Saturday, September 02, 2006

Reverse Culture Shock. . . But Not Really

Since I came back to the States about three or so weeks ago, I have not really had any problem adjusting back to the culture. I was warned and worried that this would be an issue, but it really hasn't been that big of a deal. But yesterday I have to admit I experienced something a little bit weird. It wasn't really reverse culture shock. It was more like in my mind I had superimposed my Egypt culture shock on Americans. Let me explain.
While in Egypt it became instinctive for me to tense up anytime I was walking down the street and a guy I don't know was walking towards me. You see the guys there could be so openly sleazy that you never knew what you were going to get. Would they make some horrible, gross comment? Would they grab you? Would they expose themselves to you? Or were they just going to continue staring at you like they have never seen a white girl before? So I would automatically brace myself for whatever may or may not transpire.
Last night I was at First Friday in downtown Augusta. For the first time, I noticed that I was tensing up whenever a guy I didn't know was walking towards me. It became really obvious because there were tons of people down there and I was getting rediculously tense. A bit of a system overload. By the end of it I just so badly wanted to go home. Weird, weird, weird.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey dottie, is rosemary in augusta? because i think she was in blue sky the other night?

Dottie said...

Yeah, she is in Augusta now for work. She should be here for like two or three weeks total.

Anonymous said...

Hey Jenn,
I saw you and thought I know this girl. Then I thought wishful thinking you're just looking to belong.
Great to see you.
Rosemary

Dottie said...

Rosemary,
Give me a call sometime before you leave. We need to hang out and do dinner or something. I'll cook. It will be nice.