Adriane Stoner/Culture Shock

I thoroughly enjoyed Adriane Stoner’s lecture as I have many plans to travel in the future. Her lecture brought up several important aspects of the traveler’s journey. Travelers no longer have to wait long periods of time due to the accessibility of internet and of mobile technology, something I had problems with when I traveled to Canada. Because of the widespread use of this technology and social media, this interrupts with the natural process of culture shock. Culture shock forces the traveler to be uncomfortable, but through this discomfort, better adjusts to their new surroundings.

I personally believe that everyone nowadays is completely overtaken with social media and that no one knows how to hold a normal conversation anymore, so I think it is safe to say that I do think that the use of technology today interferes with culture shock. I think that people allow themselves to be brainwashed and occupied with social media too much, so much as to miss out on important events within their lives. I understand travelling and being in a new setting and being uncomfortable because I have been there. However, if you put yourself in that setting, you have to take out the most that you can and learn and grow as a person.

I can’t truly say that culture shock hit me badly when I travelled to Toronto. I was definitely in the honeymoon phase for the whole trip, which lasted a week. I was extremely excited to be out of the country, as it had been my first time and I was just ecstatic to be seeing so many cool things. I noticed many things like the fact that everyone spoke French and also there was a slower way of life than in the US. Although I had travelled outside of the country, I noticed that I had an even more culture shocking experience when I travelled just three hours south from where I lived.

I grew up in Chicago. Chicago and fast-paced life is pretty much all I know. My friend invited me down to her house for the weekend two weeks ago. She only lives three hours away, but it felt like I was on a whole different planet. She lives in a town of only five hundred people. Driving down, I was most definitely in honeymoon phase as I thought it was adorable and rustic. Then once I met the people, I was very uncomfortable. Everybody was very clique-ish and there were definitely a few stares thrown my way. They made it extremely known to me that I didn’t fit in there. My experience just proves that a traveler to a foreign place doesn’t have to go far or stay long to fully succumb to the effects of culure shock. 

Ashley C.

Culture Shock

The lecture Adriane Stoner gave to the class about her research on studying abroad and the use of new technology was interesting. I want to study abroad but probably will never get the chance to but I have traveled and been away from home for almost a month except I was with my family. We traveled through Europe. Even thought I was with my family and not staying in the same places for very long I did go through a little culture shock on that trip. I went with my aunt, uncle, cousins and sister. So having them with me to not lose all communication helped me out and looking back on it now I guess I had it pretty good. The cultural shock came from how I was treated. Everywhere we went, especially in Croatia, they treated us differently because they could tell that I was American. My cousins and I actually got kicked out of a couple stores in Croatia after walking in and saying hello. Maybe they were just having a bad day or they had some pretty bad stereotypes against Americans and were not going to change it, and I am also pretty confident it is not a rude thing to do anywhere. So dealing with that on top of the language barrier times were getting a little weird. That was right around two weeks of being away from home and the Honeymoon phase of my trip definitely kick started the whole shock of being away from home.

Even though the new media of the time was not that far off from where it is now with Facebook and cell phones, I did not take advantage of them and started missing my parents and friends pretty fast. I have friends that studied abroad so I asked them about their travels. They both told me they were good for about a month and a half to two months and then they started to get home sick and the culture shock set in pretty hard. They both told me they would do it all over again if they had the chance because of all the benefits that came along with it. The things they learned, the people they met, the opportunities they had that many of the people they know did not, and they opportunities it has provided them and the doors it has opened for them in the future. I wish I had the opportunities and means to go through with studying abroad but I guess I will have to settle for short vacations. 

Studying Abroad

            Adrienne Stoner’s research on studying abroad vs. new media was very effective in my opinion.  I think it is interesting that she made the connection about having a serious immersion in another country with our social media outlets.  I also think it is important and amazing to study abroad if possible, but I also think students do not just have to go abroad concerning their studies.  I think there is also a very high culture shock without the university studies.

