Sunday, April 10, 2011

Culture Shock!

In my house, there are three international students living together with a host family. Last week, we welcomed one more guy from Kuwait, his name is Abdullatif. So now there are a total of four students from Taiwan, China, Kuwait and Korea(me). He told us about his life in Kuwait, he explained that he had two maids, one driver and one cook working for his family. He said that he never did laundry, prepared breakfast or cleaned his room because of these people living with and working for him and his family. I thought his family was extremely well off, but he actually said that this is very normal in the Middle East. I couldn’t believe it because it sounded so different than our lives in both America and Korea. He said that the government offers a new house for free to a newly married couple in Kuwait! Oh my gosh, isn’t that awesome? My host mom and I at the same time said, “I want to go live there!” One of my host mom’s acquaintances that is also from the Middle East said exactly the same thing. She said that she never did any of the above and that she has a driver, maids and a cook in her house as well.

My Chinese housemate, after hearing that, complained about her life, having to do all of her laundry herself and driving to work on her own. Abdullatif even added that in Kuwait, it usually costs $21 to completely fill up a Chevy Tahoe, which costs about $80 here in America. Then my host mom said, “Would you please cut down the price for oil a little bit when you go back to your country?” and he said, “sure!”
My gosh! I love talking to other people and learning another culture! Doesn’t it sound interesting to you? It was so enjoyable for me! I would love to visit the Middle East someday and see if this is all true! I can’t believe it yet.


After all, tomorrow is another day, Brianna

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