I’ve been to Europe, Singapore, India… but the first real case of culture shock I got was reading the SDMB. Someone, talked of hanging out at the bar at TGIF. It never occured to me that people did this, I’ve never known people who did this. Somehow, this shocked me and made me think about my place in life.
So what gave you culture shock on the SDMB
Nothing. I majored in anthropology. I can see people with huge holes in their ears, apply my “anthropological lens”, and think “Interesting” instead of “Eew!”
Liar
Unless you have been traveling the world since you were a child (e.g. a military “brat” or the daughter of a foreign service officer) I am skeptical that you could visit Europe, Singapore, and India and experience no culture shock. Heck, I had a girlfriend who was born in India and came to the U.S. when she was 8. When she went back to visit as a teenager, she experienced culture shock.
I do like the question, though. Can’t think of anything right off.
Respectfully submitted
soccerhooligan pretty much… I visited India for the first time when I was 6. After that everything seemed normal to me. And I grew up around SF.
Heh. Define “Irony”, oldie.
In my thread about my trip to Europe this December, you may remember that it was a TGI Friday’s that saved me from a near-fatal overload of accumulated culture shock from being in Poland, Spain, England (hi Fierra!), and France for 14 days. After days of meals consisting of rude waiters brings fussy little dishes of un-boned fish and odd vegetables and truly surreal desserts, I felt like crying when I beheld the beauty of a big ol’ plate of nachos, chicken fingers, and a tall, cold Bud. Sigh…
My sister and I stayed with our cousin in London for a week earlier this year, and I was amazed to see so many American restaraunts and fast food places. We walked down Queensway everyday to get to Bayswater station, and we passed a T.G.I.F., a Burger King, and a Pizza Hut, and that’s only about a block or so. One particular place made me laugh, and that was the Tennessee Fried Chicken…the fact that they’re ripping off our fast food joints gave me a bit of a giggle. It was also disturbing to see ads for Budweiser on British TV…shudder
I do have to admit that after sampling some British cuisine (if you can call it that :rolleyes: ), it was nice to get some good ole’ American style junk food. Hell, the best meal we had throughout our entire stay was from a Japanese place.
When I first moved to Montreal, I was totally into it. Totally. I’d never dreamed that any city could be so interesting. (I had lived in Winnipeg, which - with the notable exception of Poysyn - is the most boring city in the universe.) It was unbelievable.