Peru- Week 5: Culture Shock

Five weeks wasn’t quite long enough to go through all the stages of culture shock, but it was the longest I had ever been outside of the United States. There were many things that I noticed were very different, but it took about two weeks to really notice those differences.
First of all, Peru has a very service based culture, meaning people rarely do things for themselves, and help each other often. At fast food places, people would never take their trays to the trash can, which would make me feel so guilty, but it was normal. Also whenever my host mom or housekeeper would make me a meal, they would serve it to me and never let me clear my own dishes. America has a very self-sufficient, independent culture, and I think we could learn something from more connected cultures like this.
I also noticed that every single person loves to dance and is great at it. When we spent a week at the high school, some of the students would try and teach us salsa, and they were all fantastic, even though they would deny it. In America some people can dance, but many, especially boys, don’t like dancing because they feel dumb. I love to dance, so I really enjoyed getting to dance with the locals.
When I thought about what I missed most from the US, it was really the food. I loved the Peruvian food, but I started missing my comfort food, especially peanut butter. I also missed cereal, pizza, and water. I say water because we were served juice with every meal, and I missed drinking my plain old water. With that said, I’m going to miss jugos, ají, lúcuma, and all of the avocado.
I’m excited to go home and see my family and friends, but I will forever be grateful for this amazing experience to live and experience a different culture.