The Pod: Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian (MENASA) Edition

Hello, everybody. This is part three of a six-part series called The Pod. And just as a refresher, at the Cross-Cultural Center, we're built of pods within the team. So each pod represents a specific diaspora, like Chicanx. Today, we're going to be doing MENASA and we'll get more into what the acronym stands for and what it means. But yes, my name is Stephanie. And if you're coming back, thank you for coming back. I am from the Hispanic culture. And yeah, so if you want to introduce yourself. Thank you so much for having me, Steph. My name is Ava, Ava Jabarri, and I am a Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning major, and I also double major in International Relations. And I work in the MENASA pod, as Steph mentioned. And I've been at the CCC this year being my second year. And yeah, I'm happy for this show. It's really unique that you're doing this, Steph. So it's pretty awesome. Okay, cool. Perfect. And yours is a little special because it'll come out on a Monday, actually. Yeah, because when do the other ones come out? On Wednesdays, but with the Light Festival, there's two pods organizing it. So one's coming out on Wednesday. And since I'm recording yours first, it's going to be Monday. Fascinating. Well, if you didn't know, guys, shout out. We have Light Festival on May 2nd, 2026. It's a Saturday for you to all pull up. And welcome to all as well. Exactly. Yes. Okay, so two icebreakers. Oh, crap. I deleted the fun one. Can I see what I wrote? Oh, yeah. So actually, I'm going to be starting with the icebreaker stuff, Ready. If you could invent a holiday, what would it be? Oh, crap. I remember writing this down. I was like, I don't know what the answer would be, but it's okay. I don't have to answer. I really love Christmas. I think that's like the perfect holiday. I think it's just like the vibe of it. And I know not everybody celebrates. I actually have a friend who religiously, he does not celebrate Christmas. But he celebrates Christmas because of how like, well known it is. Like, it's just like, I don't know. But yeah, so I feel like some type of, I like a vacation day, a built in vacation day where you have absolutely, you can't work or anything. Yeah, work on school, work on schoolwork. Like frowned upon. Like, how dare you? Yeah. No, I've heard in some countries, they full on like limit the Wi Fi gigabites you have so that you full on have to like focus on stuff that's not on your phone. I really like that. Yeah, actually, that's a really good idea. Because I mean, for me, I am an American in a lot of ways. I grew up here. I'm also Iranian. And we have a lot of celebrations and like holidays that we celebrate, like that are Zoroastrian, like pre Islamic, and they like follow the solstices. And I think that's something that should be integrated in more cultures or be more widespread, because that's literally celebrating the changing of the seasons, which I think people just don't do as much in the Western world, at least. But I do like the idea of a built in holiday, like something where it's like, yeah, this day is like no one can work. Like I know we have President's Day, we have all these like, we have July 4, like national holidays. But it would be nice if those national holidays actually had like something substantial with them in terms of like, unplugging. So I really like that. Yeah, like a forceful unplug. And it might sound really bad. But it's like some people are addicted in like the way that your phone releases dopamine, like I literally got a flip phone the other day, literally in December, because I'm like, I'm gonna go into 2026 without my iPhone. Granted, it's an addiction for a reason. And I can't get it off my frickin hands. Like I can't let go of my iPhone because there's just too much I have to do with my iPhone. But after undergrad in the summer, I'm going to be very intentional about not using my phone, my iPhone. Are you going to switch to flip phone? Or what do you have both right now? I have both right now. And I want the flip phone to become more of like the like social phone and then my iPhone be more of like a work phone. Yeah, like I want to give my flip phone number out to like friends and family and have them contact me through there. And then iPhones more for like, I don't know, like medical bills. You know how you have to number in like random sh*t. Yeah. I mean, excuse me. So sorry. Hopefully everyone listening to this is over 18. No, yeah. But anyway, I like the idea of holiday. Yeah. But yeah, so it would be kind of, and I would want to integrate somehow in a sense where it makes you kind of like, because I grew up hanging out with my neighbor every single day. And granted, he was more of my brother's friend. Like even my neighbor, like across the street. She like I grew up hanging out with her and then she moved to like Rancho, which is like the neighboring, it would be like Dixon compared to Davis. You wouldn't