Cultural Shock: My First Trip To The Middle East

Improved Essays
Cultural Shock far and near.
Turillo, Shawn, M.
Keiser University

Cultural Shock far and near.
My first time into Kuwait was a massive culture shock, as there were no trees as far as you could see. I stepped off the plane it was like stepping from a refrigerator into an oven. The extreme heat just took your breath away. The next thing I noticed was the smell. It was the most horrid, rancid smell I have ever experienced. It was so bad that I can’t even begin to explain what it was comparable too. This being my first trip to the Middle East I took in all the sights and let my brain fill with more information. When I left Kuwait and arrived in Afghanistan I thought, that was it for culture shock. I was wrong! When I stepped off the plane this
…show more content…
We talked for a good 2 hours and we both found a respect for each other. We both wanted peace and did not want to be there but at the same time we both knew it was our job that tied our hands. Many days thereafter we started to develop a friendship. I later came to find out that his entire family was murdered by the Taliban. And after I confronted him about it he replied that he didn’t like to talk about it much and he felt that it was his duty to avenge his family by killing as many Taliban as he could. We stayed talking night after night playing card games the remainder of my time there. On my departure I remember what he said. “You are my friend, and I will miss you.” As I arrived back in the United States I realized that the experiences I had faced while I was in Afghanistan had changed me and had made me an outsider in our great country. All the American people I would see smiling and cheering that supported us while we were out there seemed like ignorant strangers that had no idea what they were smiling and cheering for. I for years felt like a stranger in my own country. The Fact is, war changes people. Years of therapy later, I am starting to deal with all my feelings. All the smells and sights I had witnessed overseas and the culture shock I had been

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Culture Shock Culture shock, according to Ting-Toomey, “refers to a stressful transitional period when individuals move from a familiar environment into an unfamiliar one” (pg. 93). This experience for anyone is hard to go through. It’s an emotional roller coaster ride of the unknown. Culture shock has its pros and cons. Both influenced by numerous underlying factors.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. The sociological perspective is a way of viewing and approaching a particular phenomena occurring between individuals and the structures of the society in which they live. It includes three methods, or practices, of approach: beginner’s mind, culture shock, and sociological imagination. The similarity that these three methods have, are that each involve opening our minds to new ways of viewing the world and the processes through which we conduct our daily lives. Beginner’s mind is a method of approaching the world through the absence of preconceptions.…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I have been in the same basement for three months now. I have lost all hope along with my fingernails that have been ripped off in a recent torturing. All that is left of my nails are bloody stumps that have been covered in bandages. I do not know if I am in Beirut Lebanon now or now. I have been blinded, binded, and shipped off to so many locations so many times that my realization of where I am is gone.…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A brief summary: For the second section of the scrapbook, I’ve chosen seven different types of genres that I found interest in. These seven different types of genres explore and express the different aspects of the theme, memories and the past through different outputs. 1. Song lyrics - Boyz II men – It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday How do I say goodbye to what we had?…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some of then have to have their toes cut off. The atmosphere is tense, unpredictable and fear surrounds us. War was nothing like I thought it would be its both physically and mentally draining. Canadians are getting ready to take Vimy Ridge. The French and the British have tried, but have failed.…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Middle East Religion

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1. Briefly explain the role that faith played in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East prior to the Civil War. Missionaries played an important part in determining the US foreign policy in the Middle East preceding the civil war. In their foreign mission, missionaries applied a broad impact on the connection between the Middle East and America.…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We then had a short conversation about his family, and then I asked him about his occupation. Of course, it was during that conversation that our discussion about the college students came…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Spending a year in Bagdad Iraq is the only part of my military career I did no enjoy. Extreme heat, long work days, and being away from my family and friends made it a horrible experience. As the sun would come up each day the temperature was already in the high 90s. As the day progressed it reach as high as 134 degrees. When I thin back about the heat; the day I cooked an egg on the sidewalk always comes to mind.…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If you had the choice of being a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew in the Middle East, which would be your first choice? The Middle East is home to three key religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, which all face conflicts with each other that affects the Middle East region in many ways. All three of these religions were developed and established within the Middle East before sporadically spreading worldwide. (Religion: Three Religions) Judaism is dated to be the “oldest surviving monotheistic religion arising in the eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium”. (Religion: Three Religions) These religions all branch out from one another. In particular, Christianity used Jewish tradition as a start up of creating itself.…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Panjwai, Kandahar, Afghanistan, known as the heart of the Taliban, the birthplace; and I am headed there. I had just said goodbye to my wife whom at this point I have been married to for 4 months, and was now on my way to a combat deployment. My emotions were all over the place. I knew that I have to be the strong soldier for my peers, the soldier my leaders can trust and depend on, but I am also the loving husband that had to say goodbye to his wife. Furthermore, I knew that this could quite possibly be the last time that I would ever see her.…

    • 2221 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Iraqi Cultural Awareness This world is diverse and has many different cultures, beliefs and economies from one part of the world to another. To have an understanding of what one culture does that may offend another we must first understand what Cultural Awareness is. Cultural Awareness is the foundation of communication that involves the ability of standing back from oneself and becoming aware of our cultural values, beliefs and perceptions.…

    • 1878 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A fingerprint is something unique to each person as well as their culture and perception. Everyone has encountered their own experiences that have helped them grown into the person they are today. I recently interviewed Tucker on September 30th and learned how similar and different our background and cultures are. In my essay I will talk about how the different ways me and Tucker have grown and how those ways give us different outlook on certain issues. Tucker and I both have different family situations which influenced some of the experiences we had growing up.…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ever since I was a small girl, I have always been fascinated with human dynamics. I intuitively knew that beyond the surface of the titles and roles, there is a real human being inherently driven by the collection of life stories forming the basis of their behavior. As a society, that collective behavior comprised of individual life stories form the fabric of social and cultural identity. Therefore, I believe that the solution to many complex global challenges we face today require substantial consideration of the human domain.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Do you want to talk about culture shock for me? I moved into an apartment for the first time. I thought this was a hotel why we looked for a home. Nope this was home sweet home. This was my first realization that something is not right here.…

    • 1336 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Misunderstandings and a lacking of cultural appreciation have caused many to fall into a misconception over the Middle East. With mass media only broadcasting the negative stories of the Middle East, a land of beauty, culture, and morality has been painted as a land of terror, destruction and anger from those who do not wish to understand the “why” behind it all. The three variables I believe impacted the Middle Eastern societies was first, the spread of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Second being the migration of western imperialism in the Middle East, in which the British wanted to control the Middle East for selfish reasons. Finally, the Palestinian and Israeli conflict that started after the retreat of western imperialism, as well as…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays