Final Leap!

So this is my last blog for the class assignment and I wanted to end it on a happy note- like how every Bollywood movie ends. Bollywood for India by the way is like how Hollywood is for America. When we international students go back home (which we will in just 7 weeks now!), we are usually faced with a stream of questions. Questions that are random, questions that are stupid, questions that make us laugh and questions that make us wonder if we are the same person who left in the first place.

Listed below are few of such questions that I usually have to answer, no matter how many times I get to go back home (there are more questions but they are written in my journal)

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:
a.) You came back from US?
No. The girl standing before you exists only in silhouette.
( I mean I know you are asking it out of care* but please, don’t)

b.) Your skin tone is just the same. You didn’t become fair?!
I am so sorry that you still find me brown! I will try* that my kids aren’t. K? (Lol)

c.) What do you study there?
Liberal arts.
Oh Oh. Pretty fascinating huh?                                      
Yeah
(after a few seconds..)
Umm, what does that mean?
K

d.) So what degree will you get?
B.A.

e.) What? You went to US just to get a B.A.? That you can also get in India.
Yes. I went to US to receive a B.A. Apprently, my parents didn't want me anywhere near them where I could come home in less than 36 hours (by flight) and hence, decided to deport me to US.

f.) What?? You want to study psychology? So you will be treating insane patients, right?
Yes. I wish to study psychology. And no, I won’t be treating insane patients (except, maybe YOU!)

g.) Now I will have to behave properly while talking to you, right? You will be able to read me!
Dudeeeeeeeeeeeee.. cummon!! (As such they haven't yet taught us how to interpret a brain like yours.. )

h.) Oh, btw, now that you study psychology, tell me what am I thinking right now!!
You can act normal while talking with me. I am not a psychic reader!

i.) Now you must be finding India to be very boring, right?
You bet! You see, this is my first trip to India. I wasn't born here; I didn't grow up here; I don't have Indian best friends; I don't even hold an Indian passport; and to top that I have apparently been living in US for the past 18 years. Offcourse I find India boring.
DUH :\

j.) You must be loving America.
(This somehow is not a question but a statement.)

k.) How many years before you finish studying in US?
3 more years till I finish my bachelor degree.
Oh, then you aren’t coming back to India for sure. You will love staying there.
(This also somehow happens to be a statement! )

l.) Can you still eat spicy food?
Yes I can. I do not have to take Pepto-Bismol even when I eat the road-side pani-puri. GET IT?

m.) You still haven’t caught the American accent. (Why so?!)
Oh, I haven't? I wonder how I survived in US with my Indian* accent!! :O

I really hope that someday, people back home would understand that – people do not become fair when they arrive from US; that everyone* does not start loving US and does want to come back; that after few years of spending time in the US our appetites for the ethic food does not decrease because of the oil and spices; that getting a B.A. from US is worthy and that everyone* does not adopt the American accent. LOL

Being at Trinity has taught us that though Trinity will build us to become Trinity Tigers of the future, but never will trinity let the individuality that resides in each one of us die.
And that is why, each one of the international student is proud to be called a Tiger!

P.S. I don’t mind coming back home for every break (if my dad agrees to pay for the ticket i.e.) even if that means that I have to face each of these questions and probably more of these every time that I am back home. I am pretty sure that each one of you would agree that home is where the heart is J <3
Have a fantastic semester ahead and an awesome summer!!

How would you know if we were a Trinity Tiger?

Since the international students come here primarily for the quality of education that the US provides, we try to acclimatize with the culture and the surroundings of Trinity in a manner that it might become difficult for a normal Tiger to spot us as a ‘different’ Tiger!
But never the less, there are always ways by which you can spot us bang on. There they are:

1. We know a hell lot about almost every Airline. And we can have a conversation about which is better and how the other one sucks for hours (literally. Eavesdrop on our conversations when we have just returned back from home and you would come to know how bad the food was or how good an airport was. You will get to know the essentials of travelling!)

2. We talk about sports like cricket, hockey (not ice hockey, but hockey played on grass) and have world cup tournaments that seem absurd to be heard of.

3. When you enter our rooms, there is a peculiar smell that smells because of all the food that comes from our homes or the one that we cook. A smell for each country.

4. You would spot us talking for hours a night. And no, we would not be talking to a certain special one, but our homes because that is the only time that we can surpass the time difference!

