Work work work (week 4 CULT5 assg. 1 stage 2)

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Monday, 9-12-16



The fourth week of my stay abroad. I am staying in Santa Ana, CA, to work at an in-home daycare.



This week I have not done too much exploring. I had to work a lot but I did have an amazing Labor Day. We had a nice barbecue which we all prepared together in the kitchen with music and stains on our shirts. I have read that you'd better not wear white at Labor Day and now I know why. We all gathered together on the patio and talked about movies, family and how delicious the food was. Afterwards, the volunteers and I went for a nice bike ride. This was a bit tricky because there are of course no bike lines and two of them rode a bike for the last time five years ago. We explored the neighborhood on our bikes and the sun behind us. It was relaxing and I realized how much I missed riding my bike, as weird as that may sound. You never really notice the little things until you do not do them anymore.



The next day I was off and read a book. I read The Murders in the Rue Morgue. The story is about two men who feel like it is their duty to solve a murder that happened in the Rue Morgue. When the police arrests a suspect they feel like it is not the one because the police don't have the evidence. They read in the paper that witnesses heard a male voice talking in French and another voice, but the statements differ about the language of the second person. They investigate the scene and Dupin, one of the main characters, comes to the conclusion that the second person is in fact not a person, but an animal.



After some research of the book, this tale is seen as one of the first modern detectives. The tale has also a sequel called The Mystery of Marie Rogêt.



Edgar Allen Poe has an eerie way of writing and that was the feeling I got when I read this book as well. It is one of those books that you will read over and over again because of the brilliant way of how it was written and the absurd plot twist that will appear in this book.





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CULT5 assignment 1 stage 2

Part B: cultural differences

During my stay I am working in a day care with three other volunteers. Two German girls and one Spanish girl. I share a room with a German girl and cultural differences are often the topic of our conversations.

Manners

When you enter a store in America people are most likely to greet you in a very upbeat way. They are always smiling and asking in a high voice: “Hi, how are you doing today?” In The Netherlands and apparently in Germany too, this is not that common. The most you will get in The Netherlands is a friendly smile and a “Hello”. We talked about how this might come off as fake, but actually it will make you feel like you are welcome in the store and like you are seen. Being seen is what people want, so this is a smart trick. Of course, if you just had a rough day you won’t say that to the person asking the questions, because they don’t want to hear that.

When you just met someone, you will be asked the question “Where are you from?” Americans move a lot so they assume you have done this is well. We often get the questions because they can hear we are not from America because of our accents. They often then ask questions suck like “How is the weather there?” “Which language do you speak?” and “What can you eat there?” You will get awfully aware that Americans do not know a lot about Europe, and especially not about The Netherlands. They can make out German accents, Spanish accents and British accents but the rest is unclear for them.



Believes

Most of the Americans have a strong believe, may that be Christen, Muslim, Judaism or something else. This is a personal opinion, but I believe that this is a constant that you do not often see in The Netherlands anymore, or not as strong. My host family in particular have extreme ideas about Christianity and this is what they will always bring up in a conversations. It is a sort of stereotypical things that all Americans believe in God, but most of them do and some of them believe in an extreme way. I have the feeling that this is a way less common thing in The Netherlands. Of course you have people who share the same extreme believes, but I feel like this is not as many as in the US. This has also to do with the population. Let me briefly explain what I mean when I talk about extreme believes: my host family thinks that all the Christians will go to heaven and that God will shut out every none believer. With this, they also mean all Muslims, Jews and so on. In that way, they kind of share the same view with the Jehovah Witnesses. They also believe they have seen God in times of distress and that they have a connection with him because they can ‘look into the future’.

There is of course no way that I know that other people will think or not think in this way as well, but this is a good example of how strongly people in America believe. Of course this happens all over the world and is not an American only phenomenon. I do believe though that this does happen less in The Netherlands because we are too down to earth for that. “Doe maar normal, dan doe je al gek genoeg.”



The bigger the better

Everything in America is bigger. The billboards, the dishes, the nails, the supermarkets, the people. Everything you can think off. A small cup of soda in a fast food restaurant here is a medium cup in The Netherlands. In The Netherlands you have billboards and in America you have BILLBOARDS. It is almost as if the bigger the product, the better the quality. It is a good sales trick because it screams in your face and will leave an impression. In Germany as in The Netherlands, this is not the case. The meals are not too big, the billboards have an appropriate size, obesity is a thing but not as in the US. Notice the way I said appropriate. For American standards, the big signs are the ‘appropriate’ size. This has everything to do with what you are used to and consider as normal. When you order a small meal it will still be big, but US citizens will consider it a small because they don’t know any different.





It is funny how you talk about differences with people from different countries. Even if Germany and The Netherlands are bordering countries, there are a lot of differences as well. However, being in The States brings you together because the distance between the differences is so big.

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