Adapting to a New Culture

3 Months.  It has been over 3 months since I've first arrived here in Italy and it seems as though the time has gone by almost to quickly.

As Carl Sandburg once said, "Time is the coin of your life.  It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent..."  In other words, only you have the power to choose what happens in your life, and only you can determine what happens in it.  Essentially, we are the authors of our own stories and it's up to us to write it out.  We can feature people and events, but we can never erase the past because you'll forever be writing in a sharpie marker.  So, make it a good one!

One major thing that I've learned while studying abroad in Europe is that if you're given an opportunity of a lifetime and you're on the fence about it, you should just go for gold and do it.  You won't regret it.  Life always is throwing curveballs, tests, quests, questions, and adventures that should be explored!  Life shouldn't have to be lived in fear.    Sure, not everything turns out to be the most positive consequence of an event, however, that's the perfect opportunity for your to use it as a learning experience.  They say that when you make a mistake or something negative happens, only you can determine whether it can build you or break you.  (Anyone seeing a theme here?)

I bring this up because I waited so long to do something so amazing in my life.  My mother would always tell me "go, go, go!" and I would always just put it off and not think about going abroad.  I thought I knew it all.  The perfect opportunity in which my family and friends would support me and back my decision to study abroad.  Thinking of it now, if I didn't take the opportunity and grasp the experience while it was right in front of me, I would probably be kicking myself in the butt right now.

I've learned so much from my experience here in Italy.  One of the major barriers that I've come to accomplish is living in a new environment with not only different cultures, and lifestyles, but also different personalities.  I found myself being very close-minded often around others, not paying much attention to how or why something was to be done.  However, after having to do some reading and talking to some people, something changed.

For example, Italians get very frustrated with all of the tourists that come into the city.  I can see why, because Florence is Europe's version of America's Disney World.  So how would you feel if you had to deal with international vacationer's every day who barely spoke your home language, at the same time making no effort to learn?  So, something that I learned (obviously) was that the Italians really appreciate it when you attempt to speak their own language and fit in.  I found myself talking to the locals more, and the them saying "ciao" every time I walked by their store front.  They would continue the conversation in asking how my classes were, and would even teach me some more Italian language while we spoke...in Italian.  I learned how to adapt.

Think about it, when you're at home and people aren't willing to adapt to a new environment or culture, they get put off and aren't appreciated.  In other words, they're "outsiders."  Yes, there are the "hipsters" that try to not be like everybody else, but we know and they know that they are their own cult and are like everybody else of their culture.  See how this is working out?

Take this picture for a minute.  This is the adapter I had to use while in Italy in order to use my electronics.  Without the converter, my electronics wouldn't have fit, or, they wouldn't have worked.  Well, same concept.  The European outlet wouldn't have accepted my power cable.  Thus, I had to adapt and change some things in order for it to work out in my favor.  Adapting, being open-minded, listening and not just hearing, and accepting other people's opinions are key when not only going abroad, but in any situation where you're new, different, or not familiar with.  It's almost as though people aren't accepting to other people's values, because we're brought up in a world (generally, not everybody) where we get so comfortable with doing something one way, we just think that's the only way.  We won't get into politics, religion, or economics.

Being abroad and living with people from different cultures and lifestyles has really helped me become more able to adapt to new environments.  Rather than seeing somebody doing something strange to me and thinking, "Well that was stupid," I'm starting to think more on the lines of "I'm interested to know why this person did that, and what was their mindset?"  After all, we will never be able to extract a message from somebody's head because it's not ours.  Remember that we can't control other peoples thoughts, feeling, or actions.  We can only control our own.