5. We are huge fans of skype and will force you to use it if we come to know that you don’t

6. We don’t know how to react when our friends say that they are sad because they are far away from home! (okay kidding, we know exactly how you feel. We can’t go home more than once a year, either)

7. You would us suddenly talking in a foreign language when we are too excited about anything

8. And finally you would spot us because of the ethnic cloths that we sometimes wear

But I think, if you are friends with any one of the international students, you know that they are international and miss home because they are constantly talking about it. So read through the news feed and get to know the current happenings in our countries!

The diversity on the campus is celebrated in such a fond manner that while we celebrate the individuality that resides in each one of us, we are a part of the Trinity community at the end and all of us are Tigers (whether striped or not)!!

Why did we become Trinity Tigers?!

As I talked in my last blog entry that most of us international students come to this amazing campus from places across the world. Currently there are about 71 countries represented on the campus with the international students making up almost 11% of the Trinity population. This enables Trinity to be one of the most diverse liberal arts colleges in the US today. The costs of attending such a fine institution even after receiving financial aid and scholarships is very high for an international student since the currency transfer rates are usually pretty skewed when compared with the US dollar. And apart from the financial situation, we- the international students leave our homes, families and friends and come to this foreign land to spend few of the most formative years of our lives. So then what is it that helps us make this choice of undertaking this journey to come to the US when the stakes seem to be so high?

It is the education system of US. Please see the video below to get a sense of the education system that exists in most other countries (here India is displayed since I am from India) at the undergraduate and graduate levels which pushes students to leave their own countries and come to the US. The curriculum and the colleges here foster critical thinking and questioning assumptions. Break-through researches and state-of-art infrastructure that makes you believe in the impossible is what the US gives us. The flexibility and the freedom to almost create our own majors and to do research at an undergraduate level in universities like Trinity make us believe in our potential. The discussions and the lectures by the professors, most of who are the best scholars of their own fields gives us the assurance that we aren’t being cheated in intellectual property. And above all, our enthusiasm and perseverance for the subject we are studying matters the most to the professors. The international students come here to experience this liberation, we come here to experience this enrichment of our knowledge and we come here to experience this growth of our abilities that we can create better lives for our countrymen upon our return.

In many ways, the international students towards the end of their careers at Trinity become not only Trinity Tigers, but International Trinity Tigers who are Trinity’s international face!!

The first stroll as a Trinity Tiger!

Almost as absurd as it sounds, many of us international students began our journeys to become a Trinity Tiger the day we landed at Trinity!

It was August 9th, 2010 that I left India to come to US for the very first time. Till now, all that I knew about the US was through Bollywood films and the stories that I had heard from people. The 5th Av, the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Bridge, the beaches of Miami and many more of such attractions existed only in imaginations. I had never visited Trinity before and so, when I came to San Antonio and Trinity on August 16th, 2010 I never thought that I would come to connect with the place with the first sight. I know it sounds exaggerated and clichéd, but the walls and the campus felt welcoming. It felt like this is a place that I have been waiting for and have come half-way through the world; it felt like this is the place which will make it all worth to be away from home; that this will be the place where I will make new friends and relationships; where I will become what I wish to; where I will get the opportunities and the freedom to be myself and to see the transformation to change into an informed individual. But at the same time, sitting in the Yellow cab with my father by my side, I held his hand tightly for I did not know if I would be okay letting go of this support in this foreign land. I realized for the very first time that an entire Atlantic Ocean existed between my home in India and here and that I would not be able to take a flight back home whenever I wanted to go.

But during all this, I also knew that there has to be something that keeps this place alive and vibrant; that allows so many international kids like me to sustain themselves on its grounds. When all of us, the International students of Class of 2014 gathered a couple of days early for our very own, “International Student Orientation” by the international students from other years, it made us all realize that Trinity indeed has an international community. Among the many things that we were told and taught, like the semester system and credits, my favorite has been when they told us, “If you are pulled over by a cop, please don’t try bribing him. You will just land in more trouble.” I have never been more amused before.

All of us international students have left our intimate families back home and are here to find a new family, a new group of friends and a new “us”. While we all are excited to experience Trinity, when we came as first-year students, we had our insecurities and were not sure if we would “fit-in”.


But most of us have found new friends and have found new families who take us to be their kids, who invite us over for thanksgiving breaks and spring breaks; we are finding a new “us”; we are “fitting-in.”


The web album has pictures of my best friends. My best friends at Trinity, Jessica Abel and Michelle Padley and my best friends from back home, Aastha, Bhakti, Vaibhavi and Ekta.

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These pictures teach me that if we give friendship a chance, they happen and with friends it does not matter if we share different nationalities but as long as we can still share a few talks over a cup of coffee or tea, we will remain friends for a lifetime! :)