What was the first culture shock you remember having?

[MeiganMcSeinna6]

high school for me , thought it would be all sweet an innocent , Wrong

Working for a charity which espoused diversity, equality and other admirable values.
Then seeing the bullying, targeting people they wanted to get rid of, favouritism and more.

There being a major crime in our home town.

It had always been the dullest, most uneventful place imaginable (from a teenager's eyes). Then suddenly the police were everywhere, they stayed for months, and neighbours who had known each other for 30 years stopped trusting each other.

Visiting down south. The North/South decide is shocking.

Starting at Cambridge and being asked by a fellow fresher 'what school did you go to?' Like he'd have heard of it? It was a backwater comp in special measures. Realised at that moment what I'd let myself in for

Itsallabout... Oxford and exactly that!!

Motherhood. Thought it would be fun.

England. From America.

Missouri vs Ireland in the late 1980s.

Being brought up in a small rural town where all my relatives lived. Aunts and cousins would pop in all the time. At 18 I went to uni in a city hundreds of miles away where I knew no one.

Going to university with a working class background and seeing the attitude of some students towards those who were working class.
My biggest was having a disabled child and finding the attitude of some professionals towards people with disabilities and their parents, particularly of those who worked in profession I used to work in.

The cheek kissing in France, especially when my then French boyfriend cheek kissed his male friend...

Ive been here 17 years now and it seems totally normal (though of course nonexistent atm with covid)

Walking out of Delhi airport

Moving to another country from very rural UK where nothing was open on a Sat pm, all day Sun to one my 1st day in the new country being told we have nothing in the fridge to eat so lets go shopping and going to the local 'hyper' market that was 20x bigger than our local uk supermarket at 8pm on a November Sunday and it was packed with shoppers. It really made me realise that what was 'normal' for me was no longer applicable here.

I think I saw more people in that supermarket at a time when in the UK we've all be tucked up against the cold watching the box then lived in my entire village - I was thinking who on earth shops on a Sunday esp in the evening. How things have now changed.

Arriving in Southern England by ship 50 years ago, aged 20. Posh relatives asked what the father of my cabin mate did. I replied "Oh, he's a panelbeater." They recoiled in horror, pearl-clutching. "But, but, your father is a professional! You can't be friends with a panelbeater's daughter!" The British class system half a century ago. What a shock for a country girl from Eketahuna.

@DoWhatYouWantToAndShh agreed 🤣 have kids they say, it'll be beautiful they say 😂

Seeing the river Seine divide in Paris when I was around 23. I just stood on the bridge in awe.

Also walking through Lima. I couldn't get my head around all these people living a life that I hadn't been aware of up to then.

Coming from Australia to England on a cold, wet February. I could not get my head around it...February was supposed to be warm and sunny.

Embarrassingly I had to google Eketahuna @pollyglot

Mine was studying at a college in North Carolina aged 20 and not recognising half the vegetables. ( I just thought everyone would eat ‘normal’ veg like broccoli and carrots). In fact 25% of the food was alien to me. There’s nothing like travel to illustrate the diversity of “normal”

@MintJulia I really want to know what crime it was! Can you give us a clue?!

brexit
'my' uk stopped to exist and suddenly became really hostile.

@Divebar - it wasn't really Eketahuna - it's just a generic reference to a small country town that shall remain anonymous. And I love the sound of the name.

It could just as easily have been Kaupokonui. Now there's a name.

Getting an admin job at a Russell group University in my mid 20s. It was first time I was exposed to the middle class and it was such a shock.

Cambodia, being exposed to such a corrupt country where people are terrified of the authorities and can’t protest.

London aged 6 - especially the tube. I vividly remember the buskers, the homeless people and overall the smells. I had never been to a city before and I was awe struck.

@itsallaboutschmoo Yep me too, in hindsight I should have gone elsewhere.

My main one was moving to the UK as a child, everything is so boring and dull, from peoples clothes, to homes, the surroundings etc. It was like entering a world that was just devoid of colour.