CULTURE SHOCK!

When I first arrived at the UAE, I was completely over the moon.
My feet were literally not touching the ground. I was so excited to be in a place where I had no idea about.
When my plane finally touched down to Dubai, I realized that it was really happening.
Another and hopefully a much better page in my life!  I started developing my own routine,
adapting myself to the new environment and learning about their way of living.
I can’t yet express my feelings about how much I was surprised each time I saw,
or heard the things I am going to mention now.
My first culture shock was when I took the metro to my new working place.
People in Dubai literally have a gold class ticket for metro. It was the most luxurious transportation I’ve ever seen in my life. Then I had some other several shocks at work. I had learned what to expect in most situations,
had adapted my own behavior and learned to appreciate new ways of thinking and attitudes but these people were pushing the limits of being different sometimes. When my students ordered a big tray of rice with chicken (they call it biryani) and brought it into the class to eat all together during the break, first I thought it would be nice.
After 5 minutes, I saw them all gathering around the tray and eating the rice from the same pot by using their 3 fingers. I realized it would be tough to adapt this style into my life. However, believe me they are the most persistent people. They convinced me to try! It wasn’t that bad though but I don’t want to talk about hygienic issues.
My biggest shock is something totally irrelevant. I was feeling homesick and wanted to adopt a pet.
I was doing an online research about most common pets in Dubai and, instead of cats or dogs,
the search results were showing me tigers, lions and snakes. These people were looking after tigers in their gardens.
I even saw a baby tiger sitting in front of the car and sightseeing with its owner.
I was literally having the shock of my life. Of course there used to be people who owned dogs and cats, but a tiger was as popular as a golden retriever to adopt. I understood that culture shock is inevitable and acceptance is the first step towards adjusting better to a foreign culture.