Doing wonders for cross-cultural dialogue

It's been a few days since I have posted, but a lot has been happening and I find it hard to fit everything in after work hours (living life and then writing about it!), so I apologize. When I started at the UN last week I signed a slew of paperwork -- which may have included giving up my first born child -- so I'm a little apprehensive to write about my work in great detail on a public blog. If you're interested in learning more, shoot me and e-mail and we can talk one-on-one.

This past Friday night proved to be one of the more memorable evenings we've had in quite some time. We are becoming good friends with the seven or so other individuals in my department (who come from Spain, Tanzania, France, Canada, Ghana, Germany, and Australia) and regularly go out with them in the evenings. On Friday we were invited to a 'Multi-Cultural event' at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, where several people at the UN are doing their graduate work. With the promise of free food and wine, we all happily went to the Academy after work.

When we arrived, we saw that a series of events were planned prior to the food, including speeches from former ambassadors, as well as the current Ambassador to Malaysia, and performances by students of their respective cultures. It all started well enough. The speeches from the ambassadors were interesting if a little dry, and they were followed by a student playing violin pieces from her native Belarus, later accompanied by a Japanese student on piano. Both were accomplished musicians and the music was beautiful.

The programme started taking a downward turn when the Bolivian dance troupe began their three-dance set. I've never seen Bolivian dancing before, and I can honestly say there isn't anything like it. The costumes alone are impressive -- huge headdresses, masks, and bright, hand-embroidered costumes. The dancing is a little basic, but still very pretty and obviously means a great deal to the people of Bolivia. Their final dance number consisted of two girls dressed in the tiniest of dresses, and in what can only be called Bolivian go-go boots, surrounded by three girls dressed as elderly women, and a man dressed in an elaborate devil costume chasing everyone around. The girls in the tiny dresses were supposed to wear small, stiff slips under their broad petticoats to cover up their 'stuff.' Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) one of the girls forgot to put on her slip, so was in fact spinning around with her little Bolivian ass hanging out for the whole time. I don't even think she knew. You were mortified for her.

The Bolivian dance group was then followed by an Israeli student doing Arabic belly dancing. I don't mean to be critical, but as belly dancers go, she wasn't very good. Her first dance was a dance of seduction, and it came off more awkward than seductive. However, most of us couldn't focus on her dancing because we were entranced with her right breast, which appeared ready to burst out of her bra at any moment, creating yet another international wardrobe malfunction. Needless to say, for the 82-year old former ambassador in the front row, this was probably the most fun he's had on a Friday night in a long time. It did wonders for cross-cultural dialogue. She then decided it would be a good idea to bring up the various ambassadors to the stage to dance with her. It could have been cute. Instead it ended up embarrassing for all parties involved -- though I must say that the Ambassador to Malaysia does have good rhythm.

The true low-point in the evening came from none other than a fellow American. After an evening filled with otherwise respectful displays of cultures from around the world, an American student came up and gave a presentation on the most revered of American festivals -- Groundhog Day. The presentation could have been done for laughs, since its a silly American tradition anyway, but instead this schmuck decides he'll give a dry 20 minute presentation where he couldn't even say the name of the town correctly. He made it appear that Americans all across the country actively participate in Groundhog Day and base our weather expectations on good ol Punxatawney Phil.It was painful and many people stood up and left. Todd and I physically slunk down in our chairs as everyone looked around saying, "Is this guy for real?" Even our friends from the UN talked to us later and said, "I had no idea Groundhog Day was such an important cultural day in the US." Oy-Vay. Cross-cultural damage control done.

The good thing is that after all of this we did get to eat some incredible food from all over the world that I never would have had before, and the wine was plentiful. It is likely to be one of the more memorable evenings we have here!

Gotta run, but please e-mail or post comments! Love and miss you all!