DePauw University - Mirage Yearbook (Greencastle, IN)

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STudy Abrood llOne day you love Japan and The nexT day you con'T wolf To geT home; back To The real life of o 'normol' American. even ThirTy! Oh no! I'll be loTe for my Troin! Have To hurry! Grob my obenTo box Ooponese sTyle lunch boxy and I'm ouT The door. ITTe kimasu! Luckily The Train sToTion is near, so l'm on my way To work in no Time. Change from Train To subwoy in ShinjukueThis is The worsT porT! The subs are so incredibly crowded The whiTe-gloved pushers have To hold people in while The doors close. Ten unbeoroble minuTes loTer we arrive oT my sToTion, passengers spilling ouT in relief as The doors open. Flosh my commuTer pass oT The TickeT goTe and begin The Trek Through Akosoko To my office building. TTOhoyo gozoimosu! Punch in oT 9:00 om. on The doTewhewl How in The world did a naive young Thing from 0 small Town in The MidwesT end up living and working in The world's second lorgesT ciTy? lT's o quesTion l'm sTill Trying To answer! AfTer o semesTer of sTudy oT Nonzon UniversiTy in Nagoya, Jopon, I moved To Tokyo To begin my MonogemenT Fellows inTernship wiTh ViTel Japan, The Tokyo branch of on inTernoTionol TelecommunicoTions neTwork. My Tokyo odvenTure began when I moved inTo The oporTmenT of Yukie Oso, exchange sTudenT oT DPU 4984- 85, and her sisTer, Mikiko. Sligthy lorger Than 0 RecTor single, our oporTmenT is convenienle locoTed only fifTeen minuTes by Train from Shinjuku, perhaps one of The busiesT shopping, business, and municipal governmenT cenTers in Town, noT To menTion o fovoriTe nighTTime spoT! When Trying To describe life in Tokyo, many words come To mind: on one hand iT is fun and exciTing, yeT on The oTher, H is difficulT ond frusTroTing. One day you love Japan and The nexT day you coniT woiT To geT home, book To The real life of 0 normal American. BuT Tokyo is like ThoT, full of opposiTes ThoT somehow manage To exisT side-by-side. For example, iT is noT uncommon To see a woman wrapped in o beouTiful kimono wolking doinTily down The sTreeT, ond righT behind her follows 0 punk sTruTTing along in his block leoTher jockeT 0nd skin-TighT jeons wiTh dork glosses hiding his eyes under 0 wild mone of block hoir bleached sTrowberry blond. And here in Tokyo, The Golden Arches and The Colonel are as well-known as The neighborhood sushi bor-ond jusT os crowded! Also, iT is hard To believe ThoT BuddhisT Temples ond ShinTo shrines sTill inhobiT hollowed ground omong The shadows of The oiTy's skyscrapers, buT There They are offering 0 relief from oil of The sTeel ond concreTe. Life in This chooTic CiTy hos iTs ups and downs, buT good memories will by for ouTnumber bod ones. Good ones like hanami in Ueno Pork where we oTe sushi under The beouTiful cherry blossoms and onched Thousands of Japanese drink Themselves inTo all kinds of craziness; oTTending c: TrodiTionol Joponese ShinTo wedding msuolly foreigners ore noT ollowedy where The bride poinTed her face whiTe and wore o gorgeous red kimono ond eloboroTe heod dress; going ouT wiTh friends from Wosedo UniversiTy To one of The many nomiya in Shinjuku; and The Time when l Traveled To Hiroshima and climbed To The Top of MT. SeTo on Miyojimo for o beouTiful view of The Inland Sea and HS sprinkling of islands. UnpleosonT memories will include The obsoluTe heorT-sTopping Terror of my firsT TTbig eorThquoke, The incredible rush-hour crowds; and The many frusTroTions of being 0 gaiiin, on ouTsider who is respecTed for being a WesTerner, yeT CT The some Time, scorned for being non-Joponese. WhoT? lT's olreody six o'clock?! Time To head home. As I bockTrock The sTeps of This morning, I walk by The American Embassy, counTless coffeeshops and Chinese resTouronTs, bars, and mm sTonds, ond There is The flower shop ThoT hos such exoTic hana. The subwoy is jusT os crowded as iT was This morning, buT mosT of The solorymen don'T mind because They have already sopped off for o few drinks. Walking Through