Five Months

It's halftime. Five months have passed, five more to go. Maybe it's time to contemplate for a while, for once. What wisdom have I gained during these months? ...I draw a blank there. Let's try another strategy, let's play never have I ever... Five months ago, the only in-sink-erator I had seen was on TV. I had never hold a check, and certainly not written one. I had never surfed nor skated. I had never heard off In-N-Out, Dunkin Donuts or Yogurtland. The first weeks the grocery shopping took forever because I had to convert from $/lb to kr/kg, from gallons to liters and from fl.oz to...? And I'm still surprised when I take out a big bunch of same-sized-same-colored bills just to realize that they're all 1 $ and that I have to pay with credit card.

Living in an other culture is exciting, but stressful. The first weeks I felt like a complete idiot most of the time. How does the laundry machine work? What does a mailbox look like? How much is a dime worth? The culture curve looks like this: first euphoria about everything new and exciting, then frustration with everyday differences, after that surface adaption, then confronting deeper cultural or personal issues, then assimilation and adaption, then depression of having to leave, then going home. Now I'm probably in the surface adaption stage. I'm pretty used to everything and can function in the daily life, but still, there is just some things I simply don't understand. The 21+ for drinking, while they have 16 for driving. That everything that matters is money and beauty. That you can go to class in pj's as long as you wear make-up. That there's almost no roundabouts and in those that exist, people don't know when to yield. But at least I don't have to struggle with an entirely new language, and I didn't get stuck with Mormons as roommates. :-D