            Personally I experienced what it is like the just pack up and go abroad for over a month after high school.  I knew some German and I went to Germany and the time I spent there was in the apartment/dorms of others, so it was a very involved student lifestyle.  From what I experienced I learned to speak German much better, I attended a few lectures as a student’s guest, learned about their student government, and a lot about the German culture.  Most of the German I learned was from interacting with my friends and the locals.  On top of these experiences I had absolutely no cell phone or way of contacting my parents except for the occasional expensive text.  I would definitely agree that having little contact with home helps in the development of international skills.  I think that me going abroad gave me insight to another culture and prepared me better for starting college.  It really had nothing to do with getting credits or increasing my language.  The language progression was just something that happened naturally.  I also think it is nice to go abroad and not have to worry about school because after I was done with Germany I went to the Czech Republic and Italy and I didn’t know their languages either.  Yet again I learned tremendous amounts of history and culture from going there.

            In the end I would advocate students to study abroad, but also if they feel threatened by a language barrier they shouldn’t be discouraged from going abroad in general.  The opportunities UIC has to offer are very wide and students can find places where people speak English or whatever it is their language is and study there.

Study Abroad vs New Media

Adrienne’s presentation focused on how study abroad affects new media and vice versa.  According to Adrienne, new media is the “stuff we’re using the most today that hasn’t been around long.”  An example of this is the Internet.  She goes on to say that the way study abroad students communicate with family and friends is different today versus 20 years ago.

Adrienne is right.  Because of all this new technology, we are able to leave the country while still being able to keep in contact with family and friends.  For instance, my roommate just left for Costa Rica.  However, it doesn’t even feel like she’s gone because we’ve been emailing each other back and forth constantly about living arrangements for next year.  So, even though she’s gone, it’s almost like I’m not actually going through this alone because I’m constantly keeping her updated.

She also discusses the U Curve Culture Shock which involves different phases: honeymoon phase- excited to be somewhere new, culture shock- beginning to feel unsure and disoriented, adjustment- begin adjusting to these habits over time, and mastery- when the culture is mastered and you become a part of it.  And you don’t have to go out of the country to experience this.  Looking back at my transition from high school to college, I experienced this.  When I first moved into the dorms I was super excited, but then I began missing all of my family and friends back home.  Now I feel comfortable living on my own because I’ve done it for a year.

Adrienne then asks “does new media make the shock not as severe?”   I think that part of why I was able to deal with being on my own was because of Facebook and texting.  I might not have physically been near my family and friends, but I was able to connect to them within minutes.  So yes—the  shock is not as severe because it is so easy gain access to this kind of technology.  Therefore, we are never truly alone.

Stoner - Culture Shock

I especially enjoyed Professor Stoner’s presentation on her work with culture shock and how it is affected with new media of today. I am half Middle Eastern and have gone to the Middle East several times in my life to visit family members. My cousins live in the countryside and constant Internet and even power for that matter are not something taken for granted as they are here in America, especially in a big city like Chicago. That combined with my non-international phone plan definitely created a feeling of culture shock. Since we do not go often when we do it is a summer at a time and so Professor Stoner’s outline of the time frame for when culture shock will occur, being after the honeymoon stage, struck close to home. The honeymoon stage is all too easy to relate to, you are in a foreign country and it’s exciting to see family and to see what has changed, things you’ve forgotten about, things you haven’t seen before, etc. Then, all too soon it seems, the culture shock stage, realizing the reality of your cut off predicament, comes along. I realize I would actually miss checking Facebook, keeping up with my friends and family at home, amenities and conveniences even from home became something you thought a lot more about even though they were taken for granted before.

