4A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 20
PROFILE
Homesickness inspires Mongolian student's poetry
BY SACHIKO MIYAKAWA smiyakawa@kansan.com
Undarmaa Pirenlei writes down verses immediately whenever they come to mind. Her poems emerge from her encounters with people, the events of everyday life and her emotions. But Pirenlei's poems capture something else: her inner struggle of her new life in the U.S.
Pirenlei came to the U.S. from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in 2002. She was a high school exchange student in Phenix City, Ala. She enrolled at Johnson County Community College right after the exchange program.
She transferred to the University in 2007 and is a senior this semester. She is one of five Mongolian international students at the University.
In one poem, "Soliorol," which means "madness" in Mongolian, Pirenlei expressed her trials with life in a new country.
"I was a talkative girl in Mongolia." Pirenlee said. "I felt like I was a little baby here. When I tried to say something, people sometimes didn't understand me."
spective to class discussions, talking about her experience overseas.
"She's a very articulate woman with a great perspective," said Russel, who taught Pirenlei in spring 2008.
She said writing poems allowed her to release emotion.
Stephanie Russel, graduate teaching assistant in Humanities and Western Civilization, said Pirenlei brought a different per-
She said Pirenlei's emphasis on community sometimes shocked her students who took individualism for granted.
Pirenlei said she has faced fewer problems as her English improved. However, she said people's lack of understanding about Mongolia sometimes bothered her.
She said one of her instructors at JCCC laughed at her name. Also, she said some Americans thought all Mongolians were nomadic and barbaric.
Udarnama Pairenlei, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia senior, immigrated to the United States in 2002. Pirenlei is double majoring in political science and economics.
"I cannot ride a horse. I'm from a city," Pirenlei said. "Some people just don't get what other people are like and live outside of their world."
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, junior and Pirenlei's friend at the University, said she had a strong sense of justice. He said he always enjoyed discussing everything from politics to things happening at the University with her.
Pirenlei has returned to Mongolia twice since 2002. She said she experienced counter-culture shock when she went back to Mongolia last winter. She saw many poor people living in her city. She said she felt guilty at her comfortable life in the U.S. The trip made her determined to eventually pursue a government job in Mongolia and improve lives of the poor.
Ider-Od Bat-Erdene.
He said she had strong opinions, which Pirenlei said was different than girls in Mongolia.
Jerry Wang / KANSAN
There, she said, girls cared more about harmony than causing trouble by being opinionated.
Pirenlei is majoring in political science and economics at the University. She said she planned to attend graduate school.
Pirenlei said an American college degree would bring her to better job opportunities when she returned to Mongolia, which she plans to do after graduate school.
Coming to the U.S. helped her prepare for a life on her own after school. She said in her hometown of Ulaanbaatar, capital city of Mongolia, many college students lived with their parents. Living away from her parents in another country prepared her to be a more independent person, she said.
"She's younger than me, but she seems more mature," said Meng Li, Shijiazhuang, China, graduate student and Pirenlei's roommate.
she didn't do well in school.
Li said she always enjoyed Pirenlei's quick humor and said she always made her feel better when
Pirenlei said she made herself feel better by writing. She has written more than 150 poems; many of them are about her home.
She said it was difficult for her not to be able to go back home and spend time with her family whenever she wanted to. She felt that
way particularly when her grandfather passed away.
Some of her poems appeared in an American Mongolian newspaper in Columbia, Mo. One of her friends recommended she show her poems to a publisher in Mongolia. Her collective work was published as one book in Mongolia
in 2006. The book took the name of her poem, "Soliorol."
"People who live away from their home will like my poems," Pirenlei said.
NATIONAL
Edited by Ramsey Cox
Experts expect Fannie, Freddie bailout to help,to an extent
NEW YORK — The government's historic bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sunday will be good news to homebuyers and some homeowners hoping to refinance if it leads to lower mortgage rates, as experts expect.
But for homeowners already behind on their mortgage payments, or who owe more than their homes are now worth, the
plan unveiled Sunday by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson offers little in the way of extra relief.
"The bailout will give the mortgage industry a stability that we haven't had in a couple of years," said Rich Cosner, president of Prudential California Realty. "But frankly no, it won't help [struggling borrowers] to refinance."
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a critical and increasingly dominant role in the mortgage market. The companies buy
mortgage loans from banks and package those loans into securities that they either hold or sell to U.S. and foreign investors. That allows traditional lenders like Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual to make more loans.
Together, Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee about $5 trillion in home loans, about half the nation's total. But an alarming number of those loans started going into default, draining the
While not a cure-all, the bailout is still a step in the right direction, industry observers say. It will at least "keep the lanes in the
companies' financial reserves and sending a chill through credit markets worldwide. As investors grew more skittish, borrowing costs started rising.
By placing Fannie and Freddie into a conservatorship, the government is promising investors that the companies' debt is as safe as the Treasury Department's.
If mortgage rates fall, that will attract more potential buyers into the market, which, in turn, will help to prop up home prices, he said.
mortgage freeway open," said Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com, possibly putting the market on the road to recovery.
He expects mortgage rates on a conventional, 30-year fixed-rate home loan to fall over the next few weeks as the dust settles on the
bailout. Rates, which now average 6.35 percent, could fall as much as half a percentage point, he said. But continued investor wariness and a depreciating housing market will keep rates from dropping further.
Government officials declined to speculate on how much mortgage rates would be affected,but said they hoped government control would allow the companies to focus on their mission of supporting the housing market.