noun
: a feeling of confusion, doubt, or nervousness caused by being in a place (such as a foreign country) that is very different from what you are used to
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary this is the definition of culture shock. I can still remember at orientation, Erica, our exchange coordinator drew a graph of the activity our brains would be going through while we were abroad.
During this presentation I thought to myself that I majored in psychology therefore I could control my emotions, au contraire (to the contrary), I probably was the worst when it came to adapting to this new culture. I can't even count on both hands how many times I started crying. Now looking back at my story I can laugh and know that it all happened for the best, but during the actual events, it really was the worst!
So Saturday I was free to do whatever I wanted and because the city was still kind of new I figured there is some truth to the saying "safety in numbers."
So in the morning I met up with a few students and later on in the day we went to a restaurant where la plupart (the majority) of us ordered crêpes because the options sounded so delicious. I decided to get the crêpe Alexandre, which was, quel surprise (what a surprise) delicious.
So Saturday I was free to do whatever I wanted and because the city was still kind of new I figured there is some truth to the saying "safety in numbers."
So in the morning I met up with a few students and later on in the day we went to a restaurant where la plupart (the majority) of us ordered crêpes because the options sounded so delicious. I decided to get the crêpe Alexandre, which was, quel surprise (what a surprise) delicious.
So after our excellent lunch/dessert marked the commencement of my culture shock. I went to Monoprix (for all you Fairbanksans the closest thing to Fred Meyer that France has, for all you east coasters sort of like a Super-Target). I ended up buying this rug for my room, apparently it was a beach mat, regardless of what it was, it was really cute and I knew it would brighten up my room. I also bought some heavy things so I was fairly weighted down and it was like 97 degrees so needless to say I needed to lay on the floor in my room! That's when being constantly lost began. My theory is that I was thinking so hard in French that I lost any sense of direction (which is already bad) that I ever had. It took me 2 hours to find a place that I was 2 minutes from. I went to so many cafés to get WiFi in order to contact my group leaders using the apps on my American phone. I had to order something at every café. I was lost for such a long time that I actually became bloated from all of the liquid I had to consume! I remember asking like 20 people if they could help me find my residence. The last guy that I asked just wanted to walk with me because he had no clue as to where I was asking him to direct me. At the end he asked for my email which was (chelou) creepy! I told him that I would probably see him at the University but thankfully it's huge so I have yet to run into him! So once I finally made it home it was time to go out and see my favorite French comedian "Norman." I actually found him on YouTube while preparing for my French studies. Pretty much in his videos he talks about his pet peeves and things he finds annoying in life. When I found out that he would be performing in Grenoble, I was super excited and immediately bought tickets (in Alaska, tous en français= all in French) on the internet. What I didn't anticipate, however, is that his show would be in a seedy area of town that was virtually not pedestrian friendly. Therefore getting to the comedy show was quite an adventure to say the least. Thankfully Catherine had written down the directions of how to get there but me, at this point with virtually no direction ability, got on the wrong tram going the opposite direction that I needed. Thankfully a nice girl told me that I needed to cross the tracks and catch a different tram. Then I met up with this nice group of medical workers, since they were dressed up I just assumed that they were going to a concert, so I asked them if they knew how to get to my Norman show. They were like "Oh ouai, suivez-nous." (Oh yeah, follow us). So like a helpless little sheep I followed them. I was so anxious and kept annoying them about getting off at the correct stop. I was so confused that they started applauding when I finally got off! I honestly don't want to know if they were that happy to see me leave or that was just a way of wishing me good luck! So anyway I was off, hard part over. Not at all. So I got off in this really shady area of town next to this centre commercial (mall) that Marie told us not to go to. So I was so desperate that I asked these people in a really beat up car if they knew which way the stadium Norman was playing at was. They told me tout droit, which now I know means straight, but à droit means (right). Oh my gosh, having learned that just today is very frustrating. Knowing that little piece of information could have saved me a lot of tears. So anyways at least the beat up car driver was really nice and got out of his car and pointed me in the right direction. The stadium itself was not easy to find, and once I got there I was like 40 minutes late and it was obvious this was a venue people drive to because there were iron gates and valet/security guards. Everyone was really nice however, and saw this ridiculously dressed up girl, who was obviously foreign, and extremely late, but without hesitation they let me through by presenting my ticket. Then the main guy was like "Just find any available seat." So the overall show was enjoyable and Norman was really funny.
So after this show was over it was sort of a downer to think that I had to find my way home. I then saw that there were vendors and I decided that I would buy the Tshirts and poster. To my misfortune none of my cards were accepted and I only had 7 euros to my name. Apparently my desperation was pretty evident and some nice lady said that she would buy me a poster. I proceeded to offer her some American money but she declined. Then finding the tram back to my residence was impossible, so I finally found a bus stop. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles! (Fiddler on the Roof reference) I somehow made it on the right bus and then I started asking around so much that someone asked the bus driver to take me where I needed to go. Wow, I am so lucky, there are so many wonderful people in the world. So the bus driver dropped me off at Place Victor Hugo, which is a pretty easy spot to navigate from, one would think but Michelle- the master of getting lost was able to get really turned around and after asking like 10 people for common landmarks, a nice guy (who I'm convinced now, was a drug dealer) because he stopped several times and went up to a bunch of cars and exchanged something. It was obvious to me that he was on some sort of route. Welcome to Grenoble I guess, an authentic look at the night life! It took him like 30 minutes to take me to my residence which in reality should have taken like 5-10 minutes. Oh well, I finally had made it home around midnight and was too exhausted to even start crying.