Here are articles that I composed for thewesterncarolinajournalist.com.
All paddles on deck
Fifteen Western Carolina University students went white water rafting last Saturday, on the Nantahala
Gorge River, located in Bryson City, 45 minutes northwest of Cullowhee.
Base Camp Cullowhee (BBC), the outdoors program of Western Carolina University, promoted the trip.
Liz Allen, rafting coordinator and one of the three monitors that guided the excursion, revealed to the WesternCarolinaJournalist.com the river’s details. “[The Nantahala] is a river that has a mix of class two and class three rapids. The very last rapid is a class three – the Nantahala Falls – and there’s six or seven class two rapids on the river. A total of eight miles stretch on the Nantahala Gorge that we paddled.”
With a temperature surrounding a comfortable 80 degrees, the trip went smooth and clean as Kurt Bivins, another BBC guide, explains. “We had a great time. The weather was great. No injuries, no broken bones, no bloody fingers or anything. It was awesome.”
Cassie Brennan, a participant majoring in Parks and Recreation, added, “I thought it was really good to get out there and get people to do stuff like this because it might get them interested”, referring to water sports like kayaking and joy boating.
The journey cost around $20 and lasted about five hours. It was the last trip Base Camp undertook for the Spring semester of 2011.
@http://www.thewesterncarolinajournalist.com
Nature prevails
WCU students were withheld from flying due to strong winds this past weekend near Chattanooga, TN.
The trip had already been postponed for two weeks from it’s original date because of adverse weather conditions.
In spite of being kept back from the main tandem flights, the five participants had the chance to complete the training session on Sunday morning.
“We had all the suits on and everything and then the guy just said: Okay guys we’re calling it”, said Cassie Brenan, an exchange student from Ireland.
In spite of the set back, BCC has put forward a plan to compensate the participants, three of which are international students.
Base Camp still has a series of trips scheduled until the end of the month, which you can check out here.
@ http://www.thewesterncarolinajournalist.com/2011/04/12/nature-prevails/
Saudi Arabian students introduce themselves to WCU
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| Saudi Arabian students answering questions from the audience at the end of their presentation. Photo by Marcelo Maia |
Yolany Gonell, Associate Director of Intercultural Affairs, introduced the event saying she was very pleased for having so many people present – “for me this is the best job ever, I get to work with so many different cultures”, she says.
Joseh Alamri hosted the lectures beginning by saying “there’s a simple think that makes me very happy and feel welcome in this community, and it’s everybody’s smiles”.
Ali Alnakhli followed next, suggesting with modest but effective English skills “please think before you judge a country” – while explaining that Saudi Arabia was not made off just camels and sand.
After showing a picture of the monumental city of Medina he moved on to talk about rural life in the country.
Tariq Al-bosaily later took on the mic to talk about the frenetic urban life in the cities of Riyadh and Jedda. “As you know the weather in Saudi Arabia is very hot,” he said, illustrating the reasons why most people go to the mall in their free time. He says that Jedda has more than 50 malls and shopping has become a cultural habit.
He also enlightened the audience about the differences he found out between the American and Saudi Arabian music cultures. While Saudi music artists’ main focus is love, American artists seem to address much wider and broader subjects in their creations.
Taleb Al-sharmah’s presentation was about family, witch he said have an average of 5 to 7 children. “Its hard to get divorce in Saudi Arabia” says Al-sharmah, contextualizing that unity is a strong family value.
Muhned Al Jaizani humbly took his place at the podium beginning by saying “I’m nervous”. He talked about the kingdoms dynasty through a chronological point of view and distributed Saudi Ryials among the crowd.
His PowerPoint presentation also portrayed pictures of the architecture and infrastructures found in Mecca and Ryiad, which has the tallest building of Saudi Arabia called “AL-Mamlka Tower”.
Laughs pored out from the crowd while Hussain Sheikh humorously talked about the best of Saudi Arabia which ranged from tax free products to traditional food, “cheap” luxury hotels and rally contests.
After a couple of other students talked a little bit about their country, Mohammed Shutayfi eloquently concluded the presentation.
“We came to get a good education and skills and learn English. But the main reason we are here is to bring a message of love and peace” he says. “We must work together and learn from each other. Everybody is different so we have to learn from each other to make the world a better place. Forget the politics and the media. This is our challenge and responsibility, our duty to change the bad ideas. My friends and family they don’t know about Americans but now, they will know how nice and helpful they are.”
In the end he had time to mention their Intensive English Program teacher, Connie Hanna, who he thanked for her caring and support.
“She made me believe women have the power to handle everything – and so we have the responsibility when we go back home to teach about what we learned here”.
