Settling In

A very intense, VERY lengthy, and very non-victorious game of Dutch Blitz with  new friends from Laos, Canada, and the USA. The three of us in the middle (myself, Jason, and Laura) will be going to Indonesia together.

Today was a really great day! It was filled with more sessions and more information, all of which was interesting and will likely be extremely helpful. 


Today's sessions were on SALT policies and cross-cultural adjustment, where we talked about the realities of living in another culture. Eva, the main session leader, showed us a graph of our feelings over the first few months of travel. We peak at 3 weeks in enthusiasm and excitement, before beginning a rapid downward plunge that reaches its ultimate low at 12 weeks, before beginning a slow (but hopefully steady) ascent toward "neutral" that will likely continue throughout the year. Eva doesn't sugar coat anything, and in fact, brings up a lot of worst-case scenarios, which I think is wise because it will ease the culture shock a little bit, or at least normalize it for us once we're there.


We had a REALLY cool session this afternoon, called communicating across cultures, where we talked to those from the continents that we are heading to, about cultural differences. It was SO interesting to hear about some of the differences. One of the young men mentioned that in his home country, when men take communal showers, they'll ask the guy beside them to wash their back (not with their hand, but with a sponge or something). Those of us from North America were shocked to hear this!! Conversely, the people from Asia were surprised to hear that talking about salaries and other such topics, are considered too personal to discuss. We discovered that in Asia, it is considered humble to always reject compliments (through saying "oh I'm not that good" or something like that), whereas in North America, the same response would appear that you have low self esteem. I think this afternoon session was a really awesome way to learn about these differences, and even discover some differences between all of us who were raised in North America!


We were given a free evening, and because it was raining, I spent it indoors, in Asia House (my home for the week). We played a game of Dutch Blitz to 300 points (for those of you who don't play Dutch Blitz, 300 is a very VERY long game), and then moved to the Meeting Place (a different building) to play Carpet Ball and Ping Pong. When we got back, one of the Korean IVEPers had made spicy noodles for us all to try (a prime opportunity for me to discover that I actually have no tolerance for spice whatsoever- my lips tingled for a solid half an hour after that!). I got a chance to skype with my family before spending the rest of the evening talking with other Asia-bound SALTers about our upcoming experience.

Thanks so much to those who are following along so far, and for the words of encouragement! I'm really enjoying the opportunity to update!

Have an awesome day!!