Culture Shock, as defined by AFS in their:
AFS-USA Guides and Orientations
The AFS Guides for Participants Going Abroad with AFS
Copyright September 2009, AFS-USA, Inc.
(doesn't that look like a mailing address?)
...actually isn't explicitly defined, so I'll give what they mention (pg. 50):
"...it is easy to imagine how frustrating it might be for you not to be able to communicate as well with others as you would like, especially in the beginning of the experience, or the sadness you may feel as a result of being away from your family and friends. These intense emotions are signals that you are learning and growing in many new ways as you strive to adjust to your new surroundings. We refer to this as 'culture shift.'"
Then it goes on to explain some other aspects, such as everything being an effort, feeling critical of host country/community, longing for familiarity of home, isolation,discomfort, and physical manifestations.
AFS also has a nifty list of things to do to help with Culture Shift on the next page (pg. 51), which I've paraphrased below:
- Recognize that low periods are common when you are living in a new culture/away from home
- Look to your immediate surroundings for support
- Share with your hosts/friends something that you do at home/your culture
- Establish good sleeping habits
- Limit contact with home
- Exercise (preferably with the people in your host community)
- Help other people!
- Learn about the host community
- Focus on making the most of your experience
Some things that AFS didn't mention that I found helpful were:
- Get involved in your host community - my school had us do a play in English (my class did Scooby-Doo), so it was a nice change of pace for me to attend those rehearsals. Plus, I actually felt useful since I understood what was going on half the time (when they weren't speaking Portuguese). That, and I like theatre anyway, so it was a nice breather, a good way to connect with my classmates, and a way to share what I like to do at home.
- Take a "gringo day" - I went to Beira Mar (the city beach avenue) with Alex, Elif and Elif's host sister (Laura had school). We ate ice cream, and since Elif's host sister doesn't speak English, I was forced to speak Portuguese to her, and I actually did pretty well. It was the first time I actually thought I could get the hang of this whole functioning-in-another-language thing. Definite confidence boost. We also ate ice cream, went to the mall, took possibly-offensive touristic pictures (read: imitating statues) and walked a lot by the beach, all of which are simply fun.
- Present your home - one Saturday morning, I presented Westminster to an international club/organization/association/group/I-don't-know-exactly-what-it-was at my school, and the kids and teachers were genuinely interested. The concept of a historical small city with old buildings and nothing over three stories where people lived in houses on 1/2 acre lots or greater and had a large amount of community involvement with the two high schools and the two colleges was simply fascinating to them. It was like describing Santa Clause to a small child. So while I thought Westminster was mundane, they helped me see that it's actually a pretty cool place, and I didn't miss it as much because now I knew how to look at Brazil in the same way.
- Eat food! - I have an unhealthy (?) addiction to juice/smoothies, so I drank lots of juice of the indigenous fruits (caja, tangerine, acerola, passion fruit, orange, etc). Acai, which is eaten/drank in a sort of gooey smoothie, is also really good. And it makes your tongue purple. Bonus points for purple tongues.
- School - I officially started being graded last week, so I've been diligently studying (read: vehemently agonizing) and I've found that it's paid off, because now that I'm more like a normal student, the kids in my class have an easier time relating to me.
But still, I stand by my belief that laughter is the best medicine.
I am also a firm believer in hybrid concepts. So, I thought, for this fortuitous moment, I would introduce/elaborate upon the American concept of the "fail".
 |
| This is an example of the "Fail". |
(See the above: sharing your culture)
Let's start this with some culture-education. In Brazil, people generally wash their own underwear in the shower. Kill two birds with one stone, right? You shower AND get clean underwear. Talk about efficient. Well, this was a ritual that was irritating me, because then you have to hang the underwear in the shower to let it drip-dry, and then you have to come back and wring it out to make sure it doesn't shrivel and become starchy and uncomfortable. It made me long for a dryer. (See Culture Shock: feeling critical of host community, longing for familiarity of home, and effort.)
The bathroom, as I mentioned in an earlier post, has a single window "shaft" that provides ventilation. Usually, when you take a shower, you close the window (which is conveniently located on the shower wall), and then you open it again when you're done to let all of the humid air filter out. Thus, the shower window is open before you enter the shower.
(I'll upload a picture later once I buy new batteries for my camera)
It's simply too much effort to open the shower door with the underwear in hand and then take a shower. It's much more fun to toss the underwear over the shower door and into the shower.
You see where this is going.
So I threw it, in quite a happy mood, and it sailed over the shower door and made a beeline for the window. I dashed towards the window, hoping that made it had been caught on the ledge or the latch on the panel.
No such luck.
Being a logical person, I find that we can resort to mathematics to explain any situation. And there it was - somehow, I missed it - the infallible equation that I had circumvented for the previous three months:
Throwing underwear + open window + apartment building + force of gravity = underwear in parking lot.
Cheers.
I quickly dressed and rushed down to retrieve it (thankfully we're only on the 3rd floor, so it took all of thirty second to reach the ground floor) and then cautiously returned to the apartment.
This ranks as one of my bigger fails.
Just imagine that awkward kid dashing up the stairs with a pair of boxers in his hand. Wouldn't you love to know that story? Now you do. I promise, apartment building, I did not throw my underwear out of the window on purpose. That's weird, even for me.
So yes, lesson learned. Underwear fails. They get me every time.
Let's add to the list of ways to cope with Culture Shock: combining hilarious aspects of American culture with frustrating aspects of your host culture. Now, every time you go to do this previously frustrating thing, you will begin laughing at your previous fails and it shall no longer be frustrating.
Just don't break anything. I'm not responsible if you choose to follow my advice. Consider this a disclaimer.
Since I'm on a roll with corny funnies in this post, here's a lame joke (stolen from one of my friends):
What kind of flowers do you have on your lips?
...Tulips! (Get it? Tulips, as in, tu - lips, or two lips?)
That was so not funny.
This is Jake, signing off.
