Sam Culture Shock

I am finally home from spending 3 months in Europe and I will not lie in that it feels good to be back. However, there are many parts of society I still cringe upon each of my returns. Obesity, apathy and naïve people that constantly complain are all aspects of our culture that I despise. I have read through the other reflections and I see that everyone else has also heavily realized these major flaws in our society upon return.

It was really sad yet amazing to realize how ahead most of Europe is over the U.S. with ‘being green.’ I have fallen in love with the SmartCar, yet it is not even approved in the U.S. yet, go figure, instead our streets are packed with gas guzzling SUV’s, giving people far more space than they will ever need. People here constantly complain about our climbing gas prices when we are only facing half of what it costs over there, ringing in at $6/gallon. With concerns to obesity, I realized that people just typically eat a lot less with portion sizes. I know this is also something the other girls noticed as well. As previously mentioned, the apathy of our society toward politics is downright sad. I really wish there were more classes or even a major devoted to learning about the world and current events because I believe that alone is so important. I have been happy to see that bit by bit it seems like more and more people are jumping on the issue of global warming, yet I cannot help but think it might be too late before we are really able to make a true difference.

While I was traveling around with my mom, we could not help but yet again cringe at all the loud, rude, obnoxious American tourists. The volume of our culture is typically much louder than most others and here at home, that is fine and really does not seem out of place. However, even when my mom came over I constantly had to remind her to tone it down because as a whole, most countries are much quieter (except for Italy, hah we felt right at home!).

I was continually impressed yet also had the constant growing feeling of incompetence as I met so many people that on average spoke up to four languages fluently. I have decided I do not feel I would even be very comfortable returning to visit until I am fluent in at least another language.

The last bit I am happy to return to is the U.S. dollar! I finally feel like the costs are reasonable again, of everything! The dollar continually went down in value to the Euro as we traveled and it seemed like everything was just so costly. I am happy to be back in the land of baseball, as my Cubs are finally doing decent this year, or at least they were. However, I am excited to share these experiences with others this coming fall.