Ruth With InterVarsity Link: Orientating-Disorienting

Laura Thiel, director for Link orientation

From June 18-June 30 I am at InterVarsity orientation in Madison, Wisconsin. So far, it has been a really great time of learning, reflecting, and growing. It is great to have this time of preparation as well as a chance to reflect on cultural differences, on expectations, and challenges we will face living overseas. One really cool thing has been learning about the different IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) movements in all the different countries that the new Link staff who are here are going to be joining. I am the only one going to Western Europe this year, but I have enjoyed hearing about some of the big differences people going to closed countries will have to adjust to.

Lunch at the church.

Watching The Air Up There on Saturday

Singing and picking songs for karaoke

Our karaoke group-Anna, Joel, Jessica, Rachael, Patricia, Me, Corina, Kevin, Tomy, and Ingrid

This week, we have been staying with host families and meeting at a local church each day. I am staying with another Link staff, Corina at our host family's house. A typical day consists of getting up to have breakfast in our host homes before driving to Point of Grace Community Church for morning sessions, lunch, afternoon free time, afternoon session, dinner, evening session, then back to our host homes to sleep. Our last night of meeting at the church was Saturday and we ended a little early so that we could all eat pizza and watch a movie together. After the movie, a bunch of us went to karaoke in downtown Madison. So much fun!

On the way to our cultural simulation

One night, to give us a chance to experience how confusing different cultural situations can be, some of the staff workers who served in Eastern Europe put on a simulation for us. We drove 45 minutes into the country outside of Madison and when we arrived the three staff workers greeted the men with kisses and spoke only in another language that none of us knew. They brought us inside (after we had all taken off our shoes, of course) and had us sit down. Men were on the couches and women were on the floor. Then began a hilarious game of gestures and noises as the three staff tried to get everyone to say there name and pick an animal to be. Then you had to repeat the people who came before you, all while trying to remember the word in this other language. While we were playing this game we were served weird looking and smelling appetizers and tried to learn how to say "thank you." Next, we were invited to sit at some tables in another room where we were served fish on beans and rice as well as some flatbread. The men and married women were seated at one table and the rest of us women had to sit at the table that wasn't as nice. The women were also served second and generally ignored throughout the meal. Once we had finished eating the game ended and the staff switched to English to begin discussing our experiences. Of course, everyone felt a little uncomfortable and confused and even frustrated that we couldn't really communicate. What was interesting to me is that I had figured out a lot of things just by observing. For instance, I noticed that out of the three staff, two were speaking the same language (Slovak) and the other was speaking another (Russian) and they all pretended they understood each other perfectly. From my time in the Czech Republic I noticed some similarities between Slovak and Czech. Also, they weren't trying to accurately represent any one culture but were really just doing a mash up of many different ones. It was just a really great experiment to learn more about how you react in different cultural situations and how you deal with the unfamiliar. Some of the Link staff are going to be in cultures very different from here in the US and even if, like me, you are going to a culturally similar location-there are still lots of differences and adjustments.

On Sunday, we get the day off and we went to church with our host family. After church, our hosts drove us around downtown Madison a little bit (We will be moving to a hotel this coming week and be in downtown.). We got to all over the university and also to get out and walk by the lake for a few minutes. It is a sunny and hot day in Madison!