Internationalmatt's Blog

This blog is about my international friends and their inspiring stories

My Friends from Germany- 2 Came Here but 3 are Moving Back to Germany- Jochen, Julia and Ben

In the Spring of 2008 I substituted for an English class and met a young woman who said she was from Germany. That got my attention for a few reasons; 1- some of my great-grandparents came from Germany and 2- I wondered why anyone from Western Europe would want to come to little Lincoln Nebraska in the middle of nowhere America lol. That was the beginning of my friendship with Jochen and Julia.

Jochen and Julia at the Omaha Zoo

I have appreciated our friendship and have learned more about Germany and Europe through our friendship. It was fun to hear about their stories of adjusting to life in America and hear about some of our funny habits through the eyes of people from another modern Western Country such as our dependence on everything Drive Thru here. I really appreciated their hospitality and warmth for others in my weekend groups at my church. They hosted parties for us and also came to the Omaha Zoo and on a few other trips and helped drive. They came here as a young married couple due to Jochen’s work. They will move back to Germany tomorrow but will do so as a young family. They had a baby boy about 6 months ago.

Ben is a 6 month bundle of joy who was center stage at the going away party today. He was the star who upstaged his parents a little bit. Ben was born here in Lincoln and will move to Germany tomorrow with his parents. He decided to tag along with them :)

Jochen, Julia and Ben

Jochen and Julia had a Kaffee & Kuchen Farewell Party this afternoon to say goodbye  to friends. There were people from Bosnia, China, Holland, Germany, Japan, and America there. I enjoyed meeting some of their friends today. Ben got a lot of attention and was somewhat the center of attention :)

Hopefully I will be able to visit them in Germany someday. I know I will always appreciate what they have meant to me and to our friends at my groups at church. Best Wishes and Godspeed Jochen, Julia and Ben. Thanks for being wonderful hosts and for helping with activities and most of all for friendship :)

July 31, 2011 Posted by | Cultural Ambassdors, Experiences of international friends, German friends, International Friendships, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Beautiful Silence- A Wedding in Sign Language

Yesterday evening I went to the wedding of two friends of mine Amanda and David. David is one of the Pastors for Spring of Life Deaf Church and is the son of the Pastor for Ministerio Manatial de Vida. The ceremony was in sign language with translation in English. The Pastor performing the ceremony did the whole ceremony in sign language. Amanda and David exchanged their vows in sign language. It was a beautiful ceremony which I call Beautiful Silence. It was silent only in sound though because feelings and thought were expressed beautifully throughout the ceremony. As I watched I realized how expressive Sign Language is. This was especially evident when David sang to Amanda in Sign Language. It was a very poignant moment.

It was interesting to watch as they wove cords together. Normally I see people light the unity candle together. Amanda and David wove cords together to symbolize that they are joining together with God in the center of their marriage.

The reception was fun and there was some delicious food. During the reception I thought how awesome it was that three cultures came together to celebrate the marriage Amanda and David. There were Sign, Hispanic and American cultures joined together to celebrate the joining of Bride and Groom in marriage. It was a wonderful picture of the perfect unity of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We also had fun during the reception. At my table I practiced my español with my friends from Ministerial Manantial de Vida and we had a lot of laughs. The line for cake was long, but I found a way to get a piece quickly when I asked a friend at the front of the line to get my piece.

Congratulations Amanda and David and may you always remember the message on your cake :)

July 30, 2011 Posted by | Cutural Celebrations, Hispanic friends, Sign Culture | Leave a Comment

Fun in Cooper Park with Iglesía Berea

Last Saturday I joined my friends from iglesía berea for a fun afternoon in Cooper Park here in Lincoln. When I am with my friends from iglesía berea, I am always blessed to see many former students. There was fun for all ages, but especially for the children. There was face painting, an inflatable jumping gym, a fire truck for the children to get into and learn about fire safety, and Piñatas.

from left- pastor of iglesía berea, a firefighter and my friend Hugo the worship leader for iglesía berea

It was great to see the children having fun. It was even more meaningful to see many of my former students and hear about how they are doing and about their lives. While the worship group was singing, I noticed that 2 of the 4 women singing were former students of mine, and 2 of the four men playing instruments and singing were former students of mine, so half of the worship group were my former students.

