East or West Home is Best.

Today is Sunday April 27, 2008. Everyone in Kent State University ILEP group have their eyes riveted on the calendar these days as we count down to the trip back home. I have noticed that everyone is so beyond homesick, tense, and impatient. The days, however, are obstinate and are slow-paced and add to the mountain of homework we have. We have papers to submit, a portfolio to complete, reports to write, posters to make, lesson plans to prepare, presentations to give, and shopping to do to get ready for the trip back home.
It is strange how people even refuse to go out to cultural events. They prefer staying in their rooms, do their assignments, eat, and go to sleep. I enjoy learning about this American diverse culture though I want to go home like I never wanted to go home before.
Before coming to Ohio last January, I had known, from experience, I would be amazed for some time then I would start to get homesick and upset. From previous experience also, I know that once back home I will experience Reverse Culture Shock after the fist few days. I know I will miss many things I am used to and many people I met here. I will miss order, punctuality, smoking-free environment, taking many pictures, buritos at Chipotle restaurant, Jeorge Carlin and a bunch of other stand up comedians…I will be leaving my new home behind, the friends I made, my new family (Linda, Jennifer, and Rose and others), nice and helpful professors; and there is a good chance that I will never see them again. The thought of it makes my heart ache. I am a very emotional person, especially over people I love and respect.
I think I have shown enough remarkable fortitude for the last four months but this is too much for me. I want to go home and I am excited to go and I am looking forward to it because I miss my wife and kids more than anything else. They are part of me and I am part of them.
I have survived the chilly weather, the food, the culture shock, and everything that has been thrown on me and I want to go home. I enjoyed some courses, some cultural events, some friendships...yet, heck with the cheese, just let me out of the trap.
East or west, home is best.

An Evil Chance never Comes Alone

What a crazy weather this is! Friday morning, March 7, 2008 was sunny and warm until 10-ish. Then suddenly a storm started to dump the snow on the city of Kent.
We were scared on our way to the Islamic Community Center for the Friday prayer. Everything was white and did not know how the van driver knew he was “on the road.”
Saturday morning was even worse. The city was buried under more than 20 inches of snow. Yet, I had to go to The Student Center to participate in “Read across America” activity because we had received no canceling email from the people in charge. I had a quick small breakfast because I usually got up late as I often times stayed up late at night. I was the only creature at the bus stop and the place looked creepy like a deserted haunted city. I waited for more than half an hour but there was no sign of any bus coming. I was covered with snow all over like the trees around me before I decided to go back home. I was not “singin in the rain” but trembling and as wet as a chick out of a pail of water. Once on the lift up to my room, my Moroccan friend Abdesalam called me on my cell phone to tell me that the activity had been cancelled. Too much hustle and trouble for nothing.
Back in my hibernaculum, the TV which I had forgotten in my hurry to catch the bus was blaring across the room. It announced that Daylight Saving Time would begin the next day, March 9, 2008 and that people should set their clocks one hour ahead. D*****. It would deprive me of 60 minutes of sleep and the internships would start soon in Lakewood, one hour drive from Kent. This meant at least 60 more minutes of sleep deprivation. I thought of how sleepy, drowsy, tired and irritable I’d be most of the time because I am a late-sleeper and it’s hard to change.
Does this DST really save energy? No economist, or newspaper article or TV report has, so far, convinced me that it does so. It should be called Daytime Somnolence Torture instead.

A Moroccan in Snowy Kent, Ohio.

Snowfall caused class cancellation on Feb. 13th in Kent, Ohio. So, I locked myself in my room at the University Inn. It was an opportunity for me to catch up with all the assignments I had missed. After breakfast, I sat by the window and looked outside at the white houses, the white cars, the white trees… everything was white. I thought about the weather in this part of the world. It was not only snowy but chilly as well. The only creatures that dared to go out were the squirrels. They were constantly running back and forth looking for food under the flakes of snow. For me, it was just ‘snow’ but people here certainly see different kinds of snow and have different names for it. I see one snow and they see a lot of different kinds snow. When I told them that it was cold, they usually responded that that was nothing compared to what was coming in February and March. They must have a wealth of names for cold. They must have been the ones who contributed the most synonyms of the word ‘cold’ to Thesaurus Word Dictionaries.
Thought led to thought and I started to think about how this weather has dictated and shaped people’s lives. Because of the snow and cold, very few people walk and this must have contributed to the problem of obesity. Because of the cold, people talk about the cold to start a warm conversation and so do I sometimes on the bus to the Student Center, Acme, Wal-Mart and Ravenna when I want to start a conversation to loosen my tongue and practice my English. Cold must have contributed to their sedentary, stay-at-home lifestyle. They travel less and don’t know where Morocco is.
I also thought about the amount of energy needed to keep all the heaters running 24 hours a day in buildings, cars and buses and everywhere. How much energy is used to provide hot water to the citizens? How much energy is used to keep electric cookers running?
I thought and thought but more often than not it was and is hard to find the right answers or imagine them…So, I quit thinking and I started my laptop to do the assignments.