Given I have spent about 4 months in Australia already, I can say without a doubt that I have experienced Cultural Confrontation, Cultural Adjustment, Cultural Adaptation, and Cultural Euphoria. I experienced a very intense sensation of cultural confrontation even just upon arrival at the university. It was close to impossible to not feel like an alien that was dropped off in another universe for the first couple of weeks being in Australia. There was no way I could describe my experience to friends at home other than saying that being at the University of Newcastle truly felt like I was dropped off on the set of an old British film about high schoolers and college students navigating life. Everything from the way people dressed to the way people spoke to the way people walked made me feel like I was actually on the set of the weirdest British film ever. It was also difficult trying to convince myself that everything in Australia was as significant and real as everything in America. The largest hurtle I struggled getting over was wrapping my head around the fact that civilizations and cultures that seem irrelevant to your own are somehow just as important, functional, and real as the one you live in, especially given the fact that they have nothing to do with you. While this is so obviously true, actually coming face to face with a cultural that is so vastly different and also so vastly similar to your own is just as confusing as jumping into a parallel universe. The abstract concept of it confused me to no end, as it is hard to come to terms with the fact that when a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, it still probably makes a sound (a sound that is just as significant as if you were there to hear it yourself). What I mean by this is that, while we all know that life continues to exist outside of our own field of vision, going abroad is like going to Whoville (from the Grinch–> Whoville is a civilization that exists on the inside of a tiny snowflake) and understanding that the reality of Whoville is just as relevant, functional, and important as life outside of Whoville.
