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By kennatim

I have committed cultural faux pas after faux pas in a little less than two weeks here. There are probably plenty more that no one ever brought to my attention as well. Between assuming pedestrian right-of-way at intersections, misunderstanding of tipping etiquette, and too many misunderstandings of the Irish accent to count, I have basically accepted the role of the ultimate foreigner. My most glaring faux pas, and one that I continue to misunderstand, involves walking in malls, sidewalks, and just about anywhere with foot traffic.

I have slowly come to a conclusion that Irish people have no protocol when it comes to which side to walk on almost anywhere. I am speaking about things like stairs, mall hallways, school hallways, and sidewalks. In the U.S., there is a pretty clear understanding that we drive on the right side of the road and walk on the right side of the sidewalk. As an avid runner for years, this protocol is something I have always held near and dear. Seeing someone walking on the left or opening the left door in a set of double doors in the U.S. left me thinking they were either foreign or just plain rude.

When I arrived in Ireland, I was quick to realize that the right side was not the side to walk on. Obviously cars drive on the left here, so it makes sense. It has been a tough habit to break. More than once I have found myself walking in the city centre on the wrong side and veering through a crowd to make myself at least seem a little like a local. I have accidentally held doors for many when realizing I was going out the wrong one. I could not seem more like a foreigner even when wearing my trademark backwards hat, which I was told by my Irish roommates is not something Irish students do at all.

After getting the hang of walking on the left, I realized something. The locals seem to not have come to a full agreement on this matter. I feel the need to hold a large town meeting or referendum (the latter which the country seems to be very fond of) so we can all agree on what side to walk on. In my experiences so far, cars have agreed to stay to the left almost 100% of the time (at least I hope they will). But I have had a decent-sized minority in the city centre, on campus, and in the mall walk to the right. I have developed a pretty good eye for foreigners versus locals, and most appear to be locals. When I considered this notion, I realized even the doors and revolving doors were not set up in a uniform way to address which to exit from. This leads to awkward run-ins and general difficulty.

The most egregious of the run-ins occurred yesterday. I was walking and chatting with my friends on campus on the left side of a walk in the center of campus. A woman came forward going the way that my American friends and I were all used to. She headed directly towards me. Although she was on the right side, I did not think much of it and slid a little to my right to help her pass. At that instance, she moved to her left, leaving us facing one another. I slid left as she instantaneously matched my move. And again. Finally, we figured this pedestrian conundrum out somehow and went about our days. My friends said the painfully awkward exchange looked like we were about to give each other a hug.

Aside from this sidewalk confusion, my only other major complaint is still the lack of pretzels in the grocery stores. So based on these small problems, I am doing just fine. For my friends in America, cherish your continuity in sidewalk etiquette. And send pretzels.

By kaandle

This first week started out rough. The post-Juno snow storm that hit the northeast made getting to the airport a stressful task when an hour ride turned into a three hour one. Thankfully the woman at the check in desk had a heart and let me through quickly and with two overweight bags free of charge. Of course after sprinting through security my flight was delayed as soon as I arrived at my gate. The good news is that from that point on its been pretty smooth sailing.

The week has been filled with orientations about public transportation, living with hosts and traveling through Europe. While most of these sessions have been helpful, what I am most in need of is a crash course in German 101. I came into this whole abroad shebang knowing that language was going to be an huge challenge. I now believe I severely underestimated how different this place was going to be. Please don't misunderstand - I don't dislike or regret coming to Berlin, I merely mean to say I mentally prepared myself for something much different than the reality. Having studied Spanish since 7th grade I have no grasp on German. In hind sight I realize this was very obvious.

On a different note entirely, there are only 19 of us on the program which is great because the group is small enough for us all to get to know each other. However, it is a little strange with us all spread out through the city. I'm really thankful to be in a home stay - my host is a 23 year old university student who is filled with knowledge and advice for a young person in the city and has already introduced me to some of her friends. But with everyone in different neighborhoods there are definitely positives and negatives to the arrangement. Negatively, there can be a lot of alone time with everyone so spread out and since we are guests in other people's homes there isn't really a place for us to all congregate before going out or going to an event. The positive, however, is that we each get to know a different area of the city and help can spread the knowledge to our fellow abroad-ies.

Goals for next week include:

  • not getting lost so frequently on public transportation (or at least not getting lost while confidently leading a group of people)
  • learning some must-have German phrases

Perhaps that's the reason we don't start language classes until the second week - after a week of wandering around we're all desperately ready to learn how to say more than "halo" and "danke schön".

Wish me luck because I have a feeling I'm going to need it.

Stay funky folks.

By jdippel529

If I learned anything my first week abroad, it was exactly that. Studying abroad is a scary concept to most students, but I have come to realize that many of us don’t spend even half of our time worrying about the things that we should. Back in the states, I was nervous about making friends, having enough money to travel, and even gaining weight. But in reality, I made friends before I even touched down in Madrid, I can’t imagine leaving this beautiful city just yet, and I've been welcomed into a culture that has such a beautiful and worthwhile relationship with food (not to mention, I've been walking around so I probably burned it all off).

This first week, I ended up facing a lot of issues that wouldn't have occurred if I had kept my focus in preparation for my trip. I had gotten an “international” credit card that supposedly charged no transaction fees, only to find out that every place in Spain, except for restaurants, require that you enter a pin with your credit card. Of course, I was unaware of this and had no such pin. As a result, I was left without a credit card. I also got European adapters before my trip, instead of converters. This meant that I wasn’t able to use my blow-dryer, hair straightener, or curler. I also spent three hours at one of Madrid’s biggest cell-phone providers, “Vodafone,” trying to figure out a plan with an employee who did not speak English, only to find out that AT&T had not unlocked my phone correctly. Now, I am still without a calling or texting phone. It’s safe to say that I have done more walking this week than during any other point in my life. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the shoes for it. As I write this blog, my feet are still aching simply because I didn’t think about how comfortable my shoes would have to be to walk around Madrid.

What I learned this week was that before studying abroad, you need to make sure that you have covered your most important bases. Don’t worry about making friends and eating too much—instead, focus on issues such as which type of international phone plan makes the most sense, if your current credit card company charges any international transaction fees, how comfortable your shoes are for walking, and even the weather of your host country. So, the main takeaway is this: Don’t stress over the trivial; you are so much better off focusing your time and energy preparing for the various “little things,” that become a much bigger deal once you are actually abroad.