see that, especially as a kid. What are you going to do? Drive over? But like sometimes seeing where it forces people to go outside and like talk to strangers like safely. But yeah. Okay. So you're your holiday. My holiday, I really I would like something like that. I can't really think of anything because even for like Iranian holidays, there is Sizdah Be-dar , which actually just happened a couple weeks ago, where it's the 13th day of the new year and the new year starts on the spring solstice. So after 13 days, you're supposed to be outside and having a picnic because 13 is an unlucky number. So you're supposed to be out in nature to like counteract any like evil energy and just be around people like eating food outside, enjoying spring is supposed to be a way for you to like counteract any unluckiness that you might take with you into the new year. So I really and that's kind of an unplugging holiday in a lot of ways. Yeah. So I don't know. I'm pretty content with the holidays I have in my culture. I don't think I need to add any. Yeah. Not gonna lie. Which is really cool. I never knew about that. And it's like so intentional in the background behind it. It really is. I got to say Zoroastrianism has so many really awesome holidays. Like in the summer from summer solstice, this is not as widely like a widely spread holiday because it's just not as tied to the new year because it's just summer. But it's a summer solstice and you're supposed to be by a body of water for that holiday or like have to sort of like it's also all surrounded by fire because in Zoroastrianism fire is the like thing that you like one of the things you worship along with the like God and everything in the process that they have. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. I'm pretty content. Yeah. Oh no. I want to celebrate your holidays now. Hey you should look it up. I suggest all people to look for into Zoroastrianism. It's a really cool holiday or religion. How do you Say that or how do you spell that Zoroastrianism. It's Z-O-R-O-Z-O-R-O-A-S-T Zoroastrianism is how you spell it. But like when you say it's a lot of people just say Zoroastrianism but it's Zoroastrianism. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yes. So Google that. So Google that. Yeah I recommend. Looking for a new religion. Check that one out. Exactly. Okay. So next up is a philosophical question. Which is do you think that morality is universally or culturally shaped. See I think morality is something that a lot of people think is innate. Like it's just something that everyone has like and they're born with kind of like good versus evil like that whole thing. Yeah. But I don't know if I would agree that it's universal because we draw the lines of morality as well as like how we shame and or correct each other in like a society. So I think I can in some religion not religion but like in some cultures cannibalism is OK. Like I know there's this like a culture in Africa where you like you know it's not the worst thing to eat person like it's like some sort of part of their culture. I can't speak on the exact details of it unfortunately. But I know that like stuff like that in the West that's like oh my God cannibalism like what. Yeah it's horrible. I mean there's so many cannibals that people like will be only like the pedestal of hate for like Jeffrey Dahmer like oh my God how could he. And obviously how could he he was a murderer. But but I think there is a line that is for sure like drawn by the society that you're operating in. So I think there's some things that are moral moral like innately like to kill someone like with like this like with a hate and stuff I think is something that is pretty universal. Yeah. But like the question of how it's perceived is for sure depicted by the society that you're in or like decided by the society you're in. Perceived as in like on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad it is. Exactly. I think because like I'm imagining like especially like thinking of like like the medieval ages or the dark ages in Europe. There's a lot of bad stuff that happened in those eras. Yeah. But I think in that time there's like worse things like there's like the scale of like horridness is drawn by the culture. Yeah. You know what I mean. And morality changes within years to like if you look at our society 100 years ago people were doing a lot of bad things and they're like yeah this is how it is. Exactly. So it really I mean it really depends. But there are some things where I think most humans can agree that that's like not moral. Yeah. Like even like stuff like betrayal. I think those are some pretty like something that's not even really like within laws or anything like not necessarily like even your friend betraying you and like doing something behind your back. Everyone kind of gets icked out by that. And that's kind of something that's amoral. But it's not the most amoral. See like in our society I wouldn't say to my friend betraying me is like on like a scale of 1 to 10 like 10 like they deserve to be punished horribly. And it also depends on what the betrayal is. And that too. So there's a lot of I think gray area but a lot of that gray area is defined by culture because humans love rules. Yeah. Culture really is. A lot of things are just rules like that. So that's my answer to the question. Okay. Perfect. Okay. So I hope that answers it. I think it did. You did a really good job at it. