Steph's Blog

About two weeks ago I went to the orientation for my organization. I thought it was going to be super long and boring, but they actually had some interesting information. Before we got started they handed us a citizenship test…it was a lot harder than I thought. Sadly I only scored 10 out of 20. How am I supposed to know who becomes President if both the President and the vice-president should die?!?! (In case you were wondering it’s the Speaker of the House of Representatives) After that they informed us more about affordable housing. Housing is considered “affordable� when no more than 30% of a person’s income is spent on housing. On average, the residents can only afford $338 per month for rent. In order for a taxi driver to own their own 3-bedroom house they would have to pay 89% of their income! From now on I’m going to start tipping a lot better. Not only do immigrants have a hard time adjusting financially, there are also a lot of cultural differences. For example, East Africans aren’t accustomed to shaking hands and some kids wont look adults in the eyes because it’s a sign of respect. Also, time isn’t as stressed in their culture, so the kids are always late. However, that’s something I can totally relate to because I’m always late! I really can’t believe how much of an eye opening experience this is. I’m so glad I chose to take this class because I’m learning so much.