My Year in the United States

By Ra’ouf Shitaw

I have no doubt that my year as a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) in the United States was unique, inspiring and full of new experiences and joy. I left Tripoli International Airport on Friday, September 8^th, 2006 heading to Eugene, Oregon. The roaring questions I had in my mind about this trip started to vanish by the time I arrived at the Eugene Airport after twenty six hours of four connecting flights. There, I met Susan Heilman, my host. She is an exceptionally kind lady who answered my questions and made sure everything was excellent for me. Though tired, I preferred not to sleep. I felt it from the first couple of hours that it was going to be a wonderful year.

During the first week, I went to the University of Oregon and visited the Yamada Language Center. This was the place that I would be working for my three terms in the United States. At the Yamada, I met Dr. Magoto, my supervisor, who was very helpful and supportive the entire time I was there. I also checked the schedule and the actual start information for the classes.  From the beginning, I was fascinated by nature in Oregon and in the University of Oregon, in particular, which is a beautiful campus with many trees and park-like areas, and a wonderful calming atmosphere. I was looking forward to studying here.

After making sure that everything finally fell in place and that the school would start the following week, Susan and I went to Seattle to celebrate a Birthday Party for her grandson, Liam, who was turning three. In Seattle, I met Kim, Susan’s daughter, Alex, Kim’s husband, and Liam. I also met Melissa, Susan’s second daughter. All the family members were so nice and kind with me, I immediately felt like part of the family and jumped right in helping with the party preparations. Watching a hyper group of three year olds enjoying the tumbling bus that arrived and all the festivities of the gathering was a cultural surprise to me since I had never had a birthday party in my life.  During this visit, I also got to view Seattle from the Space Needle and it was wonderful.

       For the first term, I assisted Chris Holman, who became one of my best friends in the United States, and I taught a self-study class of six students. Because I previously had the experience of teaching the Libyan dialect, teaching Arabic again was not very difficult. All I had to do was to decide what to teach, carefully prepare the lesson plan and get more acquainted with the computerized teaching system at the university. Everything went smoothly. I was enjoyed teaching Arabic and assisting Chris at the same time.  Students always turned to me for help, especially with pronunciation and the meaning of words. They also asked other questions concerning my culture and religion, so that I decided to prepare some talks about these issues like Ramadan, the month of fasting.

Along with teaching, I was required to register for one course per term. In the first term I took “Teaching American English Literature and Culture”.  Time passed very quickly during the first term, and things got pretty hectic with teaching, studying for the exams and fasting during Ramadan.  However, I enjoyed attending every lecture and class. I attended the first meeting of the Arabic club at the University of Oregon. I seized the chance and invited all my students to the next meeting, especially those of Arabic descent. Together, we enjoyed different Arabic dishes like falafel and humus, and desserts like baklava. There was also meeting to teach some Eastern dances and a meeting to watch a movie. It was fun to meet and to chat with all those friends.

The fall brought gorgeous new looks to Eugene as the trees started to change their colors and the weather took on a blustery warning of autumn approaching.  It also brought two new celebrations to my life in the form of Halloween and Thanksgiving.  For Halloween we rode in a horse-drawn wagon out to the pumpkin patch and found our perfect pumpkins.  Carving a pumpkin is not as easy as one might think and getting the inside cleaned out is an experience in itself.  But I prevailed and had a candle-lit, spooky Jack-o-Lantern ready to greet the Trick or Treaters.  Children love dressing up in costume for this holiday and the thrill of coming door to door in search of candy. Some friends and I went one night to the corn maze, and managed to make it to the exit. As usual, Susan made sure that we experienced all the typical Halloween games that children play on this holiday.  However, I will say that I never knew that a person could get so completely drenched while playing ‘bobbing for apples’! 

Thanksgiving was a frenzy of food preparation and family arriving as all of Susan’s daughters came home for the festivities.  The house was humming with laughter and I got the honor of carving the Thanksgiving turkey.  The food was well blessed as we each said a blessing in our native language.  Although the history is different, this holiday was similar in some ways to our Great Feast.  But the day after Thanksgiving, known to the retailers as ‘Black Friday’, was a real surprise to me as well.  At 4:15 a.m. we left the house and to my amazement, found ourselves standing in a line outside a store in the dark and drizzling rain with hundreds of other shoppers waiting for the store to open and allow us to gobble up some of the best bargains of the year. From store to store we went, gathering our treasures and never seeing any relief to the crowds of people hunting for that perfect gift.  It was amazing.   

       When the first term was over, I flew to Washington, D. C., to join the first meeting of the FLTAs.  Here I met most of the FLTAs I had met in our Cairo pre-departure orientation, including two of the Libyan representatives. We enjoyed four days of presentations and touring one of the most famous cities in the United States. I visited the Washington Monument, the Congress, and I saw the White House.

         On the last day of the workshop, everyone was excited about taking part in a talent show. During this event, all the represented cultures were mixed together and we enjoyed seeing and sharing different traditional clothes from all over the world, as well as various types of cultural music and dances. Because I was neither a good singer, nor a good dancer, I just brought samples of Libyan music and decided to put on Libyan traditional clothes, which amazed everyone. It was one of the most unforgettable days for me.

When I got back home to Eugene, it was Christmas time and all people, despite their age, sex, or color, were so happy. Susan and I went to Seattle again and enjoyed another week with the family there. Although I have never been married and I had not lost a wife, I can say that I, too, ‘was sleepless in Seattle ’.  I fell in love with this city and with all caring people around me. Seattle is a bustling but friendly city with so many things to see and do, especially at this time of the year.  We watched a convoy of hundreds of boats of all sizes, decorated and lit up, parade around the lake while Christmas music filled the air that night. I met Santa Clause, in person for the first time in my life, and he even put some chocolate in my stocking on Christmas morning. He was so generous to me, knowing that it was my first Christmas. Everything about the holiday season was great. I must have done something right that year because at least I didn’t get any coal in my stocking. That week we also went to the Seattle zoo, and to the ‘locks’ where we watched the boats rise and fall with the change of water levels as they passed through this small version of the Panama Canal.