Shinjuku, There are men hawking Snoopy T- shirTs, peonuTs, Japanese sweeTs, ond insTonT Joponese noodle dinners. i buy 0 paper To read on The way home. News of ioTe: rodioocTiviTy from The nuclear power plonT occidenT in Russia has reached Japan, on ulTro- lefTisT group Tired rockeT-bombs ond plonTed smoke bombs in various subway Troins To demonsTroTe ogoinsT The Tokyo Economic SummiT, Prince Charles and Princess Diana are due To arrive This evening for a Tour of Japan, and The Dragons beoT The Corp. WhoT a day! Check The mailbox for news from homee DePouw seems so far away and so long ogoleThen up five flighTs of sToirs and I'm home. Todoimol -Robin RoberTs

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would wager ThaT my experience as an exchange sTudenT in WesT Africa was radically differenT from any oTher. IT wasn'T jusT a casual sTep off- campus, buT a conscious decision To spend a semesTer in rural Liberia, immersed in The life of African sTudenTs and focuITy 0T 0 small, ' privaTe college of 900. To be honesT, iT Took some guTs. Beforehand, iT was hard To imagine whaT iT would be like To be one of Two whiTe American exchange sTudenTs in a counTry so proud of iTs heriTage, where only persons of African heriTage may become ciTizens. Somehow ThaT boThered meeThe me who had never had The experience of being a racial minoriTy in all of my 20 years. i sTruggled wiTh quesTions of my own racial prejudices and a fear ThaT I would noT be accepTed as a person because my color sTood for someThing greaTer. Now Those fears and quesTions are gone for The mosT parT. AfTer seTTling inTo Liberian life, reflecTing, and reading, I Think I know myself preTTy well. I have begun To undersTand abouT pride, and abouT being oppressed, ignored, and TreaTed like a sub-human-and whaT all ThaT means To me. In Liberia, I Took all of my classes in African IiTeraTure, hisTory, arT, and poliTics. and l was opened up To a differenT view of hisTory and The world, a view I had previously been denied. I experienced The richness of African culTure and read abouT and saw wiTh my own eyes how The indusTrialized world had become so rich-by exploiTing Liberia, Africa, The . resT of The Third World. Living in Liberia was a wonderful growing experience for-me. I came back To DePauw wiTh energy and wiTh angereanger aT The facT ThaT very few people here had any idea or even cared abouT whaT was going on in The resT of The world; angry ThaT This whole Euro-American cenTered aTTiTude was parT of DePauw as a whiTe, monoliThic, insTiTuTion, supporTed by iTs dominaTing social sysTem; angry ThaT Those Two IiTeraTure courses I had Taken my sophomore year ignored and Thereby dismissed all auThors who weren'T whiTe Americans or Europeans; angry ThaT I realized how lucky I was To be an anThropology major. Those courses were The only place I could regularly find a place To deal wiTh The world ouTside of The U.S. I now undersTand Those who call The liberal s arTs educaTion The firsT of The area sTudies. I began To Think abouT whaT iT would be like To be a person of color aT DePauw-and grew angry again. When i was in Liberia i had no personal power and could have been Thrown ouT aT any Time. BUT l was sTill a whiTe U.S. ciTizen who represenTed a dominanT sysTem, and no one was denying my righT To read and sTudy importanl IiTeraTure and hisTory. ThaT college had given me The choice To read The speeches of Nelson Mandela, The novels of Chinua Achebe or The plays of William Shakespeare. All, as well as The works of on Alice Walker or 0 Gabriel Garcia Marquez, are imporTanT for me, for my Liberian roommaTe Gbour, and for every DePauw sTudenT To read. WhaT I leave To DePauw is a quesTioning of iTs values. Shall iT remain The monoliTh concerned only wiTh The dominanT powers ThaT be? Or shall iT include The hisTory, issues and views of all? WhaT my African experience gave To me was an appreciaTion of The value of diversiTy and a knowledge of The world in my educaTion and The resT of my life. eAngie Beauchamp