Culture Shock

The culture shock I experienced in Europe in April of 2006 had worn off by the time I began writing again. But, last Friday, when a few of the many relatives I have in the UK came to Lethbridge they had brought that familiar feeling with them. The strange feeling of driving on the wrong side of the road, the new coins and bills to fumble with at the till and knowing that you’re going to end up saying “I had no idea” at least once a day. In the few hours I spent with my cousins I didn’t know existed, I probably repeated the phrase “I had no idea” at least twenty times. We took them to Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, a movie I’m sure almost all of you have heard of if not seen, and it turns out they hadn’t even heard of Will Ferrell. In the discussions that went on before and after the movie I discovered many more things about the UK: They are far ahead of us in the “Now” CD collection which is currently at number 64 (This is very shocking to me since I believe we are on something like 20.) They see a new Now CD about every three months where as we get them about once a year we should be calling the CDs “Then.” There has been a group labeled as Chavs springing up since 2004, basically they’re a group who wear knock-off designer clothing and flashy “bling” such as hoop earrings or necklaces with their initials on them. They also, according to my cousin Stacey, seem to be in the works of making a new language using slang terms for every day words like “mush” for a male. Sounds kind of like A Clockwork Orange. I also found out that the reason for their visit is mainly to scope out a place to live. Prices in Britain have risen to an amazing high and one bedroom flats are in the $300, 000 range. You had no idea. Very few people can afford to go to post-secondary education and out of the ones who do; many drop-out early because they can’t finish paying for it. All of them, aside from my 15-year-old cousin Jodie (she doesn’t want to leave her friends (neither would I) and she would only have one year of school left if she stayed), are very excited to come and we’re very excited to have them, right Canada!? Right!
It was very cool to be on the other side of the culture shock for a change. And it just adds to the desire I have to visit even more of the world especially Britain. The only culture shock I get here is every once in a while when I stumble upon a Nexopian. I swear I’ll kill the next person who asks “Got Nex?” No, I don’t have Nex(opia), I don’t need to spend my days talking about what my likes and dislikes are, how old I am or if I’m “single and looking.” Now if you’ll excuse me I have to finish filling out my “Hates” section at the only normal site on the internet.
Got Vampire Freaks?

-Teck

I'm Wayne Young on a Jet Plane...


P.S. I'm gonna be hittin' up Nelson, B.C. next week from Monday to Monday and as such I will not be able to post anything on the 17th. This is good for me because as much as I love writing, posting every Thursday can sometimes seem like a chore. So hopefully this will give me some time to think about what I want to say and how to say it. Until then I give you this to think about.