Stepping outside of your Comfort Zone = New Experiences

We come from around the world to Educate our future!

Before we made a final decision about moving overseas, I remember talking to some of my co-workers and the overarching sentiment was that uprooting my life was absolutely crazy.....borderline insane at this stage in my "career".  I remember feeling like maybe they are right, and overseas education is best suited for young people who don’t have secure jobs, living situations, or family commitments.  Without really knowing what “type” of people we would encounter here…..we decided to take the leap of faith and come anyway.  It’s funny because I do think people were right in one aspect, it does take a certain type of person to move overseas and leave everything back at home.  

Since August I have met and had dinner with some pretty interesting & eccentric people.  Most of them aren't 25 years old at all.  Many of the people I have met are well-traveled, cultured, educated, and simply spontaneous by nature.  The ages range from 24 to 50 in terms of Teachers with a nice mix of nationalities from American, Canadian, African, European, and Asian.  As I slowly start to learn about other cultures and viewpoints on life, I find myself readjusting my own perspectives and beliefs.  Change is good.  Best way to grow.

Lesson:  Stepping outside of your comfortable zone is a great thing......you might just make a difference somewhere in the world .

Without the head wrap could you really tell the difference btw me and her?

Skin Color:  Living in America I rarely had to deal with overt racism or experience an extreme disparity in treatment based on my skin color.  In the Middle East Black is not thought to be beautiful.  I’m finding that there are two very different elements constantly at play here in the Middle East: My Skin color and My Nationality.  Looking at just my skin color most Arabs automatically think that I’m from Africa and assume that I traveled to the Middle East for a “menial job opportunity”.  Millions of foreigners in the Middle East are nannies, cleaners and builders/construction workers which locals consider beneath them.  Al-akhdam (“the servants”), who make up perhaps 65% of the population, are confined to menial jobs and tend to dwell in what they call the slums (which isn’t really the slums if you compare it to nyc projects).  Snobbery makes things worst here.  

         

I’m finding that once they hear me speak or ask where I’m from, their whole attitude and demeanor changes.  You can see the light bulbs go off ….Oh she speaks “English” and she is from America…..I automatically get a higher ranking than even Muslims or other Europeans do here.  It is very bizarre to me that my nationality triumphs my skin color, but my proper English means even more especially in my profession.  

The other thing that I almost forgot to mention is that my hair plays against me here at bit (I can tell my hair completely confuses them).  They don’t know how to process what my hair is, means, or how I got it to look like this lol.  You wouldn’t believe the number of students who simply stare at my hair or ask me questions about whether it is real.  And don’t get me started with the stupid fucking Qatar women I had to scream on for invading my personal space and touching my hair because they thought it was “nice” wtf! Seriously anyone who knows me can tell exactly how my face looked at that momentJ 

With that said, I’m learning to take my unique hair in stride and my “inconspicuous” ethnicity as symbol of strength and pride. 

Lesson: Racism can occur any where in the world.  Even places where their skin tone so closely resembles “Black”.  Stupidity isn’t unique to the US.  

      

Travel:  There are very specific things that I wanted to get out of my overseas experience.  One of the biggest goals for me was to travel and see the world in a way that I never was able to do back home.  With work consuming less and less of my life (thank God), I’m finding it easier to get out and do the things that keep me feeling young.  I say all of this to say, for the past two weeks, I have been contemplating whether I should go home for the holidays.  I have been gone from the US since August and lets be honest I miss the hell out of my family and friends.  But after much thought (and looking at ticket prices $1,500 for a ticket @Christmas fml) I have instead decided to travel to places around this region of the world that would cost me a fraction of that amount.  The itinerary has not been completely decided as of yet, but here are the top three choices I’ve narrowed it down to:

      a)    Dubai, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka 

      b)   Istanbul, London or Berlin

      c)    Nepal and Phuket, Thailand   

Now you see why I decided it might be better at this time to just travel right? Two places for under $1000 (including hotel stay and breakfast every morning.) So friends and family please weigh in where do you think we should go? Any experience with any of the travel locations listed? Keep in mind this is where we would be spending NYE, so I gotta make it worth while if I’m missing the parties in NYC.

Istanbul, Turkey 

Lesson:  You only live once.  Travel is food for the soul.