El musulmán yanqui va a tu barrio

Aug 29th, 2007, 09:49 pm

I hope to travel throughout Latin America one day to meet and document the numerous Muslim communities in the region. Until I figure out how and when I’ll undertake my journey, Argentina will have to do. Hey, I don’t exactly have thousands of dollars laying around.

Maybe I’ll be the Muslim Che Guevara and ride a motorcycle from country to country.

Posted in Argentina, Islam/Muslims, Latin America | 5 Comments | Trackback

Political incorrectness Uruguayan style

Aug 27th, 2007, 11:52 pm

When I went to Colonia, Uruguay on August 15, I walked passed a restaurant and noticed a curious little object. I’m pretty sure there would be massive protests and CNN coverage if a store in the US put this out front. Yeah, it was okay in 1927, but now? I don’t think so.

I wonder how Uruguay’s small yet visible black population would handle this.

Posted in Latin America, Racism | 3 Comments | Trackback

Ricardo Turco

Aug 27th, 2007, 11:11 pm

As you can probably imagine, much has happened since I returned to Buenos Aires from my exciting eleven-day, twelve-night vacation in northwestern Argentina and southern Bolivia a month and four days ago. I’m gonna tell you what’s gone on, so sit down, get yourself a cup of tea, and read carefully.

First off, I switched host families. When I lived with my first host family, I felt really uncomfortable and couldn’t relax because the environment was always tense. I didn’t have a problem with the mom, but the son, Nicolás, was just a jerk who sucks at being a son and host brother. Whenever he talked to his mom, he’d be a total (insert obscenity you deem fit) to her. He rarely ever talked to her normally. When I say normally, I mean not yelling at or disrespecting her. I remember this one time his mom was in the shower and someone rang the doorbell. Instead of opening the door, he knocked on the bathroom door and told his mom someone came, so she had to get out of the shower and open the door. I was thinking about opening it myself, but I thought it was best not to intervene in their affairs. Another time he yelled at his mom for about twenty minutes straight (he might’ve gone on longer—I don’t know because I had to leave the house to get some stuff done) because she didn’t make breakfast for him that morning. He asserted that she had to make breakfast for him since he’s her son. What? You’re twenty. A typical Argentine breakfast is coffee with crackers. It’s not that hard to make!

Furthermore, Nicolás rarely ever talked to me. Most of our conversations consisted of “hola” (hello) and “chau” (bye) and nothing more. I tried to start conversation with him on numerous occasions, but that never got anywhere. Oh, and get this. Whenever he invited his friends over, he would never introduce them to me, so there were a bunch of times where I was just surfing the Internet in my room while he was out in the living room with his friends, having a good time. We didn’t have to be best friends or anything, but he could’ve at least showed some courtesy and talked to the guy that was paying a ton of money to live with them.

Apparently, I’m not the first person to complain about Nicolás. The student that lived with the family the semester before me left a note warning me about him, and the student that lives there now has made the same observations. I can give Nicolás some pity points since his parents got divorced a few years ago and his dad died not too long after, but there is simply no excuse for his behavior.

Besides having a jerk for a host brother, I had some other problems with my living conditions. To begin with, I had a tiny room with almost zero natural light. The only natural light I had filtered through the curtains over the windows that faced the kitchen. I didn’t even have a view of the outside. And because I was right next to the kitchen, I had very little privacy. I couldn’t even talk on the phone or Skype without everyone hearing me. They understood English, so I was never able to complain to my family about how much my host brother sucks while my host mom and brother were home. So after seriously reviewing my situation, I decided to jet.

Posted in Argentina, Life | 5 Comments | Trackback

Six amazing months

Aug 19th, 2007, 06:52 pm

You know what’s crazy? I’ve been down out of the good ol’ US of A for over half a year! Tomorrow marks the twenty-sixth week of my study abroad adventure. If you do the math, you’ll find out that by October 1, my twenty-second birthday, I will have spent 4.17% of my life in South America. Wild.

Let’s do a recap of February to July: I barely understood Spanish my first month in Argentina; met some cool people; met some not so cool people; got stopped by the cops in the subway station for doing nothing and asked to show ID (maybe I was just too brown for them to be a legal resident); saw some amazing mountains and waterfalls; penetrated the Argentine Muslim community; met more Bangladeshis that I had expected; struggled with my classes due to language difficulties; was shocked by all the racy magazines kept in public at newsstands; went to Bolivia and Uruguay; was really uncomfortable in my first host family’s house; had to get used to the lack of spicy food; learned to converse in Spanish; was asked about 3,852 times about my ethnic origin; got used to besos (I’ll talk about those in a bit); ate really good sushi; felt good that a lot of people asked me for directions on the streets because that meant I looked like I belonged; was fascinated that Argentines ate so much beef; used to get offended when people talked to me in English because I thought they just didn’t think I understood Spanish, but then I realized that I’ll probably talk to Hispanics in the US in Spanish when I go back, and they’ll probably get just as annoyed with me; tried asking the study abroad people if I could live alone second semester, but they were stubborn and wouldn’t let me; was amazed that such a high percentage of Argentine girls are so good-looking (I still can’t figure out how this is possible); realized that people you would have never expected to show up later in your life do; and was astounded by the power of American culture worldwide.

I feel I’ve grown so much as an individual since the day I got here. First of all, because I left my family and friends behind, I basically had to start a new life from scratch. It’s actually pretty nice to have the opportunity to “start over.” If I had desired, I could have theoretically made up everything about myself, and people would’ve believe it. Second, living as one of very few Bangladeshi American Muslims in a predominantly white, Spanish-speaking, largely non-practicing Catholic country on the other side of the earth makes you think about your entire being. Taken out of my comfort zone, I reexamined everything about my life, such as the things I should’ve done, things I should’ve not done, my family, my friends, and my country. Plus, I realized just how Muslim and American I really am. I may be desi, but I still love my oatmeal breakfasts and hip hop. And finally, I’ve learned to speak my mind and not to bottle up my feelings. If you piss me off, I’m gonna tell you. I may appear calm and unexpressive, but I’ll say what’s on my mind if the circumstances call for it. Although I left for Argentina with the intention of learning Spanish and experiencing life in another country, I’ve benefited in far more ways than I had expected.

Posted in Argentina, Latin America, Life | 2 Comments