Adapting to America

While preparing to study in the United States, I received several different brochures, each with all sorts of tips for the trip. Many of them were a bit scary, saying that I would be depressed, homesick and even less productive, among other "threats" due to "culture shock."\nSince I had visited the United States before, used American textbooks, worked with Americans, watched American movies, listened to American songs and eaten American food, I thought that the warnings didn't apply to me. \nBut after I got here, I saw how wrong I was.\nIn my dictionary-and-textbook-based vocabulary, tailgating was just driving too close to the vehicle in front of you. I didn't know that it could also mean lots of fun.\nOther more familiar American traditions also turned out to be really fun: watching IU basketball games, going to Halloween parties, Thanksgiving break … not to mention potluck dinners, wine and cheese parties and more recently buttershots and the Super Bowl.\nYou know what? If this is culture shock, make mine a double, please!\nThere are some difficulties, however.\nI am used to buying milk by the liter, so the price of $3 per gallon seems outrageous. I have to calm down and repeat to myself that I am actually buying 2.54 liters of milk for that price -- which, by the way, is still outrageous.\nOne change I like is that I am used to measuring my height at 1.74 meters, so a number like 5-feet-9-inches seems impressively tall. On the other hand, seeing 150 pounds instead of the usual 74 kilograms when I climb onto a scale gives me the idea that I urgently need to go on a diet.\nOn the dangerous side, driving with the speedometer needle pointing at 70 miles per hour feels painfully slow, as I am used to the cruising speed of about 110 kilometers per hour.\nBut the most relieving of all confusions is with temperature. Unfamiliar with the cold of the Midwest, I like being fooled by Fahrenheit numbers: A freezing below-zero temperature in Celsius does not sound that chilling if it turns out to be something like 20 degrees Fahrenheit.\nAt least time in the United States is still measured in hours, minutes and seconds … \nThere is, of course, a catch. Sometimes I have to suppress the normal habits of my own culture.\nIn Brazil, men and women are used to greeting one another by kissing on the cheeks. That, I learned, is not the case in the United States -- which avoids a problem after all, since the number of kisses to exchange remains unregulated in Brazil, and varies with the region. You never know how many kisses to give. Sometimes there may even be awkward "accidents," when you are left in the air with your lips ready to kiss cheeks that have moved on to the next person.\nHaving to refrain from greeting in that way required some concentration in the beginning. I had to be watchful and remain alert to contain the impulses that accompany more than 20 years of cheek-kissing in Brazil. I did pretty well until one night, my mind numb after a couple drinks, when I saw people I like arriving at the party. On an impulse, I walked towards a girl with the intent to greet her.\nThe Brazilian way. \nOops.\nVery few things feel more awkward than seeing a woman retract with defensive instinct when you just wanted to (innocently, I swear!) greet her. That can be traumatizing! \nI was wondering … so many other nations absorb American habits, why not change the greeting standards here? If a French kiss is lascivious, an American kiss could at least be cordial. At the very least, it would be far from "shocking"