End of Ramadan, Boston & NYC

I'm back! Starting off with some sad news unfortunately, but gradually this message will get better:

SENIOR MISSING
As of October 8, the front page news of our UVM’s paper The Vermont Cynic and the flyers that were spread all over campus announced the missing of the 21-year old UVM-student Michelle Gardner-Quinn. At first I was quite naive about it, because I doubted anything seriously harmful could have happen to her. She must have run away or something. But candles and posters saying ‘I am scared’ and ‘This is violence against women’ at the fountain in our University Park Place proved me the earnest of the case. After an intense week of waiting, hoping and searching, her body was finally found right outside of town.



I do no know more about the case. I felt the need to attend her memorial service, because I was quite affected by her death. Of course I’d rather not walk alone by night, but I have never really felt unsafe, and maybe that’s because I grew up in the city center of Amsterdam. That’s also the irony in this case: Michelle was an Environmental Studies student and went to school in South-Africa and South-America. She was warned to be careful there, but then this happens to her in Burlington, this small liberal uptown city where it is ‘supposed to be’ safe! You just never know, and once again: always expect the unexpectable…




RAMADAN 2006
Ramadan in Burlington turned out to be lonelier than I expected it to be. It’s been hard for me, and I don’t mean the actual fasting itself, including the waking up in the morning alone to eat, and break the fasting alone at night, because I’m used to that as I’ve mentioned before. There is a small Muslim community in Burlington (a majority South Asians, many Bosnians, and few Southeast-Asians, White Americans and Arabs), and I went to the mosque once to have iftar (break fasting and have dinner) there. It’s nice, but too remote a place, and the people that go there are mostly elders and families. Since there are no Muslims around here, no one is aware that it’s the month of Ramadan anyway. And if they are, if they’ve ever heard of it, they probably don’t even know what it is and the meaning of it, and guess what; they don’t mind and don’t care! So not only missing my family and friends and lacking a Muslim environment made me feel lonely, but the fact that the people around me showed no interest in this holy month pushed me even further into sincere loneliness. Of course people reacted surprised when I mentioned that I was fasting, and therefore am a Muslim (but you don’t wear a headscarf!), but then I was surprised on how little knowledge they had about Islam and that they didn’t question me further about Ramadan. Could ‘fear of Islam’ play a role, or is it truly just carelessness? Anyhow I felt there was no concern, no interest, no care, no understanding and no moral support, and that left me in wretched solitude. The shallow fun with all the people here is cool, but I’ve always preferred to hang around or go out with small-scale groups, and this kind of filtering month left me with a few good friends, who did support me, and with whom I’m happy with and know I can count on. This experience was needed to appreciate my family and good friends. Oh, how I longed to have the traditional iftars together with you guys!




BOSTON CELTICS VS NEW YORK KNICKS BASKETBALL GAME
The last Saturday morning of Ramadan 2006 we left to Connecticut by car to watch the Boston Celtics VS New York Knicks playing the pre-seasonal NBA game. We went with a random group of seven internationals, and that made the trip sometimes somewhat exhausting. We could never agree on where to eat, where to go (on the road and in the city) and what to do. Nevertheless I enjoyed it very much (it’s really fun to see people who actually don’t really know each other having ridiculous small quarrels in the van ☺). The game was held in Uncasville, too small a town, but known for its Mohegan Sun; gambler’s paradise! Out of the blue, in the middle of nowhere, this one big, high, modern, shining building popped out of the ground, and inside was this Indian/native American oriented center of gambling areas, shops, café’s and restaurants. This was the first building in the US I entered where you were actually allowed to smoke! In Burlington you cannot even smoke in café’s or on the terraces outside. I had so much fun observing all that happened around me. There were all kinds of people there and even children. I guess it also functioned as some kind of Saturday night hang out spot (just like in the Indonesian malls!).





The game was also in the Mohegan Sun, but I was not really impressed by it. It was too long, and unlike soccer games, where people tensely look forward to the first goal, basketball players ‘make points/goals’ every 20 seconds, so I didn’t feel any excitement or the value of the score. The place was most crowded during the middle of the game, because people just arrived late and just left earlier. So much for true fans, huh? Afterwards no Saturday night hopping downtown, because of course we got lost on the way and after three hours we finally arrived in our hostel in Boston around 1am.

