Celebrating Cultures

I'm sitting here, waiting for dinner (pictured above) to cool off so I can eat my top ramen, and what better time to blog...

You may be wondering why I would be eating top ramen when I've been blessed with a cafeteria that (at one time) was ranked 3rd in the nation for the university having the best cafeteria.
Answer: On Sunday nights dinner is only served for one hour (and though this may seem short, this is the first year they've even offered dinner on Sunday nights...so I'm not complaining), and during that hour I was visiting a local Indonesian Presbyterian church. So I missed dinner, but I had a great experience learning about another culture.

I was at the church because I am in a class called Multiethnic Ministries, and we have to do a big research project where we study a culture different from our own and analyze how we could effectively minister in that culture. I picked the Indonesian culture because my dear roommate spent the first nine years of her life in Indonesia, and she regularly attends the church where I visited today (gotta love having connections). After the service, I interviewed a couple church members about life in Indonesia and their cultural heritage. What a wonderful thing to study! It struck me (again) today how much there is to learn about other people. Culture is so integral to who we are. If we all took the time to learn a little about the heritage of the people we are around, it would be much easier to live in harmony because we would better understand WHY someone acts the way they do. Plus, there's some pretty cool traditions out there. You never know what you might find out! (For example, I think I am going to try and convince my parents to start celebrating the Chinese New Year so that they can give me little red envelopes full of money...hopefully enough to pay my college tuition. ;) Dad, I know you're reading this, I'm just kidding.)

In between doing homework this weekend, I got to experience a little taste (literally) of some other Asian cultures. Friday night I went out for Thai food and for pho (pronounced "fuh" - but be careful when you say it...it could sound like something else!). I just love ethnic food. (This surprises my parents...when I told my dad about my Friday night, he said, "Since when do you like Asian food?" and I replied, "Since when do I not?" Dad: "Since your entire childhood. You wouldn't even eat rice!" Sadly, that was true. Luckily, I've grown out of it. It helps to have a roommate from Asia/friends who love Asian food.)

Ok, I could ramble on and on about cultures and why they are incredible (I guess it's good that my degree is in the social sciences), but that top ramen is cooled off and ready to eat, and instead of blogging about cultures, I should be writing papers about them!