Bahrain: The pleasures and perils of studying abroad · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Although Bahrain has a number of universities, both government and private, many Bahrainis have the opportunity to go abroad to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate studies, often by means of scholarships. One of the first problems they face is that few people know where Bahrain is. In this post we hear about the experiences of three bloggers who have just gone abroad for higher studies, to Japan, Britain and the United States, and a fourth blogger who has been studying in India for some time.
Cradle of Humanity has just gone to study in Cleveland, Ohio, and she is feeling a little frustrated:
I sometimes dread it when people ask where I come from.  Not more than 10% of people who hear “Bahrain” as answer have some sort of idea where that country might be, but that’s not my cause of annoyance. For those who know that Bahrain is indeed in the Persian Gulf, there is one thing that comes to mind – wealth. Some people might ask, but it’s those who assume who annoy me the most. For the past two months I made a lot of friends, mainly Indians given the demographics of the student body in my program. Despite the fact that most of these are actually Indian elites, owners of chains of businesses and are wealthy themselves – they love to point out that I must be wealthy. When at some occasions I said just that, it appeared that some have the notion that we’re unnecessarily wealthy, that is, it’s undeserved wealth; while theirs is hard worked for. Oh, and they use Bahrain and Dubai interchangeably.
-    Public transport here is not very good, but getting a car is very expensive. I would’ve got one
–    Used or new?
–    Used, I’m only here for a short period of time.
–    Get a new one it’s better
–    It’ll be much more expensive
–    But you come from Bahrain, you can buy a car!
-    You mean you’re not rich?
–    Actually, no.
–    Everyone in Dubai was rich.
–    I don’t know about that, but not everyone in Bahrain is rich.
Yagoob, who has just arrived in Nagoya, has to deal with something even more basic – language:
To be honest, the culture shock has hit me very hard! Hardly anyone I’ve met so far had the slightest knowledge of the English language. I feel like a 21st century caveman, trying to communicate with the most primitive of ways, hand waving and speaking English in a very slow and loud way. […] My dorm room is quite Japanese, extremely tiny and everything is earthquake proof so it’s like living in an aluminium sardine can. Many of the things I have around the room seem to have instructions on it, but all in Japanese so I have no idea how they work so far! […] The subway is quite reminiscent to the London Tube except that it’s much cleaner and a person like me sticks out like a sore thumb (as if a tall fat sweaty hairy Arab wouldn’t stick out anywhere). […] The people of Nagoya seem to have never met a Bahraini before, at least that’s what the people at my dorm office say, although I am surprised that they know where it is (maybe because of the many hard fought battles on the football pitch over the last few years) and when I chatted with one of my Chinese neighbours, ‘Andy’, he said, “Aah, you are from West Asia!” I guess I am…especially when I’m in the Far East.
MuJtAbA AlMoAmEn studies in India, and tells us what he likes about being there:
Bride Zone has just arrived in the UK to study, and she is missing home: