 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||
|
|
Reverse Culture Shock | |
|||||||||||||
|
Culture Shock How can one be shocked by one's own culture? When I went home in April I was struck by the following: It first began at Daegu and Seoul airports. the increasing trickle of foreighners. a guy saying bless you after I sneezed. Poeple not bumping into me. The biggest of all was the food shock in sF airport. I didn't want breeakfast but had no choice as it was 8:30am. So, i ordered "The healthy Breakfast" which happened to be anything BUT healthy. I swear there were at least 6 eggs scrambled on that plate and an equally huge portion of "breackfast potatoes" that I soon discovered, after eating them, that they were fried in the deep fryer, basically french fries in disguise. and, a big bowl of fruit without flavor. And a plate of toast. I didn't touch the toast, ate as many eggs as I could and all the firm grapes from the fruit. I ate some of the potatoes with ketchup. when i finished i pushed the plate to the head of the table and waited for my check. I am thankful that i remembered not to ask for it, or the waitress would have really bitten my head off. So, she comes up and says, " well, didn't you like it?" "Yes, it was great." " But you didn't eat anything." "Yes I did, it was a massive amount of food. Much more than i expected." then she grunted and gave me my check. I guess the shocker is not really that she yelled at me about it, but more that people normally eat the entire thing. the fact that i didn't amazed her enough to chastise me. In San Francisco there was the most wonderful book store I have ever seen, or at least since i have been in asia. It was wonderful. I walked around like a kid in a candy store, raw excitement on my face. I ran my hands along their spines, I absorbed the feeling of them. Surprisingly, I didn't really pick up that many. I just felt so happy to be around them I didn't feel the need to read them. Plus, after so many months of book dieting, I thought i might vomit if i ate too much, too soon. As I browsed this store, I was trying to get through an aisle and bumped into, very slightly, a woman in passing and thought nothing of it. Imagine my surprise when she apologized to me and said excuse me. Before i could think, I responded with "no problem, don't worry about it." Like I am the queen of Sheeba and did nothing wrong! I am convinced, though, that it is better to not say anything. I like not having to say sorry any time I touch someone. It is ridiculous, walking around an constantly saying I'm sorry. who would have thought that this was the one thing that i like about korean culture. I guess you never can tell what you will like. I was brought to tears and huge smiles flying into SF. It was my beloved California and of course it happened to be the most beautiful day i have every seen in SF. Clear and sunny and sparkling. Perfect. I could see all the mountains. I love California. |
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