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. So this one is sort of a two part question. The first one is what does MENASA stand for. And then after I think the listeners get more of an understanding they'll know how broad this diaspora is. How do you deal with representing such a diaspora or such a broad diaspora. That's a good question because they're like for instance Sequoya who is just on the podcast. She represents like Native American like indigenous pod kind of right. Yeah. In a lot of ways because of the traumas that the Native American communities in America have faced there's like maybe this sense of universality that there's like maybe a shared trauma or some sort of like bonding thing. But in the MENASA culture there's a lot that I think divides us too. So like we're because every like it's really hard to say and like compare cultures to cultures. That's maybe not the best way to go about this. But to define it for the audience MENASA stands for Middle East North African like the first letters and then South Asia. So already you can tell that we're going over three different regions. Yeah. Like there's kind of commas in between each of those. So Middle East even in and of itself is a really interesting term because it's called the Middle East because it's in relation to the Europe to Europe like how we used to call China and like the rest of East Asia. We used to call it Far East. Oh I didn't know that. Yeah. And then Middle East is the middle of that you know so like that's the far this is the middle and then the Near East was like Turkey Anatolia and then the rest is the West like Europe and America is etc. So it's all like in this weird relational definition which isn't even something that a lot of people identify with today. But technically geographically if you're not sure what Middle East even is geographically it's West Asia. So it's like the continent of Asia on the western side. And yeah but North Africa that really encompasses a lot of current Arab countries and stuff like Morocco is there Tunisia pretty sure a lot of countries like Sudan like all those are in the continent of Africa and then South Asia like India Pakistan all these like geographic terms basically but it is pretty broad. Yeah hella broad. Yeah. And it is hard I think representing them all because I myself I'm just Iranian like I'm not going to lie I don't. There's a lot of people who are mixed within the diasporas and stuff like or like even in general like even in the actual countries people who connect with multiple countries there. I only have a connection to one. So it does make it hard sometimes to represent different people and what their needs are what they want to see from their pod. But that's why I always try to collaborate with like registered cultural clubs on campus in order to give them a platform and be able to represent them. My specialty event outside of light festival is the MENASA Movie Spotlight series where I collab with our so last one was the Arab Student Union and we've also done I think the Desi Student Association and ISO Iranian Student Organization. So we collab with each of them and like each MENASA Movie Spotlight we spotlight a movie from their country or their region of their choice and we cater food and it's like a great time to watch a movie together learn about that culture and have a discussion about the film and what's going on in that country and like what people learned about that country et cetera etc etc. So I think for me it is hard to do this but it's just great because it also gives me an opportunity to learn. Yeah which is also an amazing way to approach it is just by the best way to learn is from somebody who actually has been in that culture knows more about it second hand because you can Google it and do your research but it's not going to be the same as getting that first hand personal experience that somebody has. Exactly. You don't want to offend people like I would have to do something that's like for a specific group of people and they're like this is not all accurate and I would be like oh I'm sorry like I don't know because I could do my best with Iranian stuff but even then a lot of Iranians disagree with my takes. So I think in general being able to lead with community or leading with like a collaborative mindset is so essential to a role like this. Exactly. Yeah. All right. So what signature event does the MENASA pod host and what is this event. So when where why what can you expect to see there. Yes. Thank you for asking. As I've mentioned on Saturday May 2nd of