I have been lucky enough to have spent seven entire days in Croatia- marking my one week anniversary of coming abroad. In this blog, I will list (and explain) some of the biggest culture shocks I have experience over the course of the past week.
- Dumb as a Doorknob
- I probably walk through a door 23 times each day. And yet, each time I pull the door to enter and push the door to exit as I would in America just to be met with a thud of the door slamming against the doorframe. The first culture shock I have experienced came rather quickly from the moment I stepped foot into the first hotel we stayed at and was met with this, now familiar, thud. Something to try to remember is that the doors work in the opposite direction in Europe than in the US. This may help you avoid the concerned stares that I have continuously received from the other side of the glass doors.
- Hey… I’m Walking Here
- As part of the program I am taking part in, UA in Croatia & Italy, we have so many fun plans, tours, and lots of free time to get to fully experience the charisma of the cities we have visited thus far. In doing so, we are walking a minimum of 10,000 steps each day, most of which is on the sidewalks of the cities. The sidewalks have generally been much cleaner compared to those in the US but there is a slight issue in certain parts of town that make it difficult to stay on track. Some sidewalks here in Europe are just wide enough for a single person to walk across facing straight forward (and sometimes require a slight turn to continue on). There have been several times that I have had to step into the road to dodge a passerbyer, so be sure to look both ways.
- Waiter, Check Please!!!!!
- As soon as you sit down at the table, the waiter will ask you for your drink and food order. Be sure to have already reviewed the menu and know what you would like. After my order of still water and likely another pizza, I am always sure to immediately ask for the check. The friends that I have made on this trip and I have made the mistake of not asking for the bill immediately several times. Although we enjoy the extra time to socialize after we finish our meal, sometimes we run out of things to talk about and are crossing our fingers that we don’t miss the sunset for sitting at this table and attempting to flag down our waiter. Always ask for the check ASAP!
- Half-Glassing it
- The header above applies to several cultural differences that have become apparent during my first week abroad. Firstly, the glass for the shower (so far) has always been half of a pane. Basically, there is only half of a shower door that is keeping the water in. This is bad for two reasons. No. 1: Your back is always freezing whenever you are facing the water and your front is always freezing when you are facing away from the water. And No. 2: the shower will flood and your entire bathroom will have a centimeter of water spanning from wall to wall. P.S. The showers get REALLY hot REALLY fast, so always test the waters before you jump in.
- The second culture shock that is included in the header is the serving size of any and all drinks you order while being waited on. In store, there are drink sizes that are standard to the US and even larger portions. But, when sitting down for lunch or dinner, you will notice right off the bat that the glass in front of you is much smaller than we are used to. When I order a still water, they bring out the smallest glass bottle (which they expect you to pour into the glass, do not just drink straight from the bottle (oops!)). This bottle is always over half way completed by the time I receive my meal. When ordering a Coca-Cola, the bottle is about half of the size as the ones in the United States and also rarely makes it to dinner time.
- All of my Clothes are Wet
- I am proud of how I planned my outfits to last approximately a week and was still able to fit them into a carry-on size luggage. But now that it’s been a week, it is time to wash them to prepare for the week ahead. I was easily able to find a laundromat on Google Maps that had nice reviews and laid out the instructions for their washers thoroughly so that I could adjust the temperature and duration of the wash to my liking. This part of the experience went well until I took out my clothes to move them over to the dryer and realized that there were none there. I loaded my sopping clothes into a large trash bag and hauled them back to the hotel to air dry while remembering what I had been told during the pre-departure orientations. Students who had attended the trip in previous years had mentioned that although it is rather easy to find washing machines in Europe, dryers are few and far between. All of my clothes are wet.
