Sri Lankan Student Finds Home in Glendale
Online Exclusive
Daniel Choi
Issue date: 11/11/09 Section: Features
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To uproot, leaving family, friends and an expected lifestyle behind made the decision to study in the U.S. difficult, but he chose to answer opportunity's call.
Now three years older and wiser since first stepping foot on American soil, the 21-year-old Vidanapathirana has grown accustomed to American culture.
He had studied English in Sri Lanka, and even received high enough marks on the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam to earn a school scholarship.
As for immersing himself into a foreign land and culture, he did so easily.
"It's a different culture here, but getting used to the culture and speaking to people in English was not a problem … it was actually fun," he said. "I didn't get a huge culture shock and I have many relatives here so it was easy for me to get used to it.
The driving pattern was basically the huge thing. I came to my cousin's house from the airport and they were driving from the other side. In Sri Lanka, we drive from the left side."
Reminiscing about life back in Sri Lanka lights up his face, from running around with friends to sharing deep conversations. However, not all memories brought about nostalgia.
What many Americans of this generation cannot even fathom, war on the home front, Vidanapathirana could hear its' sounds from his bedroom.
An on-and-off civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a militant group demanding for the creation of an independent state, terrorized the citizens of the country from 1983 to 2009.
"You never knew where bombs were going to explode, and they would go off at anytime," he recalled. "Sometimes in banks and other populated places, suicide bombers would attack. I can remember the fires and reports coming from newspapers and the television.
"It was kind of crazy, but not on the level of Pakistan, where there were bombings all the time," he said. "But to some level, the fear was there. We were taught to defend ourselves."
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