Culture shock

So I learned to define the stages as: Honeymoon, Culture Shock, Recovery, and Adjustment. My Sarah uses the 4F approach: Fascination, Frustration, Friends, Fantastic. Either way I am in the low part of the curve…

I didn’t know it. It was pointed out to me. It is not a huge setback, just a low-level buzz. But it makes sense considering the time element- I have been here almost a month to the day. I am experiencing some levels of frustration which exist without anchor. Mostly focused on elevators.

Now I had these same frustrations in Toronto as well which is why I was able to cloak the symptoms under a different title. However, it was just yesterday that I had an overwhelming urge to flick the ear of the guy in front of me. A physical assault reaction greater than any I have experienced to date. I wanted to flick him sooooo hard. What kind of goof stands in the doorway of a jammed-packed elevator and text messages his colleagues while the rest of us struggle to get around and out before the doors crash to a close and causes bodily harm?

And what kind of culture would have folks wait moments divisible by hours for an elevator to go up/go down one floor? Where one’s status is so important to suggest that to ride is better than to walk, na? Why it is that there are 15 stops down from the 15 floor? Where is everyone going?

It has become a terror greater than fingernails on the chalkboard to go near the elevator. If I had hair it would be clumpy in texture.

Then there is the OTHER element of feeling trapped in my luxury condo. A hardship? I should say so. Manila provides for limited excursion possibilities – before considering any outstanding safety issues. And to leave town requires no less than a 4 hour bus ride eating a huge chunk of the weekend in travel alone. Remember, however, that I have been “cautioned” about using the local bus. The caution serves as a general concerned warning but mostly serves as protection for their investment in my services. There are, however, two culturally important reasons I have been able to deduce: local folks of status (ie my office peers) would never take a bus since their status precludes this transport option (and they possess vehicular transport); likewise working white people have pre-ordained status and therefore the concept of bus travel could never be entertained.

But nobody has accused me of being particularly perceptive. Maybe I am just imagining it all. My intern-mate Sara reports: “…this brings me to another element of living over here that has been a bit of an adjustment – the fact is while I am working with the project, I am also a representative of it. As a result, I am not as free to travel in the same way that I would normally. That is, as my station here demands, I have a higher responsibility to remain safe in their eyes than I do to find the cheapest hotel in town!! So, I have to adjust to the fact that when I travel on my own to various destinations, I am never really on my own time. For example, when I went to Borocay with Chris, since we were traveling ‘on our own’, it was pre-arranged that we were met at the airport by a representative from the local tourism board. He walked usthrough the airport terminal to an awaiting tricycle (for a distance that I would have easily considered walking) where we were met at the ferry terminal by yet another tourism representative. She then escorted us through the ticketing procedure and onto the ferry going to the island of Borocay. Even though it felt like we were given the ‘Royal Treatment’, we were actually handled with ‘kid gloves’ ….”

Yesterday I had supper in the mega-mall food court. Tonight I am scheduled to watch “The Bachelor” followed by 8 back-to-back sessions of Sex in the City. Oh joy. Tell me that is not a hardship?

So here you are - a case of low-grade culture shock. Of course the secret here is to limit interactions with expats (who may exacerbate or support feelings of frustration) and to get out and hang with the locals. Learn the language or somehow otherwise refocus on being in this context. Sounds like a great time to source out a beach for the weekend? Without escorts?