Saturday, December 31, 2011
Meeting with family.
As I was going to get my lugage, I saw my host mom hoding a sign board which had my name on it. I went to her with a bit nervousness and excitement thinking how will she welocme me? should I hug her? or she'll find it bad? I had NO IDEA.. But thank god, she was good at it. She hugged me and welcomed with a warm smile on her face. My host Dad was waiting in the car outside the aiport. I was waiting for my suitcase to come and it didn't! We went to the authority and they assured us that it will come later ad they will call us. I was a little worried but I beleived in American Airlines so waited patiently.
When I was in the car, they told me that they are going to take me to Ann Arbor, a big town near my teeny-tiny town called Dexter. We went there at a restraunt to meet my host brother who is 26 years old ad his girlfriend. My host sister who is 21 years old was out of town. I was excited to meet my brother. The meeting with mom and dad was great (atleast, that's my view. Hope they also think like that), now let's see how it goes with my brother and his girlfriend.After a drive of 1 hour we reached Ann Arbor, which is famous becuse of the University of Michigan. It is a beautiful city. The food was delicious. During eating we kepton talking and they were glad to see that I wasn't hesitating. I am a "Chatter box". I can never live without talking, they found it fascinating and it worked out well.
When we reached the house there was a little pomeranian dog of my sister whose name is cookie. I was really scared of dogs, especially when they are jumping and barking. He was doing it. I got too scared and started screaming. That was funny for my family but it made me nervous. The house was beautiful and big. This was a kind of house I always wanted to live in. So I was happy to be there. My mom gave me a little tour of the house and told me the things I needed to know. I got my luggage and started settling up into my room. It was nice and peaceful. i like my room. I asked my mom the questions we were told to ask in our orientations, which we had before coming to the U.S. It was good to feel that "the family meeting" part went good. I was satisfied to see that these people were not rude or strict. :)
All the house rules were explained to me and I felt okay with all of them. It always depends on your host family that what type of rules they have. You have to follow them since you are living in their house. Being an exchange student, you are supposed to be flexible in every condition. This is the time you have to prove how strong you are! My family is not so strict, but I expected them to be very strict and I was thinking to be obidient about the rules.
Neat nicy.. I went to bed at night. I surely missed my natural family but started praying and them I felt good. The first days will be tough, but after you get used to your new life. :)
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Sacred storytelling
Well, I am a Hindu myself and I do not agree with these thoughts at all. We are not like this. But the other people will never understand that even if I shout at the top of my voice. People from other religions make fun of you and bully you and the worst part is that, you can't do anything about that. These feelings are much more painful than they seem.
I am a Hindu but I am from a Muslim country Pakistan. Despite the old conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, we are honored and respected in Pakistan. We are given every right we want to have. We worship, celebrate and do whatever we want and the government provides us security. There are always some people who will be narrow-minded and extremists. Though I haven't met any such adult yet in my country but when I was in my middle school, I was bullied by my Muslim classmates for being a Hindu, I cried, complaint and suffered a lot during that time. It was horrible. I tried my best to convince my classmates but since they were just middle school kids, they were literally, morally, mentally IMMATURE. But when I was in my high school, there was nothing like that. I was the only Hindu in my whole class of 60 people. My class mares were all Muslims but they were very nice. They respected my religion and wanted to know about it. They not only invited me to their religious events but also came to my religious festivals and loved it. I was glad to have such friends who were mature, respectful, tolerant and polite.I wonder what is the difference between my middle-school class mates and high school friends and the only thing I could think of was Education. High school friends were educated and the middle school mates were not so educated and immature.It actually begins in homes. These things are taught by their parents to them. Since they just follow what their parents say, if they are taught by educated parents they act sophisticated. If the'r parents are narrow-minded, the children also start thinking stupidly. Sad but true!
Talking about the stereotypes that I had for Americans were that, "They just lock us up thinking that we are TERRORISTS, without even any evidence they will imprison you, even if you are innocent. They are cruel and heartless people . See what they did to Iraq and etc.etc." This was no more into my mind when I arrived here and safely spent 4 months here. It was not like the way we hear about it. I was glad to find out that my stereotypes were actually all fake.
