Culture at Pitt

Growing up outside of Philadelphia I always thought that I was pretty exposed to different cultures. I was wrong. Coming to the University of Pittsburgh opened my eyes to so many different cultures that I could not wait to understand and explore.

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I am extremely German. Both of my grandparents (my Oma and Opa) immigrated to Staten Island, New York knowing no English and just hoping for a better life. I am proud of the life they have built here for my mom and our family. They chose to teach themselves English and immerse them in the American culture. I went to Germany for six weeks before my senior year of high school. I was enthralled with the beauty and history bundled up in the naturally beautiful country that Germany is. I was able to visit my Oma’s last living immediate relative, Uncle Heiny, as she was the youngest of five. Here at Pitt, I have made the leap to minor in German. As I want to be a Physicians Assistant, minoring in German is not a resume builder since they do not even have physicians assistants in Germany. I am doing it for myself and for the opportunity to further my knowledge in the culture I am a part of. That is one step in my multi-step journey to expand my cultural knowledge.

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Step two was an experience in my second semester. I made a friend on my floor named Lina, and she is Pakistani. I always expressed to her my interest in her culture, particularly the spectacular weddings they throw called, Shaadi’s. I weirdly grew up watching a version of Pride and Prejudice called Bride and Prejudice, which was a Bollywood version of the story, with more color and corny singing. This movie made me so fascinated by middle eastern and south Asian weddings. The colors, traditions, food, and the list goes on and on. Lina was an active part of PSA, which stands for the Pakistani Student Association and she told me about an open event they have each semester where they throw a mock Shaadi. I needed to immediately know the date of the amazing event so I could block it out of my schedule.

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The whole event was a dream come true. PSA teamed up with SASA, which is South Asian Student Alliance to put this whole thing together. They actually ‘married’ a guy from PSA and a girl from SASA where they wore traditional outfits and danced together. They both even had one of their friends give a speech, like a wedding speech, for them. The whole thing, to me at least, felt so real and amazing. They had dance groups from campus preform. The food was also authentic. In reality these celebrations usually last longer than three hours, they typically last closer to three days, but I felt honored to have a little snippet into their cultures.

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Pitt has so many great cultural groups on campus that are always having different open events, and my advice is to go out there and experience these events they offer.

My friends and I at the Mock Shaadi

Henna I gave myself for the event