No, not “the kissing disease”.
I suffer from mono-culturalism. (is that a word?).
i live in a mono-culture within a mono-culture.
Egypt is the larger mono-culture.
- Religion. The vast majority of residents are Muslim. I have nothing against Islam. I don’t find it any more or less “fanciful” than Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, or Zoroastrianism.
- “Lifestyles.” While having more than one wife (at a time) could be viewed as alternative to the western mainstream, the day-to-day SAME-ness of things is getting to me. Coming from a place with a certain level of diversity (Seattle) to here is a bit jarring.
- Homogeneous population. Hair color, eye color, skin color, hair texture, “porn star” mustaches. It all blends together.
- Cuisine. There isn’t a lot of variety in the cuisine. There is an appalling lack of “ethnic” food. Or rather an appalling lack of appealing ethnic food. There is plenty of bad “italian” and worse “chinese”. One can only eat so much schwerma and kofta.
And then my social life is a smaller mono-culture within the larger context.
It is also rather homogeneous, though I suspect several people would object strenuously to that generalisation. (Too bad. Get your own blog!)
- Professors. How many times can you discuss cheating, lazy students etc and still have it be interesting? I mean really. Branch out. Go out on a limb. Talk about something else. ANYTHING else. Please.
- Politics. (Ok, so maybe almost anything else) Most people seem to be fairly liberal big “d” democrats. Like most people back home in Seattle. I have nothing against that. I think their earnestness is so cute. But, like most people in Seattle, living here gives them a distorted view of the political landscape. “EVERYBODY they know is voting for Obama. It is going to be a LANDSLIDE“. I am sorry to say that I think they are mistaken about the outcome in November. (Assuming, and I quote, Obama manages to keep “that woman” from “stealing” the nomination.)
- Race. Most of the American faculty are Caucasian. Not a big surprise, as most Americans are Caucasian. And most American college faculty are Caucasian. But it is still strange to me that there aren’t more minority faculty members.
The one place that the faculty has great diversity is in their travel. The people here have traveled quite a bit and have seen more of the world than most people. Talking to them about that is fascinating.
So what is the cure for Mono? Rest. Drink lots of fluids.
Well, 1 out of 2 ain’t bad.
5 replies on “I have a bad case of Mono.”
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptANYTHING else. Please. Politics. (Ok, so maybe almost anything else) Most people seem to be fairly liberal big “d†democrats. […]
I so hear you on this. (Must be time for home leave.)
Fortunately, our kids have broadened our world a bit. Some of their friends are from State Department and military families (a more diverse group of Americans than AUC faculty), as well as non-American families. They’ve become quite chummy with the kids of a neighborhood bowab. But, I’m with you on the food thing especially.
You’re braver than I am on my blog! And you make me laugh. Well said.
Does the faculty there skew young, or idealistic, or in some other fashion relative to the norm for college faculty back here in the states?
The reason I’m curious is because, as I understand it, American instructors of English who work abroad (not in Universities) often fall into 2 groups:
1. Naive and idealistic people who want to experience the world
2. Teachers who can’t hold a job in the US due to problems with abusing alcohol and/or their female students
and that the people in group 1 tend to burn out quickly, leaving most people in group 2. A blog about it (authored by a guy in group 2) is at:
http://www.englishteacherx.blogspot.com/
Jack,
You appear to be near the low point of your “foreign assignment.” In the beginning it is limerance, like a new love. Then you settle in and it just “is.” Then you become bored, like a seven-year itch in a marriage. Hang in there, friend. Before long you’ll be staring down the barrel of your return ‘home” and start to look at your surroundings and situation with nostalgic eyes. Then one day, sooner than you can imagine, it will all be a memory, maybe even just a crazy dream.
– Flash