Culture Shock

Okay, so I decided to post this separately from my last entry, because it just didn't feel right putting it together. Culture shock. Yes, I am completely in love with England (particularly Newcastle) and feel so blessed to be here, but culture shock has definitely hit me hard. I guess I had this idea in my head that British life and culture really wasn't going to be that different from that of the United States. Wrong. VERY wrong. I mean, I was told many times not to think that just because English is spoken here that the cultures would be the same, and I thought I understood that, but I don't think it's really possible to fully understand it until you've lived it. And I think that because I was focusing too much on the big things I was going to experience, I missed stopping to even think about the little aspects of daily life in England that would be so different. For example, ketchup. Is ketchup available in England? Definitely. Does it taste the same? Absolutely not! It has a sweeter, more bitter taste.This is true with a lot of foods and drinks over here. Another example is Fanta. I love orange fanta and was super excited when I saw it in the store. It was in a different bottle, but I figured it would taste the same. Turns out that orange fanta over here is just sparkling orange juice, not soda. It was good, don't get me wrong, but not what I was expecting. Snickers candy bars taste different too. I still can't pinpoint what it is that's different, but there's definitely something. When going out to eat in the United States, you're used to ordering, eating, getting the bill, and leaving. Here, after ordering, you may wait a while for your food while everyone else at your table has theirs, and the bill may not come until long after you've finished eating. Waiters don't depend on their tips for income, so they're not in as big of a rush (and don't tend to care as much about good customer service) as waiters in the U.S. are. Oh, and today when I went out to buy a hair dryer and straightener, the lady at the counter asked me if I would like to buy a bigger bag for 6 pounds. I said no, thinking she meant some specialty bag or something. Turns out that if you need a bigger plastic bag than the standard size (which would fit about 5 small items in it), it's going to cost you 6 pounds. I would have never thought of that, since in the U.S. you automatically get your things in a big plastic bag if you need one. The other day, I forgot for a moment that in the UK chips are called crisps and french fries are chips. So, I ordered some chips with my sandwich, and they brought out fries. Fried chicken in England should not be called fried chicken at all - I'm not sure what it is, but it doesn't even taste like chicken. Corn is a popular pizza topping - and popular in just about anything for that matter (I had a chicken salad sandwich with bacon and corn the other day). Not that any of this is bad at all - in fact, I love that restaurants aren't rushed like they are in the States, and the English have some incredible food that we don't have in the U.S. so it's a trade off. It's not that what I'm experiencing is necessarily negative, it's just so different and will take some time to get used to. I know a lot of these things seem to be really petty and insignificant, but believe me, it adds up to some crazy culture shock that can be very overwhelming at times. For now, I am consciously deciding to remember that U.S. culture is no better than British culture and that these experiences are the ones that will build character and help me to grow. This also proves that I could never have prepared myself enough for my time abroad - some of these things will just require living it and learning from it. Now I already understand so much more how an experience living abroad can change a person significantly. In fact, I'm not sure how it couldn't. It's definitely a growing experience, and one that I know I will look back on as being a defining time in my life. And it's just amazing to me how the "petty" little things I never would have even began to think of before leaving are the things that are the most difficult to deal with and probably the ones that will change me the most.