International scholars from Vietnam, China, and Cyprus visited a classroom and shared about their cultures through pictures and stories. Students were then asked to choose a photo and write their own narrative. The following stories introduce various cultural experiences, including a childhood memory in Costa Rica of swimming with fish in a waterfall, a traditional Guinean rice dish, eating rice and beans in an unspecified culture, memories of Times Square in New York City, the importance of daily prayer in Islam, relaxing at a beach house in the Dominican Republic, the role of prayer and Bible study in an unspecified culture, enjoying red wine from a young age in France, and memories of the beach in Puerto Rico compared to beaches in New York.

1. One To World’s Global Classroom
at School for Excellence
Period 6

2. International university scholars from Vietnam,
China and Cyprus visited Mr. Zahir’s class
through One To World’s Global Classroom
program. In each class, they shared about their
culture through pictures and stories. Students
were then asked to choose a photo and write a
narrative to do the same. The following pictures
and stories will introduce you to the cultures of
School for Excellence.
Enjoy!

4. Back then, when I was 4, in my home country Costa
Rica, I was very happy. It was fun and I was able to
explore. One day, my mom was having a get-together
at our house and she would always I excuse me,
because I was in the way. My sister decided to show
me a place where we can hang out until the food was
done. As we were on our way there, I saw a beautiful
waterfall with colorful fish. We swam with fish and
had so much fun. After a while, we went home and my
mom had a type of slushy with my favorite fruits in it,
banana and pineapples. My sister had strawberry and
kiwi. It tasted so good that I had two more cups, but
after a while I felt dizzy, so I went to sleep.

6. This is a dish we eat in Guinea. I remember
going to family meetings and seeing this dish;
the smell would intoxicate me and I only
wanted to eat. I would eat like there was no
tomorrow. And when my mom makes it, I am
always the first to finish. Still, what you see in
the picture is the way it’s traditionally made,
but my mom makes it differently: she doesn’t
make with rice. She make it with “kenkey” (a
corn meal dumpling).

8. In my culture this is what we eat every day.
When I first ate this dish it became my
favorite because how good it was. It has rice,
beans and olives. We sometime eat this with
other stuff such as chicken and other sort’s
meat. People that make this in my house are
my brother and my mom. I could make it but
I don’t choose to because they can make.
We mostly eat this dish a lot on special days
such as birthdays and Christmas. Many
people that come from also make this dish.

10. I love Times Square. This is my first
memory of my childhood. I always go
out to shop and see movies. I go with
my family every weekend. My favorite
shop is forever 21. My favorite movie is
Haunted House. I go to McDonald’s to
eat french fries and chicken nuggets. In
the future, I am going to go with my
friends in Times Square.

12. Prayer is something we (Muslims) do to
show our devotion to God. We pray five
times a day. We Muslims fast a whole
month, and we pray to God so we can go
to heaven. I started praying when I was
three, so I have prayed 23,725 times in my
life. I teach my little brothers to pray so
they can go to heaven. I am going to pray
all my life.

14. My family and I go to this beach
every summer. My parents own a
house in the resort in Punta Cana
so we would go and just chill
there and go to beach. Me and
my brothers would order food
from the restaurant .

16. In my culture, praying seems the main key of success,
whenever I’m feeling sad, worry or intimidated I softly pray
to myself telling God to help me overcome this particular
obstacle. Every week, my family and I have a gathering
where we take time to share verses of the Bible. My step
mom and dad choose a verse based on problems in our
house or a teenage conflict that we need to be ready for or
how to avoid violence. During this activity we sing and
worship and after the Bible lesson each of us pray and give
thanks for everything and we beg for forgiveness of sin.
This is probably the most interesting thing in my culture in
my point of view.

18. Red wine oh sweet red wine. I still remember
the first time I tried this breathtaking drink, I
was about 8 years old. Now every weekend my
sister, brother and I sit and watch French
comedy and drink wine. In my culture, it’s ok
to drink wine when you are young. My parents
have been giving me some wine since I was
about 8 years old. France is most known for
this red wine, this wine is use all over the
globe.

20. I love the beach. My first memory of the beach
is with my father and my sister. This was in
Puerto Rico and since I moved to New York there
are not a lot of beaches here, but the beach is
the only place I get to relax and forget stuff. I
wish there were more beaches here, so that I
could forget things and relax. Sometimes I don’t
like going to the beaches here in New York,
because some beaches are dirty and in Puerto
Rico the beach are clean and clear.