Travel Diary of a Pakistani Student at US

“The Memoirs of a Pakistani in the Windy City”

I am a student at Tompkins Cortland Community College, also known as TC3. I live with a bunch of international students that came to the U.S. We are on the same program of scholarship offered to different countries by the government of the US. My friends and I wanted to explore America during our winter vacations. When my friends Didi, Syeda, Tulin, Sisca, and I were talking to people about our mission to go to Chicago, the responses surprised us. We were curious as to why people's reactions were odd. We were planning to go in the beginning of January, which is supposed to be the coldest time in Chicago. Syeda and I are from the warmer part of Pakistan and, the cold in Ithaca is already extreme weather for us. Sisca also comes from the warm climate of Jakarta, Indonesia. Tulin, from a colder part of Turkey, was somewhat immune to the cold weather, but our dear friend Didi from South Africa absolutely hates winter.

So you guys must be thinking: “why in the world did we even plan to go to the windy city?” This was not our original plan. Since we came to the US, all we heard was that Florida is amazing. It has Disney World, beautiful beaches, and exotic resorts, and we couldn't wait to go to Florida. However, when the time came for us to leave for Florida, we were told not to go by our professor, Tim McCabe. He advised us not to go to Florida on our own. We had only one driver, the tough mountaineer from Pakistan, Ali. He was determined that he could drive for more than 24 hours to Florida. So we would have been relying only on his driving skills. Also, with an amount of $ 300 in each of our pockets; we would have never been able to make it. Yeah that's the important part, the money; we all had approximately $ 300 each.

The creative mind always finds a solution. So the mastermind Didi and I thought of the wonderful idea of contacting Beth Van Dine. She is a part of the faculty at TC3, but works from Chicago. She was the only one we thought would be able to accommodate these five girls from absolutely different backgrounds. So we emailed Beth asking for her hospitality. We were not very optimistic that we would get any response from her. I remember we were jumping with excitement when she emailed and told us that we could visit her. It was amazing; we got an opportunity to travel somewhere away from the village of Dryden. We had no idea what the city of Chicago was like. We only knew about the Chicago Bulls and that's it.

We reached Chicago on the 5th of January. Beth was there to pick us up at the airport, one of the largest and most beautiful in the U.S. Didi, Sisca, Syeda and Tulin hardly fit in the back of her car. Luckily, I had the privilege of sitting in the front seat the entire time, during our stay in Chicago. We reached Beth's house in about fifteen minutes. Her house was beautiful, and we felt embarrassed to enter with our snowy boats. Her lovely dog was on the entrance of the house to welcome us. Let me tell you we were bundled in as many clothes as we could. Beth was a little amused to see our “beautiful” attire.

We had no idea what the city was going to be like. The very next day we were on the train and were going to the Navy Pier and Millennium Park. The Navy Pier was colder because it was on the edge of the lake. Millennium Park was this huge place with a big metallic kidney bean. Millennium Park is the same place where Barack Obama delivered his victory speech. We also got a chance to go up to the Sears Tower for a city view. The architecture in the city is eye catching. It is unique and different. The city has buildings in many different styles of architecture. Many students of architecture come here from all over the world to study and observe the architecture styles.

Food was something exciting in Chicago, and Beth took us to different cafes and restaurants. We had some of the best tasting sandwiches, soups, and salads. She also treated us at one of the most popular Arabic restaurants, which served us enormous portions of delicious food. During our stay, we ate authentic Chinese food in China Town. The last night at Beth's house is a beautiful memory in our minds. Her Armenian friend made chicken barbeque for us. We talked and ate barbequed salmon, chicken, and delicious Russian cake.

Everything was fun in the windy city. However, the best part was the gigantic, beautiful, and elaborate museums. One of these was the planetarium. Sitting in it felt like sitting under peaceful moonlight. The planetarium staff informed us about the planets, stars, and constellations. The Art Museum was fortunately free for visitors on one of the days. It had a huge collection of antiques from China, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Indonesia and Greece. The Art Museum had a huge collection of paintings and also miniature art. The collections at the Art Museum and the Science and Industry Museum in Chicago attract tourists from different parts of the world. Theses museums serve a great purpose for students and researchers.

It was a great time for us women, from different parts of the world, along with our American host Beth Van Dine. We experienced being in one of the greatest cities of the world. Our trip would have not been possible if we had not been invited by Beth. Her house was cozy and warm in the cruel winter of Chicago. We got a chance to see the city in a real sense, not like a tourist. The memories of the city of Chicago, the music playing in Millennium Park, the people ice skating under the park, the metallic kidney bean, and the barking of Beth's dog causes me to smile.

Beenish Javed

Pakistan


Source: http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20090223/LOCAL05/902230334