"Being Uncomfortably Comfortable"

Hello!

     As I headed into my third day immersed in traditional Malaysian culture, I began to holistically observe the islands quirky culture - geographically, linguistically, religiously, and ethnically. Penang, Malaysia as you may know, is home to a diverse population of people.  Geographically, Penang is small in size ( roughly 40 miles in circumference), but comes up big for its geographic diversity. With a rich, diverse and tropical ecosystem, Penang possesses tropical rain forests, mangrove swamps, coral reefs, and wetlands! Linguistically, there is an enormous array of languages and dialects spoken within Malaysia such as Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien, but Bahasa Malaysia is considered the national tongue. Religiously, there are large populations of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians. Ethnically, Malaysia about 42% Indigenous Malay, 42% Chinese and 10% Indian.
   
     As you may know, I have traveled here amongst 11 other students from Gustavus! What you may not know is that they are ALL caucasian, thus I am a minority among my group. As a Mixed American (African American and Caucasian) I am commonly identified as African American due to my light brown skin and voluminous curly black hair. Therefore, I am constantly reminded just about everywhere that I am a minority (relative to caucasians). What I have never felt is that of being a minority amongst other minorities such as the Malaysian people here. Here, I am different. Not only are there no other African Americans in my Gustavus group, but also there are no other African Americans on this campus! UUFFDAA! So not only does the entire group of us feel like outsiders, I feel like even more of a minority!

     Ultimately, I know that this is even more of a testament to being "uncomfortably comfortable" among my surroundings; being okay with what I cannot control.

Lots of love,

Hales

Awarded as "Most Sporting Female Student at the International Exchange Student Party!