[Boston, Government Center]


BOSTON
Why didn’t I end up studying in, the city where I always wanted to study? Boston is amazing! This is what I’m used to; a big city life, with many different cultures, an exciting, somewhat touristic city center, a wonderful green and open park, and very important: a huge variety of accessible food!
When I walked around town with Adrian from Switzerland (yes, we needed to split up the group), we coincidently met some other UVM-internationals! This shows how big, but then again, smallish, Boston is. Perfect isn’t it?
When I took the 5pm Greyhound-bus from South Station Boston, heading NYC, I was excited about spending Idul Fitri (the celebration of the end of Ramadan) there, but I also felt uncertain, because my aunt in NYC, at whom I would stay, had not yet confirmed on picking me up. But when I called her from some one else’s cell in the bus, she was already prepared to pick me up, so it was all good. And even if not, I was willing to search for a hostel somehow. I wouldn’t go back to Burlington; I had to, needed to and just would go to NYC!!

[New York City]


CELEBRATING THE END OF RAMADAN IN NYC
Idul Fitri turned out to be Monday, the next morning after my arrival at 10pm at Port Authority, near Times Square. In the morning we went to the mosque to pray together. The front of the building said masjid Al-Hikmah (what else?), Indonesian Muslim Community, oh my God, I was so happy! It was a really nice, clean and organized place, and sooo many people!

[Masjid Al-Hikmah; Indonesian Muslim Community]

[Outside the mosque]

OPEN HOUSES
It’s traditional to spend Idul Fitri, hopping from one place to another to meet friends and family, to gather and to congratulate each other, and of course, to enjoy food! At lunchtime we went to the house of the head of the Indonesian embassy. They had a huge house and a garden with tents to receive the guests. There were a lot of people and a lot of foooooood!!! I didn’t know anybody of course, but I enjoyed myself so much (es teler, bakmi bakso, sayur asinan, ikan, cumi, and oh ya, also hot dogs, halal!). I did meet some veiled girls, Afro-American, Spanish and White American, who converted into Islam and experienced their first Ramadan, also lonely as I did.

[Prayer area]

Next destination was the Indonesian embassy office itself, and wow, that was impressive, and very goldish from the inside. The building, the style and the setting reminded me of The Nanny’s house. There was not much food left, but we had to leave anyway, because my aunt and my uncle had to prepare for their own ‘open house’ to receive guests.

[Indonesian embassy]

NO DIFFERENCE
That night, it felt just as if I was in Indonesia, because the whole setting was the same: a beautiful big house, my two somewhat spoilt cousins, the maids, the driver and all these beautifully dressed up people in traditional clothing, which was very melancholic to see but also awkward to observe, that no matter where Indonesians are located in the world, they really remain the same attitude, behavior and all. The only things that fell out of place and made me realize that we actually were in the States, were the English, in American accent chattings in betweens, and the White and Afro-American policemen that wandered in and around the house. I did not really understand whether the presence of guarding cops was needed because it was an Islamic event or because my aunt is the second person of the Indonesian embassy in NYC. Was it truly necessary having a police car outside the house, or was it just this elitist attitude I find so typical to Indonesian people?



Anyhow, and again, I knew nobody, but I just enjoyed being among them. The house was crowded, even though my aunt also extended it by placing tents outside. Kids were running all over the place, but finally settled themselves in the TV-room playing X-box, as the youngsters around the age of 13 to 17 (like my cousins’) stayed in the basement playing music (drums and guitar, so sweet!). I was busy organizing my eating schedule, because again, there was so much! Bajigur, ketan hitam, soto mie, rendang, kue nastar, kaasstengels, pempek, so much more, and oh, I also had the best strawberry cheesecake ever that night.





NYC, MANHATTAN
The thing was that I had two papers due Monday and Tuesday, so I brought my laptop every time with me and worked on my papers whenever possible that weekend (on the road, in the car, at the open houses). After I finished at noon on Tuesday, I took the subway from Queens and got out somewhere near Chinatown and wandered around Manhattan by myself, finally ending up at Ground Zero.
There I was, in New York City, where all of status is located, where the cast of Friends suppose to live (you know I just love that show), the metropolitan center of the world, the actual definition of globalization, the focus of my study in Anthropology, where McDonald’s in Chinatown has Chinese prescriptions… It was overwhelming. My plan to explore Queens with a friend the next day, was ruined because there was only one train heading Burlington, leaving at 11.30am, so I ‘lost’ one day on the train that got me home at 10pm (!!!). New York, I’ll be back!

[Chinatown]





[Look what they taped on the add]