Culture Shock in the United States

You know those dreams where someone is chasing you?  It’s somebody really bad, and no matter how hard you try, you just can’t loose him until you’re jolted awake in a panic.  Well coming back to your home country isn’t quite like that.  But it still shakes you up.  I’ve never really experienced culture shock before.  My nature is to have an open mind and grasp every opportunity I can.  It means I’ve eaten a lot of weird things.  I’ve followed a lot of paths and embarrassed myself and my family on multiple occasions.

I don’t think I’ve embarrassed myself as much as I have lately, though.  Like some of you warned, I began facing reverse culture shock when we got to the US.  With a little change of pace today, I thought you might be interested in some of the things going on.  Here’s my perspective on life back in the US after being an expat in Germany:

spring in the mountains

 

1.  When an American flight crew speaks in English to me, I should answer in English.  I think that I said danke almost every time they gave me something to drink.

2.  The people here are really nice.  I was sitting with half of our suitcases while Martin went to report that the other half of our bags were missing.  The woman next to me just started talking to me.  That was it.  Just started talking!  No one started chatting to me in Germany unless they needed directions.  Part of me wanted my silence back.  A bigger part of me wanted to give that woman a great big hug.

3.  The cars are insanely enormous.  The first thing our ride from the airport said in the car was, “I’m sorry it’s so tight.”  Martin and I looked at each other.  It was the most spacious thing we’d ridden in for months.

4.  When strangers start speaking to me, they kind of expect to hear an answer.  But I don’t answer; I just look at them like a doof.  It’s the most bizarre feeling to find yourself lacking basic communication skills.  See, I got so used to strangers speaking German to me.  I had to take the time to be sure I understood what they were saying and figure out how to answer.  In my mind, if I didn’t know a person, she was going to speak German to me.  My mind defaulted that way.  The only people speaking English to me already knew me.  So in the US, it throws me off when someone I don’t know comes up to me and speaks in English.  I just look at her.  My mind feels fuzzy, and I try to figure out what language I’m supposed to speak.  So far, the people I am with step in and answer for me.

5.  I cannot handle large American grocery stores.  We had to get toothbrushes on the way from the airport since our bag with toilietries wanted to enjoy a longer vacation, and I swear we could pick from over a hundred toothbrushes that night.  Guess how many choices our grocery store had in Germany.  Two.  Shopping in American grocery stores that are easily 5x bigger than German stores was more overwhelming than figuring out what language to speak to the clerk who smiled at me AND started talking to me.  

6.  Plastic sacks are free and abundant whether you want one or not.  After the clerk smiled at me, she put my toothbrush in a plastic sack.  She was so fast that we didn’t even know what was going on.  No one in Germany even bagged groceries for you.  You brought your own bags and put your things in them.  If you forgot your bag, you paid a buck for one.  We didn’t have any US bills yet.  We paid with a card and walked out with our toothbrush in a plastic sack.

7.  The roads are really big.  You don’t really have to pay attention when you drive in the US.  Huh!  That’s funny because compared to Germany, nobody else here seems to be paying attention to their driving, either.  All the slow cars drive in the left lanes, which are supposed to be for fast moving traffic, and the majority of drivers are weaving through lanes without signaling.  I don’t know if I can feel safe biking on  six lane streets like I did in Germany.  Am I going to have to drive everywhere?

8.  People are so loud.  I am struggling with information overload because not only does everyone seem to speak with twice the volume, I can understand every word.  I hear conversations all around me – some on cell phones, some with other people.  No one is walking around in silence.  Why is that?  (If it were winter, I would be shopping for a toothbrush AND earmuffs.)

9.  The salsa and chips are So Good.  I can’t even describe what Mexican restaurants are like in Germany.  But you can imagine – they’re weird.  I would gladly live above a Mexican restaurant and forgo our plans for the summer.

10. M&Ms aren’t as good as I remember.  Don’t get me wrong, though.  Peanut butter cups are still amazing!

11. Everything is so cheap.  Contact solution, toothbrushes, computers, socks, paper…  I see why Germans go on a shopping spree in the US.  THE STUFF IS SO DANG CHEAP HERE.  The only thing is that none of the stuff for sale here seems to be made in this country.  I am finding more “made in Germany” labels than “made in America” ones.

12.  Target is breathtaking.  But it’s so dang far away.  Everything is far away.  This urban sprawl and I are not getting along very well.  I told you I was questioning biking before.  Now I’m certain the answer is no.  I’m a chicken.  …Is the irony screaming at you, too?  I’m afraid of biking to a grocery store around here, and yet I’m going to learn to fly a plane.  I hate that even the closest bus stop is a fifteen minute car trip away.  The sprawl is loud, really really big, and dare I say:  so incredibly ugly.

13.  I can go shopping on a Sunday night at 10 o’clock.  Nothing ever seems to close.  Sundays don’t slow down.  We can get cereal and Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese any time we want.  And trust me, with the jet lag, that’s just what we’d been doing.  Then we bring the food into a HUGE kitchen.  In these moments, I miss our little 36 square foot kitchen that we remodeled in Germany so much it’s hard to breathe.

14.  I’m home, and I’m so so so happy to be exactly where I am today.

Have a beautiful week, everyone.