Orientation and Supermarket Culture Shock

Today our journey began after long and exhausting trips to get here. Orientation came first and everyone waited anxiously to get more information about our stay here at UTC and how things generally work. We had questions that we had been waiting to ask for weeks, and the time finally came. We were here.

At orientation, Pato led a few bonding exercises for us to get to know each other with and I have to say that it worked really well! Running around to get bingos, answering questions about ourselves, and the last exercise (the "connection' exercise as I like to call it) was the one that we will all probably remember. We fully realized that no matter what, we are together for five weeks and this program will probably bond all of us for life.

It was on the agenda to go to Rock City but due to anticipated inclement weather, it got postponed and we got to do the most American thing I could think of –going to Walmart and Target. These two stores were overwhelmingly big, and when Takeo said it would take two hours for us to get everything we needed there, I thought he was joking.

He was not joking.

Imagine your first experience of culture shock in the United States being a supermarket visit. It was amazing to finally see things from a real life perspective and not from the movies you watch all the time, we got to experience a typical American afternoon and I can‘t wait to experience more of these.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we are so honored and excited to be here, and that we are going to make the most out of this experience while it lasts. Some of us have visited the U.S. but we have only visited as tourists for a few days or a few weeks, not as students that are a part of a prestigious program that enables us to see what life here is really like. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that none of us will let pass.