting to know more about the world around me, of wanting to live in different countries so that I can really understand the people and culture, and have a better idea of how the world turns. This conference needs panelists every couple of months and you’d better believe I will be doing this again. Hopefully by next time I’ll be able to brush up on my facts and figures and have something intelligent to say when they ask me about Bolivia. Hopefully.