this year we're hosting my festival which is in collaboration with the API pod Asian and Pacific at pod to the CCC as well as Lotus Mona Center and we're collaborating with the like Mesa studies which is Middle Eastern South Asian studies departments. There's a lot of hands on deck here but basically like festival is a celebration of these two diasporas the MENASA culture and API culture coming together. And our theme this year if I'm not mistaken is bridges of of resilience light. I believe so. Yeah. But it's kind of the point of the event is to bring together our cultures and celebrate unity and through the metaphor of light. And we're really excited. We're going to have vendors from like this like vendors from both these diasporas as well as others. And the theme is thank you for bringing it up. Bridges of light a celebration of resilience. Exactly. But it's from 2 to 2 I think 8 p.m. Yes 2 to 8 p.m. on the East Quad. And along with these vendors and like food vendors which are really really really yummy I'm very excited. Our activity booths like Henna and Tatris I believe and even making like perfume making like or cologne making. And we're also going to have a live DJ and performances so a lot of cultural clubs and like solo artists and stuff from the UC Davis community and or Davis community will be coming out and showcasing their art forms. And it's really really exciting. Yeah. For the henna because I know last year and I actually had this professor while this was happening but one of the UC Davis professors performed it right. Yeah yeah. Like you mean Dr. Shigufta or Professor Shigufta. I believe I do I only know her first name. Well it's her first name. I think it was Fatima. Oh yeah. Yeah I think so. I mean I forget if that's her first name too. My bad if you're listening to this or anyone who's a student either. But yes it is like a UC Davis professor or lecturer who is the person primarily holding the activity booth. Yeah it's pretty exciting. It's really just a community effort to get everyone out. Yeah I think the same goes for a lot of signature events. I actually at Aggie day some some dad like his child was coming to Davis and like exploring and he's looking at the signature event flyer and he was La Gran Tardeada and he's like my band performed there and he's from SoCal. Oh really. Which is such a like I feel like that's crazy. Yeah I'm not gonna lie. I think also excuse me getting over a cold but there are a lot of signature events right. And a lot of them have a deeper history than light festival. Unfortunately light festival is the baby of the group. So we don't have a lot of precedent. Is it the third year. I think so. Yeah it's a third year. It started off as a 20 in like 2015. There was a night market that bloomed now into this. So it really started more like small scale like like vendor to vendor type and the CCC kind of helped bring her up into this new I guess form. And yes our third year I believe. Yeah which is amazing because we have so many signature events and then we're already like grouping this big thing so it's good that they at least get their own signature event you know. Yeah that's true. Yeah because almost every every pod has an event like Powwow was the 50th annual this year which is the native pod and then Black Family Day is also pretty long standing. I just walked by a poster saying Black Family Day 1972 like in Hart Hall here. that's the year my mom was born. Oh my god twin. But yeah basically a lot of these events have this like long standing history. We're just getting started. So that's why we love to see you guys come out. Give us your feedback. It's really it's like blossoming. It's like a toddler. So yeah any directions like any guidance anyone has advice and so many changes like even within this year last year like festivals in the fall quarter now it's in the spring quarter. So exactly exactly. What are you personally most excited about for this year's festival. Me personally. Oh here's something you get to advertise. Well we kind of started actually so follow our Instagram. Well this isn't coming out for like another two weeks. Oh well yes. Oh perfect. We'll probably do that by then. But basically we are having a photo booth which is going to be unique. We haven't had this before. It's a new idea we had where we basically are going to have like this really cool backdrop. It's going to be obviously incorporating motifs from both diasporas like both Asian and Pacific Islander and MENASA. And little signs and then we're going to have like a Polaroid and then also you can obviously use your phone. But it's just a cool interactive thing that we're having this year and we're really excited. So we can take a momento to home with them. And we're also doing a giveaway which is something we haven't done before either I believe. So it's going to be fun. We're going to give out swag because our designer for both our T-shirt and the stickers at the light festival Aggie Baggie. Chloe if you're listening to this shout