            Occasionally I would get my “fix” of Facebook time when the Internet would be up and the power would be on long enough to get on the computer and stay on. It really made me think of how different the experience would be if I really, truly was cut off completely from Facebook would I have gone a bit more stir crazy? Eventually I did make it to the adjustment stage but it becomes a different way of being adjusted than at home. Where at home I am adjusted again by having my phone attached to my hip and my laptop easily accessible, etc. I would find myself spending more time reading or going out and exploring. It makes the arrival home seem like a shock yet again. Once I had my phone again I was almost annoyed that I was being texted, as if my friends were trying to bother me, it all did not seem like anything to me at the time but when Professor Stoner brought the topic up I thought back to this immediately and it seemed to makes sense suddenly.

            Although I would clearly have no background in studying this topic from my personal experience I would have to say that it seems like even though I did in fact have limited Facebook access it almost seemed to make the culture shock worse. Instead of feeling like it lessened the blow, like “oh it’s so nice to be connected to my friends back home!” it was more of a “I wish I didn’t know everyone was having such an amazing time while I’m stuck here with my family”. So while I cannot speak from any experience not having Facebook, I felt that I almost wished I didn’t even have that limited access because it served, to me, as a reminder of what I was missing out on.

Culture Shock / Information Design

Professor Stoner's study of culture shock is something that I could strongly relate to. The evidence she presented holds true to some of the things I have been through myself, specifically when I came to UIC.

The "Honeymoon" phase was the days before classes started and everyone was moving in. It was exciting and I was meeting a lot of people. Time went by and classes started. After a couple weeks, classes began getting tougher; and then months, friendships both at school and from back home started falling apart. This lead to my culture shock.

I went through a period where I just didn't like college period. Asher Roth's song "I Love College" came out the summer before the semester started and school was nothing like the song or the video. I wasn't talking much, to my roommate or anyone else. It was a stressful period that lasted the rest of my freshman year.

I didn't adjust until my sophomore year. By now I had accepted that the school I chose wasn't anywhere near the cliche college experience I expected. I now knew to focus on class and just go with the flow socially. Since UIC is in Chicago, I realized that I didn't have to limit myself to one area socially or professionally, which made things a lot better.

I still haven't mastered the concept of college yet. Things are always changing and there is always something shocking me that I need to adjust to. Since campus housing is no longer affordable (it never was really) I have to adjust to commuting. Commuting I'm sure will be much easier to master.

Professor Steele's lecture on the Internet and Information Design was very confusing. The only parts I understood was the first part on theory and practice and the Social Capital Theory. I have encountered both these principles in life through growing up and through being in college working towards a career.

The idea that theory informs practice, practice refines theory is logical in how humans approach life lessons. The saying "an ounce of experience is more than a pint of advice" is the first thing this principle reminded me of. Humans form theories on things in life, but the practice that these theories apply to causes us to refine these theories because of how situations change due to the many individual circumstances that affect them.

Social Capital Theory is the principle that is most important to me. I believe that a strong network is more important than a GPA. For a career, it isn't always about what you know, but who you know. Building a strong network of important and trusted individuals enables you to also be trusted by the people in positions of power. It can be the difference between you getting the job or not getting the job you desired.

Adrian Stoner....Culture Shock

Adriane Stoner’s lecture caught my attention because I was able to relate to her experiences with culture shock. Her lecture focused on this subject while studying abroad and I found myself relating to this topic in different ways. The majority of my family resides in Europe and I have been fortunate enough to travel there often to visit. I have experienced the vacationing aspect and also a bit of the schooling process as well. Culture shock is definitely something that people will experience while visiting Europe and I believe that one can experience it in a very short amount of time frame, such as a week.

I have personally traveled to Poland, Austria, Germany, as well as London. Besides the language barrier, the entire way of life differs greatly from the US. One thing that I learned from my travels about Europe is that people enjoy life on a much higher level than people in the U.S., which is something that I admire.  I find it very often that in the U.S, people are constantly working, which in turn leads to famous expressions such as, “People live to work”. In Europe businesses are closed on Sundays which is considered a family day. Saturdays everything closes around 5:00pm and everyone makes an effort to spend time with the family by sitting down at a dinner table and enjoy a family dinner. On the down side, everything from daily commute all the way to the financial aspect is drastically different than that of the U.S. Not everyone owns a vehicle there and more people take public transportation. The roads are narrow and in different parts of Europe highways can be quite rare, which leads to very long commutes. 

