Culture Collage

So Chris over at the Firebowl collective blog posted a photo collage I made, meant to demonstrate the idea of Crossing Culture.  In an attempt to be creative, I basically went through the photos I have on my laptop that start in 2003...what an interesting exercise: browsing through my travels and photos of myself over the years.  Sometimes it's quite shocking how quickly time seems to go by.  Like it was over four years ago now since I was in Europe before this trip, it was over three years ago, the last time I was in Brazil....This morning in my first Portuguese class, I was acutely aware how long it had been!

Anyway, it was neat to take some time to look at the faces of the many, many people I have encountered in many, many different places; to try to recall what I learned of their story; to feel bad that sometimes I really only just took a photo and nothing more; to realize that the photos that seem cool are the ones of the people and situations most different than me or my own and to wonder, why is that?  What is the fascination with exotic-looking places and people?  What makes it exotic?  Why do the photos of people with different-coloured skin standing together seem the coolest?  Is that really what represents crossing cultures?  People in France don't look that much different than me (although I do feel stared at sometimes...there are fewer blonde-ish people here (except for all the German exchange students) yet I have most definitely crossed a culture.  Yet apparently there is no cool photo that can show that!  Just photos of different food, or methods of transportation or architecture.  No photo of a French person with me would really show a crossing of culture.  What about the photo from my last post?  There were two English girls, a Spanish girl and two Canadian girls with a tapestry of an elephant behind us...does that show a crossing of cultures?

I'll never forget how my largest culture shock was actually living in England!  Yet, how could that be shown in a photo?  The same language, but not the same language at all!  Lifestyle, weather, it all was a lot more different than I had expected and it became hard after a few months.  I remember feeling relief to go to Brazil part way through and I remember feeling more at home there!  Bizarre.  (I was particularly happy to see some blue sky.)

(Don't take this the wrong way, dear English friends.  I love your country and heck, I've even returned a few times!  It was just interesting to realize that it really was a very real crossing of cultures.  I'm sure my age and expectations had something to do with it too.  I was 18.)

But yeah, I had no particular aim with this post.  Just some thoughts spewing out.  Cross-cultural experiences are certainly varied and interesting.  It's been awhile since I've stayed in another culture longer than a month, ie. past the "honeymoon" stage, so I'm anticipating hitting some hard moments down the road.  I certainly am thankful for all of my previous experiences though so that I am better prepared.  At the same time, I need to keep in mind that each experience and each culture is unique and to not compare or anticipate something specific.  For example, although I have lived away from Canada for longer than 4 months before (England and India), I didn't have to function in a language other than English.  So this IS new!