Evergreen the
may 13, 2015
Everything Greenhill
volume 50, issue 6
Abroad, but not alone S
oon, some students will get ready to spend a summer go concert hopping around Dallas and getting a head-start on the AP Bio curriculum. Another group of kids will go abroad, often for weeks or months, to visit relatives and explore their cultural heritage. Junior Andrea Mora travels to San Felipe, Guanajuato, Mexico every summer to visit her aunts, grandparents, and her many cousins. This annual trip is the only time she gets to see many of her relatives. A n d r e a sometimes feels a disconnect with even her closeaged cousins because she didn’t grow up with them in the same cultural and social environment. “I have a lot of second cousins who I don’t usually interact with,” said Andrea.“I used to interact with them a lot when we were younger, but now that we’re older, I don’t know t h e whereabouts for teenagers in Mexico and their lingo. In their eyes I’m not considered cool.” Andrea is fluent in Spanish but is not accustomed to using it exclusively. “Going to Mexico, it is hard getting used to speaking only Spanish all the time,” said Andrea. “And because I spend like two or three weeks there, when I come back to the U.S., I’m using Spanish more than I use English.” Her time spent in Mexico also gives her a new perspective of a place that isn’t Dallas. “Our house isn’t that nice, but it’s nice compared to what [some] people have,” said Andrea.
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“[Some] have to use buckets to shower or don’t have r u n n i ng water, so I feel privileged in Mexico. Then when I come back here I feel even more privileged to have air conditioning, a complete roof, a bathroom inside my room and a car.” Andrea said she appreciates being a part of two lifestyles. “I wish I had the Mexico lifestyle and the American education,” said Andrea. “In Mexico, it is very free. If I want to go out, I literally just walk out the door and walk downtown. Here, I can’t walk from my house to Klyde Warren Park. It’s just so much easier [in Mexico].” Freshman Rishi Vas visits his grandparents in Mangalore, Karnataka, India every winter. “[My parents] want to give us a taste of the culture and want us to see how they lived when they were our age,” Rishi said. His time spent in India gives Rishi a new perspective of the traditions and social norms, but he remembers that settling into the new atmosphere took time. “I mean it’s a big change living over there. I was really shocked because I saw animals on the road,” Rishi said. At home his family mainly speaks in English and bits of Telugu, but in Mangalore
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he has to speak either in Telugu or Hindi. “It definitely gets boring, because I can’t speak the native language. I see people playing cricket all over the place and usually I would just jump in if this was America, and if I spoke their language, I would,” he said.
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I don’t go as a tourist. When I go, I live a normal life there with my family.”
Rishi said that visiting relatives is a familial duty and sometimes feels like a burden. Despite the difficulties, Rishi said he would take his future children to India because he wants to show them that part of the world. “I don’t want to leave my Indian self behind. I think it’s a stepping stone to being a better person,” said Rishi. Sophomore Mira Fradkin visits her family in Israel, which feels like a second home to her. “I don’t go as a tourist. When I go, I live a normal life there with my family,” she said. Even so, Mira said that she experiences trouble with regards to language. “When I visit my friends, I do feel a little separate just because my Hebrew isn’t as good as theirs, and their English isn’t as good as mine,” said Mira. “When we talk about stuff we like to do, there’s a cultural separation.” The questions she receives can often put her in the position of speaking as a representative of America. “It’s weird because in America I’m known as the girl from Israel, and then in Israel I’m known as the girl from America,” she said. Mira is aware that it’s the small things in Israel that make her the happiest. “Just being there in general, like seeing different things that you wouldn’t see in a mall here, or being able to eat falafel wherever I want. It’s just little things like that, like seeing billboards in Hebrew, make me
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so happy because this country is different,” Mira said. Having another place in the world feel like home is very special to her. “To me, it’s weird to hear my friends say, ‘I drove like five minutes and went to my grandma’s house,’ because for me seeing my grandparents is very rare, so it’s always been a very special thing,” she said. Junior Nicholas Goldschmid visits his relatives twice a year in Buzios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “When I’m there, I definitely feel calmer so when I get back, stress hits me less,” said Nick. “[In Buzios] you wake up and eat whenever you want; it’s a carefree lifestyle.” He is comfortable in the community because language has never been a challenge: Nick’s dad speaks Portuguese fluently. “[My family] doesn’t shun [me] because [I’m] not from there. They sort of embrace [me],” Nick said. Nick is gone for two to four weeks when visiting Brazil and once had to return a few weeks early to attend two-a-day workouts for football. “You definitely feel like you’re missing stuff as you get older. There’s more happening over the summer and more opportunities for things to do, but at the same time it’s nice to be disconnected from the world here,” said Nick. “The pros outweigh the cons in my mind.” While there are pros and cons to visiting family abroad for an extended period of time during the summer, in the end, it is an opportunity to deepen knowledge in another culture. “In general, traveling to Mexico–I just love it,” Andrea said. “I get to really be in touch with my true self. I get to take so much more pride in being Mexican. At first when I was younger it was just ‘this is so cool,’ but now it’s about appreciating different cultures and stuff. Over there they’ll respect that I’m American but I really get to show off that I’m also Mexican.”
story by Simra Abedi, Varun Gupta, and Christina Zhu graphic by Mansi Gaur
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