The Doyle Engaging Difference Program - Georgetown University

I arrived in the United States in August. It was sunny and warm. The green trees around me made me feel like I was home. This feeling of warmth and home engulfs me when I think of DC. All my DC memories have a yellow sunny filter to them. Now that I am back in Doha, I feel like some part of my heart is still in DC. This semester abroad gave me plenty of beautiful memories, and I grew immensely.

I remember when I first arrived, I was expecting a completely different landscape. I was expecting a city full of skyscrapers (watching Christopher Nolan’s Batman on the flight added to this expectation). Georgetown in DC was a surprise with all its greenery and modest townhouses. This dismantled one of my many presumptions about America. In fact my experience in America was characterized by a lot of this dismantling.

The media representation of Americans makes them all seem rude and unfriendly. I was super scared during my first week of university. I was expecting the worst—being bullied or being laughed at, but this was far from the reality of my time in DC. I remember being at Epicurean and I was visibly confused about the food choices. I wanted to know if one particular dish was vegetarian or not; this was when I first met Antonio. He worked as a chef in the cafe and not only did he explain the food options to me, he gave me the most motivational pep talk. I saw him once more and he met me with the same warmth and excitement. Even though he did not remember my name, he gave me great life advice. He told me I shouldn’t let anything affect my shine and I should persevere to be me. Whenever I think about Antonio, my face lights up with a big smile. He taught me a lot about being kind to strangers. Nevertheless, were some people rude? Yes, but are some people rude everywhere else in the world? Yes.

I also realized the importance of independence. The culture around me pushed me to do things on my own. I was never used to going out alone, I always asked my friends to go out with me. But seeing all my classmates and friends do stuff alone inspired me to explore the neighbourhood alone. I would go on walks alone. One of my favourite spots was the bench outside the Georgetown Medical School. I used to go there to do my readings in the sun. Initially, I was a bit hesitant to go out alone because I had heard it was unsafe and comparing anywhere to Doha would feel unsafe. Over the course of the semester, I went on many of these solo walks. I explored the limits of my will and relished the feeling of solitude during these walks. Once I went on a spontaneous walk while it was raining to grab some food at Muncheez. These spontaneous walks always ended up becoming core memories.

I also loved exploring the museum scene in DC. As a history major, there's nothing more exciting to me than a new museum exhibition, and DC had plenty of those. The photo exhibition at the Library of Congress was one of the most eye opening experiences. It was about what America meant to different photographers, and it illustrated how America and Americans are not defined by any one definition. This was further made clear throughout my time in America.

Christmas time in the U.S. was one experience I anticipated the most. All the shops and the streets were adorned with Christmas lighting and the weather was perfect for Christmas sweaters. I observed a sense of community and family during this time. It was early in the morning and I was walking across campus. A random morning walker smiles at me and wishes me happy holidays. These tiny gestures meant a lot to me. This was my first time being in a place where Christmas is celebrated with such pomp and show. The experience also made me a fan of Christmas songs (in mid-January I was still listening to "Last Christmas.") When I visited the White House for a tour, it was bedecked with the most extravagant Christmas decorations; there were trees decked with ornaments at every corner. The decor and extravagance made it feel exactly like a movie.

Another core memory from my experience was what I like to call "the Christmas incident." It was just a few days before Christmas and I had a box of holiday cookies with me. While I was waiting for my train along with other people, a technical glitch delayed all trains going north. My train was among these unfortunate ones. After waiting for a few hours, I was hungry so I took the cookie box out. I also realized that the people next to me must have been hungry, so I offered them the cookies. One of the passengers was an old man who was traveling to meet his son's family for Christmas. We struck up a conversation and he told me all about his five-year-old granddaughter. The station was stirring up again as the delayed trains were arriving at the station. Before we could leave the old man, whose name I still didn't know, gave me 10 dollars as a Christmas gift. He said God blesses the kind and giving is a part of loving God. His Christmas gift would be the best gift I ever received. This showed me how he didn't care about the fact that I was Muslim. To him, I was just another human being with whom he wanted to celebrate the joy of Christmas.

If I had to describe my study abroad experience in one word it would be insightful. I gained insights about my own self, insights about American society and insights about humanness despite our differences.