Comments on: In Foreign Land http://livinglit.edublogs.org/2008/10/01/in-foreign-land/ Using Social Networking to Travel the World with Literature Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:07:25 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: carlaarena http://livinglit.edublogs.org/2008/10/01/in-foreign-land/comment-page-1/#comment-15 carlaarena Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:07:25 +0000 http://livinglit.edublogs.org/?p=15#comment-15 Dear Just, I'm so glad to see how far you've gone, how mature you are now in your decisions. You've gone beyond of the impulsiveness of the young adult years and is planning your moves in a more conscientious way. I'm glad to see you feel free to take any directions life provides you and to call home wherever this might be. The great thing is that you have options. Not one, but some. I truly admire your strength and your capacity to overcome hurdles and they way you face life as an immigrant. Dear Just,

I’m so glad to see how far you’ve gone, how mature you are now in your decisions. You’ve gone beyond of the impulsiveness of the young adult years and is planning your moves in a more conscientious way.

I’m glad to see you feel free to take any directions life provides you and to call home wherever this might be. The great thing is that you have options. Not one, but some.

I truly admire your strength and your capacity to overcome hurdles and they way you face life as an immigrant.

]]> By: Justine Arena http://livinglit.edublogs.org/2008/10/01/in-foreign-land/comment-page-1/#comment-14 Justine Arena Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:54:46 +0000 http://livinglit.edublogs.org/?p=15#comment-14 I am the sister who lives in the USA for 11 years now and who sometimes feels lost on my own identity... I am BRAZILIAN, no doubt about it! I have a great deal of passion for my country, my people, my music, my food, my family... I am always very proud when people ask me where I am from and I answer "I am from Brazil." But, at the same time I have been gone for so long, that "my Brazil" sometimes becomes a distant memory, and it feels weird when I think about going back "home." Actually, I believe what I feel is fear... Fear of not fitting anymore, of not finding myself among my own people. There are always a lot of "ifs." It is like you are trapped on your own thoughts and it indeed feels like you are in an exile! But, at the end of the day, it is a simple matter of making decisions and understand your own self and feelings. Once one understand this, then light starts to shine at the end of the tunnel. Some people will be ok being an immigrant for their entire lives. They formed a family in the “new land,” they have a better live, they are happy. Others, feel “the calling” to go back home, to where they came from, and there are no questions about it. Others, like me, for a long time have a conviction that they will never come back to live in the Mother Land, but then life takes turns, feelings change, and you start to question yourself and if staying where you are is indeed the right thing to do. You start a quest, a soul search that might feel liberating and you don’t feel anymore that you are in an exile within your own self. You set yourself free to find a world full of options and opportunities. I’m still not sure where will be my “home” in a near future, and if I will find my true self and happiness right here in Boston, but I know for sure whatever decision I make will bring me peace at least because I have been paying attention to my feelings, myself, the signs, as Carla always tells me, and I know I am ready to make the changes. What these changes will be, how they will take place, when they will happen, I have no clue! But I am already feeling liberated just because of the fact that I have already set my mind “free.” Viva Brazil, Viva de USA, and Viva our quest for what is / will be “home.” Justine Arena I am the sister who lives in the USA for 11 years now and who sometimes feels lost on my own identity… I am BRAZILIAN, no doubt about it! I have a great deal of passion for my country, my people, my music, my food, my family… I am always very proud when people ask me where I am from and I answer “I am from Brazil.” But, at the same time I have been gone for so long, that “my Brazil” sometimes becomes a distant memory, and it feels weird when I think about going back “home.” Actually, I believe what I feel is fear… Fear of not fitting anymore, of not finding myself among my own people. There are always a lot of “ifs.” It is like you are trapped on your own thoughts and it indeed feels like you are in an exile! But, at the end of the day, it is a simple matter of making decisions and understand your own self and feelings. Once one understand this, then light starts to shine at the end of the tunnel. Some people will be ok being an immigrant for their entire lives. They formed a family in the “new land,” they have a better live, they are happy. Others, feel “the calling” to go back home, to where they came from, and there are no questions about it. Others, like me, for a long time have a conviction that they will never come back to live in the Mother Land, but then life takes turns, feelings change, and you start to question yourself and if staying where you are is indeed the right thing to do. You start a quest, a soul search that might feel liberating and you don’t feel anymore that you are in an exile within your own self. You set yourself free to find a world full of options and opportunities. I’m still not sure where will be my “home” in a near future, and if I will find my true self and happiness right here in Boston, but I know for sure whatever decision I make will bring me peace at least because I have been paying attention to my feelings, myself, the signs, as Carla always tells me, and I know I am ready to make the changes. What these changes will be, how they will take place, when they will happen, I have no clue! But I am already feeling liberated just because of the fact that I have already set my mind “free.” Viva Brazil, Viva de USA, and Viva our quest for what is / will be “home.”
Justine Arena

