COT INTERNATIONAL NEWS:

Centennial Scholars See the World

My JFDP Fellowship in NC State, the College of Textiles
By: Berdymurad Owezmuradov

Summer 2008 - It was all exactly as described in our cultural US guidebook.
The first Culture Shock during the first 2 weeks after I came to US: feeling amazed and at the same time terribly homesick, badly missing my family, home food etc. I felt as if I got to another world - everything was so different and unfamiliar. NC State is about 10 times bigger than  my home university in its size, student body and area. The College of Textiles itself is as big as my whole home university where I was an instructor of textile technology. No wonder initially I felt kind of lost in this place.

Above: Dr. William Oxenham (JFDP Academic Advisor), Dr. Christy Cagle (JFDP Coordinator), and JFDP Scholar Berdymurad Owezmuradov.

Then there was the “honeymoon” period – feeling excited by the wonderful experience of living in America: overwhelming opportunities to study and research that NC State gave to me, to explore the beautiful city of Raleigh and surrounding area including beautiful national parks.

American faculty and students are so nice. I would love to have such students – gentle during lessons and caring about education. I really liked the friendly American faculty and other university staff as well. Despite being busy they always found time to give me useful advises, consult and simply have nice chat.

I tried to keep myself as busy as possible, participating in lessons and other activities from morning till dusk, because I wanted to use each second of my presence in US. Also, I hated to come back to my condo room too early since I felt badly lonely on my own. I made and saw many things, I guess even many Americans didn’t do. I hiked several miles from Raleigh to Cary to see the fine forests and finally got lost in highway late night. I saw NY and DC twice.

After 2 initial weeks of digestion disorder in US, I got perfectly accomodated with local food. I learnt to do things that normally others did for me in my home: how to do laundery work, purchase food and travel  without own car.

I accepted some American habits, like being busy (in that respect I think I surpassed even most Americans). I was first quite surprised by the south US habit of smiling at and cheering strangers, but later liked and learnt it. Though most of my American friend discouraged it, I got addicted to American fast-food, partially in hope to become a little bit more fat, as my Mom desired (I didn’t succeed – I am still as skinny as I used to be).

There were so many things that saw and made for the first time in my life:  to open an account in a bank, use debit card instead of cash, to attend lessons wearing jeans (without a stict formal suite with a tie as in my country), to see real American basketball match live etc. There were also some not very good things to discover in US like poverty and homeless in some places.

After the spring break I experienced the second Culture Shock: sudennly feeling sad and depressed, skipping many lessons and activities. I got very sluggish and passive and I hated this condition because I still wanted to use my being in US for 100%. I recovered after a month. But I never was so enthusiastic and excited as before. Nothing amazed me very much in US any more. When I saw the beautiful sites of Washington DC I thought like: “Wow, White House… wow, the memorial… but actually there is nothing special about these buildings...” And those were the sites I dreamt of seeing all of my life!
What really excited me was the informal atmosphere of American classroom and different volunteering activities. And, yeah, this larger-than-life snow camping in the Virginia mountains.

I never felt so free in my life as I did here: I made all decisions by myself, nobody bothered me in my room, I never had  to spend so much time for my family and house work as I did in my home, I did whatever I wanted to do without ever negotiating it with my relatives.
Yet most difficult thing for me in US was missing my family. Not missing home food, my country landscapes. I even didn’t miss my friends and certainly not my job (I was fed up with it!). The only ones I missed were my parents and wife. It was here in US that I started truly appreciating my beloved ones.

Yes, I think if it hadn’t been for my family that I left in my home I would probably prefer to stay in this land of great opportunities. But soon it was time to leave the wonderful country and NC State - College of Textiles – the place that I truly loved and become a real fan of. I wouldn’t change the College even to Harvard, MIT or Columbia University (I saw all of them) and any other institution in US. Because in its field of textile education the College is the best not only in US but probably all over the world. I grew enormously professionally, as well as on the personal front.

Now that I am back home, I experienced so-called Reverse Culture Shock. I felt as if I came back to a foreign country. Once again I was sick and had to get used to the local condition and habits, lifestyle, weather, family relations and so on.

I started to recover just recently but I think I will forever miss the nice NC State, my coordinators in the College of Textiles, its students and faculty - I feel sincerely gratful for how they contributed to my experience. I will miss splendid American nature and even its fast-food and everything. Deep in my heart I hope to come back and see all of this again.And all this great thing is called cross-cultural experience. With it, I believe, I changed very positively as personality.
I look forward to see NC State soon.

***For more information on international collaborations with the COT, contact Dr. Christy Cagle, Director of International Programs. To see a full list of the COT's International Linkages, visit The Office of International Affairs Searchable Archive of International Linkages (SAIL) and search by College.

***To see previous featured COT International News, click here.