Cultural confrontation was a common occurrence in my initial time abroad in the UK. Adjusting to any new culture you are unaccustomed to is often times difficult and very frustrating. The main experience I think back to is the adjustment to the tube, and London’s system of public transportation. I found this topic to be problematic for two main reasons. First, I am not from a city in the US, so city transportation is confusing to me; and second, when coupled with the complexity of learning an entire new city you have no experience in, I found it often times difficult and frustrating to travel in London. However, while easy to view this issue as negative, there have actually bee quite a few positives associated with these learning experiences.
I remember during my second week in the UK I was taking the tube to my internship in Haggerston, and got confused on which line I was supposed to be taking. I remember missing one of my connections, and feeling frustrated, lost and alone. As I looked around the train, I was met with the all too familiar eyes of confusion from the girl sitting across from me. Almost instinctively I made conversation by asking her “are you lost too?”. As it turned out, she was as well. The girls name was Madeline, and I learned she was also studying abroad in the UK this semester. Following a brief and friendly introduction, we were able to help each other figure out our respective tube routes for our destinations. Knowing I was not the only one struggling to adjust to these new degrees of global competence I had not yet familiarized myself with was comforting, and calming. After exchanging contact information, Madeline and I have stayed in touch, and have built a strong friendship. I learned from this situation that it is normal to feel overwhelmed at times, and that more often than not, there are others around us feeling the same stress and emotions as we are.
I reflect on this experience often, as I now keep an eye out for others who may be feeling what I first felt upon my arrival in the UK. Learning how to use my own experiences to help and build others up is an aspect of my global competence which I feel has really been improved, and that was only brought to fruition by the difficult situation I found myself in that mid-September day.