CULTURAL SHOCK!
It´s interesting...the shock is bigger when we go back home. When we move abroad, we think: "it´s a new country, a new culture, I have to learn and accept". When something is difficult we think: "It´s going to finish, I´m just staying for 10 months". But when we come back home, it´s our country, our society and you can´t change it. It´s more difficult to accept...
When I was in Norway, I always thought: "I could find it in Brazil, we have everything". It´s true. But when I see what we have in Brazil and we didn´t in Norway, I get scared.
I went for a meeting in Sao Paulo on Monday and everything scared me. It was always there, exactly the same when I left, I used to meet that everyday going to work. But now my eyes changed. I can see in a different point of view. Arriving in the airport, everybody looked the famous people, but they are not interesting anymore, I have no idea who they are or what they are doing. But waking in the streets, I meet the poverity, the trafic, the dirty.
I didn´t use to like Faustao, a TV program on Sundays, but he was there since I remember myself. In the last Sunday I got so annoyed with him: he shouts all the time, doesn´t let people talk, doesn´t listen others...
My brother is living just 3 blocks from home and we just drive to go there. When I say I will walk they say it´s dangerous...I shouldn´t. At the same time, we never lock the doors and we leave the keys in the car. Everything is so safe inside home...
Arriving in the airport my mother said to me: when you left, you were just a little girl, now you are a woman. Acctually, she just meant: you are fat!
Comingo back from Sao Paulo she asked me: "Why are you using the same clothes for the second day? Didn´t you take a shower?". It´s so tipical Brazilian...you should never use the same clothes and always take a shower.
Going to the church...You are not so fat as we heard. Uau! You learned to walk without high heels!
So many small expectations...
At the same time, I´m enjoying my Brazilian life... talking my own language, even if sometimes I wish I couldn´t understand...I discovered it´s not so bad to listen just what you need to.
Going to the stores, meeting friends, spending time with family, especially with my niece and my sister in law, (changing dypers, cooking, washing and driving), eating a lot (I had forgotten how Brazilian food is good, especially my mother´s!)...and losting 3,5kg..ehehe.
Receiving a very warm reception at the church from people I know since I borned and from people I didn´t remember...even if I didn´t feel like talking a lot, a hug or an invitation for a visit was enough to make me feel welcomme.
I´m still feeling in Norwegian time...tired at 8 o´clock awaking early and annoyed when people come late. But time will fix it too...
posted by taisotsubo @ 7:19 PM
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