Cultural Blog of the Day: Moving to New Places
A new place. Moving there. Let’s face it, that’s a scary thought. You likely don't know anyone, you don't know your way around, you've got to figure out all sorts of new things like places to get groceries and a good spot for a haircut, it’s madness! Even worse, a lot of times it may be equally as mad to always stay in one place.
Like many of my fellow classmates, this past semester I had the terrific opportunity to go on a study abroad term away from my home country of Canada to Liverpool in the United Kingdom. Also like many of my fellow classmates, I am writing a blog about it. While not even I know what words lie ahead of us, I am hoping that what I am about to write gives you a new perspective on going abroad or trying your hand at living in a new place. At the very least I am hoping I come up with a joke or two that give you a good laugh along the way. That being said I should state on record that no chuckles are guaranteed at this stage in the blog; I haven't actually written anything after this point yet so who knows how it will turn out.
Whatever I do write though I want to make it a bit different than some of the other blogs out there. To do this I’ve pondered many topics and thought over many ideas, often in states of delirium on planes, and have discovered the answer right under my nose! Well, perhaps more accurately, right under my thumbs. Throughout my exchange I often Tweeted “Cultural Moments of the Day” which I thought were funny little observations about my time there. I decided to go back and collect all of my moments into one document and see if any patterns emerged. In the end, I came up with three main themes that are going to be the basis for what I want to talk to you about today (plus one bonus theme never before seen on Twitter) so hopefully you enjoy whatever it is I’m about to come up with! Here it goes……
Hey, This is Different!
Cultural moment of the day: realizing the building you’re class is in is virtually the same age as your home country
Cultural moment of the day: the dial tone while calling someone is different here
Cultural moment of the day: seeing the word “rubbish” used instead of garbage
Cultural moment of the day: when you find out the word "pylon" actually means electrical pole after talking about one for 20 minutes
Cultural moment of the day: Realizing you’ve got to get used to the default currency on all websites being in Sterling
It’s easy when visiting somewhere new to spot differences. If you're in another city for example, all the roads are different, the restaurants and stores are different and maybe the people act a bit differently as well. If you're in another country everything from the food to the language to the culture as a whole could be radically different than what you're used to. When I moved to my exchange home I experienced the same things. The way the city was setup was a bit different, the accent was radically different (anybody who know the Scouse accent knows what I'm talking about) and of course all the people I was living with were different as well. As weird as this was, when I looked back on all my Cultural Moments of the Day I noticed I didn't talk about any of these large changes, I talked about all the small ones. Small things such as the different dial tone sound when I made a call, or the use of the word “pylon” to describe what I would call an “electrical pole.” I thought for a while about why these small differences stood out to me so much and realized that a lot of these things that I noticed (and inevitably Tweeted about) were the things I've never paid any attention to at home. If you think about how many times you taken notice of the dial tone on your phone (if people even still use their phones to call anymore) or how many times you've seen something other than a dollar $ign when shopping online then you realize how odd it must be to have that be different. Things like that are constant in our everyday life and do not frequently change so it can be quite a shock when all of the sudden things you've forgotten about and have taken for granted as a constant are different. Things like roads, scenery, accents and food are all things we expect to change when we go somewhere outside of home but we don't really think about what it’s like to live seeing garbage bins labeled as “rubbish bins” or bothering to take note of how old the building your taking a class in is (~127 years old by the way). So to anyone moving away to a new place I would say to watch out, but don't be alarmed! There will be so many things that will change for you including a lot of things you never assumed would change, and while that may be scary it is also incredibly exciting! It’s not often in life you get to relearn your environment and experience everything as new, so I say you should go out and make the most of that experience. It’s ok to be a little scared by your surroundings sometimes, it makes you appreciate what you have just a little bit better (like having a trusted barber in the event of a hair emergency).
Wait, I'm Different?
When it gets to 1 degree and everyone complains how bitterly cold it is this February
it snowed this morning and while everyone was looking miserable I've never felt more at home
the weird feeling getting asked about your accent while thinking "you're the one with the accent”
I’ve just been offered a beer at the barbers so, that is a thing here
not understanding foreign addresses and having to guess based off the picture of the map
If there's one thing nobody likes (I assume it's not just me) it’s feeling like you stand out. I think we've all felt that way at one time or another; maybe you've been way too overdressed for a party or way too underdressed for a Halloween party. The point is we all like to fit in and feel like we belong. Now being a tall, slightly red-haired, rather* pale (*some may argue “rather” isn't a strong enough term to use here but this is my blog so I'm sticking with it) guy you might not think I would have the most difficult time fitting in in England; I thought the same thing. When I first arrived in Liverpool I tried so hard to fit in and find that feeling of belonging, but at the end of the day I just didn't fit in in a lot of ways. I didn't realize it at the time, but that feeling of difference lead to a lot of my (semi) daily Cultural Moments. When it got cold everyone was in big winter jackets while I was in a sweater (thanks Canadian winters). While everyone already knew their way around I was constantly looking at the map on my phone just to find the grocery store (though I blame that in part due to my naturally poor sense of direction). Eventually, I found that even if I felt like I was blending in, every time I spoke to someone my accent would gave it away! I can't tell you how strange it is to walk down the street feeling like a local and having to talk to someone and just knowing everyone around you is thinking (please read in a Scouse-British accent) “this bloke definitely isn't from around here.” One of the strangest moments I had with this was in a class where we discussed a reading within a group and I had a British person ask me where my accent was from which lead me to think “wait but, I don't have an accent you are the one with the accent.” That one little interaction really made me realize I am the one that is different, I am the one that people notice, I am the one who doesn't fit in here, not the other way around.
