Blog #6: Experiencing Culture Shock - Greece

             I feel relatively confident that I will not experience too much of a culture shock when I am going around the city or if I meet with locals. I know I can handle the cultural experience; I have been handling that since I was a baby. I actually truly love being away from home, not that I do not love my mom to death but I’ve never truly felt homesick in my life. I know I’ll devour the food when I step off the plane—Greek food is my weakness! It may be because I know my family is only a train ride away that I am not worried about the major things, like if I get sick or if I miss them too much that I can’t bare it anymore. That may be why the thing I am terrified and will be most shocked about is going to school.

 I am not saying the Greek system is horrible, and they whip the students on the daily. What I am scared of is the horror stories I have heard from my cousins and parents—the sorties talking about the sheer difficulty and strictness of the professors. I am not used to that at Maryville College. Yes, I am used to the professors expecting a lot out of me, but not the way Greek professors have been described, as people who, if you disrespect them at all, you’d wish you never met them in your life, not wanting to even make eye contact anymore for fear of punishment. Since this is an American school, I am hoping the stories will not apply to this college. If they do, I think the only thing I can do is to roll with the punches and enjoy my time there as much as possible.

If I experience any culture shock that I wasn’t expecting, I will not let it affect me. Any time I go on a trip my mom always makes sure to tell me, “Elizabeth, if anything goes wrong, DO NOT get upset about it. Step back from the situation and assess. If you don’t, you’ll only be angry and ruin your trip.” To me, that is something I want to constantly do. If something goes wrong and I am upset, I try to get over it as soon as possible because I know my time there is short, so I need to fix the problem as fast as possible. I do not want to spend my entire trip complaining, frustrated, sad, quick to anger, or feeling as if I’m a failure. The main thing I will do to ease into a new culture is to keep an open mind, observe what the locals are doing—as not to offend anyone—and see everything for what it is: completely normal, beautiful, different and unique.