When I attended the Sacred storytelling conference, I saw that they were talking about the stereotypes about different religions and saying that these are all fake and meaningless. They talked about the ways to make the relationships better between different religions and respecting differences, valuing diversity and tolerance. It was so surprising to see that all those people who organized that event and participated in it were all Americans. This made the thing obvious to me that American do respect diversity and they are themselves working to make it better. They are teaching other Americans to be nice and wise. They are telling others to spread peace. It makes me believe that Every American is not a racist and extremist. There are some intelligent people, who care and think and want to make world a better place! This is what you learn during your exchange year,you experience diversity. You learn about the culture of the country and about the people you are living with and most important, you learn that all your stereotypes were nothing but fake!
--" I never realized that Americans ever think that they should over come their stereotypes and respect diversity and tolerance. Its great to be here. Great job", said by me (Sonam Chawla from Pakistan).
--"I learnt that we should respect each other. We should never bully anyone from any different religion and live with peace!", says Ayub Khan from India.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCeH-svm4Nc&feature=youtu.be
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Lonliness
Realizing that it had been a while since I was in my panic attacks, I searched for my cell phone in the cold, dark, messy room of mine. It was on my bed. I flipped it open and looked for the time. It was 2 in the morning, but it didn't surprise me at all. I was expecting it to be more later than that. Realizing that it and thinking that I have to go to school tomorrow, I decided to try to sleep. Neglecting the circumstances of the torn feeling that I was going through. The struggle of my own mind with myself convincing me that it was my fault and I should wear the spectacles of their eyes to see through their vision, I felt helpless.
Probably, a sleep was a better idea than to cry and keep on mourning about my pathetic life. I tried to get up and reach for my bed which was full of my clothes scattered all over it. I didn't care about the tidiness or any organization. Just ignored and went to sleep, praying to the God and waiting the new sun will bring new hopes with it and I will be able to survive from this LONLINESS!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Travelling- The moments I will never forget..
As the days were coming closer, i felt tensed and loosing my strength but remember, this is the time when you have to be more stronger and wiser.
Packing was a big head-ache. Here are some tips for packing your suitcases:
1- Be selective and objective.
2. Think about the weight.
3. Take passports, tickets and necessary papers in a separate purse.
4. Take light and really necessary stuff in a hand carry.
5. Make sure you can lift all your bags by yourself.
And be confident! ;)
The flight from Karachi to Bahrain Airport was just one hour long but the stay at Bahrain was 16 hours long. Now we were all tired and sleepy after staying whole night awake at Karachi Airport, it was like a bird looking for a shelter in the rain. While these stays, people usually fall asleep. You have to be really careful while sleeping. You have to make sure that all your bags are around you and nobody is able to steal them or put any illegal thing inside your bag. This can get you into a big trouble. We all the Pakistani exchange students grabbed a pretty fancy tent at the Airport, which was representing the Arab culture to the tourists and slept all together in that big, beautiful tent. 50 people and one tent, sounds conjusted right? Exactly, we were squished with each other with no sense of ques or management. As we all lied down, the funny sounds of snores and whines started to distract me. This were obviously my friends who were also so tired that they were snoring and some were complaining but it was fine because even though the snores were so loud, it didn't really matter because we were all too sleepy to concentrate on anything.
After sleeping for a while, we all woke up and moved to Mc Donalds for our lunch. It was a big great International Airport. Everything there was amazing. it was full of people too. People from all around the world. Since we were wearing our program shirts, our shirts got attention of every visitor out there. So, here's what you should not do:
1- Don't talk to any stranger.
2. If they ask about the program , politely guide them for your manager with you but never tell anything by yourself.
3. Be with at least 4 people. To avoid getting lost or left behind.
4. Don't go anywhere alone. If you do, inform your friends.
And you'll be safe! :)
After Behrain, we moved to Kuwait and had a stay of 1 hour at Kuwait Airport. You should always make sure to take all your things with you while you change flights. Don't forget anything in the plane or at the Airports. After Kuwait, we went directly to Washington D.C. It was a 16 hour long flight. We slept throughout the whole way there. It was relaxing.
When we got off from the flight, we had a little interview with the American custom's officer. Outside the Airport, our YES program Alumni were waiting and took us to the hotel. It was unbelievable that I just reached to the U.S.A. The place that I always wanted to go. I was just feeling like a dream.
But this is just the beginning of the fun.. ;D
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
This Student life
Thursday, November 3, 2011
I am a simple girl..
Friday, October 14, 2011
My Departure from Karachi to The US
Sunday, September 25, 2011
The background of my life.
