The Soliya journey was a fulfilling experience that had added a lot to my life. The activities that I have participated in during the online sessions, the interview experience, and the insights I have gained from the shared topics and ideas have enhanced my knowledge, particularly in the intercultural sphere. I would like to reflect on my journey during conducting the survey, share my insights from the online se   ssions, and highlight the skills and challenges that I have learned and encountered.

To begin, I was required to interview 2 people about the topic: What practices in my country that foreigners view as unusual or weird? At first, I faced difficulties in finding people to interview who have knowledge about this. However, 2 of my friends decided to search about this topic for me to find answers for this interview. Additionally, I asked my Mum if she knew anything about weird practices in our country for foreigners, and she was knowledgeable and provided us with many options to discuss. After this, I decided to take 2 cultural practices in my country to include them within the survey of the interviews. I shared how foreigners view the strong family bonds in Egypt as an unusual habit, as we keep our family connections even if we become adults and are responsible. I also discussed how youth stay in their family house till they get married, even if they have their own income and are keen on visiting the family house weekly after getting married. Another weird aspect in my country that I have shared in the survey is the Fesikh meal, which many Egyptians prefer to eat. Foreigners see it as a disgusting habit since we eat dead fish, which we leave in boxes for months till they get spoiled. Actually, I enjoyed this experience and heard a lot about funny habits in my country that foreigners find surprising.

Next, I would like to reflect on the online sessions and my engagement with diverse perspectives and cultures. I liked the activities we had as we shared many insights that reflect our countries and identities. The activity about identity, which we wrote about several identity aspects that define us and started to delete them one by one based on the importance of each aspect, was enjoyable, particularly because I had an experience with this activity in my Global study course. Furthermore, we shared our opinions about different global topics like AI, and each one of us gave their opinions about issues like, will AI replace human jobs after a few years? Or can AI control the world and destroy human lives as portrayed in some movies?  These discussions demonstrated how we are close together as a world since we live in an era when all information and incidents are shared globally. Additionally, social media brings us together, breaking the barriers among nations. Moreover, we pointed out a topic about how we feel about our world today and shared our opinions based on our cultural backgrounds. Some from the Western countries shared their views, and we, as Muslims from the Eastern countries, shared our insights. We found conflicting opinions regarding the same point, which is conservatism, as Westerners view it as something negative, and we, as Arabs, see it as something positive and important in our culture. After our discussion, we realized that the concept of conservatism is different in the West from that of the East; therefore, the West views it as something negative or uncivilized. In addition, at the end of the program, we were asked about how we want to see the world, our country, and our social circle after 10 years in the future, and each one of us shared their wishes and desires about how do want to improve our society. I answered that we need to fix many things, like how we, for example, apply the Islamic rules in our country, and how leaders use this power just to keep their positions without thinking of the benefit of their nations. I have also discussed how the world needs to overcome discrimination and racism that, unfortunately, still exist in some countries, with the existence of laws that prohibit these practices. Therefore, all we need is to prioritize morals over anything and encourage a society where people act based on morals that move them, not only materialistic gains affecting their decisions.

As a result of this provocative journey, I gained some skills and faced some challenges. I became more knowledgeable about other cultures and identities, and had the chance to improve my English by listening to different accents. Additionally, I learned about new terms like the internal voice, in which we judge something based on our previous knowledge as we look for what is similar to it in our memory, and give our evaluation. I learned about this in an activity when we were told to listen to an animal’s voice and decide the species of the animal based on their voice. Most of us thought that it was a cat because we all know the voice of the cat, and the voice of the animal was similar to the cat’s. Thus, I am aware now of how to control my internal voice and prevent it from making assumptions about people before I deal with them. In addition, I faced some challenges because I am not a talkative person, so I did not always have the chance to engage in the discussions. I was a listener most of the time and talked during the activities or when someone asked me a question. Therefore, I think that this is a skill that I should foster in order to be able to have more global discussions in the future.

In conclusion, my participation in the Soliya program has added to my experience a lot of insights that will continue with me in my life. Tasks like the interviews or activities in the online sessions were beneficial in my journey and helped me develop different skills and discover what weaknesses I have in order to overcome. I hope I can have such a fulfilling journey in my future and meet sweet people like the ones I spent this nice journey with.