I did not expect to be culturally shocked in Cleveland. I had lived for five years away from home, and was misguided thinking I should not be expecting to have a culture shock. I was wrong. My first two months in Cleveland were tough. My first day was a series of encounters that left me at best wondering. I had trouble taking the bus, queuing in Starbucks, and standing in the street.

I guess my first- and maybe main- cause of discomfort and shock was how to behave around strangers, or rather, how strangers behaved around me. My university is towards the East, not so far from East of Cleveland, an economically troubled area. Every time I waited for my bus and a stranger approached and said hi and started asking where I’m heading to, where I work, and talked about the journey of their day my nerves were on edge. I never knew whether they were being friendly, or were intending mug me. It took me almost two months to figure it out.

During orientation sessions held to help international students understand the American way of life, one point has been repeatedly stressed: “Americans avoid asking strangers about religion, politics and sex, so they expect the same from you”, and I honestly find that statement very bizarre. I am still not sure what benchmark was used to compare Americans to, but one thing that I observed here was that many people I met felt at liberty of asking about all three of those. Some people told me this was specific to the “Mid-West”, while others said it was specific to certain ethnic groups. I don’t have an aswer.

While riding the bus people would ask  me where I came from, if I was from India, what my religion is, and discuss various “hot” topics of international politics they assume would be of interest to me. By now I feel fully accustomed to how things are here, and I no longer feel that uncomfortable talking to strangers. I can distinguish friendly people who want to talk about the agonies of their day from those who are waiting for a chance to runaway with my purse, I enjoy small talk with people heading to work and it amazes me how simple people here are. I still, though, kind of dislike hearing “where are you from”, and I am not sure exactly why.

People in Cleveland also surprised me in so many positive ways. People here are very generous. They invite you for meals, offer to get you coffee on their way and have no problems giving you a ride without splitting gas money even when gas was $4/gallon. The day I moved in, my next door neighbours were moving out, and they gave me their TV, and their air-conditioner, at no charge.

I think I came to Cleveland expecting to find Cardiff, and that’s why I was shocked. I found that every time I was surprised by something, it wasn’t because it was different than Bahrain, but because it was different than Cardiff. I think my subconscious established already that Cleveland should and would be different than Bahrain, and choose Cardiff for comparison. What’s amazing is that Cleveland has- I think- more in common with Bahrain.

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