Am I supposed to get this cultural shock?

All the audience in the hall burst out with laughter hearing my surprising stuffs about the United States. The families gathered in a presentation hall of Ramapo College as it was the Honors Family day. I was sharing my cultural difference. This laughter was brought up by the tradition of saying “sorry” in Nepal and “Bless you” in the United States. Well, the experience was actually awkward. When I sneezed for the first time in the United States, the person in front of me went “Bless you”. However, I did not understand him and I said “I am so sorry.” While expressing these things in the family day, I suddenly realized that I have experienced much more cultural shocks that I thought I would. I had read the whole book of cultural shock in the United States, but still I faced it. Am I actually supposed to get this cultural shock?

The memory of my first day on campus is still fresh in my mind. My friend and I were about the cross the road when we saw a car coming. I suppose the car was much expensive than the Maruti 800 I used to see in my country. Even if it was not, the "reflectiveness" had made me feel so. As we did in Nepal, we stopped for the car to pass by. The surprising factor was that the car stopped too, and the driver insisted us to go first.

Had it been in Nepal, the car driver would have thanked us for being the only civilized citizen in the country. This feature of US culture really shocked me. Moreover, I have not heard a single horn by cars. Well, this was something out of my knowledge I gathered from the culture shock book.

I had read and heard a lot about the “international table” where the whole college would be divided into two parts: the Americans and the Internationals. I actually planned to be the exception to this. I thought that I would get involved with the Americans more than any international students do. However, it must be a natural phenomenon that I was clinging with international students for several weeks. We created a separate environment in the cafeterias where we, the “international table” had more noise than any other tables. The interesting part is that the noise had diversity. People were speaking Nepali, Burmese, Bulgarian, Russian, Spanish, and many more. I do not understand all the languages but I can ensure you that it was fun. Of course, the initial processes of learning new languages were to pronounce our own names, to learn how to say “You are beautiful” and “You are ugly”. Well, this feature was in the book I read. Though, I could not skip it. I was the “victim” of international table.

Well, I thought I was well-prepared with a huge shield of knowledge of cultural shock. Somewhere in the book, I read that people should not know you personally to wave you “hi” or “hello”. So, from the very first day, I raised my shield for the incoming shocks regarding greeting. I started to say “hey, how are you?” to each and every person I saw. My friend also made fun of me for greeting to each and every individual who passed by me. If there were two people walking together, I greeted them “hi” individually so that they did not have to share from one “hi”. Later, I found that this is not a strict rule and I am going to encounter the same person more than one time in a day. It is because I am in a liberal arts school. My book did not say that. I still got the cultural shock.

When I was in Nepal, the rumor was that one does not want to wear the clothes they take from Nepal since it is out of fashion in the States. Well, that turned out to be completely wrong. Here is no particular fashion in this country, until and unless you choose to go for the real fashion industry. Anything you wear, no matter how funny it is, is a fashion. I found Americans really enthusiastic regarding the weirdness which they prefer to call “uniqueness.” I still wear the same so called “out of fashion” dress with “bhad gaule topi” with a “khukuri” (part of the national dress of Nepal) in it. Now, I feel proud on my fashion no matter how others think. The tales about the dresses proved to be wrong for me.

My feelings about New York City can be partly controversial. Maybe I do not have a DSLR-resolution eye to see New York City as shown in the pictures. When I went there for the first time, I was not really feeling it as NYC since I did not even have goose bumps. I walked uninterestingly in the streets as the tourist who lost his way and also lost the map somewhere amidst the crowd at the Times Square. Moreover, the city was really dirty. Well, the Huffington post publishes it as the dirtiest place for some reason. I really wanted to return back to my own lovely college and hang out with friendly deers and rabbits and sarcastically friendly bears. Well, still NYC is NYC regardless of the shock I got visiting there.

I was prepared for the cultural shock. I read blogs, articles and few books about it so that I would not be its “victim.” Well, I overcame some of the obvious shocks. However, I prepared really well. I never wanted the “international table” in my case. I never learned that “hi” and “hello” is not a strict norm to follow. No books taught me that a wide smile was enough. The books tried to fit us into the American culture but never tried to live with it. Since the presentation in the Family day, I question myself Am I supposed to get this cultural shock?