The economical state of Europe is also a bit on the shocking side. Everything is far more expensive compared to the U.S because of it. However, depending on the location one travels to, everyone for the most part, is friendly and helpful . Then there are those parts of Europe such as Paris where people are extremely rude and arrogant. The schooling process is also very different. Although, education is much more affordable than it is out here, often times it is also much more demanding and difficult.

Lastly, my views on communicating were a bit different than those of Adriane’s. I did find it much more difficult to find means of communicating with my family in the states. Not only because the time difference is about seven hours ahead, but also because their rate plans are so expensive I was unable to pick up the phone at any given time and call my family. Cell phone use was pretty much restricted to its use only within Europe. I was only able to use landline phones with a calling card or I would have to wait for my family to call me. Although the internet access was much more available, I found myself never being able to communicate fully at a given hour and finding myself waiting for a response due to the 7hr time difference. This was very difficult for me to adjust to due to the time zone difference.

Often times, I believe we take advantage of the privileges that we have until we are faced with different circumstances. I love the fact that I am fortunate enough to own a vehicle, a mobile device and minor things that we often do not appreciate or acknowledge until we are faced with rather inconvenient circumstances.  I enjoyed Adriane’s lecture very much and I was able to relate to her experience. I believe culture shock is inevitable however, it is something that that everyone should experience.

Comm 101- Stoner/Steele Lecture

In Professor Stoners lecture on new media and students study abroad experience, she discussed the potential impact that new media technologies has on students experiences when studying abroad. Though I have never participated in a study abroad experience, I did partake in a trip to Mexico in which we traveled to some of the poorest parts of Country. When she spoke of this idea of Culture shock I was somewhat able to relate to it because I was only in high school and it was my first time traveling to a foreign country and I remember how frustrating it was to travel to locations where everyone spoke only Spanish. Everything from asking for directions, to asking where the nearest bathroom was, and ordering are food was extremely difficult and discomforting. We were even faced with a situation where we were been stalked by a man in Mexico City and being the only male in the group, trying to ask for help when we didn’t know how made things very scary for me. During the trip I had refused to use my cell phone because I wanted to gain the whole experience of being in foreign country, therefore I wasn’t able to use my cell phone (which I didn’t have on me) to get help. In regards to the experience, minus that incident, I believe I had a much more worthwhile experience without the use of my cell phone. I know the rest of my group did use their cell phones, and even used local computers that were in our hotel to keep in touch with family and significant others. They themselves have looked back and agree that this detracted them from having a holistic experience, and they now wish they hadn’t.  

Something that I think would be interesting to research is to combine Professor Steele’s research in cultural studies with Stoners research. It would be interesting to research how Black students experiences are while studying abroad, and if their experience is different due to their race. For example, if they face challenges while studying abroad in regards to their race. Also, to examine how many black students actually participate in study abroad programs and whether or not they have adequate access to study abroad to the usual members of such programs that tend to be upper to middle class white students.

My Culture Shock

The most interesting lecture that I found from Adriane Stoner lecture was culture shock. When I was younger I went to Vietnam with my family. At first I thought it was cool and awesome that I could travel, since it was my first time out of the country. For the first few weeks I enjoyed Vietnam, just like what Adriane Stoner said. When Adriane Stoner talked about culture shock she talked about how people usually enjoy their first few weeks in a new place. That what happen to me. I enjoyed the new sight and sound that I was seeing in my first few weeks in Vietnam. However as Adriane Stoner explain after the “honeymoon stages” is over it goes downhill. After being in Vietnam for a few weeks I started to get home sick. Even though I was with my family I started to miss my friends and my home. Back then I had no way to communicate with my friends since there really wasn’t any internet café in Vietnam. When Adriane Stoner talked about how people would deal with this, she mention that they would go to café bar or use some form of technology to get in contact with people from back home. I did not do these, and it made things worst.