out or anyone who likes Chloe. She's awesome. She designed us a lot of stickers and stuff and she was sweet enough to give us a lot of extra swag for this giveaway. So we're also doing a giveaway which we also hope gets people hype and there's a freaking cutest cutest little stickers. So yeah. Yeah. That's another thing that I'm really excited about. Just being able to spotlight a artist like that too is really awesome. And then I believe the giveaway ends May 1st is that right? Yes I believe so. Yeah. As of posting this people can still. What are the requirements? You have to follow our Instagram tag a friend and then one tag one entry and unlimited tags. Yeah. So enter today. They're nice stickers. I don't use stickers but she makes me want to use stickers. Yeah. She's pretty awesome too. Just the sweetest sweetest person. OK. And then so I kind of briefly talked about this but last year Light Festival was in fall and this year is in spring. And I know last year was your first year and kind of like starting in the fall. I don't know how much involvement you technically had with the Light Festival but do you have any thoughts on this? Well I did in fact start that fall so it was like they started like our team started working on Light Fest planning in the summer. And I barely knew what I was doing. I barely knew what my role was with even my pod like MENASA Movie Spotlight hadn't even been born. So I was really just like in the thick of it. Are you the founder of the MENASA Movie Spotlight? Yes technically I am. OK cool. So hopefully whoever takes on my role likes to keep it going. But basically yeah I didn't have much involvement I'm not going to lie to you. I was very much so like yeah it sounds good. You guys know best you guys know best like just doing whatever you will need me to do. I was the MC which was really really fun. Yeah you remember because you were there too right? I think I got up there for a second yeah and MC'd with you. There you go. It was really fun. Yeah like that was pretty awesome. But my involvement in general of the planning logistics was very limited just because of my freshness to the role. But the fact that we've changed to the spring was because I think this might be tea but hopefully it's OK being shared because to my knowledge this is just public knowledge. We had it in the fall but then people of the Davis community did not like that. They felt like if we're hosting all of our signature events in the spring it's best to have like festival also in the spring. It just feels more unified. It feels more like life has given the same amount of like opportunity and like planning opportunity and stuff like because obviously planning it in the summer and things it's not given the amount of like attention it could probably deserve. And it does deserve. And we're very happy to have it in the spring. I mean it gives us more time to acclimate in our roles like Johanna and Omar my co- Well Johanna is not my Co But Omar is my co and Johanna is on the A and PI team they are also new to the CCC so they’re very essential to getting work done so the fact that we are doing it in the spring now gives him time to acclimate to their role before getting into it. It is also very interesting in terms of logistics, which I found out this past weekend, but La Gran Tardeada used to be Memorial Day weekend, which isn’t the best because people go home and are not necessarily that much active so I believe our director who joined in 2023, which is fairly recent. I did not know that. Joe? Yeah oh I know yeah he’s not like long-standing. He’s really new to like you and I yeah literally the yea I started at Davis yeah but so the way that it worked was, I believe he talked to. I believe it was somebody in admissions and was like hey can we have half the quad for? I don’t know if it was transfer day but some type of day where they share the quad and then there’s more people that there’s already people on the quad for that event so we made that trade-off and they are basically like yeah you can have half the quad as long as we get to do sign with intent to register at the cross cultural center, which honestly I feel like that’s a win-win for us because more people know about us and then we switch black family day to Memorial Day weekend just because black family has a stronger standing with it. It has more of a following. Interesting and it took years not years maybe years I don’t know, but it took time to plan in the sense where he had to make that agreement. You know In making that change isn’t just like an oh yeah I want to change it to this day type yeah yeah there’s a lot more logistical and like background stuff happening that’s cool and honestly yeah that does kind of make that make sense it got la gran tardesda. More Attention Last Year. A few people came up to me and were like what’s this and and yeah OK cool. That’s awesome. So back to MENASA. What is your favorite MENASA event that you’ve hosted or attended well this is probably a little bias but I