Culture Shock

When I returned from Europe last year, several people contacted me wanting to get together for a coffee to ask me about my experiences teaching abroad. Total strangers....friends of friends who knew someone who knew me. What the heck? I'm no anomaly. I'm just a gal who took life by the seat of its pants and decided to live a little. Nothing special. Nothing unique really. I didn't just sail around the world solo for the first time or anything else remotely noteworthy. But people were acting as though I'd done something worth talking about. They wanted to know how I'd started my venture teaching abroad, how I found the course, how I found living abroad, what was traveling as a solo 40 something woman like etc... Okay, after 3 or 4 of these coffee "dates" I decided it might be more efficient to bring all these people together and give one comprehensive seminar on the subject of...well... me traveling, teaching and living abroad (www.discoverU.org/travel).

Through teaching the course I've met a number of interesting people, both men and women, eager to change careers, quit jobs, venture abroad. They've asked me questions that make me ponder as well. Recently, one student asked me if I had experienced any culture shock and how did I deal with that. Well, since my travel experiences on this particular journey was limited to European countries, I experienced very little, if any, real culture shock. And the things that were different were things I pretty much expected and embraced whole heartedly...or at least half heartedly, e.g. ALL shops and businesses closing during siesta hours. Once accustomed to that routine, I loved that part of life. I'm currently lobbying to bring the siesta to America. SLOOOW down. Take the afternoon off....go home...eat a nice lunch, have sex with your spouse....chiiiiillll. There is the misnomer that the Europeans then have to work late into the evening because they take those afternoon hours off. Hey, Americans are already doing that! Most people I know in the corporate world don't even take a proper lunch. They eat at their desks causing indigestion and poor eating habits! Or if they do take a lunch, they spend the majority of the time on the cell phone or blackberry not missing a beat.

Sure the language barriers were a part of the cultural differences. But that is why I went to a foreign country to live...to learn and experience a foreign language. Every day was a challenge. Every day was a success when I was able to communicate something to someone and get what I asked for. Ordering a piece of cheese at the deli was a huge achievement!

Sure, managing the "Turkish toilets" can be tricky when wearing jeans. The solar powered hot water can be touch and go (I had many a-cold shower...but at least I had a shower!). And doing laundry by hand and hanging dry in all weather requires planning. But these things don't cause culture 'shock.' They're just little inconveniences that can be adjusted to quite easily.

Men in other countries are much more bold than our American scaredy cats. They will actually sprint across the road to come talk to a girl if they are interested. Sure at first that is flattering. Then it becomes annoying. Then you just learn to deal with it in the most polite, yet firm, manner. But I come home and realize that men don't even talk to women in public anymore. I go away for a few years and find out the only way anyone is communicating is via the internet. What? You mean you have a conversation with a guy in line behind you at the Safeway...it seems like a good one...you are connecting....laughing and joking....and then nothing??? You have to go to your computer and look on the "missed connections" or "I saw you" site to see if he wants to meet again??? THIS is culture shock!

It's taking me longer to adjust to the whole internet dating/communicating online scene than it took me to adjust to peeing into a hole in the ground, that's for sure!