by Betime Ali – Professor of English Language and Literature
In the beginning like all other people I really had a lot of emotions from joy, because it was the first time I would come to the USA, and has always been a dream for me to visit the USA, but sometimes the dream comes true, and in this case I am very happy that my dream came true.
During the travelling by airplane, I was a little excited about how I left my family and a little worried about how the flight will go because I had never flown such a long destination before. Everything went well, even better, as soon as I landed in Vienna, I met the future colleagues, that now I am having a wonderful time here. During the flight, we talked and exchanged different opinions about the program that we would develop here in the USA. As soon as we got off the plane we got off and were picked up by the people who were engaged to bring us here to Amherst where we were settled.
Everything was different for me, maybe from the emotions and the excitement I had, it seemed to me nothing is like in my country where I live. But, when I started to talk to people, colleagues who come from different countries, with different cultures, where this is also the part that I like the most, because I really to know a lot about new different cultures, customs, the traditions of all the peoples of the world. It was not all different, I noticed that we had something in common, and that was the goal, the thought, the ideas that we wanted to realize, we all had the same issues, same problems, in general all these in were common. We all wanted to learn something new, we all wanted to enjoy the USA as much as possible, and above all we all wanted firstly to upgrade ourselves and to improve and advance education everywhere that we live.
I was also very interested to know how the methods of teaching here, as the USA is ranked first in terms of education, so it made me even more curious to stay and learn and gain knowledge as much as possible, so when I return home to apply it in practice, at school, with colleagues, friends, etc.
I especially liked Harvard University because it was really amazing. In my life I never, even dreamed that my foot would step on Harvard University, but even here there was something in common, good purpose, learning, gaining knowledge, which in our country, regardless of our universities are not at the level of Harvard University but the goal is the same, learning, gaining knowledge, schooling and so on. I have to visit New York, where I look forward to it, and I believe this will probably be the complete fulfillment of my dream.
I hope that in the near future we will get together again as we are and discuss about the new experience, about how we have applied the knowledge we have gained here and of course to walk, discuss and learn new things about the profession we do. So, in the end I really do not know how to say goodbye to colleagues, professors who are wonderful, and professional in the full sense of the word. I wish we had more time for these wonderful professors to explain to us and teach us everything we need to know about the work we do.
Finally, I would like to sincerely thank the ITD staff for the work they have done for us and for the opportunity they have given us to improve my knowledge. Even though I hate goodbyes, but I guess this is the end and I have to say goodbye and hope to meet you again.
Sincerely,
Betime Ali
