IEP Photo Shoot!

            Earlier this week, I met with Tatiana for her IEP photo shoot she was hosting.  When I showed up, Tatiana was very busy and already had all of her fancy camerawork assembled.  Her major is digital artwork, so this event went along perfectly with what she had been learning in class and enabled her to show the rest of the students all that she had been learning.

            The photo shoot was focusing on the topic of beauty.  All of the female IEP students wore traditional clothes from their home countries, and there were so many different cultures represented.

            Because my conversation partner was basically the star of the show and did not have much time to sit down and talk with me individually, I was able to get to know the other IEP students.  I learned about what their cultures are like, and why they chose to come to TCU.  All of the students I talked to had come to TCU without knowing a single soul here, which I find to be a very brave and courageous act considering it would be hard to adjust to a new culture without having family or friends to help you.  Many of the students also told me that they did not even visit TCU before deciding to come here, and the first time they had been to America was when they arrived on campus.  They said that it was initially very difficult because their English was not great, so they struggled to communicate with people.  But they also said that this was a great experience because it forced them to really focus on improving their English.

            All of the students were extremely welcoming to me, and loved telling me their stories of what brought them to TCU and what their cultures back home are like.  You can tell that they have a lot of pride for their home countries.  I especially enjoyed learning about the different cultures, considering my hometown basically consists of one nationality of people and I wasn’t exposed to many foreign cultures. 

            One of the cultures I was most fascinated by was the Saudi Arabian culture.  Britt, one of the IEP directors, was telling me that Saudi women wear modest clothes and turbans when they are around men, but when there aren’t any men around, they take their turbans off and are much more relaxed.  When I was there, the Saudi women were teaching us how to do Saudi Arabian dances and showing us some of the traditional outfits they wear in their country.  However, the minute a man walked into the classroom, they stopped what they were doing and put back on their turbans and very modest clothing.  This is very different from the way a typical American women would act, so it was interesting to learn about the Saudi culture.

            It was exceptionally entertaining to see people from so many different cultures getting along and having a great time together.  The whole time I was there, people were smiling, laughing, and sharing about their cultures.  At one point, all the girls started exchanging their traditional clothes and taking pictures with each other in their different clothes.  A Saudi Arabian girl named Zainab was even nice enough to give me a traditional scarf and show me how to wrap a turban around my head!

            Near the end of the photo shoot, I talked a little bit more with my conversation partner, Tatiana.  Tatiana was so grateful that I came, and I expressed my gratitude to her for inviting me to the event.  Tatiana was very proud of all the pictures she had taken, and told me that she also loved seeing what other cultures traditionally wore.

            Ultimately, this was an experience I will never forget, and I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to learn not only more about my conversation partner’s culture, but many of the other IEP students’ cultures.