Cultural Adjustment Worksheet and a brief Travelocity rant

I have decided to really go through this worksheet and see how I'm doing culture shock-wise. Lets see how I do.

1. Culture Surprise: I was surprised to see a mercedes roll down the street followed by a donkey cart. I was surprised at how small the town seemed, and how animals just kinda...hung out. Like cows.

2. Culture Stress: Ordering a burger at Steers in Cape Town was probably one of my most enfuriating moments ever. It was like she refused to understand that one of the burgers was in a meal, the other two were NOT. What is so hard about that, I don't care if you speak Afrikaans, you speak English, too, I know you do. So what's the problem?! Also, when people call me "sissi" on the street, particularly men, I always ignore them. Am I racist for doing that? I don't know. I don't want to be harrassed or panhandled, but I don't want to ignore every black guy on the street, either, just because he's black. Its complicated.

3. Culture Shock: Visiting the township gave me some culture shock. So did going to Cape Town and seeing how extravagant some people live. I mean, our tour took us into a jewelry shop, and they gave us champagne upon entering.

4. Transition Shock: Mostly just getting my classes together, trying to figure out which departments were where and what I needed to get into each one of them. Also, recently, my dealings with Travelocity were a HUGE pain in the ass, and that was difficult.

Okay, there's that.

Travelocity: GDAMMIT. Okay, so we booked the trip home for the 4th, like we were told to. I guess it escaped us that we were to be out of our dorms 48 hours after the last exam. They wrote it in some of the paperwork, (i know this because I emailed them saying they hadn't, and they wrote back saying "oh yes we did." and showed me where. I hate being wrong.) but most of us didn't see it. So now I had to go and change my flight, BUT fun news: you can't refund a ticket that you've started travelling on. So.......we just had to buy a new ticket. Thanks, travelocity, you capitalist pigwhore. Because you are SO greedy and SO unflexible, you made my parents spend a LOT more money than they should have. I hope you're happy.

The bright side of this is that I'm going home on November 23rd. I'm REALLY excited go to home and see my family, drive on the correct side of the road, and be understood when I order fast food. I thought it would be a drag to go back to the states and be illegal to drink again, but this whole experience has just shown me how much I dislike drinking cultures. So really, it will just be nice to be home again.