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I honestly don't think I saw a single unattractive person when I visited Iceland.

Marsai Martin looking shocked and a young woman with a backpack in a foreign country

I Want To Know The Wildest Culture Shocks You Experienced When You Studied Abroad

If You Studied Abroad, Tell Me About The Wildest Culture Shocks You Experienced

Marsai Martin looking shocked on Blackish

I myself once spent a week in Iceland, and even as someone who'd lived in <a href="https://www.viralnewsonly.com/michelelbird/flipped-vacation-that-changed-your-outlook">New York City</a> for nearly a decade, was blown away by how expensive everything was.

Young woman with a backpack in a foreign country

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For me, it was re-entry shock. After being so used to an efficient public transit system abroad, I came back to practically living in corn fields with zero public transport. I was frustrated by having to drive everywhere again 😅

This is highly embarrassing because it didn’t even happen abroad. I grew up in a small country town in the southern United States. I traveled as a child, but only to other southern states. When I was old enough and went to college, I was able to meet new people. As a white girl, I truly loved how African American women would style their hair and couldn’t believe the strength and patience it took for them to grow their hair long enough so they could have beautiful braids. I did not find out that most braids are fake hair until a close friend I made pulled a braid out of her hair and handed it to me. The shock on my face was one for the books! I was naive and sheltered by my family and community from getting rare interactions with other cultures. Now I have a large and diverse group of friends and am a little more in tune and aware of cultural differences and preferences.

I’ve grown up overseas for most of my life and just recently moved back to the U.S, to a pretty isolated town. The most shocking thing was just the ignorance and close-mindedness the people of my town express on a day to day based. The majority of their families have lived here for decades, and they never have felt the need to travel or learn about other cultures. I’m technically American, but I’ve never felt so out of place.

The supermarkets in South Korea! Pure chocolate bars? Couldn't find it. The area with vegaburgers? Nope. Frozen and canned veggies? Barely there. Fresh veggies? Crazy expensive (just like the fruit!) and lots of veggies I missed OR never had seen before. That first visit to the supermarket had me almost in tears (and not of joy...) Eventually I found my way around (also shout-out to the food section on Gmarket!), but I was definitely worried in the beginning.

Pizzas in Italy are not like pizza in America. They’re meant for one person and they give you a fork and knife with which to cut it yourself. It’s hella good, but man that one threw me for a loop. Also no one has milk in their coffee after like 11am.

I studied in W. Germany in the late 80s. I had a serious case of culture shock, which was compounded by the fact that I looked just like the people there, but their behavior and mindset were very different. One example: I used to love to go into stores and look at all the different goods. Being an American, I would pick things up and examine them. This would invariably perturb the shop clerk. Finally, a friend who had studied in Germany before explained it to me: the cultural expectation was that you would go into a shop, tell the clerk, "I am looking for a [pepper mill, pair of socks, whatever]." Then the clerk would take out suitable items and hand them to you. For whatever reason, I found this so hard! I just wanted to poke around! We are hunter-gatherers, after all.

In South Africa they drive on the left side of the road like in the UK. I never got used to looking right, left, right instead of left, right, left when crossing the street.

I lived in New Zealand and Australia for a while, and something I had a hard time adjusting to was different cursing/swearing! They use the "C" word very casually in both countries - it does not hold the same meaning or level of offense there as it does in the US. It look a lot of work to stop myself from flinching every time I heard it, though a lot of the AUS/NZ friends I made were nice enough to avoid it when I or other Americans were around.

Not me, but a boy that had come from Europe for the semester. His eyes would bulge out of his head every time he’d walk into one of our houses and there were so many things inside. Apparently in many countries in the East, they don’t fill their homes up with all this stuff. Another thing he’d constantly go on about is the drink sizes, and how he doesn’t need THAT much ice in his soda. Note, some Europeans don’t like ice.

I was the first student from my country to receive a student visa in Kuwait. The Kuwait University female dormitories were heavily guarded, like a prison, “for (our) safety as vulnerable females”. We had a 9:30pm curfew every night where we had to sign our initials in this book in the presence of the “ablas” (basically the female staff that worked there) and then were locked in the dormitory building. I had to get a letter from my Embassy saying “for cultural reasons (insert name here) has permission to stay out after curfew tonight”. Even then it was only a 1.5 hour extension to 11pm. We could to stay out overnight with embassy permission, or if our husband/parents came to sign us out. Most of us were over 18. 
The boys dormitory technically had a curfew to midnight, but it wasn’t enforced. Ours was. If we were late 3 times, then we risked expulsion from Kuwait University. I should also note that cafeteria staff were basically slaves under Kefala and they had not been paid in months.

I Want To Know The Wildest Culture Shocks You Experienced When You Studied Abroad

Spending any amount of time in a new country can leave you feeling a bit of culture shock, but the longer you're there, the more you're likely to experience.

This is especially true for anyone studying abroad, since there's a good chance it's their first time traveling (at least for an extended period of time).

If you studied abroad and found yourself facing particularly wild culture shocks, I want to hear about it!

Tell me what ended up being the biggest culture shock for you in the comments for a chance to be featured in a Viral News Only Community post.

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