]]> By: Carla Arena http://livinglit.edublogs.org/2008/10/01/in-foreign-land/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Carla Arena Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:37:29 +0000 http://livinglit.edublogs.org/?p=15#comment-12 Dear Cris, We get trapped in so many activities that sometimes we just postpone what is most dear to us, talking, speaking our minds, discussing literature, which is so dear to me. As I re-read this post here and your answer, I realize how much I long for home, for being among friends, though I had a great time in the US. I guess we know when it's time to go home. And I'm glad I have this option of returning. As you mentioned, the hardest thing is when you don't have this option. Even if the option is there, you stick to the new life you've built, with your new nuclear family, but your soul, who you are is always part adaptable to what you have and part how you were brought up, your childhood memories, your values inculcated in your mind when you were still young... I'm now reading 36 views of Mt. Fuji, and again I see the excitement of discoveries as a foreigner, the challenges, and sometimes embarrassment you go through as you try to grasp the new culture, embrace it, and still respect who you are. Well, but this is another story... Dear Cris,

We get trapped in so many activities that sometimes we just postpone what is most dear to us, talking, speaking our minds, discussing literature, which is so dear to me.

As I re-read this post here and your answer, I realize how much I long for home, for being among friends, though I had a great time in the US. I guess we know when it’s time to go home. And I’m glad I have this option of returning. As you mentioned, the hardest thing is when you don’t have this option. Even if the option is there, you stick to the new life you’ve built, with your new nuclear family, but your soul, who you are is always part adaptable to what you have and part how you were brought up, your childhood memories, your values inculcated in your mind when you were still young…

I’m now reading 36 views of Mt. Fuji, and again I see the excitement of discoveries as a foreigner, the challenges, and sometimes embarrassment you go through as you try to grasp the new culture, embrace it, and still respect who you are. Well, but this is another story…

]]> By: Cristina Costa http://livinglit.edublogs.org/2008/10/01/in-foreign-land/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Cristina Costa Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:57:45 +0000 http://livinglit.edublogs.org/?p=15#comment-11 So many questions. And they are so relevant. They bring up so many issues. I do hope we get a lot of feedback from it. I am sure we will receive as many different answers as many people sharing their visions. For me the hardest is... I guess ...is being an emigrant without a choice of coming back...be it for whichever reason. Hard too is to feel an emigrant...an extra/external citizen. If we don't fit in, if we don't feel we belong to. Then it's even harder. But fitting in has more to it than making an effort to adapt. It has to do with how much we take in and how much more we let go, like you said. I see myself again in that extra/external citizen category. I made the choice, I can theoretically unmake that choice and go back anytime I feel like it. I still don't want to. But I know I can, and I think that, in a way, it gives me some strength. When we know we can't then it's quite difficult. An obstacle that reminds us of thick glass window which makes us slowly choke in our own "saudade". How this reminds me of my uncle to whom the best month of the entire year was August. The month he religiously spent in Portugal. I remember the smile he wore at his arrival and how we always cried on his departure. No matter how much his new country had enabled him to reconstruct his life after the Portuguese Dictatorship, doesn't matter how well he did in his job, the house he got, the better conditions he was able to provide his family with...he was never able to call it home. It was like waiting for a miracle that never happened...it's almost like waiting for snow in Havana... So many questions. And they are so relevant. They bring up so many issues. I do hope we get a lot of feedback from it. I am sure we will receive as many different answers as many people sharing their visions.
For me the hardest is… I guess …is being an emigrant without a choice of coming back…be it for whichever reason. Hard too is to feel an emigrant…an extra/external citizen.
If we don’t fit in, if we don’t feel we belong to. Then it’s even harder.
But fitting in has more to it than making an effort to adapt. It has to do with how much we take in and how much more we let go, like you said.
I see myself again in that extra/external citizen category. I made the choice, I can theoretically unmake that choice and go back anytime I feel like it. I still don’t want to. But I know I can, and I think that, in a way, it gives me some strength. When we know we can’t then it’s quite difficult. An obstacle that reminds us of thick glass window which makes us slowly choke in our own “saudade”. How this reminds me of my uncle to whom the best month of the entire year was August. The month he religiously spent in Portugal. I remember the smile he wore at his arrival and how we always cried on his departure. No matter how much his new country had enabled him to reconstruct his life after the Portuguese Dictatorship, doesn’t matter how well he did in his job, the house he got, the better conditions he was able to provide his family with…he was never able to call it home. It was like waiting for a miracle that never happened…it’s almost like waiting for snow in Havana…

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