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.