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.