EVERYDAY CULTURAL CONFUSIONS WHILE ABROAD—

Being abroad tests your boundaries. You start to question the everyday things around you. Is this how this is supposed to work? Why isn’t it like that back in the States? What am I doing here? Below, our team of experts has listed a couple of games for you to play to test your abilities to discover if you can indeed survive life abroad. Be wary: past participants have fainted, sighed and written sad words in their journals throughout the process of testing their emotions, abilities and skills.

1. Trash can or mailbox? Europe tends to have fancier trash cans than America. Their trashcans will be intricately designed, painted in beautiful colors and sitting outside of jaw-dropping cathedrals. The same design ideas are also applied to mailboxes. Sometimes these mailboxes will be at the same height as a trashcan. This game, therefore, tests one’s ability and patience. First, you must examine the container: does it smell? Are other people throwing things away in this container? Is the opening big enough for trash or for mail? You may stand stupidly in front of the item for a few minutes trying to figure out if you’re about to throw away a tissue into a mailbox or not. Ten points if you are correct, minus 15 for public shame if you are wrong.

2. But what is that in Fahrenheit? This game can be played at any time. Cooking in Celsius? Let the confusion begin! Do you have any idea what you’re supposed to wear based on the weather? Neither do we! Celsius is so strange. Attempt to find similarities between Farheneit and Celisius to no avail. Watch as Europeans’ eyes grow large at the idea of a balmy 70 degrees. Prepare to feel fear when someone says it is only 5 degrees outside.

3. Where do I sit? This game will make you a different person. You will learn more about yourself as you question where you should sit or stand on public transportation. Is that seat being saved for someone else? If you sit there, will the person next to you hate you? Will they suck on their fingers the entire way to the airport, muttering to themselves? You will question your sanity multiple times throughout your journeys as you ponder where you should place yourself on these travels. Five points for choosing a good seat. No extra points for sitting next to old men who fall asleep on you.

4. Are you laughing at me or with me? Oh look at the silly American trying to order food in the incorrect way. Is it endearing or just plain amusing? It is your goal to try to figure out how locals feel about your ignorant, tourist self. Do you have no idea where to buy tickets for the public transportation? Listen to the laughter that is sure to follow your failures. Gauge the smiles on these peoples’ faces: are they kind or mocking? Will you be able to get directions from them due to your pathetic nature or are you just going to be the fun story to tell at the pub later that night? This game may seem like a lose-lose situation, and that is because it is. You cannot win this game. All is futile.

5. Did I just order potato chips or fries? Welcome to the joys of language differences across the seas. Crisps are chips in most of Europe, and chips are fries. But if you ask for chips, do they know you are American and really meant crisps? Or are you about to receive fries? Similarly, if you ask for fries, will you receive fries or some other weird hybrid of a potato? Will they understand you? If a chip-chuck could chuck crisps, would a crisp-chuck chuck fries? These are the questions that try us in this day and age. If you succeed to survive this game for longer than five minutes, then you win the grand prize.

6. I’m sorry, can you repeat that? This game is best played in areas where you absolutely cannot understand a person’s accent no matter how hard you try. The person may even be speaking English. It does not matter. Your sad, untrained ears will fail you each time. How much does this donut cost? Sorry, were you asking for my ID? No, wait, sorry, I have no idea what the temperature is outside unless this is in Fahrenheit. Wait, you wanted to know my last name? Wait, sorry, what? This game tends to go hand-in-hand in the “are they laughing at you or with you” series. Prepare for sorrow all around.

7. What is the bus system? Public transportation can be quite confusing, especially with the Dublin bus transportation. They follow a “schedule” that doesn’t actually follow any sort of time or rhythm. When is the 14 supposed to arrive? What a great question to ask! If you guess correctly, participants will win the glorious feeling of being right but probably followed by a wave of sorrow as the bus gets stuck in traffic.

8. Do you have Wi-Fi? What this question really means is “will you be able to provide me with the sustenance for life?” No true American in Dublin will be able to survive more than five minutes in an establishment before asking a waiter for the Wi-Fi password. How else are we supposed to post our meals onto Instagram without turning on our data plans?

Whether you won these games or not, hopefully you have come out with a greater appreciation for what exists beyond the Wofford bubble. Question everything and prepare for disappointment. Or, in a more uplifting sense, prepare for the unexpected and the fun journeys that may follow.