“Working together for humanity”
American and Saudi Arabian students are getting together at Western Carolina University, breaking stereotypes and creating the groundwork for an era of tolerance and progress between western and eastern cultures.
WCJ talked with some of these students to try to get an inside perspective about how this is taking place.
Tariq Al-bosaily age 22 is, like most of the Saudi Arabian students at Western Carolina University, enrolled in the university’s Intensive English Program, before starting his four year long major. Tariq himself will seek a degree as an electrical engineer next fall.
He is enjoying life at WCU pointing out a major difference from college life in Saudi Arabia to the States the fact that in his country women and men have their own separate educational institutions. In the future Al-bosaily wants to go back to his country so he can help his fellow countrymen with the education his government is providing for him.
Wael Almohammadi, another student enrolled in the English program, will become a freshman in Emergency and Medical Care (EMC) next academic year. At first he thought living in Cullowhee would be boring, especially for him being form a major city like Jeddda, “I think it’s hard to live here specially without car, but now since I have a lot of friends I can hang out and it has made me comfortable”, he says.
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Saudi Arabian, Chinese and American students at "ESSE QUAM VIDERI" exhibitionon March 22nd at FPAC. Photo by Marcelo Maia |
“to build a connection between people from different cultures”.
He says, “everything is getting better, people are getting more knowledge about good real Muslims and this is my purpose for coming here, to give a good idea about Muslims like me.”Alamri has already indulged in the American culture as well, exemplifying one episode when he wasn’t on time for a meeting. Mistake that was later corrected by his close American friends.
“The Americans don’t have a lot of knowledge about Islam”, says Taleb Al Sharmah. From his experience in America so far he believes that Americans are eager to know more about Islam but this is being overshadowed by bad and unbalanced media coverage.
He mentions that most media portray a small portion of Muslims as the whole Muslim world – witch represents roughly one fifth (1.6 billion) of the entire World population, according to the Pew Research Center. “This people don’t connect with Islam, or anything about Islam, they don’t know the Islamic culture”, says Al-Sharmah referring to the minority Islamic extremists.
Hussain Hassan Sheik, along with some other Saudi students, dressed the traditional Gulf Arab attire for a lecture about the Muslim community in North Carolina. The exhibition featured 20 self-portraits and was put together by artist Todd Drake on March 22nd at the Fine and Performing Arts Center.
Visibly pleased about the outcome of the event, Sheik says Todd was the “perfect man to talk about us”.
“I didn’t know the Muslim community was so large in North Carolina”,
says Linda Singleton, an Education major from Asheville. She joined the Ummah club and has made friends with the Saudi students.After Todd’s presentation she feels that fellow Americans are curious and interested to know more about the Muslim culture.
“I remember when they first came I was scared of them, but now they’re my best friends and I feel bad for even having being scared”. “They’re just different” – she explains – “all I knew about the Muslim communities was what I heard from the media, witch is never positive. Every news program, everything I heard was negative, so I didn’t have anything else to base it off of what I knew. It has changed completely now.”
Allie Dundorf, another American student says she joined Ummah because she has a lot of international friends, mainly Saudis, and because she thinks that “people need to know the real them and not just their stereotypes”.
Mohammed Shutayfi, has proactively embraced his knew lifestyle at WCU, having started a job at “Freshens” in the dining hall, joined Ummah and a series of other community-based activities.
“My life is getting better so much in this country. I love it”, he says.
“Honestly I never thought I would meet people like this in this area. They’re so friendly, nice and helpful…they’re amazing!”
Shutayfi reveals that he constantly feels a responsibility to help the Cullowhee community.
“Right now we’re starting to organize everything. We chose our friend Andy [Miller], who is majoring in Philosophy Religion and International Studies, to be president of Ummah.”
He speaks passionately about making a difference in his generation by enlightening people with “new ideas”. He hopes that during his stay he’ll help shorten the gap between the American and Muslim cultures.
His dream is “to start a huge organization around the world about peace and love.”
19th century composers revived
Shannon Thompson (clarinet), Andrew Adams (piano) and Travis Bennet (horn) got together in WCU’s Coulter Building’s Recitall Hall to bring back to life XIX and XX century classic music composers.
The concert featured a sonata for clarinet and piano from Francis Poulenc (1965); Claude Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” (1905) which you might recognize from the blockbuster “Ocean’s Eleven”; Donato Lovreglio’s Fantasia da Concerto and Carl Reinecke’s Op. 274 for piano, clarinet and horn (1905).
The performance was held on the first of February of 2011, as part of the “Catamount Concert Series”.
[video unavailable at the moment]
African rhythms stir students
Yesterday February 23rd, the Umdabu Dance Company performed at the Grand Room of WCU’s University Center. The event was sponsored by The Department of Intercultural Affairs and gathered an audience of more than thirty.
