Wow - Fulbrighters are amazing! Today, I spoke with Jackie*, who worked for an NGO called Amigos de las Americas in Peru, and current Fulbrighter working in Mexico City. She worked in Panama City before going to Mexico on her Fulbright. She gave me all kinds of great practical advice and offered to introduce me to a number of her friends who are still there. Such generosity!
And she is not the only Fulbrighter to give me suggestions and advice. Jolie*, who is the friend of someone who replied to my post asking for any information people could share about Panama, spent over an hour on the phone from a coffee shop in town, where she could charge her cell. She runs a remote eco-lodge and conservation center in Western Panama. As we talked, it was pouring rain and I thought I could hear tree frogs in the background.
As my circle of contacts is starting to become wider, I'm finding myself getting increasingly jazzed and excited about this adventure. And finding out about other folks who have also had Fulbrights. For instance, famed glass artist Dale Chihuly went to Italy in the 1960's on a Fulbright to learn about glassblowing. In this video, he talks about his experiences as a Fulbrighter and the impact it has had on his life and art:
http://vimeo.com/66925067
And perhaps you have heard of the spoof of "Gangnam Style" by a Fulbrighter in Beijing, "Laowai Style"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7Dp5X5WOf2Q
As creator Jesse Appell says, he wanted to show how a foreigner ("laowai" being one word for "foreigner") could live like a native. "I like the idea of trying to erase ...preconception[s] by having some of my lyrics be about 'I'm the kind of foreigner that doesn't drive a BMW, but drives instead an electric bike.' [I like] showing that foreigners live like Chinese people," he said. More of his comments here:
http://eca.state.gov/fulbright/story/us-student-uses-gangnam-style-depict-daily-life-china
While I was watching videos, I came across one by Anicia Peters, one of the amazing young women I have been working with on a Women in Technology project. Anicia is from Namibia, and received the International Fulbright Science and Technology Award. She is studying at Iowa State where she is pursuing a Ph.D. and is actually working at Intuit this summer, so I hope to get to see her! You can check out her story at:
http://vimeo.com/23795617
And there's even a video by Blake Scott who was a Fulbrighter in Panama in 2008 - 2009.
http://vimeo.com/17892307
So, as the excitement builds, I am exploring and learning and thinking about what this experience can be.
*In the interests of privacy, I'm not using last names for Fulbrighters whose names are not already public.
