Minority Report

I really need to be more consistent in doing this.

Well, more on life in the States. I'm now entering my 4th week here. Whoever said university life is easy must be joking or they totally blew off their first semester. Right from the start, time management is at the forefront of life here. All these independent readings and studying would be unbearable once it snowballs so I really need to be on my feet here.

Being in the minority. It is not something that I have ever given much thought about. What do you expect, I am used to being part of the largest ethnic group, have people speaking the same Manglish language and surrounded by like-minded Muslims. In the States, I have no problem with the first two situation being different here. The US is made up of multiple ethnicity and have huge number of second and third-generations here to the point that I feel awkward in asking someone not Caucasian about which country he/she is from. Because most often the answer that I'd get is that they're American.

Conversing is also weird for me at first. Americans speak English and before I came I thought I had a decent command of the language already. But no, I can't speak shit. My pronunciation is totally off because I'm used to practicing British English. Most people here can't get my message when I talk so most of the time I would be repeating myself. My worst experience in this case is telling the registrar officer that I took A-Levels. For some reason 'A-levels' and 'economics' sounded like gibberish to her that I was almost spelling out the phrases to her. What hurt my pride more was that after that she was talking to me in a slow manner carefully pronouncing every syllable as if I would not be able to understand her.

But, by far, the most shocking revelation is being part of the Muslim minority. In Malaysia, you wouldn't have to worry about halal meat and going to prayers is like second nature because the facilities are accessible. Here, we would be lucky to be able to fill our musolla which is a rented room above a Chinese restaurant. The nearest mosque is quite a distance and because university life doesn't actually give you more than an hour's off on Friday afternoon, we will have to make do with our 20-odd congregation. Ramadan is upon us and it truly is a different experience fasting in another country. The length of the day varies through the season and I would hate to think how long I would have to fast if Ramadan falls during summer next year. We have weekly iftars at the musolla with someone sponsoring the fast-breaking. It's not much but every morsel of halal chicken or meat is always a welcome sight.

Being the minority is truly enlightening. Now I have a grasp of how it feels to be on the other side.