After almost one month away in beautiful Thailand and Burma, it was time to return to the DESH for semester # 2. I was ready to hit the ground running, but my arrival at the Dhaka airport (the place my fellow volunteers refer to as "the gateway to hell" and "the place where mosquitoes come from") slowed me down a bit.
It seems I had picked the weekend of the second largest gathering of Muslims in the world (!) to fly back into Dhaka, and that was evident as soon as I stepped off the plane and tried to go through customs. Chaos. I stood in line amidst the crowds for something around 2 hours, not sure the entire time if I was actually in the right line. It was hot, I was tired of standing and desperately needed water. Wahh. After I made it through, I found that my domestic flight back to Chittagong had been delayed 6 hours because of "morning fog." As soon as I went outside, I was called out to and stared at by throngs of men who gather to hustle the incoming passengers.
Vacation decidedly over, I allowed myself a few moments to feel lost in culture shock before sinking into a (very uncomfortable) chair, adjusting my orna (scarf), and realizing that I knew about 10 people waiting for the delayed flight. Oh, what a difference 6 months makes! How lovely to have friends. The rest of my wait was pleasant and interspersed with conversation, trips to purchase and guzzle bottled water, and "This American Life."
This semester I'm keeping busy. I'm continuing to to teach the fabulous Pearls in Language & Composition. They've just turned in an argumentative essay and I'll be starting to grade them tomorrow when this 3-day weekend ends. I've been so impressed by the incredible improvement I've seen in many of my students' writing and am looking forward to 9 more weeks teaching them. That's right, only 9 more weeks! Classes end May 2, and graduation is May 18. Time is flying!
I'm also tutoring at the writing center, where I'm leading several workshops on project management (da details, I haz them!) and am TAing for a qualitative research methods course, taught by a lovely, intelligent, and caring professor who focuses on gender issues like violence against women. It's a great refresher on research for me and should provide a nice transition to grad school. All of my apps are in (whew!) and I'm excited to have an acceptance from one great program in Boston already, with hopefully more to come. I should know everything within one month. As much of a dork as it makes me, I just love this whole process.
My other responsibilities at the university include advising the student magazine ("The Spectrum" - what a great name!) and serving on the Commencement Committee, where I'm helping to plan the first graduation ceremony. AUW has now been open 5 years, and the first class will graduate this spring. It's going to be such an exciting moment for the university and it's students, and I'm happy to put my proclivity for planning to good use. I've also spent the last few weeks helping to plan a retreat for the Access Academy students, which successfully happened last weekend at the new campus site. Standing by a bonfire while the girls lit candles and said wishes for their futures is an image that don't think I will soon forget from my time here. The s'mores weren't bad either :)
It seems I had picked the weekend of the second largest gathering of Muslims in the world (!) to fly back into Dhaka, and that was evident as soon as I stepped off the plane and tried to go through customs. Chaos. I stood in line amidst the crowds for something around 2 hours, not sure the entire time if I was actually in the right line. It was hot, I was tired of standing and desperately needed water. Wahh. After I made it through, I found that my domestic flight back to Chittagong had been delayed 6 hours because of "morning fog." As soon as I went outside, I was called out to and stared at by throngs of men who gather to hustle the incoming passengers.
Vacation decidedly over, I allowed myself a few moments to feel lost in culture shock before sinking into a (very uncomfortable) chair, adjusting my orna (scarf), and realizing that I knew about 10 people waiting for the delayed flight. Oh, what a difference 6 months makes! How lovely to have friends. The rest of my wait was pleasant and interspersed with conversation, trips to purchase and guzzle bottled water, and "This American Life."
This semester I'm keeping busy. I'm continuing to to teach the fabulous Pearls in Language & Composition. They've just turned in an argumentative essay and I'll be starting to grade them tomorrow when this 3-day weekend ends. I've been so impressed by the incredible improvement I've seen in many of my students' writing and am looking forward to 9 more weeks teaching them. That's right, only 9 more weeks! Classes end May 2, and graduation is May 18. Time is flying!
I'm also tutoring at the writing center, where I'm leading several workshops on project management (da details, I haz them!) and am TAing for a qualitative research methods course, taught by a lovely, intelligent, and caring professor who focuses on gender issues like violence against women. It's a great refresher on research for me and should provide a nice transition to grad school. All of my apps are in (whew!) and I'm excited to have an acceptance from one great program in Boston already, with hopefully more to come. I should know everything within one month. As much of a dork as it makes me, I just love this whole process.
My other responsibilities at the university include advising the student magazine ("The Spectrum" - what a great name!) and serving on the Commencement Committee, where I'm helping to plan the first graduation ceremony. AUW has now been open 5 years, and the first class will graduate this spring. It's going to be such an exciting moment for the university and it's students, and I'm happy to put my proclivity for planning to good use. I've also spent the last few weeks helping to plan a retreat for the Access Academy students, which successfully happened last weekend at the new campus site. Standing by a bonfire while the girls lit candles and said wishes for their futures is an image that don't think I will soon forget from my time here. The s'mores weren't bad either :)
No comments:
Post a Comment