"There are no failures—just experiences and your reactions to them.” ~Tom Krause
Wednesday morning is my early class. Once again, I sat in
class half awake staring out the window at the blue sky. I’d been late to class
by about 5 minutes, but the professor was still later than I. When he came in,
he booted up the computer and opened a briefcase.
“I have read through the papers you submitted last night,”
he said.
“How could he?” Karin whispered to me. “It has only been 9
hours!”
“The best paper will get the 10 points and be the A for the
class. The other papers will be graded off of that one.”
That still didn’t make any sense to me, but I’d accepted it.
“The winning paper is the paper by Elishka, Karin, and
Zachary,” he announced. “You all get the A.”
I was shocked! The three of us looked at each other and
smiled. “Is like you said,” Karin explained. “We just have to be the best.” Apparently
that can-do American spirit works…even when you use Wikipedia as a source!
It was a little awkward when he put our paper up on the screen
and read it to the entire class. At the same time, it gave me a little hope
that these exchange classes might not be so hard to pass. Looking at the criteria,
I had no idea what to do or how to do it to get an A. Apparently just doing
what I knew how to do was going to work.
The class discussion turned out to be kind of interesting.
We brainstormed what we knew about different cultures from around the world.
For example, in talking about Asian cultures we all said that they were very
respectful. The list of qualities for American culture was quite interesting.
The first few Americans he asked said things like, “Our culture is so different
across the country you can’t name it” or “Our culture is all about freedom.”
The final list that he presented in the lecture was based on
an analysis by several universities (two in Europe, one in Asia, and two from
the US—one out of LA and one out of Chicago.) It described the following
characteristics to American culture:- Individualistic: personal
identity is important to Americans. People are encouraged to stand out and
do what they can to differentiate themselves from others.
- Hardworking: Many
Americans identify themselves by what they do. Careers are important as
well as education level and involvement in other activities. It is
important to Americans to keep a full schedule.
- Competitive: In addition
to standing out and being unique, Americans constantly rank people and
ideas as better or worse. The highest performing individuals are given the
largest rewards.
- Equality: Americans
believe in and proselytize the ideas of freedom, tolerance, and equal
rights for all people regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or age.
- Christian values: The
morals of American society are reflective of Judeo-Christian beliefs.
There is a strong sense of right and wrong in the culture as well as a
deep seated compassion to help others.
- Low context: Americans
take most communications at face value. Contracts are almost always
written. People are expected to follow through on what they say.
- Creative: Americans value
finding newer, better and easier ways to do things. They are constantly
innovating and building upon old ideas and rarely accept anything as good
enough.
- Autonomous: Across the
society, people are viewed as equal. Within businesses and governments,
the leaders are not seen as more important than the workers or the
citizens.
- Flexible: Plans in America
are able to be changed easily. While schedules are often set, they are not
always followed. This can be done with little debate and usually is met
with great understanding.
- Relatively punctual:
Americans value punctuality, but again are fairly understanding. Usually
up to five minutes late is considered acceptable. Beyond ten minutes late
starts to be considered rude, but can be tolerated given certain
circumstances.
- Aggressive: In the same
way Americans are competitive, they are also aggressive in pursuing goals.
They make their plans clear and well known and will allocate resources to
pursue those plans. They tend to dominate conversations and will steer
agendas towards their personal interests.
- Short term oriented: People
in America tend to react emotionally to situations without thought for the
long term implications.
After the class, I went back to my dorm room to upload my pictures from Dresden to the blog. It took so long that I decided to go out for lunch. I went to the restaurant across the street and ordered a pasta dish. It was supposed to be just penne pasta in tomato sauce. In fact, that’s what it was, but not what it looked like. The tomato sauce was orange rather than red. It actually tasted sweet with a hint of rosemary. The dish was amazing and I tried really hard to enjoy it and eat it slowly.
When it was time to go back to class, I gathered my notebook
for the second portion of my marketing class (my only course where the two
halves are split over two days, and taught by different professors) and headed
out to the tram. The 9 was leaving just as I got there and I missed it. I
waited for the next tram to come, and when it did, I hopped on.
As we road along, I stared out the window at what was now
the third straight day of blue sky. We stopped at the station Buscupkova and a
few people got on and off. I looked around and noticed there weren’t as many
students on the tram as had been at the tram station. Just as we pulled out of Buscupkova,
the tram took a hard right turn.
The 9 definitely took a left at Buscupkova….I was on the 1
not the 9. This one went the opposite direction of the university.
Most of the tram stops are in reality, within 5 minutes of
walking distance from each other. This stop seemed to be quite a ways away. We
headed along the freeway, going north of town. I had five minutes till my class
started (I wouldn’t have made it even if I had taken the right tram, but I
would have been to the room within 3-5 minutes.)
When we got to the next station I hopped off. I waited for
the tram to pull away and I crossed the tracks to catch a tram going the
opposite way. Sitting at a bench, I sighed a little. “Que sera sera I guess!” I
said to no one in particular. I was the only one at the station.
Soon, a tram came along. It was a 16. I hopped on and sure
enough it was going back to Buscupkova. When we got back, I crossed the tracks
again, waited for a 9 and hopped on. Within two minutes, we arrived at the station
Ohrada.
Ohrada is the station before Buscupkova on my way to school.
I had gotten turned around and was headed back to the dorms.
I got off, and luckily there was already a 9 waiting to go
the other way. I jogged across the tracks and got on it. By the time I got to
class, I was twenty minutes late….I guess that’s what they meant by relatively
punctual Americans.
When I got back to my dorm, I skyped with my Dad. Thibaut
had given me the address to the dorm and I gave it to him so he could try
mailing some stuff to me. We were going to start with just a letter and if it
indeed made it, start sending more things back and forth.
During the Skype conversation with my Dad, I made an
observation. “The two things I am definitely going to force my kids to do as
well are Boy Scouts and studying abroad.”
“Forced?” my Dad said. “I might have forced you to do boy
scouts, I’ll even admit I did, but this study abroad thing was your idea.”
“No it wasn’t,” I said.
“Yes, it was,” he said. “I remember at orientation you didn’t
want anything to do with it. I was shocked last spring when you came home and
said you were thinking about it.”
That comment echoed in my head all night. I re-read emails,
blog posts, and even my application for the exchange program. For the past
month, I’d reworked the story in my head. I’d convinced myself that I’d been “sent”
to Prague and “forced” to study abroad. But when I looked back at my original
emails with my advisor, my texts to friends, and my application for the program
that wasn’t how it had started. When I’d
first talked about going abroad, it had been my idea. At the time, I didn’t
want the rest of my life to fit into the “boring” stereotype I had of myself. I
wanted to break out of the mold that I’d pegged myself into in order to see
what I was made of.
Yet, somewhere between the fits of nervousness and the anxiety
attacks, I’d forgotten that. Being reminded of it changed the whole story. I
went to bed with a new sense of adventure.
I can’t thank you all enough for your support! It means the
world to me. Your feedback, comments, emails, tips, and pep-talks have all been
a huge help. I’ve absolutely loved sharing the stories and keeping in touch
with everyone. Thanks for taking the journey with me and I look forward to
sharing the remaining three months of the adventure with you! 
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