What was the first culture shock you remember having?

[MeiganMcSeinna6]

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

[quote MimosaFields]@MoiMoiMe , no I'm Spanish but we also have that expression "smelling of clean". 🙂. For historical reasons we obviously have a lot of Arab traditions built into our culture[/quote]
@MimosaFields I see why now Mmm that smell is the best in the world!

Our honeymoon in Aruba, beautiful and glamorous beachfront hotels, huge shopping complex with designer brands, huge cruise ships.

Then we went on a jeep tour and it went through the backstreets. The total difference between the way the aruban people live and the slickness of the front for holidaymakers was so strange.

Same also for bulgaria. Little kids sat on the streets with puppies asking the holidaymakers for spare change.

My first trip to a supermarket in the UK. The vegetable aisle was only potatoes and cauliflowers (and beans if I was lucky). Salads were just that - salad leaves like iceberg lettuce and other greens I couldn't exactly 'cook'. As a vegetarian from Asia, I was horrified at the lack of options, till I located a Sri Lankan store nearby.

It's strange, but I wasn't so shocked by the differences in language and dressing and etiquette (there is only so much British TV can prepare you for) but I panicked at the thought of never being able to cook 'proper' food the way I would at home!

Probably when working in a Middle Eastern country in the late 70s, and an Indian colleague complaining that he needed to send his wife some money urgently, but he’d have to send extra because the clerk at the other end would demand a bribe before handing it over. And adding to a shocked me that this sort of thing was quite usual.

And another Indian colleague telling me quite openly that she’d paid someone to write her dissertation, and laughing at my naive shock.

Not me, but dds, when we took them on a Kenyan safari holiday at 15 and 18. Just about everywhere we stopped on the road, children would cluster round the vehicle, clamouring (quite happily) for pens. At one point I bought a whole box of Bics, so we’d have enough to hand out.

An abiding memory is of dds saying they couldn’t believe how happy the children were, just to get a pen. Talk about seeing how the other half live….

@CatsArePeople

in the late 1990's a school trip to Russia (Kaliningrad region). It was shocking. People living in houses unrepaired since WW2. There was a small village where since the war all sorts of "damaged" people had been sent to. It was a sight like from Hills Have Eyes.

Wow that must have been really interesting because it was closed to foreigners in Soviet times. It is somewhere I would like to go, but I think it's still not very easy to get there.

@minionsrule (@L1ttleSeahorse @Butchyrestingface)
A dollop of ice cream on a glass of lemonade (or other soada drink) is called a “float” or an “ice cream float”
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream_float

Maybe not the first. But reading here on MN that people throw their duvets away each season/year and buy new ones, rather than wash them

Blackpool... couldn't believe how run down, dated and depressing it is. I can't believe people actually go there willingly for a holiday. Couldn't wait to leave.

British beaches.

Haha yes, British beaches. Coming from Oceania to...that.