Updates from September and October!

I have not updated in forever! My apologies!

September and October were a whirlwind of school work, conferences, and BCA excursions. Just like at BC things tend to get a little crazy towards the end of the semester. Instead of writing an individual post about each big thing that happened, I’m going to give some summaries below.

September

Excursion to Hyderabad 

The highlight of this excursion was all of the beautiful Indian countryside we were able to see! It did wonders for my little green soul that gets tired of polluted city life. We visited a number of old forts that provided beautiful sweeping views of the countryside. The first picture is me doing a cartwheel on the lawn of a resort! No big deal. :)

October

Excursion to Delhi and Agra

We visited the Taj Mahal in Agra and there were SO MANY people. It's a good thing that this wasn't an excursion we did early in the trip, because I think the culture shock factor would have been a bit much. Now I'm to the point of - "Oh, there are a lot of people here...when aren't there a lot of people!?" 

Completing Fieldwork at Sahodari. 

I finished my fieldwork at Sahodari, which was bittersweet and hard to believe I had finished my time there. I finished back on the 11^th of October. I don’t have a social work background, so working at Sahodari was difficult for me at times. However, I am so thankful for my time there. I have learned so much about myself, especially, in terms of how I relate to people from a different culture, when I come in as a dominant minority and what that means to our interaction.

Unconference!

I was a Convener for an Unconference that my department hosted. Our Unconference was called “Unconference on the Application of Cross-Cultural Knowledge.” We had sessions on Culture Shock, Relating Skills Learned, Dealing with Clients from a Diverse Cultural Background, and the Globalization of Social Work. An “unconference” essentially means that we are the resource people, those who are putting on the conference, instead of bringing in an expert from outside – we become the experts.

Farewell Party!

Our Department hosted a farewell party for us after we finished our exams and our internal fieldwork interviews. It was a lovely hour of fun and games. They even made a slideshow for us and sang us this beautiful song, which made me cry! Also, our parting gifts were Departmental Mugs with our faces on them!!

Cha-Cha Slidin' Through Life

 

Any Opportunity to do the Cha-Cha Slide and we’ll take it! We finished our Unconference with the Cha-Cha slide, it really was a fun/informal day! Then our BCA farewell party ended with us all doing the Cha-Cha slide one last time!

I have two finals and a paper to write and then I am done with this semester by November 3rd. I'll be home in 16 days!

<3,
K