Travelers are warned of culture shock when going abroad. This can take many forms and varies from person to person. Going along with this, one may experience want looks like a roller coaster ride on paper. The roller coaster looks like this:
You arrive in a country and are feeling very elated and happy at the new culture and its novelties. Next you take a dive, feeling upset that things aren’t the way in this country as they are in your own. After a bit, you go back up again, having gotten over those issues and happy. This repeats and usually you are excited when you leave to get back to friends and family but when you return home, after a bit you go back down because you miss aspects of the culture you just left before returning to normal.
So far, I haven’t been too amazed or low. I wonder if this is because working has altered the way I would normally be submersed into a culture- maybe it’s a gentler submersion or more American feeling and therefore it doesn’t seem so novel?
What I mean by culture shock in this post is those areas of culture I’ve been exposed to that have “shocked” me as opposed to the roller coaster ride just explained. Ironically, some of these shocks have been from watching the local stations Ghana TV. And some have been from first-hand experiences, but first hand experiences are often harder to notice than observing those on TV, it’s like being too ‘in-the-middle’ of an issue to notice its different components. For example, who hasn’t been able to give great relationship advice but when it comes to your own, it’s never THAT easy? :)
*Note: as always, these are my assumptions and my attempt to try to figure things out so these aren’t definite, just guesses.
My culture shocks so far:
Marriage Proposals - I’ve already blogged on this so won’t go into more detail.
Extreme Privacy
Prices and Laundry Rant – speaking of roller coaster ride, the laundry sent me a little downhill but I've bounced back!
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