Culture Shock

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Culture Shock
Senior Emily Barnum
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While splitting her summer break between three corners of the world, senior Emily Barnum experienced new ways of life in Dallas, TX, Southeast Asia, and Greece. The language barrier in Southeast Asia was one of the biggest culture shocks she experienced.

“People would yell, ‘Hello Mister, Hello!’ whenever they would see me because they know that mister is a pronoun, but they don’t know the difference between the female pronoun and the masculine pronoun.

Senior Abraham Ourth
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After studying abroad in Spain, senior Abraham Ourth took a short trip to Morocco during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, where observers abstain from food from dawn until sunset.

“I’ve never been in a majority Muslim country during Ramadan. All the restaurants are closed during the day. As soon as it gets dark, everything becomes wide open. It’s like the end of school where everyone’s like, ‘We’re done—we’re going to have
fun now.’”

Junior Kathryn Duhadway
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Vacationing with her family in Puerto Rico, junior Kathryn Duhadway experienced the effects of the debt crisis, the recession that has gripped the country for more than a decade.

“There were people who would stand in a public parking spot, and they would shout at the cars that went by, ‘Do you wanna park here, do you wanna park here?’ And if the people in the car said yes, they’d be like, ‘Okay, give me five dollars and you can have this
parking spot.’”

Jessie Wilcox
Courtesy

Junior Jessie Wilcox spent her summer experiencing an American culture different from her own: living in a barn and working at a guest ranch
in Wyoming. 

“It was like stepping back in time. Everything you’ve heard about cowboys in movies and country songs is true. One weekend, our trail was right in the middle of this herd of buffalo, and they were all staring at us. And they’re massive. We had to cross, like, 6 feet away from them.”

Editor’s Note: Quotes have been edited for length
and clarity.