Cultural exchange spiral
One of the things that has always allured me about studying abroad is the immense cultural interaction that you are likely to experience in a foreign country. The panorama is even more interesting in a country like the United States where an important sector of the university population is made up of international students and in some top universities like Harvard, this number reaches an influential percentage in the overall population (aprox 23 % among the student body in 2019). This year, after around seventeen months of tough circumstances that made impossible the entrance of foreing students to the U.S. The University of Iowa welcomed nearly 200 international students to the fall season of 2021, among which I’m fortunately part of.
In the PhD programs in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences there are other 6 (out of 16) incoming international students (one of them Colombian as well) and this, together with the number of international students admitted in previous years, make the math department a truly diverse and engaging group. In short, the wide diversity of the University Campus is the perfect environment to experience what I call an “ unstable cultural exchange spiral” in analogy to some very fascinating topics that I have been learning in one of my favorite courses this semester; Nonlinear dynamics with numerical methods.
Since my very first day in Iowa City I have had the opportunity to share and dive into the amusing cultural diversity of the University Campus. In fact, my roommate is an international student from China and he kindly invited me several times to hang out with other international students of different programs. In this entry I would like to share some of those experiences that have really fascinated me.
The first person that my roommate, Weizhi, introduced to me was Shilja. Shilja is originally from the south of India and she is currently pursuing a PhD in Chemical Engineering in the University of Iowa. The week before the start of the Fall term, Shilja, Weizhi and I went to a restaurant to try traditional Indian food under her supervision and advisory. I must say that Indian food is just exquisite; the way in which all the flavours from the (many!) different spices combined is just delightful, and the freedom that you have to mix and fuse the several ingredients is very enjoyable. I must add that Shilja’s guidance was crucial in this contingency and that without her explanations and suggestions I just wouldn’t have been able to order a decent (or at least normal) dinner. Without any doubts the best food that I have tried here so far.
Just a couple of days after the eclectic dinner, Juan Diego invited me to join a soccer match that a group of students frequently organize each week in the University courts. I was scared due to my poor skills in football, but Juan Diego assured me that a great deal of the participants of the game were not skilled at all in soccer and that it was going to be a friendly match. Happily he was right and my underqualified technique went (almost) unnoticed during the game. It was a very interesting experience, there were players from India, México, Colombia, U.S. and Nigeria (not completely sure about the last country participant). I had never asked myself how to ask for the ball in English or how to employ the emblematic phrase “Sáqueme talento” or “Si me estima” in the language. I basically ran behind the ball for almost 2 hours because nobody noticed I was free or in an advantageous position. Another thing that caught my attention was that people used their native language in the game to communicate with other members of the team with the same nationality. There was a big group of Indian guys who talked to each other in Hindi to organize strategies during the match. Unfortunately, the other spanish-speakers were on the opposite team and I couldn’t employ the same strategy (In contrast, they actually could do it). Sadly I didn’t take many photos of the match, and the only two that I took have a really bad quality.
Last Saturday before the start of the season term, Weizhi invited me on a hike in the “Woodpecker natural trail”, 20 minutes away from Iowa City (by car). We met with Shilja (India), Sam (Nigeria), Jonah (U.S.) and Chengzhe (China), all Weizhi’s partners and we enjoyed a very relaxing walk along the beautiful trail.
Studying in the University of Iowa has been one of the biggest opportunities I have had in all my life. I can not describe how happy and grateful I am to be here and to be able to experience all these wonderful things. I really hope I can continue diving into much more of other cultures and I’m pretty convinced that this college is the perfect space to do it. Finally, I wish that each day we move forward to create more inclusive, diverse and welcoming spaces around the world.