            Part of me wishes that I could experience the full culture shock. What I mean by this is that when I went to Vietnam I was with my family. I wonder what it would have been like if I didn’t have my family with me. Having my family there lessen my culture shock just by a little. I could not imagine what Adriane Stoner when through. Not only do I wish that I did not go with my family, I wish that I stayed a little longer. Adriane Stoner talks about what happen after you downhill. She mention after a while you will go back up hill. I wonder what it would have been like when I would go up hill in my culture shock. Maybe one day I can experience what that feels like.

Professor Stoner's Lecture

Professor Stoner’s lecture was about adjusting to living in a new place.  This could be a trip to a foreign country or even just going up state for your first semester of college.  She told us that one of her key interests that she focuses on while conducting studies is finding two different elements of a subject, idea, or problem, and finding the relationship between the two.  With this said, she discussed studying abroad and asked the class what we thought some of the benefits of studying abroad were.  We offered answers such as “It teaches valuable lessons about other people and the cultures they are a part of,” and “It looks good on a resume.”  Then she introduced the term “new media” and asked if we knew what it meant.  I raised my hand and answered that new media are new technologies like cell phones and the internet, as the name implied.  After this, she explored the relationship between studying abroad and new media.  She said that she thinks that new media makes the study abroad experience less meaningful in a way, because new media is keeping people constantly in touch with their family and friends from back home which is taking away from their learning of the new culture they are a part of.  The last part of her lecture that I took notes on was the cultural adjustment curve.  The cultural adjustment curve is a representation of how much comfort a person experiences after entering a new culture over time.  The first part of the curve is the honeymoon, where enjoyment is pretty high for the first couple of months, but over time, the curve dips extremely low.  This part of the curve is known as culture shock.  Then, the curve begins to go back up, through the adjustment stage, and eventually to the mastery stage, which takes a year or two to reach. 

Studying abroad, or even visiting a city that you’ve never been to for a few days can produce this same curve, sometimes at a smaller scale though.  Some of the things that connect Professor Stoner’s guest lecture to the other concepts we’ve learned in class are our discussion of language and dialect.  As you travel to different places, the common languages, accents, and dialects change, which can take some getting used to.  Also, we discussed non-verbal cues.  Non-verbal cues can also vary quite significantly from culture to culture.  What might mean “nice job” (thumbs up) here, can mean something totally offensive in other cultures, for example.  Also, stereotypes and controlled prejudice can come into play when entering new cultures.  It is ok to have your own opinion about certain people, but when you overgeneralize too much, or let these generalizations cause you to treat someone negatively, that is where problems can occur.  Also, the cultural adjustment curve can relate closely to cognitive load and cognitive dissonance.  Upon entering a new place, people experience the honeymoon stage.  This stage can be a result of all of the new things they are seeing, without actually knowing much about them.  Simply seeing a new city can be a wonderful experience, but over time, it becomes necessary to learn how to act in these cultures.  If the new culture is very different from the one you’re used to, this can cause a lot of cognitive dissonance, which can be very stressful, and can lead to culture shock.

Adrian Stoner

Adrian Stoner gave an excellent lecture on the impact media has on students when studying abroad. Although I have never studied abroad the concept she discusses is something everyone can relate to.

Her focus is that your experience of leaving your bubble and going somewhere else will have different stages. And after the excitement stage you begin to feel out of place possible or home sick. Although this may not be a positive point in your trip it is a very significant part of the experience and how you handle and cope with the “home sick” feeling builds up who you are and helps you learn more during the study abroad experience. In this day in age that culture shock is much less significant because students are utilizing media technology to stay in contact with everyone back home.

