PERSPECTIVES10 March 4, 2010 � Mount Holyoke News

WHEN A RIVER JOINS A BIGGER ONE,IT FOLLOWS THE STREAM. WHEN YOUJOIN A FAMILY, RESPECT THAT FAMILY’STRADITIONS.

—VIETNAMESE SAYING

Being an international student in the U.S. is, attimes, like drinking from a fire-hose. You feel amix of emotions rise as you get off the green

Peter Pan bus, half-confused and half-amazed. You feel itwhen the International Students Orientation Committee(ISOC) members greet you and lead you to Blanchard toobtain the key to your first college room, or when you seeyour first U.S. tax forms. The funny thing is, you don’teven know when American culture starts to permeateyour life through the most obvious way—holidays.As the old Vietnamese saying goes, “When a river

joins a bigger one, it follows the stream. When you join afamily, respect that family’s traditions.” In the context ofsuch a diverse cosmos as Mount Holyoke, understandingand respect for differences are central to the life of everystudent. As international students add American holidaysto their personal calendars, they integrate themselves intothe bigger campus community.Many U.S. holidays and traditions have become popu-

lar around the world. Mother’s Day, first celebrated byAnna Jarvis of West Virginia, has spread to as far asSoutheast Asia as a day to honor motherhood, eventhough there aremany variations in celebration dates (Be-larus, for instance, celebrates Mother’s Day on Oct. 14).Yet, some American traditions are not well known tomany international students as they require some histor-ical knowledge. But whether you are passionate about dif-ferent cultures or not, it is always best that you know theorigin of a holiday rather than merely feeling satisfiedwith getting a day off from school or work.Before boarding the flight to Boston as a first-year stu-

dent, I acquainted myself with American culture throughWikipedia. However, my idea of Thanksgiving dinner did-n’t take shape until I listened to Thu Quach ’12 recall hermemories of Thanksgiving dinner with a South Hadley

family, and until I at-tended one myself.The Thanksgiving hosting program

for international students, which has ex-isted for years, offers two alternatives—adinner at a local family’s house or a stay with an alumnaefor the whole or part of Thanksgiving. Donna Van Handle,the Dean of International Students, said that around 30students participate in the local families’ dinner event and15 students visit alumni in the NewEngland andNewYorkregions. This past fall, three international students spenttheir Thanksgiving breaks at the house of our President-elect Lynn Pasquerella ’80 who, as Van Handle said, “al-ways welcomed students to come and stay.” The programhelps international students appreciate a very traditionalAmerican holiday and gain insight into the life of a typicalAmerican family.Van Handle recalled with a passion other cultural pro-

grams that the McCulloch Center has organized for inter-national students in the past. In February 2008, a dinnerfor international students featured conversations aboutAmerican historical issues such as civil rights. At a simi-lar event two months later, domestic and internationalstudents got together to share their experiences and in-sights about one another’s values. Some interesting cul-tural issues emerged. Growing up in differentenvironments, many international students did not havethe same knowledge about American traditions and didnot share the same understanding about the States’ mul-ticultural society.On March 30, 2008, a generous Inclusiveness Initia-

tives Fund (IIF) grant allowed the spring and fall interna-tional entrants of the class of 2011 to appreciate theimmigration history of the United States via a trip to Ellisand Liberty Islands in New York Harbor.Efforts have also been extended to faculty and staff to

introduce them to the unique challenges that interna-

tional studentsmay face in an American classroom environ-ment. Last fall during finals week Van Handle or-ganized the faculty viewing of Culture Shock, thesame movie that international students of theclass of 2013 watched shortly after they enteredMount Holyoke. “Many faculty members want tofind out how they can best approach internationalstudents,” Van Handle said. “Sometimes it is justthe most basic thing, like how to say hello andwhat kind of food their students like.”

This spring, international students receivedan invitation to an alternative spring break pro-gram, consisting of an educational trip to Bostonto explore U.S. immigration issues. Daniela Pila’12, organizer of the IIF-funded trip, wants inter-national students to knowmore about U.S. immi-gration policy and multicultural issues. “As I seein my immigration politics class, many problemswithin this area do affect them,” Pila said. A na-tive of the Philippines, Pila found inspiration fromher experience helping to renovate playgroundsin Fishtown, Philadelphia. She hopes to continuethe alternative spring break program in the fu-ture.

It’s hard to characterize an international stu-dent’s “American experience” at Mount Holyoke.Sometimes, you unknowingly learn from yourclassmates, roommates and floormates. Some-times, you get your feet wet by jumping aggres-sively into a cultural ocean you have neverknown. You drink, you eat, you laugh your waythrough. There are times when youmay feel iso-lated andwelcomed simultaneously. But by yourCommencement, you will have learned some-thing about the American culture that has en-tered your life and stayed there.

BY THU NGUYEN ’12ASST. PERSPECTIVES EDITOR

Fall came late last year. The rusty orangethat blanketed the Mount Holyoke campus

scenery only emerged in the last fewweeks. On thatThursdaymorning, as I dressed up, I stuck a smallgreen-white-green badge on my blazer and tookoff for the day. On my way to lunch, I cameacross a bunch of friends. After exchanginggreetings, one asked me, “Why are you notwearing your green and white outfit?”Then I pointed to my badge and re-sponded, “See, I amwearing the Niger-ian flag. It’s Independence Day!”

Like on several public holidaysin the States, school in Nigeria iscanceled on Oct. 1 and May 27,Children’s Day. But four yearsafter I left my home country,my daily planners and cal-endars morphed, main-taining the same datesbut bearing differentmeanings. Thismeant observing anew set of na-tional holidays,some of which

I cannot connect with. An example is ThanksgivingDay, which I have learnt means different things to dif-ferent people. But all the same, I enjoy the festive mealof turkey, potatoes and the pumpkin pie with ice cream.Nonetheless, I embraced some holidays because

they carried parallel significance to certain remem-bered days in my country’s history. For instance, theU.S. Inauguration Day, which is observed on Jan. 20 andis the day when a new president and vice-president aresworn into office, is parallel to Nigeria’s DemocracyDay on May 29. It commemorates the return of a dem-ocratic government to the nation in 1999, after pro-longed military rule. Another set of remembered daysare Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, because thoughthey are not marked on the same dates like back home,these American dates give me an additional chance toappreciate my parents in a special way.Then, there are holidays that will never change like

my birthday. Just like a personal holiday, the celebra-tion evolves with each passing year but themeaning re-mains the same. The best part of this day is the peopleI celebrate with. Their faces may change but their rea-sons for celebrating are the same; the connection beingme. Now awhole day about me—what more could I askfor?

When American holidays become points of convergence

S w e a tdripped downmy brow as Istared straightahead at the be-spectacledman in aflowing powder bluetunic. He was stand-ing on an elevated plat-form, his hands raised ina salute. Beside him, theNigerian flag flapped in theearly harmattan afternoon.The school band was beatingout a popular military composi-tion: the nameless tune I hadmarched to sincemy kindergartenyears. Over the music, I heard theparade commander shout out “Atease!” and in one swift moment I madea right “wheel” in two calculated stepsand faced the front of the line, where I re-sumed the march-past with thirty otherstudents. As we marched past the man onthe platform, applause rose from the by-standers. We had just saluted the Nigerianflag and the President’s representative. It wasafter all, the Nigerian Independence day, Oct.1, 2003.

BY TEMITOPE OJO ’10PERSPECTIVES EDITOR

P A R A L L E L V I S I O N S :One holiday thrives on the edge of two cultures

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