The one surprise for me was the food. I expected to have some food from their culture such as papusas or tortas, but due to the event being more for children they had hot dogs and chips. There some salad topping we could have that was spicy :) I got a kick out of The decoration on top of the food tent which announced what the food would be.

It was a fun afternoon and I was blessed to see how my former students are giving back to the community. There were children from diverse groups enjoying the festival. I saw not only Hispanic children having fun at the festival. I also saw White, Black and Asian children having fun at the festival. Maybe if we adults have more fun together, we might get along better.

July 27, 2011 Posted by | children, Cross Cultural, Cultural Ambassdors, food, Hispanic friends | Leave a Comment

Never Too Old to Learn from My 17 Year Old Vietnamese and Tech Symbols Teacher

A friend of mine who comes to my Saturday morning class has taught me how to make some symbols to use online. Linh is a joy to have as one of my students, but tonight I realized she is not only my student, she is also my teacher lol. I shared that with her and she liked the idea. The humorous chat conversation made me think about the fact that we are never too old to learn and that we can learn from those younger than we are if we will listen.

my tech symbol cô Linh :)

Linh taught me how to make a heart by combining < with 3 to make a heart which does not show on wordpress but does on facebook and chat

She also taught me how to make a smiley face with a wink by combining ; with ) for ;)

She also taught me the tech thumbs up :-bd

As we chatted she taught me how to say teacher in Vietnamese to a woman, cô, and to a man, thay, so she is my Vietnamese and Tech Symbol teacher.

I appreciate my young friends and the things I learn from them, but there is a note of caution. Do not simply turn over a tech device for them to look at and start doing things without you knowing what is going on. I let a young man look at my new cell phone 3 years ago and he decided it was fun to set my alarm clock in my cell phone which I found out about a an undesired time lol.

Tonight I want to say cam on cô to Linh. I look forward to learning more from you and our friends. Just do not expect me to turn over tech equipment lol

July 26, 2011 Posted by | Education, International Friendships, international students, Internationals, Vietnamese friends | Leave a Comment

Piñata in the Park- Could it be an Olympic Sport?

This afternoon I joined my friends from iglesía berea for a festival in the park at Cooper Park in Lincoln. There was live music, hot dogs, face painting, an inflatable jumping gym, a info table for free medical help, and an ice cream truck.  At the end it was Piñata time and it was fun to watch.

The intensity and focus the children displayed reminded me of athletes who compete in a sport. They were all determined to obliterate the Piñata because of their mutual goal. I saw swings of the stick that would have made any Major League Baseball player proud and thought- “It could be dangerous to get between the Piñata and the child with the stick” lol

The look in the eyes of the children brought to mind the look in eyes of Michael Jordan in the NBA Finals, or Tommie Frazier when he played Florida for the 1995 Championship. It was the look of sheer determination. The Piñata was colorful and beautiful and was also made well out of paper machete, but no matter how well a Piñata is made, it is no match for determined children with an eye on the prize much like a star athlete focused on winning a championship.

The prize is the candy that is inside the Piñata and when it finally breaks it is a mad scramble for the candy which conjured up memories of football players scrambling after a fumbled football or perhaps of a Rugby Scrum. You definitely do not want to get caught in the middle of the mad dash for the candy.

There is some compassion for those who cannot get to the candy. There were women standing close by with candy  for unfortunate kids who did not get candy. It was a blast to watch the joy of the children as they battled the Piñata and especially as they gathered their bounty after it broke open. I wonder if Piñata time should be an Olympic Event lol :)

July 23, 2011 Posted by | Cutural Celebrations, Hispanic friends, international fashion and crafts | 2 Comments

The Women from Venus/Men from Mars thing- In All Cultures?