Me, personally, if I studied abroad I am sure I would bring as much as I could to make the trip smoother and less chaotic. However , I wish that if I ever did study abroad I would go through the “old school” experience and only have the capability to contact my family when necessary. I believe this helps build character like I said earlier and makes you stronger. You become more exposed to the new world around you and you are going to do whatever it takes to understand the culture. Ultimately you will have to work for it rather than having all of the comfort and knowledge at your fingertips. Unfortunately we are society that has become extremely reliant on media technology and I do not know many students that would willingly give up those capabilities.

Yet, on the other hand, having this media technology is extremely beneficial for students that are unable to study abroad. The technology is bitter sweet. They are able to research the different countries understand and learn their language. Although the actual experience is something that cannot be replaced with technology, the knowledge is better than nothing.

I mentioned in the beginning that the concept Adrian focuses on can be relative to anyone. Students do not neccessarly have to visit another country but if they are placed in a new environment whether it may be the place or the people for a short or long period of time, people will use their phones or ipads to lessen the “awkwardness” or discomfort they may feel. This then leads to studies of social networks and media making people socially awkward, but that is an entirely different argument.

My Experience of Culture Shock

I really enjoyed Adriane's lecture. Although I have never "studied" abroad, I was able to relate to and understand what she was talking about. At the beginning of May I traveled through Switzerland, Croatia, Italy and France. Adriane showed us a chart of the different phases of culture shock over a long period of time. However, I believe you can experience culture shock in short periods of time as well. In the course of three weeks I felt like being abroad opened my eyes to so many new things and I learned so much about different cultures. There were different things about each country that shocked me, and some were a bigger shock than others. One thing that was a big shock to me was the "Tram" system in Switzerland.  I stayed in the city of Basel, Switzerland. Many people take cable cars for public transportation. Similar to the CTA system patrons are required to to use a pass, however in Basel nobody checks to see if you have a pass. It is a system based on trust, and from I saw everyone was very loyal to the system. It really shocked me because I know that would never work in Chicago. Another thing that shocked me was the way people treated each other. I visited the towns of Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik in Croatia and all the local people were so friendly to each other and acted as if they were best friends even if they did not really know each other. I understand how in small towns everybody knows everybody but these cities were by no means small. Simply traveling from city to city and country to country was a shock in itself. It was my first time to Europe and just trying to find my way around, getting food and seeing how different cultures live and communicate is a "shock."

In relation to Adriane's study, I found myself to communicate with my family via cell phone or Internet almost everyday. I would use my iPad to send messages and photos, and was frequently on Facebook before bed. I found the concept of Adriane's study to be interesting and I could see myself doing something like that one day. Like I said earlier, although I did not "study" abroad, I feel I gained so much and learned just as much as somebody would who was studying abroad. I think everyone should try to go to Europe at least once in their life. I feel it truly changed my life and views of the world and I would love to go back one day. I feel so lucky to have been able to experience life abroad.

New Media Technology and Studying Abroad

How more important is communicating when with your friends and loved ones when you are in a foreign country than when you are in your home country? I’d say pretty important. With the advances in technology, such as Skype and Face Time, we are now able to have face to face communication although there are great distances between us. The combination of new media technology along with the study abroad experience is what Adrianne Stoner discussed in her lecture. Her focus was on the cultural shock you experience while studying abroad and if your ability to use new media to connect with your family and friends back home would lessen that experience.

I found her subject of research very intriguing because you don’t normally think about the cultural shock you will experience if you decide to study abroad. When you consider studying abroad you usually are in the honeymoon phase before you even arrive in your new country and once you’re there you never think it will end. The U-curve graph that Adrianne showed really highlighted the fluctuations in emotions that you will feel once you experience cultural shock. I also think it highlights the importance between interpersonal communication and impersonal communication.

