Some Cultural Surprises

Before coming to study at Rochester, I used to think that I had a pretty accurate idea of what life in the U.S. is like. The vast majority of people living today have some exposure to American culture, mostly via Hollywood and the Internet. I had a lot of it as I grew up on American movies, music, and TV series. I even travelled a couple of times to the U.S. with my family.  

As you can imagine, I thought that nothing would surprise me.

To my surprise, I was wrong.

There are several things so far that I found unexpectedly different about living here. They range from minor habits to pretty significant cultural/social differences.

As for minor things, one example is the way people organize their beds. I, as most Europeans, am used to duvets whereas Americans seem to prefer to deal with the cumbersome complexity of bed sheets and comforters. It’s something you have to deal with on a daily basis, yet hardly anyone thinks about it.

More seriously now, people in my region have this stereotypical view of Americans being incurable optimists, who never stop smiling. I don’t know if this idea is common all around the world, but at least in my country, Americans are the epitome of optimism and openness. Sometimes they are referenced in arguments to contrast the presumed cold, aloof, and depressive nature of the Polish soul. When someone suggests something like smiling more often to strangers on the streets, America is cited as the place where people actually do that.

From my experience, as with most stereotypes, this view is largely… stereotypical. I don’t see much difference between the way people act in contact with strangers or on the streets in the U.S. (or at least the part I’m currently exploring) and Poland (or any country in Central Europe, for that matter). If anything, there might be something opposite going on when it comes to contact with strangers in non-social situations.

I’ll talk about that and some more observations in my next post!