In January, I went on what I consider my best trip in the United States. I was invited to go on a trip with Susan’s friend, Hope Smith, to her second home in Taos, New Mexico.  She, Susan, and I drove from Eugene, Oregon, down to Bakersfield, California, and then across the entire state of Arizona.  We visited Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then went up Taos.  It took three days of driving through snow storms and all types of weather, but it was an amazing trip.  We even made a side trip so that I could see one of the natural wonders of the world: the Grand Canyon. We stood on the edge of the rim and watched the sun wake up all the colors of the canyon that morning while a gentle snow was falling. I wanted to stay there forever.  It was truly breath-taking.  On the same trip I built my first snowman, stood on the tallest bridge in the nation, hiked on Indian land, and made a trip to Colorado to see an incredible view of the snow-covered Rocky Mountains.

I flew back to Eugene to start school again.  In the second term, I assisted with two classes.  In this term, I got to know my students more and enjoyed answering their questions and exchanging thoughts and ideas about our countries. Before each class, I would leave my office to sit with them in the corridor. I was so happy when they asked me questions and always happy to answer and share ideas. I also took my second course that term which was “Second Language Teaching Methods”.  Taking this course helped me a lot as a teacher as it showed me the difference between teaching a language to use it, and using a language to learn. Moreover, it presented insights to me into more effective ways of teaching.

Time flew by, and when we were just a week from final exams, the spirit of adventure invaded my mind again. We planned a one week trip to visit the Giant Redwood Forest, San Francisco, Alcatraz Island, Lake Tahoe, Reno, and Crater Lake. You may think that this would be impossible but we managed to do it all and more. You think I am greedy? Yes, I am when it comes to enjoying new adventures! I drove the car through the middle of a huge living redwood tree and I drove down famous Lombard Street in San Francisco on the first day there. We sailed to Alcatraz Island and roamed ‘the Rock’, toured the Winchester Mystery House, and still made time to enjoy Emerald Bay and the Vikings Holm house at Lake Tahoe from a charming paddle wheeler. We took the gondolas to the top of the mountain for a spectacular aerial view of Lake Tahoe and I stood with one foot in California and one foot in Nevada at the stateline. We also had the chance to see the ‘smallest big city in the world’, Reno, Nevada, and we were lucky to enjoy a breakfast at Crater Lake National Park with fifteen feet of snow towering above both sides of the road.  It seemed like every hour of every day held a new experience and an incredible opportunity to enjoy a vast variety of the nature.

By the end of March, I was full of enthusiasm and ready to start my last term, which turned out to be very challenging. I was back to teaching self-study classes and assisting at the same time. I also registered for the course, “Second Language Teaching Practice”. As part of this course I had to observe ten hours in different American schools. I visited classes at Jefferson Middle School and South Eugene High School. I was greeted enthusiastically and treated like I was a regular teacher there.  Participating in all these classes was one of my best experiences.

       This last term was busier than the previous ones. There was something to be done in every single waking hour. One of the things I was working on for some time was a presentation about Libya for the Foreign Language International Study Day. The title was “Libya - the Silent Treasure” and the audience consisted of high school students and teachers from as far north as Washington and as far south as North California.  It was another great opportunity to share our cultures and exchange information.

       By the beginning of June, I finished school, graded the final exams and helped my students in preparing their final presentations. At this point, I started feeling that the time to leave was drawing near. With my friends, colleagues, and students, I celebrated graduation. I was also invited to many parties with my friends and students so I had so many things to do in just a month. However, I still managed to visit and hike 10 miles of Silver Falls State Park, La Pine State Park, and Tumalo State Park. We enjoyed camping trips to Newport, Florence, and Crater Lake.  Crater Lake looked very different without its thick blanket of snow and will remain one of the most fascinating places I have ever seen.

There was one more event I wanted to see before coming back home: the 4^th of July celebration of Independence Day. I had heard of this important date many times, but never imagined what the celebration would look like. Well, I was in the right place at the right time. Our entire host family decided to attend one of the many events possible that day.   We enjoyed a dazzling display of fireworks after an evening of exciting bull riding, roping, bucking broncos, and barrel racing at a real western rodeo.  For an extra dash of holiday fun, they also included a demonstration of monster trucks and a motorcycle stunt show. It turned out to be the best choice for this festive holiday and something that I had always hoped to see.   

I enjoyed the time of teaching and studying at the University of Oregon, enjoyed visiting all these places and witnessing all these celebrations. But there was one more thing I appreciated and I will always remember. I am talking about this house on Chambers Street in Eugene and the lady who hosted me for months. I am talking about those students and friends from different nationalities and religions living, shopping, eating, and passing the time with me. I am talking about dinner time, where we enjoyed cooking our traditional dishes and talking about all sorts of topics.

I was very happy to meet all those people and to visit all these places in my ten months in the United States. I could not believe how quickly the time passed and how soon my time was over. It is true that I finished my duties as an FLTA at the University of Oregon, but I knew that I had an ongoing duty when I would come back to Libya as well. It is my duty, privilege, and pleasure to tell, share, and show what I learned during these ten months in the United States, and how I was treated. However, I feel like no matter what I write, I will never be able to tell everything that happened, introduce everyone I met, describe every place I visited, and explain how I felt about each experience. It was like a dream that I would love to dream again.