Through all my travels I've had certain time where I thought to myself "How did I end up here? How I am learning Irish dancing in Ukraine or bathing in an Japanese onsen with my boyfriend's (at the time) mother and sister with nothing covering me but a tea towel, and no mutually understandable language between us?" Well the past few weeks have given me further proof of the uniqueness and commonality of our incredible shrinking globe.
I guess you could say it all started on St. Patrick's Day, when I was hijacked by one of the students from my school while I was shopping in the new 24-hour convenience store (actually open the literal 24 hours a day - a miracle here). The store is run by some Saudi Arabians living here and the student is a Chinese girl who has been studying here for a long while. Anyways, I went to this party where I was greeted by another ESL teacher from the school. As the crowd filled up I noticed it was an interesting mix of Iranians, Chinese and Irish folk. I chatted with my student, met another girl from Scotland and then conversed with an Iranian woman and pondered the multitude of tiny moments in one’s life that led each one of us to this point. How did we all come to be hundreds or thousands of miles from home at a St. Patrick’s Day party in the middle of Derry? I know of course my own path but I was intrigued to hear about theirs. However, conversations were cut short as the hostess tried to teach us some traditional Irish dancing much to her dismay (we were not quick studies) and everyone else’s enjoyment. After that the party disintegrated in to laughter and traditional Iranian dancing (which most of the guests had a better grasp on) and I headed back to my house, smiling to myself at the most unique Paddy’s Day experience I’ve had yet.
Then… last Thursday kicked off another round of crazy multi-cultural experiences when I met some former Spanish students of mine for a goodbye drink before they returned to Spain. A drink or two later they had to go to a dinner with the other students from their program. Graciously they asked if I would join them and touched by this (and already enjoying myself tremendously), I did. We went to the Chinese buffet in town, where of course I met with a few more students from my school. All in all me and about 15 Spanish students sat down to dinner. The conversation was lively and though I didn’t have a clue as to what was said most of the time I was having a great time. It felt so good to me to be a minority again, very reminiscent of my “Japanese groupie” days at DU. Strange, you say? Possibly. But nonetheless true. Of course some of them did talk with me in English but that wasn’t so necessary for me, as often the actual language spoken simply covers the mood and deeper sense of communication. Again, I left this occasion feeling buffeted by the inter-cultural experience.
On Friday I mingled with a culture a bit closer to home (quite literally), when I attended an Irish ceili at the new Irish Cultural Centre in town, Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin. Now, I thought it would be like a traditional music jam session. It turned out much to my horror, it was traditional set dancing! (Think the original square dancing kind of thing…) Rarely before have I wished so fervently to have the ground open up before me and be swallowed whole by it. (Un)Fortunately (depending on the outlook) that didn't happen and in the end I danced the night away with a friend I'd luckily invited before I knew what it was. The following day brought more surprises in the form of two women who came into the little shop I work in part-time. In extremely broken English they proceeded to ask me for help to find a certain rare crystal. Taking a stab in the dark I started to speak Russian to them only to discover they came from Latvia. We then had a fairly long conversation, this time in broken Russian (on my part). It felt so good to speak Russian again despite the poverty of my vocabulary and complete disregard for grammatical structure. Flying high on a wave of renewed love of Russian, the afternoon in the shop passed quickly.
Since then I have had occasion to listen to a rock band/drum circle at the school with students from all over. Spain, China, Saudi Arabia, Germany, (and of course our Irish hosts) etc., we all gathered together to enjoy the spring night and the universal language – music. It’s true that music can breach the language divide, I reflected, as the whole group joined together to sing U2’s classic, “One”. If ever there is hope to be found for mutual understanding across continents and cultures it can be found within rhythms and melodies. Though we may look different on the outside there is an inner commonality that can never be removed, though it of course can be tarnished and abused. So next the time you find yourself amongst strangers remember that “a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet."