Now after reading all that you might be thinking, “this all sounds terribly scary” and are perhaps even stress eating a bulk bag of Tamari Almonds from Costco (for the record I do realize that the chances of that happening are extremely slim and no this is not sponsored, although Tamari Almond people feel free to make this a sponsored plug ;). What I would like to stress from all this though, is that being culturally incompatible presents you with the fantastic opportunity of getting to adapt to a brand new culture! One of the great things about going on exchange or moving to a new place is that you get to be in that new place for an extended period of time! This extended time usually means that, while you may start off feeling like an outsider, you have the time to grow into a local. As you grow into a local you have the opportunity to discover a new community, discover a new way of life and a new culture; further to just discovering these new things, you get to actually live them yourself (not exactly something everyone gets the opportunity to do in their lifetime)!
So to sum it all up, it’s ok to be different. Your differences show that you have a culture and a life that you're used to. You should embrace this feeling of difference and enjoy the process of those differences melting away in place of similarities for your new surroundings.
Hey, I'm one of you now!
Secretly trying to use more British slang and having your UK roommate say “that was a very British thing to say”
realizing how many queue jokes you make then remembering nobody will get those back home
after having so much rain I think I've finally learned proper umbrella etiquette when in stores
I think I've finally gotten used to looking the other way when crossing the road
That weird moment when you start to recognize the money and lingo in British movies you’ve never noticed before
when you no longer need to use Google Maps to navigate and you feel like a local
I've started to pick Liverpool tourists out of the crowd and I've never felt more like a local
So let's say you're convinced about the idea of going abroad. You want to dive into a new culture and learn a new way of life, what happens next? While of course I can't tell you what your specific experience will be like, but I can tell you about mine and hope that it gives you an idea. Diving again into the pool of Cultural Moments, I set out to see if any of them related to the idea of adapting. After searching through many Tweets I eventually noticed that by the time I left Liverpool there were a ton of little British-isms that I had made a part of my daily routine. For example, by the end of my exchange I found that I loved to use British slang wherever I could, in fact I still do that now by reflexively saying 'cheers' instead of 'thanks' and 'quid' instead of 'bucks' to so many people. I also found that there were all these other quirky British things like their obsession with queueing and indoor umbrella etiquette that ended up being things I loved about British culture. Perhaps the most impactful thing I felt towards the end of my exchange was the connection I felt to the city of Liverpool. When I entered the city I felt like an outsider and I had no idea if I would ever get to the chance to become a true member of the community. When I left the city I could not feel more a part of it. I felt the community in Liverpool had truly accepted me and I felt I truly understood it. I felt the people around me were not strangers, but fellow locals (minus the tourists I started to pick out of the crowd). I could sense the cheesy phrases I was going to use to describe all of this is a blog post, the list goes on and on.
The point of all this is to say that moving to a new place could impact you in a number of ways. You may end up like me and love the city you've chosen, or maybe you won't. In the end, just the experience of adapting to a new culture is a rewarding one and regardless of how it turns out you will prove to yourself you can move to a new place and take on a new city, and any chance for personal growth like that is a good one!
Temporality
By the time I left Liverpool I was in love. A great community, some great friends and some fantastic subject matter to Tweet about. As I trained out of the city for the last time and reflected upon my experience there as a whole I realized there was one thing I never Tweeted about on exchange, and that was temporality. When I say temporality I am talking about how your exchange or your residency in a new place might not last forever. I'll admit, it's a sad thought. You go on exchange, you meet all these fantastic people and experience all these new things and then come the end of the semester you just pack up, leave all of that and fly home. I think the fear of being ripped away from the new life you've build abroad scares a lot of people from taking the plunge; to be honest it almost stopped me. Now however, after coming back and resettling into Canadian life, I realize one of the best things about exchange is its temporality. Conscious of the idea or not, knowing that your exchange or foreign residency won't last forever pushes you to make the most of it. You will put yourself out there more, push yourself past your comfort zone, try things you might not have tried before and generally try to give yourself the most rounded experience possible. If you know you're going to be in a city or a country for a long time it's easy to not go out and do anything, after all, you can always 'do it later.'
I look at the temporality of exchange as somewhat of a paradox. The short length of the exchanges makes you push yourself to have the best time possible, but if you have the best time possible you won't want it to be so short. So all I can really tell you is that if you ever think the idea of jumping into a new life and then tearing yourself out of it is scary, just remember that if it wasn't scary, it wouldn't be worth jumping into in the first place.
- Calen Siddall