The small town I belonged to is full of the people who are against education. Even my own father used to believe that being a Hindu in Pakistan( that's a Muslim country) I can never be successful in any field of education. Even though my father himself is well educated but since he was living in the town with those narrow minded and pessimist people,He started thinking like them too. My mom was a little more educated than my father so she wanted me to become a doctor. But it wasn't possible in that conservative small town.
He was never against my education. He always did whatever he could do to make me feel comfortable at studies. He was the one to pay all my charges for academics. He just didn't expect anything from me which was very hurting for me. Sometimes it used to feel like I am useless and the whole effort that I was giving to my studies was meaningless to him and futile. I just wanted to yell sometimes and say that “No, I'm strong enough to do it all. I will make my own identity.” But unfortunately it was also idle to do. So I just decided to prove my father wrong and do something to make him proud of me one day and it became my mission in life.
The basic reason behind this jealousy is illiteracy . Its actually not that the community was stopping us from live there but our own relatives were. Which made me think that friendship is better than blood relations. My life was just full of barrier. I must say that I don't know about the other kids in the world but my life was not a bed of roses. And I had to make it up for my family and myself. And this scholarship really was a shining sun in my dark days.
Those people are valuing education now, My mom is considered as the one of the most respectful ladies. And Peace is all over around me! :)
I know how YES program changes lives because it changed my life. I really wouldn't be as happy as I am not if I didn't have YES program. I highly support more spread of YES program all around Pakistan. So that it can change more lives like mine.
Introduction
I won't say that view my blog because its awesome. I ma a great writer and you'll love my posts bla bla because that's a lie! I am terrible at vocabulary so I am not a good writer. But the advantage of my blog is that it tells the story of an exchange student, her experience, activities, US high school, American culture, culture shocks, comparison between the two cultures, the challenges that an exchange student faces and how to cope up with a whole new world from your home. there will always be advises in each post for exchange students to make their experience successful and fruitful! which is what an exchange student looks for! :)
So if somebody is interested in knowing about exchange experiences, or even want to know that hoe we see america, you're always welcome to visit and comment or question and enjoy knowing about my exchange experience!
Regards,
SOnam CHawla
From Karachi (Pakistan) to Michigan (USA).
I am with a bunch of exchange students from different parts of Pakistan. its the pic that we took befor eour travelling. I am the third from left at the bottom.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
So here I get started!
It was a farm where we worked. We worked for about 5 hours on the field . We helped in taking out the crops which were ready. It was a little hard work and a lot of fun! Because "Friends are awesome.. Everything's fun with friends!".
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
She cries...
I can say that she becomes more beautiful she cries..
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Eid in the US..
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Expectations
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Condition of Karachi Nowadays
Now that its such an important city, everyone has his eyes on it. People who want to ruin pakistan point out and attack Karachi to ruin and drag the economy and peace of the whole country down and down. We must pay attention towards the security arrangements of the city to stay safe!
In the end, just wanna say that MAY GOD BLESS OUR CITY! :)
Regards,
Sonam Chawla.
Karachi, Pakistan.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Results
Results can be of everything that we do. The type of results which students are afraid of these days are exam results. Whatever we hard for, we get good results for. Its not like that we'll waste our time and will not study hard still we'll get good results! We must have to give our best to get the best!
In the end, My best regards to every student who is waiting for their results! :)
GOOD LUCK AND BE HONEST! :)
Monday, January 3, 2011
WALKING ON A DIFFICULT PATH !
WALKING ON A DIFFICULT PATH !
I was walking alone on a broken road, all of a sudden my slipper broke but I was not embarrassed, i picked up myslippers in my hands and kept on walking.
I wanted to reach my destiny as early as possible. On my way I saw dogs and they started barking at me, two three tried to follow me but neither I was scared nor I threw stones on them. I kept on walking rather started running to reach my destiny, in that struggle I forgot that I was running without slippers, blood started coming out from the sole of my feet but I did not feel any pain because the intensity of mental pain was more than the physical pain.
I met few people on my way, they tried to help me but I smiled and said, "No thanks ! I can manage."
Then I saw my MOM who told me to follow this path, it's a shortcut to reach my destiny.
My MOM gave me the Strength, Energy, Courage, Finance and last but not the least her LOVE to reach my destiny. May GOD rest her soul in peace in heaven. Amen.