international student experience

I think culture shock is when you get into a situation where you settle in a different culture and you don't quite understand how it goes and you're trying to figure it out and you realize that there are so many differences from your culture, so you go like Oh my God! The other side of the world is like this! I was born and raised in Puerto Rico I arrived here in Vermont, in May 2001 and then I ended up just staying. After I graduated from St. Michael's I came back and asked if I might work for the summer with the International Student Program again. I was offered a position for the summer and that was 33 years ago. Myself and my family, we came to Canada in February of 1996 and from there, part of my family decided to migrate to the United States - Vermont. And that's where we made our permanent home. Most of the time when I interact with Americans, People tend to say, "Where do you come from?" I say, "Africa." "Oh, I have a friend in Africa. He's living in Botswana. Do you know him?" That's like, wow, that's interesting because Ghana is so different from Botswana.