First of Last

WEDNESDAY was my first day of my last quarter as an undergraduate student.

As always, the campus was full of over excited freshman who are hoping for their idealized view of the college life to play out. Some will have an experience very similar to what they imagine and others might be surprised.

Fortunate the college experience was how I’d expected with a few good and bad surprises. But am grateful for everything because I ended up learning a lot through the process (not just the academic lessons).  It is a wonderful journey. I grew – not only in years- but in wisdom and experience.

One thing that turned out to be absolutely true – the experiences outside the class are as important to the journey of college as taking classes and gaining knowledge through academics.

I traveled 6 states on an amazing road-trip that involved a lot of laughter, jokes, bad food, good food, amazing scenery, national parks, music, two world wonders and wonderful company. I was fortunate enough to have visited 5 countries with family and friends through studying abroad. I appeared on TV and asked questions as an intern and I learned about my strengths and weaknesses.

I created strong relationships with old friends and made some wonderful new friends. I totally believe that you find your best friends in college – or just become better and closer with some great friends. I joined organizations – SSA (best one to take part in), great BBQs and amazing days with The Crew zip-lining, laser tag, bowling and days at Alki (love you all).

I learned a bunch of life skills as well – time management, riding a bike for the first time, learning to swim, writing essays last-minute, and prioritizing and learning to take a stand for what I value.

The past 3 years went by extremely fast and it is hard to believe I’ve already been here that long. I am a bit anxious but mostly excited for graduation. Looking forward to starting the next chapter of my life.

BUT I am going to enjoy this last quarter and make even more memories that last a lifetime.

Study Abroad – Part 2

On our first weekend we visited Munich, Germany. We had been in Interlaken for a week and we were told to pack for a 3 day trip as we headed to Munich. The city was unbelievably gorgeous. I say unbelievable because I did not expect much from Germany. I was never interested in traveling to Germany so I expected nothing from the city. However, I am happy to say I was totally wrong. It turned out to be one of the most interesting places I’ve ever visited. I am planning a return.

Anyhow, we went to Germany by train on Friday morning and returned on Sunday afternoon. In Munich we stayed at a cool little hostel where some of the rooms had picnic tables. Our group was divided into rooms of 3-5 and my room was one that had a picnic table. It was really useful.

5 reasons I loved Munich:

= everything was more affordable compared to Interlaken

= the buildings and the city structure was beautiful

= great ice-cream

= NICE PEOPLE – regardless of the stereotypes of German people

= and did I mention the city was absolutely beautiful <3

After about 6 hours on the train, we arrived in Munich around 1pm and checked in at our hostel then went to go and discover. The next morning we visited Dachau concentration camp for our field trip. This was an extremely emotional trip – much more than I expected. The camp was mostly recreated buildings of the real camp. However, the stories were not any less terrifying. I did learn a bit about the holocaust and the concentration camps which I did not know beforehand. However, I will never repeat that experience, it’s not something I can take.  The most disturbing and my breaking point was seeing the gas chambers and the overs where people were gassed and cremated.

Following this experience we were able to rest a bit and calm ourselves down. That night, we went out as a group and even met a man who was not Somali but spoke Somali. The Sunday morning, we packed and decided to explore a bit more and buy more before our train was scheduled to leave. However, we realized that the city shut down on Sundays. But we did run into some type of a race – the whole area around the churches and our hostel were made into paths for the race. We got there when the race was finished or most people finished and they were relaxing with a great amount of beer and bananas. I was surprised but I believe bananas are the super-fruit so I easily got over the surprise.

Glad to have visited!

Study Abroad – part 1

Switzerland: 

We stayed in Switzerland for the duration of the study abroad trip. We stayed in Interlaken which is a quiet little tourist town, surrounded by hight beautiful mountains. We stayed at the Sonnenhof Backpackers Villa where we were able to leave majority of our luggage each weekend when we visited neighboring countries.

Interlaken became home very quickly. On weekdays we often had one free day and had a class a class for two hours each day for the rest of the week. We went hiking to the Schynige Platte but it was cloudy with some thunder and lightning. We ended up not heading as steep as we wanted but we kept seeing this amazing glimpses of the mountains as the wind cleared up the clouds. It was absolutely beautiful. We took the cable car up and down the mountain. After our hike, we ate from a restaurant located at base of the hike. I had really great ice-cream. But first I accidentally ordered ice-cream that had cognac that was extremely bitter (first and only alcohol experience…. Yuck).

Injustices of Human Judgment

After the group got on the bus, I ended up sitting across an older couple. When sat, I asked them to sit and they smiled at me. The train moved and after about 30 minutes or more when the train got to the other stop, the couple talked to the conductor who was returning from checking tickets.

The conductor then gave me a look that made me wonder what they said because they were all looking at me and the couple got up and walked off as soon as the train stopped. The conductor looked like she wanted to say something so I decided to ask if everything was okay. She then replied that she was “sorry”. I then proceeded to ask what she was sorry about. She replied that the couple did not want to sit next to me and she pointed to my hijab.

I got upset for a moment and then I said she did not have a reason to be sorry. My teacher’s friend overheard this and asked what happened. The conductor told her and she asked the conductor what the purpose of telling me was and whether or not the couple had asked her to tell me their issue with me. The conductor looked scared and replied that there is a problem with the Muslims because they are using our taxes. My teacher replied that I was an American student, doing nothing but contributing to their economy.

I was not even remotely angered by this experience but it was a lot more hurtful than I had anticipated. I wanted to tell them that being Muslim does not equate to whatever prejudices they held. The most hurtful part was that 20 other students I clearly came with did not dissuade the couple from their remarks.

This was on our train from Germany to Switzerland.