Choque Cultural

Afternoon Bloggers,

So set your mind back 3 weeks. What we're you doing? who were you with? Me. I was sat in a room full of european students in an Erasmus Welcome Meeting on our first day at Universidad de Cadiz. Now this was a pretty bog standard 'Welcome Meeting', we were introduced to the university, the different campuses, the main member of staff, the library service etc, but one bit stood out from the rest, and that was the section reserved for a geezer from the psychological service of the uni, i guess an on site shrink, and his presentation was all about 'Choque Cultural', or for us brits, 'Culture Shock'.

Now most of his presentation was run of the mill garbage like many people will have heard at health and safety talks at work, or at school when an 'incident' occurs, you know the pish; It's completely confidential, there is no pressure on you at all, you don't have to come in in person we can talk across email or on the phone (meanwhile he's thinking this is a much easier way for him to have a jolly good giggle at your 'issues'!) But when its in Spanish, alliteration and over-emphasis of the word 'Choque Cultural' really makes you sit up and take notice (for the first real time in this meeting), that coupled with some hilarious images and a strange accent meant that alot actually sunk in.... i think :/

The general gist of the talk was that after the first few weeks to couple of months - otherwise known as the 'Honeymoon Period'- there comes 'Choque Cultural', the moment where it starts to hit home that you are actually not on a 5 week bender payed for by the lovely people at the Student Loans Company and later further funded by the generous individuals in the EU company Erasmus, and that you are actually stuck in this foreign country to learn, to learn how to fit in with this foreign culture, how to cope eating this foreign food, and start (or continue to learn :/) to speak this foreign language whilst living in a foreign house surrounded all the time by foreign people... sound scary, sorry, it isn't i swears :D.

Now to the point, yes i know, what the bleeding nora is this dude babbling on about, there is NOWT rock n roll about a 3 paragraph lecture on some foreign saying i cant even spell never mind pronounce... but wait, there is indeed a point, and a rather funny image :)

The point is, as i sat in that very lecture 3 weeks ago, and completely dismissed all he said (aprt from the fact i knew i would be missing my Yorkshire frikin Puddings!), i said to myself, "Matty man, there is nothing here in Cadiz that can shock you more than the sights outside the Gate in Newcastle on a Wednesday night or a weekend, or even on a Tuesday night on Silver Street in Donny, nothing here can compare to the horrors that have burnt away the irises in your eyes from nights gone by.... HOWEVER, here, today, well in fact a mere 5 hours ago, i stood, and do indeed stand (im actually laid down don't worry) corrected!....

There is NOWHERE in the whollllee world, not even in the USA, where a man can wear these clothes and survive the day! In Donny, this guy would've been stripped down, left with his baseball cap, and made to watch in horror, butt naked, as his clothes burnt in front of him in a the body of a burning skoda nicked by a few chavs earlier.

This, my freinds, is 'Choque Cultural'!!

Happy Blogging :)