do love my MENASA movie spotlight. I’m not going to lie to you because it’s also such a low effort thing for me to plan in a lot of ways. I’ve also gotten so in the hang of planning it that it’s very streamlined at this point but it’s good because movies are just such a great way to connect with people. Do you when you play the movies? Are they originally in English? Do you play them in their original language translate them? How does that work? Yeah so we have to use just for logistical reasons too the university lets us advertised films that are on kanopy which they have rights to advertise and stuff so if you don’t know. Also, you have access to kanopy.com through the UC Davis library and it’s a huge plethora of awesome movies Fictional one documentaries any. There’s a lot to choose from. Quick little. You also have as a student. You have access to HBO Max for free. Oh my gosh, there you go. Hey, giving you resources. That’s what the CCC does exactly. But yeah we use that so because of that, a lot of them have to have like if they are a language. If they’re filmed in a language, that’s other than English. They have subtitles in English, so it’s like built in. Basically which is great but it keeps original audio. Yeah which is cool. Yeah, I think there might be an option to change it. But honestly whenever I do that. I made that conscious decision not to change the language because I think also people who want to watch it in their original language should be given the option, especially if you’re collaborating with the club that is of that cultural heritage, or that language background so more opportunity for them to also hear the language spoken and feel seen so we don’t lose that nuance either. I think a lot gets lost in translation whenever you do that type of things so we keep it in the OG language but we have a subtitles and the events themselves. I’ve heard such great feedback from. Yeah people are like. Oh my God. I found my favorite movie. That was a great movie. The discussion was good and nobody can beat free food come we’re college students. I believe that they even because you do the movie spotlight on the MENASA community. The African Diaspora pod has done it as well. And yeah we did Sinnerd recently. Is that what you mean? Yeah sinners and I feel like they got the inspiration from you low-key they did. I talked to my supervisor Makhi. Who’s also the supervisor to the African pod and he said it was low-key inspirational, so he had all the background like from helping me. Organize my awesome movie, spotlight. He felt like he can transfer those skills too to that, so I think in general movies are great way to connect with people and low effort for the planners. In a lot of ways. Like an hour of the event is just watching the movie. So easy. It’s a win-win all around exactly. All right. So you’ve mentioned some of your co’s but you’ve been here for two years. So you’ve had two different co’s right? You had Asif last year and Omar this year. Technically also Manveer last year because Asif graduated early, so we had somebody else step in Manveer, and to my understanding they’re from different culture right like they’re from. We try yeah but how have you kind of used to your advantage or has it helped you learn anything more about them and also community? Yeah, I think whenever we hire people, it’s always something we want to keep in mind is because how wide the breath is of the region. We do want our pod to be as divers as possible as well. So like Omar, he’s Palestinian and I’m Iranian so we already come from different backgrounds and he’s religious where I am not so there are some really great differences between us in terms of our own background and what we want to do at the CCC, which makes our pod even stronger, so I think in that way we try to do that. Like even last year when I was at the CCC Manveer I believe. I don’t know what religious background she was but she was Indian and South Asian and Asif was from Bangladesh not Bengali. I’m showing my my knowledge of geography but basically yes he’s from Bangladesh so we had that diversity which was really great and then with Omar coming in with more of a personal understanding of Arabic culture and stuff has also been great. And you don’t necessarily have to be part of that culture to be part of that pod because one of our program coordinator Monica she represents with the Latinx culture, and she is the supervisor for Native American, culture, and and Asian and Pacific Islander, culture, and kind of to the extend of not necessarily being raised with that culture. I do believe she does an amazing job. she does absolutely amazing. And she also makes an active effort to kind of reach out to people like whether that be. Directors from UC Davis or schools from other places like schools in Sacramento to get more knowledgeable of what that culture is how to celebrate it. What are the customs? Yeah yeah I think there is for sure. Like we are not exclusionary so if whoever wants to apply and join the CCC