Off The Wall

Ballywood… my first real experience with it. The colours, the singing and I’m not sure if this is a common theme but at least with this movie, the extreme cheesiness! This was a uni event in which they’d set up one of the lecture theatres into a proper little cinema, what’s not allowed at a uni event? Kissing on screen apparently, they blacked out every scene where the main characters kissed! I couldn’t believe it, the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to that is the bleeping of certain words on American television. Seriously though, blocking out kissing scenes when the average age of the crowd is 20ish?

This country does certainly confuse me. There are many things that are surprisingly liberal and I wouldn’t have imagined I’d see here and then there are other things I never thought about (the blacking out during a film). The western like nakedness on TV and the western like ‘sex on the dance floor (grinding) also on TV. Though alcohol and drugs are illegal in this country, almost everyone here has told me that they’re quite accessible. …I suppose most things are accessible with enough money.

Learnings of the day...


*Outside views are outside views and just that...

And so day three has arrived... Woosh woosh woosh, the best way to describe the sound of the ceiling fan. I wake up after a little less then seven hours of sleep, adequate for a mid-summers day. Today is going to be quite exciting. I have three meetings with three very different companies; a pharmaceutical company, a sweets company and a telecommunications company. The goal? To create a business relationship with AIESEC whether that be through the creation of internship programmes or fundraising for the up and coming national conference at the end of July.

I meet up with Sheharyar (call him Shery) and Anum and we drive off to the first meeting. The nice cool office building is a very comfortable break from the sticky heat that is everywhere outside. We meet the senior manager of human resources and pitch AIESEC. So much fun! I love going to these meetings. I think the three of us did really well and hopefully this will go somewhere. On a cultural point when we greeted the man both Shery and I shook his hands and said hello though he (in my perception) barely acknowledged Anum. When we discussed this later in the car we came to realise how differently we saw the situation. I had realised it was a cultural difference but was also a little shocked… had he completely ignored Anum in a more western country he would have been assumed a complete sexest, unacceptable. Shery and Anum had seen the situation as being polite. He didn't quite make eye contact with her and was in fact showing her respect as a woman. Wow how cultures will never cease to amaze me.

 

I observed something very similar in the following two meetings, once we actually started the meetings Anum was very much involved and spoke a lot, it was just the initial greeting in which she wasn't so much heard as 'respected'. A strong reminder of how easy it is to misunderstand each other and how we must constantly remember that different cultures teach very different types of socialisation.

 

At the sweets company we were given a type of ice cream and several sweets. I'll admit they weren't exactly my choice for sweets but I ate them anyway (afterwards I was happy to get some food and something to drink to wash the taste out of my mouth). I don't think Anum and Shery could understand why I ate them if I didn't like them but in my mind it seemed rude not to.

 

The darkness seemed to spring over the sky tonight but it came with something special, a very impressive storm. The heat finally at a comfortable level it was quite nice to sit outside and observe this storm, there were no rain drops just lots and lots of lightning. I've never seen the sky light up so much from lightning, there was most definitely 30-40 flashes per minute and sometimes much more then that. Definitely the most impressed I've ever been with the visual effects natures weather department!

 

Learnings of the day:

 

Day 2… My first full day. I ended up sleeping until noon today which is not something I'm so used to, felt like I'd wasted so much time but to my discovery pretty much everyone else had just woken up or was still sleeping! I took a nice cold shower which in this heat feels so wonderful!

 

We went for a proper Pakistani lunch somewhere in town followed by getting a SIM card for my phone. Apparently it only costs about 1-2p (GPB)/minute to call the US and UK land line phones and a bit more to Denmark, I'll see if I can take advantage of that, it did cause some frustration trying to figure out how to make that work (and about £4 worth of calling time making the mistake of not calling the cheap way).

 

On the way back from town we were struck by a monsoon! With in minutes the streets went from dry to mini rivers. We took a rickshaw that was covered but still managed to get pretty wet from the water splashing up from the ground.

 

A while after getting back to campus I went with a new friend to his politics course. Todays discussion was on what a democracy is. I had a hard time keeping my mouth shut but it was really interesting to hear. It was blatantly obvious that a lot of people hadn't done their reading/prep for the class but it was interesting all the same. They did manage to get it pretty spot on though its amazing how much irrelevant information was covered as well. It seems a lot of the students were a bit afraid of the prof as well (I think she comes off as very intimidating for them). What an experience though, I certainly hope to be going along to a couple more classes.

 

This evening has been a lot of chillaxing getting to know some of the people here at the university. It's hot hot hot still but outside it's almost comfortable, all that's really needed is a bit of a breeze.

 

Learnings of the day:

The stewardess wakes me with a bit of a shake and some surprisingly pleasant airplane coffee. As the blur disappears from my eyes I once again notice the pleasant surroundings of the sand coloured, desert-esque designed airplane cabin. I take the plugs out of my hears then open the window shield to discover a bright sun over a beautiful layer of clouds. As we reach the end of our flight it clears up and I look down upon the beautiful ocean and then the beautiful ocean and then the amazing white/yellow desert, noticing the trees and what must be man made shapes of some forest. I can see what must be Abu Dhabi City in the distance with many interesting manmade shapes (buildings, islands…) We make a smoothe landing. As I get off the plane a very big smile appears on my face, not only is the sun shining (something I really haven't seen all that much over the past months) but it is warm…real warm, something I'm sure I'll come to dislike over the next couple of months. Abu Dhabi has a very appealingly designed airport, almost like giant sand igloos. I get onto the shuttle to take us to the terminal, looking around it is clear that I'm not the only one fully enjoying the heat. The bus jolts to a start causing everyone to hold on extra tight. Upon entry into the airport which is almost as nice on the inside as it is on the outside all I can think is 'absolutely amazing!' it is a very international setting as to be expected for a place like this.

Waiting in line to get onto the shuttle to the next flight, I notice how many people are wearing a bright and beautiful array of colours; green, blue, pink, yellow… I could simply go on and on. I then get pushed into the 1st class line, an automatic assumption that I'm flying first (I wish!), already skin colour based assumptions? I wasn't expecting this so quickly.

Arrival in Lahore, Pakistan was certainly a hot one. I was met by Hummayun, the president of the local AIESEC chapter. I didn't know what to expect upon arrival but a simple informal greeting it was J. I think I'm going to see how he feels about being called Hum as I'm having a really difficult time remembering Hummayun (as if I'm not already horrible enough with names).

We then drive back to the Lahore campus (LUMS) where I settle in to Hum's dorm room, get a wonderful lunch and a shower. We spend the afternoon meeting other members of AIESEC here, talking about countries, cultures (me trying to explain my Denmark/California/Scotland situation) and so on. I wish I could remember the names of all the fascinating people I met today but there's simply no chance.

The evening consisted of a restaurant serving very western/mixed food with everything from fish and chips to burgers and Thai. There was even a Cocktail menu though it should be called a Mocktail menu as the vital ingredients to a Cocktail (alcohol) are illegal. While waiting for dinner and after dinner we enjoyed lots of chat around several sheeshas (no clue how to spell that). I've tried sheesha before back home in Edinburgh but wow not ever this strong, after just one taste I was feeling extremely light headed (for moms and dads, this is not a drug, not illegal and no I'm certainly not addicted). We then headed back to the dorms and said our goodbyes as I headed strait back to bed (where I am now), extremely tired. Time for sleep!!!

 

Learnings of the day:

That's it for today. xx