DALTON`S NEIGHBORHOOD

Dalton`s neighborhood, Dalton had a big ethnic diversity in his neighborhood. He had people and races from all over the world. Different accents different languages but the kids have only same accent with their life style. Dalton has learnt many things that impacted directly on his life style. His different neighborhood made him to have a good understanding of his language. Language or being a person who holds a pacific citizenship or a pacific race is very hard to understand. But when you travel or explore another culture you will find what is your language and your culture value. In Dalton`s case, he does not need to travel or to explore another culture to understand his own because his neighborhood has a mixture of races and cultures. He was really young to understand what is his race means or his skin color. He started to think how people treat him as a white kid who lives in an inner project. White people usually have good living standards. He was something different from everybody there. He started to think what means of whiteness. All these factors have impacted on his life to understand how people think from other races.

DALTON`S FAMILY

Dalton`s family, we all know the importance of being in a good family. Dalton`s family is an educated family which has the requirement to be a success person in life. Dalton`s father, he was a painter who studied art in college. However, he does not have a nice job to have a reasonable income from it. At that time, Art was not that good field to have a nice job with reasonable salary. Being a painter at that time needs to have a lot of money to make money for example he needs a nice place to show his work in it. And of course he doesn’t have that much money to operate a gallery store even in his poor neighborhood. That`s why he worked a part time job to have some money to cover the expenses that he needs to operate his home expenses. Dalton`s mother, she was a writer. Every morning she was reading newspaper in a coffee shop. She has a nice job in contrast of her husband has. She was trying to help the father in the life expenses. She did really a great job to share the money with her husband. Many women do not like to spend anything on home because they think this is the father job. She had really important impact on Dalton`s life. Many factors have reflected on Dalton`s life from his mother because of her education and her responsibility towards the family. Now, we can see that Dalton`s family has shaped Dalton`s life to be a successful person and also a high -educated person.

WHO IS DALTON

Dalton is a white kid who was living in an inner-project in New York City. His parents do not have enough money to move to a better apartment. Being in an inner-project provides Dalton to explore many different things that is early for a white kid to realize. Many influences have taken a place on his life. These influences are such as his neighborhood, his friends, his school, the facilities that he can access to learn and his socio-economic status. We all know the importance of the way we live and where we live and with whom we deal. Sometimes when we live in a poor area or when we see how poor people live we try to overcome that by taking many challenges to succeed in our life. Being in this bad situation makes the human does whatever can do to overcome his destiny of being poor. We will see the influences that affects on Dalton`s life in the following paragraphs.

OUR EXPERIENCE IN USA

Finally, and after all, we had really good time in United States. Being in United States gives us a good understanding what other people think about us. And also, being in the United States makes us to really understand our own culture and our own language. Being in another country gives the travelers an opportunity to adapt with many circumstances that happen around them. For me I found out what Americans think about my culture and what Egyptians think about the American Culture. Now I can answer these questions for anyone who wants to know. In the beginning, I really did not understand my culture because I did not try another. And also, I understood what Americans are and how they think towards Arabs and Muslims. I found that they know how Arabs are because they live with them and they know that not all Arabs are bad. There are only some people who want to make profits over people lives and their freedom. And also for me I found that we have wrong ideas about Americans. America consists from a mixture of the world. I called America “Mini World” because it has all languages and all races from all over the world. In Contrast, Sonja does not have that much to do with race or religion because she holds the religion that more than fifty percent in America hold. And also from a country which is considered in Europe and has nothing to do with terrorism or wars from a long time. These experiences are very helpful for us and for our countries because when we come back we will clear these minds that have wrong ideas about America and American people.

THE ADAPTION WITH THE NEW LIFE

Fourth step which is Adapting to the new life, Sonja comes from Serbia and holds Christianity as her religion. On the other hand, I come from Egypt and holds Muslim as my religion. That`s why we have a lot of differences in our life style. For Example, we used to have a lot of parties in the hotel where we live in and some students and Sonja drink alcoholic but me and other Muslims cannot drink that. Sonja came to United States to work and visit some places in the same way I did. Sonja had an opportunity to work in Darien, Connecticut. On the other hand, I have been moving all over the places in Connecticut. For Example, I have worked in Newington, Windsor and also Darien. That`s why I had an opportunity to visit many places in Connecticut. In contrast, Sonja did not have that much to explore many places in United States.

Arriving to JFK Airport

Third step, Arriving to JFK Airport, this was the first day to me in United States of America. That was very hard to me because the human resources manager told me that he would wait me in the Airport, but he did not. I did not know anything in New York, so I felt like a child in the Big City, exactly like the child who was in “Home Alone”. I called my manager to tell him how to come to Connecticut. He told me how to get there, but that was very hard because I have to find out where all these places are. Finally I arrived to Darien, CT then he told me to wait in a hotel until he came to see where I will stay. In the beginning, I felt what he did kind of Discrimination because I am Arabian. After that I knew that he did that with all males in our group and he does not have anything to do with my race or my religion. In contrast Sonja had when she arrived to JFK, the manger picked her up with some other girls in our group and showed them where they would stay. She did not have any kind of problems when she came to the United States. That`s why she did not use English that much when she arrived. In contrast, I had to use English to survive in the Big Apple.

coming to United States

Second, coming to United States when I got the Visa Approval from Cairo Embassy I had at the same time final exams in my college. I knew from that time that I may stay in United States for a while. At that time, I wanted to see everything in Egypt. I went to many places to say bye before I leave. I went also to Military Ministry to have a permission to leave the country because I did not do Military Service because of my education all that was in one week only. That`s why I did not study that much for my college. However, I got high grades. My family was happy because I achieved what I wanted which was traveling to the United States. Then I said bye to my friends and my family and then I prepared myself to travel to United States. In contrast, Sonja had. Her family did not want her to leave Serbia and leave them alone and wanted to cancel her flight because they know that Sonja is ambitious and, she wants to break the life routine. Many of her friends said bye to her and wanted her to do what she wants to do not what her family wants. She was very happy with that. Finally, she left.