like you’re more than welcome to, but I think at least and the way that we hire or like we do hiring at least in MENASA part for scholar staff. We do give like that priority to people who have that connection. Just because it reflects with what the pod needs. But yeah there’s for sure. No exclusionary. It’s just like we tried to give the voices of that region. Like I guess opportunity yeah and there’s also many opportunities within the cross-cultural center. Yes, there is like if you don't represent. If you don’t identify with MENASA, there’s a chicanx pot and Asian and Pacific Islander. And if you don’t feel like you want to contribute to community planning. There are other stuff like what you do. Yeah I’m in admin, so nothing really cultural base. It’s more like behind the scenes work. There’s campus climate, which is also not necessarily culture base, but more of like advocacy in general. And I believe that’s it. Yeah yeah yeah. Yeah. Exactly. In administration pod you. And yeah it’s good. I mean the CCC has something for everything. So if you ever wanna work here we hire into the winter going into the spring. So keep your eyes on Handshake. We also have VIPs volunteer intern program. Oh, and I think we actually I don’t know when the application closes, but we are looking for an a and PI community scholar staff currently so if you want to get more involved, check that out. OK, so next question is what is your favorite part about your culture? That’s a hard one because there’s a lot I’m not going to lie. I feel like I’d take it for granted too, so with of the holidays is that you were talking about? Is like a huge thing. Honestly yeah I think that’s probably one of my more favorite things about being Iranian. Is that the emphasis of holidays that connected to nature I think that’s so awesome. Like I don’t really identify with the January Western New year. It never really stood out to me. I’m not going to lie as a kid. I was like OK. Yeah party night. OK yeah countdown like super cool but it’s not like I never felt different. I don’t know it was just like winter break was over. You know what I mean like go back to school, but I really do love the Nowruz celebration which is the new yea and Nowruz means new day, so basically in new year new day and it’s when spring is here, so that’s the Iranian new year and even today in Iran. The calendar restarts in that day. And you even made a celebration with that part of your club. I did yeah so as background. I’m also president of the Iranian student organization for our listeners to know, but yeah, we do a celebration every year for Nowruz and it’s usually obviously it’s towards the end of the winter which sucks. Just because of the timing, so it is kind of a weird time to go to a week in celebration when you have finals to study for but it is really awesome. I think people really do love it. just because it is such an awesome holiday and it symbolizes something really meaningful for everyone. Like spring is here. Everyone connects with that, so yeah, which does make a lot more sense because spring like the flowers are blossoming. That just kind of feels more like. Oh wow new start. Yeah new start. Yeah like you are ready to get out of your hibernation. It’s great, but I mean one thing else I wanna highlight about Iranian is like of culture. It’s really funny. It’s basically when you offer someone something. Does that make sense no OK so taarof. It’s basically like the social construct. It’s like a concept cultural traditional whatever. And it’s basically when you offer something to someone out of courtesy and then the person is supposed to say no like a couple times. Like you know what I mean. If someone comes over it like here, have fruit and the person like the guest is like no no no it’s OK like that’s the ritual. It’s the taarof so where the guess I don’t wanna impose. It’s OK exactly. So many people have something similar like it’s pretty cross-cultural but I think it’s fun. Do they eventually accept is that part of the, yes. So if someone offers I think the assumption is so if somebody offers you something three times at that point, they’re actually offering you something OK yeah so if they offer you twice it’s like and they don’t. And after you say no. The second time like they didn’t actually want to give it to you. It was just out of courtesy that they’re offering it to you. But if they keep offering and at that point, it would be rude if you say, no that many times because then it’s like. No. They actually wanna give it to you like bro. Take it so that’s a little thing. I’m sure they’re similarities like you’re Hispanic, right? Do you have something similar Steph? The only thing I can think of is anytime. My boyfriend comes over to eat at my house. My mom she’ll give them the most food. I feel like I like I eat an average amount. I think my boyfriend is like a foot taller than me so so he eats more because you know bigger but she’ll be like. Oh, do you want some more and he out of niceness goes like oh