Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Ethnicity Tag

Asalaamu alaykum wa rahmatallahi wa barakato~
May the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you~

I've seen several bloggers/Youtubers do this tag, so I thought I'd take a break from finals stress and join in :)

1. What is your ethnicity?
My family is American -- now, what does that mean?  Since America is a nation of immigrants, I could be of any ethnicity.  We have traced our lineage on my mother's side back to the 1700s, and we were already in the U.S.  This means that my family is likely of British origins on my mother's side, as these were the only immigrants/colonizers who were in the U.S. at that time.

My father's grandma is Swedish for sure.  Here's a list of the ethnicities I am "rumored" to be ;) :

French
Scottish
Norwegian
Welsh
Swedish (for sure)

I have been told, before I converted and began covering, that I looked French, Scottish, Russian, or German.  I guess I have one of those faces that just looks foreign no matter where I am...I never fit in.

I am also likely composed of some German, as that is the most common ethnicity in my area.  Someday I'll get a genetic analysis so I can know for sure :)  For now, I'll just call myself a European mutt :)

2.  When was the last time you visited your country?
I consider my country the U.S., and I live here, sooo, today!

3.  Name one ethnic food you enjoy the most.
My favorite favorite favorite food is chicken and dumplings.  My great grandma made THE BEST chicken and dumplings, I mean yummmmy stuff.  My second favorite is apple pie! *drool*




3.  Name one household item that best represents your culture.
A coffeemaker!  I'm not sure if people in other countries use these, but nearly every house you visit in the U.S. will have one.  Most Americans drink strong coffee every morning (NOT NESCAFE ;)), some add sugar and milk :)  I think this reflects American culture because we're all about the productivity...we're one of the only countries that only allows one week vacation per year, and only lets new mothers have two months off after giving birth.  So, yeah...


5.  What part of your country are you from?
I'm from the middle part, which is made up of mostly agricultural and rural communities :)  (Forget those ideas of skyscrapers you have in your head!)  Some call it the Heartland, some call it the Bread Basket of the U.S., because of how much food we produce here.  The soil is the best soil in the world for growing plants!  The middle of the U.S. has a very unique culture compared to the rest.  It is generally much more conservative and "less fancy" -- there are different ideals of success and wealth. For instance, owning a big truck is considered manly/rich, not owning a BMW or a Benz, haha.  If you drove a car like that, people might look at you funny...



6.  Can you speak the language of your ethnicity?
I can obviously speak English, and as my ethnicity is likely British, yes.  However, any of the other possible ethnicities in me, nope!  I speak Spanish, Arabic, and English, and I'm not likely Spanish or Arabic ;)

I hope ya'll enjoyed :)  I tag anyone who reads this to do this tag, and post it in the comments :)

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Nostalgia

Asalaamu alaykum wa rahmatallahi wa barakato~
May the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you~

Do you ever get waves of nostalgia washing over you, like being enveloped suddenly in the tide?

This happened to me today.

I so badly wanted to hear the noise of the locusts in the summer where I grew up, my heart hurt.

This noise reminds me of the heat and happy days and nights spent outside with my family and friends, catching fireflies and playing flashlight tag.  Reading in trees and looking at stars.

I used to lay on my back and gaze at the stars for hours, thinking how amazing creation is.

When was the last time you did that?

I miss being a child...



Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Work Work Work

Asalaamu alaykum wa rahmatallahi wa barakato~
May the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you~

Oooff, I have been too busy lately.  I moved this weekend, have several 10-15 page papers due for university in the coming weeks, and I graduate in May, insh'Allah.  Which just means searching for jobs like a nut...

So perhaps I'll just update ya'll on my papers for now.  Some of the topics I'm writing about are interesting --  some not so much.  This semester I took three graduate level courses, ay yay yay.  They were challenging but rewarding.

One paper will be about ethnocentrism in digital media -- such as video games, movies, online, etc.  This sounds weird for an upper-level paper, but my class is digital rhetoric.  Yup, I spent a semester learning about video games and social networking, he he he.

I thought that it was important to write about this topic because of all of the war video games we learned about in my course.  I find the trend very disturbing, especially when there is no balanced option to show the moral implications/repercussions of war.  All war games nearly played in the U.S. are of U.S. soldiers attacking the Middle East, including mosques, etc.  This leads to racial profiling, misconceptions of Islam and Arabs/Muslims, and generally reinforces a spirit of "them vs. us" without the players of these video games possibly ever realizing what is being put into their minds.  Disturbing...

Another paper I'm working on will be about how social media is affecting power relations, specifically in education.  This is for my Governmentality/Foucault philosophy class.

And I'm also writing a paper for my Migration in Film and Literature about a novel by Bharati Mukherjee called "Jasmine."  It's due next week and I haven't even read the book... ;)  I guess it's about an Indian immigrant to the U.S.

For my Advanced Arabic course, I'm supposed to make a video final project of myself speaking Arabic about something.

We shall see how it all goes...