welcome to the blog: shaking off the airport nerves

 Hello everyone! 

My name is Parmida Mahdavi and I am a senior in Engineering Physics with a focus on space and planetary sciences at the Colorado School of Mines. I am also a senior McBride scholar which means that I currently completing my practicum to attain my public affairs minor, which is what this blog is going to be about. For those who are not familiar with the McBride practicum, it is essentially: 

"All McBride students need to fulfill a three-credit 'Practicum,' which emphasizes experiential education, cultural immersion, and course design. The practicum is similar to an independent study, but with a twist. The goal of the course is for you to pursue a worthwhile experiential learning opportunity – that is, to 'learn by doing.'"

Starting in May of this year, I started planning my practicum and eight months later, I am at the airport waiting to board my flight to Seoul, South Korea. I am eternally grateful for the McBride Honors program for providing the support for me to go on this journey and I truly still cannot believe it is happening. 

A bit of relevant-ish background, I am an Iranian immigrant, I enjoy listening to people's stories, and I love food; these were the main reasons behind choosing my practicum topic. Cooking and sharing food has always been my family's love language, and when we moved to America, it became a method of preserving our culture thousand of miles away from home. Unfortunately, the food I loved so much eventually became a mocking point of me in middle school, and I found myself hating Persian food and subsequently hating being Persian. The eventual transformation I had out of that phase and regrowing into loving myself and being comfortable with my identity was one of the most painful, yet beautiful events in my life. I knew I had to captivate that feeling in a practicum. 

My thesis for my practicum project is:

"By articulating my research to the studies of street-food culture in Seoul, South Korea and Bangkok, Thailand, I aim to display the difference in diverse communities that allow or restrict self-identity preservation through food. Both nations host legal and illegal immigrants with South Korea being more homogenous and at times politically discriminatory towards foreigners, while Thailand welcomes more refugees in its community. These vendors (specifically women) not only have to face the challenges of lacking a diverse and accepting community, but on top of that deal with strict nation regulations (some biased) against street-food. I plan to travel to these nations, explore the different communities, and understand how identities and culture are preserved through food and why some keep going despite all the resistance."

If you are interested in reading more about my personal narrative and the research behind this topic, refer to my practicum report below:

Practicum Report (beware it's a long read)

It still has not fully processed in my brain that I am going on this trip, and I don't think it will fully until I land in Incheon airport, it still may not process by then. This research means a lot to me and I am so excited to bring back the experiences and lessons back to Golden in January :)

Oh also! my best friend Alysa is joining me on this journey so I will make sure her thoughts and updates make it into the blog as well, she might even have her own section. This blog is one of the ways I will be providing updates on my journey, as well my other deliverables which I will talk more about in blogs to come... hehe...

That's all for now, I'll update you all from Seoul next!

love, 

Parmida