yeah like he. But he’s genuinely so full like he’s struggling to eat that last bite and my mom she’s she’s him finished and she’s like oh do you want more more more? And it’s just like that constant giving them more food and assuming that they’re never full. But yeah, that is something too. That’s also pretty similar but I guess that wouldn’t be tarrof because she actually wants him to keep eating. It’s not like she’s just offering more food. It’s like no take it and like the last time I was like. No he doesn’t want anymore. And it had cheese in it and he’s like this lactose intolerant. And I’m like he’s like to lactose intolerant. I don’t think I actually said that, but I’m like no he doesn’t want anymore and she looks at him and she’s goes don’t listen to her. Oh my God and gives him the food. That’s hilarious. The way she was like. No. No no. No. Ne and you you yea we have a bond. You’re right. You’re going to eat more of my food but yeah all right, so what other places on campus and you kind of touched on this with your club but what other places on campus can people connect with the MENASA community? We just opened, Well, not because people have a misconception about MENAS a title like that we are also like intertwined with the MENASA resource center which is a misconception , we ate not part part so we work differently Yeah, which is a misconception. We are not Yeah, so we work differently My pod is in the CCC house in the CCC. My bosses are in the CCC But the MENASA Resource Center is now another center I mean, it's been a resource for students for a while, but they just recently got a new location and like an actual like center to host people etc And that's on the second floor of the SCC so or the student community center and I think that's also another great resource for MENASA students just because it is like It's like for that community and everything. It's very like intentional in that way and They have a CAN counselor, Dr. Sarah Rubelt, and if those who don't know You get a certain amount of therapy sessions for free at UC Davis. Fun fact Yes, and it is limited but they designed their course in a way that helps you the most with that limited time Exactly, and then CAN counselors are community advisory network counselors who specialize in serving a certain community and Dr. Rubelt, she specializes in international students and the MENASA community So she's pretty awesome. That's a great resource for students, but some other place on campus I guess or just other RSOs, you know student running clubs ISO is great We do a lot for the Iranian community But we also collaborate with a lot of other clubs and we want to be accessible to everyone Even if you're not Iranian, like please come. You want to learn more about Iranian culture? You want to hang out with your Iranian friends and meet more Iranian people? Whatever the reasoning is as long as you're chill and like, you know, we chill like girl come pull up It's an amazing community. So there's that and There's other clubs like ASU I mentioned Pakistani Student Association is there a Lot a lot of clubs. Yeah All right. Well, thank you so much for coming on Of course And I really appreciate it the time that you took to come. Your insight, you're very knowledgeable in your culture and within like the whole MENASA community as well. I've gained a lot of knowledge over the last few years. I can't believe I'm graduating this spring. It's like crazy Congratulations on that as well. Thank you. End of an era. End of an era and the beginning of a new one because you're going to grad school Aren't you? I am, I am, I am. Anyone in San Diego? Find me. Oh, you decided on the grad school? Yes. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. I think my little brother is deciding between Davis and San Diego So you might see me over there someday. Hey, you know how to find me. Exactly All right. So the last little tidbit is do you know how to say thank you for listening in your native language? Yes, I do the language that I will be speaking in is Farsi or Persian and It's the Iranian dialect Fun fact Farsi spoken or Persian spoken across Central Asia as well Tajikistan speaks it and Afghanistan there's Dari. A lot of people know this language So hopefully a lot of people that are not just Iranian can understand what I'm saying But how you say thank you for listening is Merci que Gushkardin be in podcast basically merci or if you want to say in a less anglicized way because we took mercy from the French Technically, it's French influence. It's What is it actually Tashakor, I guess Tashakor. Yeah, Tashakor for the word. Thank you. Yeah for thank you. Okay, cool Yeah, or Mamnoon. Mamnoon ken gushkardin. There's a couple words. Merci, Mamnoon, Tashakor So anyway, Merci que gushkardin That's the most natural one for me to say. Okay, I was gonna try and say but I was like that is very Oh, you can do it Merci que gushkardin Gushkardin Gushkardin Gushkardin Gushkardin Gushkardin Yeah, thank you So bye-bye everybody Bye