Veteran South African Dancer and artistic director Johannes “Jomo” Xulu started the performance with an introduction to the culture, nature and origin of The Umbadu Dance Company.
(Video from Youtube.com)
The dance featured the ancient Zulu language and the aggressive and choreographically coordinated “stepping”, which originated the modern African American Step-Dancing.
At one point of the exhibition the dancers changed from their traditional costumes to portray mine workers. The show then proceeded with a mixture of acting performances. “They did it when the master turned his back to them” said Johannes while explaining the reasons behind the scowling facial expressions – “they were a show of frustration because of forced labor.”
The five-member ensemble was able to reach the audience in the most interactive way, stimulating them to experience the Zulu language with its distinct click consonants and trying some of the dance movements themselves.
Near the end, Johannes “Jomo” Xulu ended his lecture reminding everyone about the Zulu’s respect for nature.
@ thewesterncarolinajournalist.com
Training for the WCU half marathon kicked off
Training sessions for the Valley of the Lilies Half Marathon are held on campus, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. and on Saturdays at 8 a.m.
The 13.1 miles race is organized by the School of Health Sciences and the Department of Campus Recreation & Wellness and scheduled for April 3 through a scenic route on campus and along the Tuckasegee River in Cullowhee, NC.
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| WCU students training for the Valley of the Lilies Half Marathon. Photo by Marcelo Maia |
The revenue of the race will be directed to help students with undergraduate research and professional engagement. Ashley Long, race organizing committee co-chair and assistant professor of WCU’s Athletic Training Program says it has one even higher purpose. “Another goal we had in designing this is developing something that can give people recreation and maybe achieve a fitness goal that they didn’t think it was possible before.“
Ashley says that the training group that has been committed to meet four days a week has developed a king of camaraderie that works as a support to carry forward a disciplined work out.
This group is composed of faculty, students and people that work in the local community.
There are different training levels from beginners to experts.
“We have different people at different levels. Some that have run half marathons and marathons before and people that have never done it, so we just let them find their own pace and we guide them building up to being able to run the 13.1 mile marathon,” says Ashley.
The athletic instructor also emphasizes the beauty of the landscape around the university campus and Jackson County that the participants will have the opportunity to enjoy.
Participant enrollment has already exceeded expectations since there are 56 enlistments out of the 50 initially expected. The organization now hopes to reach 100 by the end of March.
Olivia Belk, a student at WCU, says she’s been running for a month and thinks the training is going well.
”It’s good to start as a beginner here because they help me get on the right track.”
Her goal is to get to the finishing line without stopping and to see everybody else finish as well.
The race is open for everybody from the age of 13 and up. Registration is $40.
You can see the whole route online at www.mapmyrun.com.
@ thewesterncarolinajournalist.com
Feeling snow for the first time
“I’m crazy excited. I’ve never snowboarded before!” says Kyle Bailey, a 19-year-old WCU exchange student from Kingston, Jamaica. His facial expression reflects the anxiety of somebody who’s about to jump on to a snowboard and slide down a steep snowy mountain. Both of which he only saw on a television screen.
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| Daniel, Marina and Mark getting ready to hit the snow. Photo by Marcelo Maia. |
Marina Carla from Guadalupe, a French island in the Caribbean, and Daniel Eduardo from Chile are similar to him – they’ve never seen snow before and never tried to do anything on it. The slopes of Cataloochee ski area will make their first snow experience unforgettable.
Eduardo seems positive about the upcoming peril. “It’s going to be fun. I have some bad luck when it comes to injuries, but I have to this before I die.”
Unlike them Carla doesn’t seem as excited or thrilled. She sits quietly on the front sit next to the driver, watching as the bus rides through the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway.
Eduardo and Carla arrived in Cullowhee just three weeks ago while Kyle has been here since the start of the school year. They’re all exchange students at Western Carolina University.
The three “newbies” join a learning group, along with their fellow Base Camp Cullowhee colleagues. During the first few hours they all learn the basics, like the different stances and how to turn and stop. It’s not long before the first falls happened.
“I thought it would be easier but once you’re there it gets really difficult. I had a lot of problems turning right and left,” says Eduardo.
With a huge smile on her face, Carla says that skiing required of lot energy from her.
“One slides a lot in the snow!”
Being from the Caribbean, she was amazed by the Cataloochee Mountain.
“It’s something really beautiful all that white. But it’s also really, really cold.”
By nightfall, after almost five hours of sliding up and down the mountain, the three international friends end their journey and return back to their residences at WCU. They all promised to repeat the experience soon.
The excursion to Cataloochee was organized by Western Carolina University’s outdoor activities program Base Camp Cullowhee, on January 21st.
@thewesterncarolinajournalist.com
