My biggest cultural confrontation as minuscule as it seems was an elevator. The first night that I was in Rome, before we moved into our apartments, I stayed alone at a Bed and Breakfast. I arrived at 9:30 pm and a random man was waiting out front with my name on his phone. Through this rusty gate covered with graffiti we walked into this old apartment building. He directed me with my three suitcases into this ancient looking elevator. IN the United States elevators are modern, large, and industrial. In this building the elevator was almost like a tiny closet room with actual doors you needed to close. It was squeaky and dusty and I almost felt as though it was gonna fall. I had no idea where I was going either. This man just told me to meet him upstairs/ and behind this creepy looking door was this nice bed and breakfast. It was only one hallway with a few rooms and a kitchen; not something I am accustomed to.
He directed me to my room with a private bathroom across the hall. Also something very different as I have never stayed at a hotel/B&B without a bathroom connected to the room. Being all alone, very tired, having to go through hours of travel since the 4:00 am at 10:00 pm when I arrived at the hotel I was exhausted, stressed, anxious, alone, and scared. After this experience I was very nervous about my time in Rome but it all went uphill from there.
The next day when we showed up at the apartments provided by my host university, the building had the same type of elevator. At this point is when I became embarrassed. I am going to be living in a building with the same elevator I was scared of and I noticed it’s not scary or stressful when you’re not sleep deprived and it’s daytime. As I got accustomed to living in the building and visiting other people’s apartments I realized that old buildings and elevators like this are completely normal in Rome. Considering I am from Europe I didn’t think I was going to have much culture shock, and I didn’t have too much but living in Rome was quite different from the countryside of Hungary.
I realized that all countries, even different countries throughout Europe, have different aspects. This may have been as simple as their buildings, and the way their hotels are run, but it makes a difference In your overall cultural experience.
I have learned that I cannot judge a place or thing before I give it time. Experiencing new things is not always bad and now I am okay with going anywhere and encountering culture shock a lot more intense than an elevator. I was able to destress knowing that this is simply just how Rome is and I grew to live and love it. There’s beauty in old architecture. I just wasn’t used to it.