Through interpersonal communication you continue to develop bonds and closeness and this type of communication usually takes place with people you know, people who you have a close relationship with. You feel more at ease and you’re comfortable and you usually trust the person that you are speaking with. New media technology allows you to maintain that interpersonal communication with your family and friends back at home. Once the honeymoon phase ends and you begin to experience cultural shock, you really start to feel isolated and you begin to thank the high heavens that someone thought of Skype and Face Time so you can connect with you loved ones back home. Due to the fact that you don’t personally know anyone abroad mostly all of the communication you have will be very generic and impersonal.

Impersonal communication is the conversation you have with the cashier at the gas station, a coworker, even a distant relative. These people don’t really know you, you barely speak, and when you do it’s usually serving a purpose to move you from point A to point B. So when you’re abroad, it can be very hard to deal with the fact you don’t have anyone to connect to personally. And if you can only speak and understand a tiny amount of their language, then your impersonal communication is definitely being used for functional purposes.

The last question Adrianne asked is if your constant connection to your family and friends at home thru new media technology takes away from your study abroad experience, especially if your “cultural shock” is lessened? I would love to know what her research proves, but I think that it could possibly take away from your study abroad experience. If you will only be abroad for maybe six months to a year and you spend half of that time home sick and talking with your family on Skype, your experience will definitely be limited. You would be inhibiting yourself from learning the new culture, interacting with the citizens and enjoying your time in another country. However, if your time abroad is longer than a year, as Adrianne’s U-curve model displayed you will eventually adjust to your new surroundings and then master them. Although, I still think any large amount of time spent experiencing cultural shock will have an impact on your experience abroad you will have more time to make up for it because of your longer duration in the country.

Adrienne Stoner

Adrienne Stoner's lecture covered some very interesting topics on culture shock. I would first like to begin with saying that I personally have experienced culture shock while travelling abroad. For twenty days, I traveled up and down France, Italy, and Greece. I have to say, it was probably the best twenty days of my life. I experienced a few different aspects of culture shock throughout my trip. One part being the types of food that made their self available to me. The first meal I ate in France was one of the worst. Travelling through a foreign country makes it hard to adjust to the foods available to you. I had no choice but to force myself to eat things I did not want to, merely because there were no other familiar foods to eat. Another shocker to me was when I spent three days living with an authentic Italian family in Italy. Life in Italy is much different from life in the U.S. People are actually a lot friendlier in Italy than in America, and they happen to adore Americans. That made it easier for me to socialize with the people there. The Italian family I stayed with was much different from my own. Everyone woke up really early (at least early to me). For breakfast, we had a croissant and tea, that was it. Clearly, I was bit more hungry than that but it was difficult for me to muster up the courage to ask for more to eat. I didn't want them to think I was a greedy American! Our days didn't consist of much. The girl my age taught me how to do certain arts and crafts, we took the dog for a walk, and then got ice cream. During the evening we ate dinner with the family, conversed, and then went to sleep. I'm not saying it was awful, I'm just saying it was very different from the types of days I was used to having back home.

With that said, I want apply what Adrienne said to what I've experienced. I was thrown into a culture with little warning of what it was going to be like. The foods were different, the people were different, and so was the lifestyle. It makes me wonder if I had stayed there longer, like Adrienne said, I would've been able to "conquer" the culture shock. I must say, I did enjoy myself very much and I would not have minded staying longer if I had the opportunity. Adrienne said the first couple of days/weeks you emerge yourself into a new culture it should be exciting and new and fun. That's exactly what it was for me. The question I am asking myself is would I experience the rest of the emotions shown on that diagram if I had stayed longer? Would I have felt lonely and confused? I'd like to say no, but there would be no way to really tell unless I actually got the chance to do it. This is why I think Adrienne's research is so interesting. I love Europe and all that it has to offer, but after being there for a certain period of time would I begin to resent it? Would I be able to conquer it, or would I give up and go back to America? These are the kind of questions one must ask themselves. It would be a shame to give up and go home, feeling beaten by a culture that you had no control over. It's actually a risky experiment to do and I applaud Adrienne for taking that risk.