What I like the most about East Asia is how different the countries are from each other despite the fact that they are all relatively close. Even Hong Kong and mainland China have enormous cultural differences. Just by going to Shenzhen (at the border with Hong Kong at mainland China) anyone can notice very quickly that Hong Kong is not completely Chinese. Before coming to Asia, I knew there were going to be some cultural differences but I did not know that there were so many. However, I have not felt such “cultural shock” nothing has prevented me from doing anything.
As I have mentioned in several posts, the food has been my biggest problem in terms of cultural differences. To be honest I never got totally used to it. At the university I regularly eat at the only two Western restaurants as I truly dislike the local food. But besides the problem with the food, the cultural differences I have encountered have all been very positive experiences. I certainly experience them everywhere and I enjoy them and see them as great learning opportunities.
Probably the most shocking cultural experience I have had so far in my semester abroad happened in Sapa, a small town at the Northwest of Vietnam. Since Sapa is a very rural agricultural town and the communities are far away from each other, with other friends that traveled with me from Hong Kong, we rented a few motorbikes and hired a local tour guide who showed us Sapa for an entire day. After the tour was over we became friends with the tour guide and she invited us for lunch the next day with her family at her house. So we went and were very excited but when we got there everything we were shocked. First of all the family was incredibly poor; the house did not even have a bathroom and they had to use candles as there was not even one single bulb in the entire house. Then before eating–as it was Lunar New Year and it is a cultural practice in the north of Vietnam–the father of the family gave us all a shot of blood’s pig mixed with mint and, as it was tradition, he expected that we would drink all of it, which we did. Meanwhile the women of the family–the entire family were around ten–ate at a separated table from the men. This was truly a shocking experience, but extremely valuable for me. When I decided to go abroad I accepted leaving my comfort zone and I looked forward to these type of experiences where I could learn new realities from other places in the world.
I have been abroad for sixteen weeks now, I know that the students experience abroad can be as unique as they want. Certainly those that do not want to experience such culturally shocking experiences, they can certainly avoid them. But for any students coming that want to experience new realities and see how people live around the world, I am sure that there is no limit on learning. With semesters abroad, the learning opportunities are everywhere –not only at the classrooms–and that is what makes going a abroad for a semester such a life changing experience.
