Cardon

Mechanical Engineering

Army

Villanova University

Hi! I have quickly learned thatchai is the staple of Indianculture, and I have learned tolove it. In class today, wecombined language andcultural learning by not onlylearning how to make chai butalso how to explain how tomake chai or any dish in Hindi!In Hindi, I then told myteacher how to make one of myfavorite dishes - brownies!

Memorable Moments Cultural Differences

New Perspective

A typical evening was like... A typical eveningincluded completing homework while my hostfamily was working. My mom would usuallymake us a large snack, then we would eat ataround 9-9:30 with my host brothers. After, wewould watch sports, and intertwined with all ofthis were conversations about travel, hobbies, andlife in general. 

What I learned from my homestay family... Ilearned so much about the culture of India that youcan't get anywhere else, from food and traditionalmeals to how to bargain and which places to go.

Funniest: I was having a conversation aboutweekend plans with my teacher, and she askedme if I was going hiking. I thought she saidtrekking, so I had a really confusing conversationwith her, because we were talking about twodifferent things!Most challenging: Living with a host family.There were lots of simple adjustments that werehard to make and language barriers. Favorite: I loved traveling around Jaipur andbeing able to explore another city outside ofDelhi. It was beautiful, and there was an elephantsanctuary where we could play with theelephants!

Advice to students considering this program: Be open to new experiences and explore! It may seemdaunting, but break things down and talk about them. It is a great and invaluable experience!How this experience will help me in my future career: I would love to work in foreign affairs orMilitary Intelligence and be able to use the language and cultural experience I learned in order tocommunicate and understand such a vital country.

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