Dead Week

Its almost dead week! I am very excited, but at the same time I am very worried. I have to cram real hard for math and physics, but I'm scared I will totally not do any work because of the chance of having a great time without worrying about classes. Thank goodness I only have two exams, it would really suck if I had exams in every single class. One thing I don't understand is that apparently in my physics lectures next week we are still learning something on the first lecture that will be on the final and also have a long and boring lab. I just don't get it sometimes, it just seems that the physics department has no idea what they're doing. Anyways, I'm just going to pray that I will study hard for math and physics next week so I can hopefully get some decent scores on my finals.

Cross-cultural situations

Since I came to the U.S. I noticed several cross-cultural differences between the U.S. and my home country, Kazakhstan.

1) Most people here tend to smile when I look at them. At first, it seemed strange, then started to like it.

2) Students in American universities study hard, not like in my country. Here I see crowd of student in libraries, even at the weekends. In Kazakhstan, students “enjoy their lives”. They start to study just at the end of semester, when finals are approaching.

3)People in Kazakhstan usually eat hot meals. Here, as I noticed, people prefer fast food. In restaurants they order pizzas and hamburgers. Also, Kazakhs almost always have meat in their meals.

4)The next difference I noticed is about grass. In Kazakhstan usually there is prohibited to step on grass in public spaces. You may be fined or caught by police. Here I see students lying, sitting and playing on grass.

5) I was surprised when I first saw group of four-five people running in the street. In my country you won’t encounter this.

6) Bikes, skateboards… Here you may hit by biker in a campus. In Kazakhstan very few people ride bikes in the street, so they look unusual.

The black friday!

Huh! So I am finally here to post a blog after a long thanksgiving break. :D   Although I still do not feel like blogging and am still a sleepy head, but I have to share some interesting experiences all this weekend. I didn't go anywhere during the break. All I did was shopping, eating and sleeping. Obviously this week was full of discounts on all the stuff I always wanted buy, so how could I even miss this. I experienced shopping on a Black Friday for the first time. Reaching the mall at 9 pm on the Thanksgiving and then standing in long queues waiting for the stores to open. Trust me, I never thought that people will be so crazy to get into a particular showroom. The rushing of people in store as soon as it opened was so amusing lol. I stayed calm all the time. I am glad I got a lot many deals. The best part is that I finally have the snow boots :D
I returned back to may dorm at 9 in the morning. It was so much fun. Shopping for 12 hours. wow!
Hope you guys also had a great thanksgiving with your families. :)

A cross cultural situation observed!

At the university one can find a student from every part of the globe. And because of such multifarious people cross cultural differences are expected for sure. Since I have been here, I have observed several differences. The one I'll mention here is about the personal space. I have talked to many American and many Arabian friends here. Something I observed was that Americans prefer standing at least five feet a part while conversing, whereas Arabians prefer being closer. I didn't notice this on my very first meeting with them. It took me time.
I have seen several such differences in terms of religion and body language too. If one isn't aware about them, they surely lead to misunderstandings and to avoid them one should be aware of the trend of every culture.

Shoes Off

I have some friends in my residence hall who are full Asian. In Japan and in most Asian countries, you must take your shoes off when you enter anyone's house. My friends just finished cleaning their room and moved their beds around and a few guys from down the hall wanted to come in. They walked in with their shoes on. I looked at my friends and they didn't show much on their face, but I knew that it was different to them, so I politely asked the guys that they should take their shoes off. There were no tensions and they took off their shoes and continued their conversation. Its funny, because I assumed that people knew here because I have American friends from Japan who always take their shoes off when they enter someone's house. I'm completely fine if people make the mistake once or twice, but they just need to learn.

Classes, Part 1. Calc 2 and Physics.

At the beginning of this semester these two classes were the easiest classes. I even tested out Calc 1 after the first week, then I started to Calc2 which also seemed not difficult. I was thinking to get “A” in these courses. Even both these classes were time consuming because of homework (less time than engr131 though), I handled them with ease. I got almost 100% in the first midterm exams. But it was just the beginning… Topics started to get more difficult. Second exams were worse, third ones … I don’t know their results yet.

In physics I am trying not to lose points in homework, recitations, labs, lecture iclickers, because each point counts. I felt disappointed once I was late to a lecture and missed one iclicker question. Then I was more upset when I and my teammate cannot get all the checkpoints in a recitation. In Calc 2 things are even worse. I completely failed my last midterm (expecting about 50). But I still have two finals, in which I will do my best. Will try.

Problems in Africa

I still imagine Africa as savannahs and jungles with abundant wild animal population. But when it comes to engineering in Africa, I have no idea what it is like in this continent. It seems Africa has natural resources, but nobody utilize them. The main reason of this is poverty. According to UN, 34 of 50 poorest nations in the world are located in Africa. In my opinion, being so poor, governments of these countries do not think about utilizing their natural resources.

Even if the African countries receive investments from the West, this money is not spent properly by governments. Due to wars in countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, governments buy weapons. Another reason might be dictators who do not care about country’s welfare.

Some engineering solution that work in the West, does not apply in Africa. The reason might be unique climate and landscape of Africa. These two have negative effect on constructions.