First five days in America behind and my thoughts on various things

I've been in America for five days now and things are finally beginning to normalize. Classes start tomorrow and I finally feel like I've settled in and got everything settled in, more or less. In this blog post I am going to adress various stereotypes that seem to exist about America, living here and Americans in general. These do not however reflect any sort of objective truth because there isn't one. It is very much up to one's own expectations and views on things. The following is how I percieve things thus far, this might change as time goes on and I spend more time here.


1. Americans are uneducated / dumb / ignorant

This simply just isn't true. Firstly you can't judge an entire country of over 300 million people based upon movies and things you see on the TV. Americans might not always know much about Europe or European culture, but I have personally only been met by questions and curiosity when I tell Americans where I'm from.  Before passing an American off as ignorant or uneducated you have to realize just how insanely big America really is. The continental United States is around 3500 km coast to coast as the crow flies and stretches across four time zones. To put that into an European perspective, that is like going from Helsinki in Finland to Athens in Greece as the crow flies, and you'd still be about 1000 km short of 3500 km. With these facts in hand, do europeans know everything about Europe and can we place countries accurately on a map? I know I can't.

2. Americans are loud and too friendly

This is something I percieve as highly subjective. How you percieve Americans and their way of socializing depends on your own country of origin. As a Finn it was a bit strange to come to a country where strangers actually acknowledge each others existance. People in America will say hi and smile at strangers which is something that doesn't really happen in Finland for instance. However as with every country, not everyone is the same and not everyone says hi to strangers.

3. Americans are fat

America does have overweight people but so does every other country. I haven't noticed an increased ratio of overweight people to regular sized folks. But then again I haven't traveled around much yet.


4. The food is unhealthy

There are far more choices of fast food in America compared to Finland. But then again there are other choices to choose from. The food at Utica College is in my opinion far healther and far more diverse than the school food back in Finland. You have the possibility to eat pizza and burgers and ice cream and what not all day every day if you feel like doing so BUT regular home style cooking is also available. As is fresh vegetables and fruits. (That having been said I do like me my cheeseburgers) 


5. Culture shock is a thing

Coming here I thought culture shock was something that wasn't going to affect me. After all, America and Finland are both western countries with the same basic values, right? NOPE. Even though America is a western english speaking country it is still very different from Finland. Everyone going on exchange from anywhere to anywhere should expect some kind of culture shock. It is just something that needs time and you'll adjust to your new surroundings just fine. Personally I got a cold as soon as I arrived but that is something quite common apparently.



That is it for now.
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