Never have read that book, but then I do not read self help books. However, it is a catchy title and this week gave me the opportunity to observe a few humorous examples of how it does not matter what the culture is- Women and Men seem to have humorous differences.

Last night in my class I shared a saying we have in America while we were reading a story about how the @ symbol began to be used. I shared with the class “the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys”. When I said that, I young mother from Mexico started laughing and nodding her head in agreement. I asked her if she had a son and she said yes and that her husband likes to buy electronics and tools that are more expensive than her son’s toys, but both love to play with their toys.

On Tuesday I had some new students, four women from Mexico,  join my Family Literacy Class which had women from Iraq, Syria and Sudan in it. I wanted to help them see that they share some things in common, so I asked some questions of the group and had them raise their hands if it is true for them. I acted out pulling my hair and asked, “how many of you feel your husband is crazy sometimes?”. all them laughed and raised their hands. Then I asked, “Who does not understand why their husbands do things sometimes?” and again there was laughter as they all raised their hands. The next questions, which were related to their children, also drew unanimous response.

I asked them, “Who loves their children more than anyone else in the world?”. They all raised their hands. I asked, “Who wants their children to have a good education and a good future?” and again they all raised their hands.

Apparently Men and Women not always understanding each other is a Cultural Universal as is the love of a mother for her children.

July 21, 2011 Posted by | children, Education, International Friendships, international students, women's issues | Leave a Comment

Beat the Heat Yesterday by Having Ice Cream with my New Friend- Nydia from Puerto Rico

Yesterday I beat the Heat for a while by enjoying some ice cream at the Dairy Store on East Campus with my new friend Nydia from Puerto Rico. We will be meeting together to help each other with español and English. I will of course help her with English and she will help me with español. When we were ordering our ice cream, we both noticed one flavor that we could not understand why it was made and neither of us wanted to try. It was maple/bacon ice cream.

Nydia is here doing an internship at UNL and will return to Puerto Rico to finish her Master’s Degree. She plans ot come back to UNL for her PHD studies. We were joined for a while by her friend from Guatamala. I shared with them how I began to study español and they helped me correct my español :) We discussed what we will do the next few weeks to study together. It was a nice afternoon break.

While I was there, I saw a family from Iraq I had not seen for quite sometime. The kids have really grown. People from various countries were in there since of course it is on East Campus of the University. It was fun to people watch as I waited for Nydia. I saw people from Korea, China, and India come in and out for their ice cream. That leads me to believe that ice cream is a cultural universal lol.

So if you want to beat the summer heat- eat ICE CREAM and sit in AIR CONDITIONING :)

July 20, 2011 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

I Survived My First Visit to the Secret Lair of 2 International PHD Students- Thiago and Pravat

In all of my previous posts I have written about people I have met, places i have visited and cultural celebrations I have enjoyed. The adventures have taken me to many exciting places, but there was one place I had yet to explore. It is a location you must be prepared for anything to happen due to the unknown nature of the species you are going to encounter. They are a rare species that can be hard to find, but I had such good fortune yesterday to not only locate this species, but to also find their secret lair. The species is Internationalus PHD Studenti or International PHD Student in layman terms.

Thiago from the Brazilian type of Internationalus PHD Studenti

I entered their secret cave to help Thiago to review his dissertation before it is published next week. I went to review the English and my mind is now full of terms like micro-structural and words you will not find in your spell check such as cementitious. This is indeed the danger of observing this species- your mind may be filled with information that you yourself may never have need of but is essential to their survival.

Before I entered this secret cave, I wondered what I might observe. Would I see them bending spoons with their mental power just to entertain themselves? Would I observe them communicating telepathically? I did not observe those type of behaviors, Perhaps I will see that my next visit. What I did observe was a laser like focus and ability to concentrate regardless of what was going on in close proximity to them. Example- Pravat. While Thiago and I were reviewing his dissertation, Pravat was focused on his computer.

