Today was my first day of teaching!
You know, on paper, my students in the UAE were as diverse as you could imagine - from all different countries, having lived all over the place, born "here" but from "there," or vice-versa. Yet in the classroom, I almost always found myself looking out at a sea of abayas and kanduras, or similar. There is one thing that is simply not done in the UAE and it's extreme or alternative dress. So even college students at the height of their experimental fashion stage of life pretty much stuck to the party line when it came to getting dressed for class.
Here in Finland, on paper, my students are all (seriously almost every single one) Finnish Finnish Finnish. And then they come in the classroom and it is such a variety of clothing styles and hairstyles and eye color and hair color - including pink and blue and so on! There was a man wearing pigtails with scrunchies! There were tattoos! There were short skirts! But with tights underneath because it is cold outside! It was a feast for the eyes and so different from what I'm used to.
It goes to show that diversity and variation can be seen in more ways than just country of origin (or just style of dress, to look at it the other way).
And here's a first day of teaching photo.
