The Outsider's Perspective

Several months ago I accompanied my girlfriend to one of her co-worker's wedding. The happy couple were both Guyanese Hindu's, so I was a bit interested to see what I was walking into. The wedding ceremony was being held in the bride's backyard. The first thing I noticed was the noise. You could hear the beating of drums from a block away. When we arrived there, my attention was drawn to this kid who had a HUGE drum slung over his shoulders (I later found out it was called a dohl). The drum was held sideways as he was pounding it. He and several other kids with different types of drums were the entertainment for the wedding until the bride and groom arrived, which took about an hour and thirty minutes! I wasn't sure if that's how it was supposed to be or whether this particular couple were just late. I've heard the groom is supposed arrive riding an elephant. Seeing how that would be extremely difficult to accomplish in NYC, I believe the groom walked over instead (luckily he didn't live that far).
The ceremony was extremely long. They do however allow you to chat and eat throughout the course of it. I was looking forward to the food until I discovered there was no meat dishes being served. It was all vegetarian! There was rice, beans, fruits, and vegetables, all served with lots of spices. I was adventurous or just plain starving that day, but I decided to try everything. I was surprised to find out that the dishes weren't as bad as I had imagined. The thought of curry on pumpkins and mango's didn't seem to appealing to me, but they weren't bad.
The last thing I remember about the ceremony was a certain ritual. The bride and groom were on a platform built for the ceremony. In the center of the platform they had a large fire burning. I couldn't hear much due to the beating drums, but it looked like they were dancing around the flames. A Guyanese friend of mine had told me the ritual was meant to cleanse them. Each circle around the fire was meant to remove an impurity from them, or something along those lines.
If I didn't grow up in New York City, then I would have probably been one to judge and label that as strange. However, life's experiences of growing up in the melting pot of the world has definitely left me very open-minded to other cultures. I once read an article titled, "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema", by Horace Miner that was published in The American Anthropologist. It tells a story about the culture of the Nacirema, and how strange their customs may seem. But toward the end, you realize it's all a matter of perspective. Here's a link for those of you who are interested in reading it.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~thompsoc/Body.html

An Introduction

Hi, my name is Font Nguyen. I 'm an Asian-American, born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. My academic career hasn't always been ideal. When I was younger, I took time off from school to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I wasn't sure whether school was the right path for me at the time, so I decided to live it up and have fun for the time being. After a while, the excitement died down as friends returned to school, and work, while I had nothing to do. My days felt unproductive, and my fear of failure was becoming apparent. I was now more lost than ever. Then one day while I was out, I saw a man wearing a nice suit driving down the street in his flashy car. I figured he was probably some hot shot who graduated at the top of his class from an Ivy League, until I saw his license plate. The words "GED 2 PHD" were written on it. So I figured if that guy could do it, why can't I!? Ever since then, that stranger has been an inspiration to me. He's shown me that it's never too late to return to school, and there are no glass ceilings when it comes to learning. So here I am, an accounting major at Baruch aiming for a master's degree so that I can become a CPA, and ultimately partner up with good friends who specialize in other fields so that we can combine our skills into running a business of our own one day.