Pravat whose natural habitat is Nepal

In this picture is Pravat whose natural habitat is Nepal. Notice his laser focus on his work even though I was talking to him. Then came the brief recognition that I had entered his lair that he shares with Thiago.

his slight smile

Finally I was able to break his laser focus after several attempts. No need to be frightened because this species is quite amiable when encountered.

his focus broken - Pravat smiles

My visit was productive. I was able to attain a greater understanding of the species Internationalus PHD Studenti. I was not subjected to any mind meld or telepathic suggestions, at least none that I am aware of lol. The danger is that you leave thinking- maybe I should pursue a PHD. Pravat will go to his natural habitat of Nepal for one month. He may experience some discomfort to be away from his secret cave and out and about Nepal with no experiments to research to comfort him. Thiago is about to move up from Internationalus PHD Studenti to Post-Doctoralus Researcherus. I will try to continue my research on this rare exciting species and report my findings in the future. Until then remember to appreciate and not fear this rare species. :)

July 19, 2011 Posted by | Brazilian friends, Education, Experiences of international friends, Globalization, International Friendships, international students, Internationals | Leave a Comment

July- The Month My Adventure of Teaching Began

This month marks the anniversary of when I began to teach English Second Language professionally here in Lincoln. I began with a non-profit agency in July 2000 and then for Southeast Community College in July 2001. I have enjoyed working with my colleagues at SCC and have benefited from working with them. What stands out most in my mind though are all of the people I have met over the years, all of the cultural experiences I have had, and the friendships that have been formed.

I have tasted some wonderful food from other cultures over the years such as Pho Bo from Vietnam, Dohlma from Iraq, Papusas from El Salvador, Tortas and Tamales from Mexico, Sarma from Bosnia, and much more. I have experienced such foods in people’s homes and at special celebrations.

The cultural celebrations have been enriching experiences to partake in such as a Quinceanera with friends from Mexico, Vietnamese New Year Celebrations, Chinese New Year Celebrations, and Cultural Celebrations at the University for Student Associations from Japan, Malaysia, and India.

My hobby of learning words from my international friends led me to study another language and that adventure continues as I practice español with my friends. Who knows it may also lead me to study other languages as well.

It has been a fun adventure and I look forward to seeing how it continues as the journey continues to unfold.

July 18, 2011 Posted by | Cross Cultural, Cultural Ambassdors | Leave a Comment

Omaha Trip- Immigration and Farm House Cafe with Gregorio

Gregorio in my van from Jesus

On Thursday I drove to Omaha to take my friend Gregorio to the Immigration Office for his appointment for finger prints and photo for his green card renewal. When we got there, it looked very different than when I took my friends from Iran there last summer. That was due to the sandbags and temporary cement block barriers in case the Missouri River flooding comes that far. The appointment took all of about 15 minutes, so we had a one hour drive there and a one hour drive back for a brief appointment lol. During the drive I helped him practice his English and he helped me practice my español. My van from Jesus that I was given on September 2009 is getting a lot of good use. While we were at the Immigration office, we saw something that really caught our attention. We saw a man wearing an orange prison jump suit, handcuffed and being led out the back door. The women who served us were very friendly though and were very helpful.

Before we came back to Lincoln, we stopped at the Farmhouse Cafe for lunch courtesy of Gregorio’s caseworker. I had never been there before, but it was easy to find. It is next to Mangelsen’s on 84th street not too far from the exit off I-80. The food was good and the desserts were wonderful. I had a chocolate cake with ice cream. The lunch menu has sandwiches, salads, soups and more. If I ever get back that way, I will definitely stop by there again.

I look forward to driving Gregorio back to Omaha someday when he takes his citizenship test. Perhaps it will be in a few months. When I do, I think we will stop back at the Farm House Cafe for a celebratory lunch :)

July 15, 2011 Posted by | Hispanic friends, immigration, International Friendships, Internationals | Leave a Comment

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