Culture Shock

From time to time, I still get culture shock from living in Albany area, NY.

It's suburban; it's not a deserted place or anything. There's GE, law firms, nuclear research, nanotechnology centers, etc., and decent school districts. It's just the subtle things.

My workplace actually gives me a safe haven,  because the environment there is more of what I'm used to. Fast paced, social, young, tons of Asians, all engineers, similar economic status. Make fun of each other, complain about other groups, coordinate activities/meetings, find out about company business rumors and spread them around.

Sure, at the root of it all, we're all humans and can relate to anyone from any background of any culture and language. Because we're human. We have the same desires (maybe?) , and the same Creator....but still, we can get culture shock

I don't know how missionaries do it. I'd either get severely culture shocked, or get super sucked in (in a harmful way). But then again, if God took me to heaven right now, I'd be super culture shocked too. I'd be culture shocked when I get up there, and culture shocked when I get back down here to Earth. You usually end up remembering the better place, and get culture shocked from anything that isn't as good as the places and worlds you've lived in previously. It's easier to adjust to the better place. Though, of course, refugees or victims of abuse, still have a hard time adjusting to being set free--but that's an issue of healing, rather than being culture shocked at a better world.

What is culture shock? Jesus didn't have culture shock. He had love. He has love. Culture shock is when you are shocked at the culture, and implies that you are too shocked to be able to relate fully (yet) and be integrated into the culture. Culture shock is definitely something we need to get over if we're going to live somewhere for a while. Culture shock sort of implies some form of detachment due to shock, like you're an observer rather than a participant. And that's never a good place to be. Never be an observer. Always get your hands dirty. That's how love works.

psychologytoday is sometimes ridiculous

I was reading this silly article http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201205/when-escapism-is-good/the-power-online-gaming

It claims that sometimes escapism is good, and the example it gives is video games. The example within that is how one woman became a better driver after playing video games because "The windshield became a rectangular viewfinder into a world of obstacles and foes. 'I keep expecting something to jump out and kill me' [is what she says]"


HAHAHA.. Seriously. Who writes these articles? I don't see how this is supporting his/her viewpoint here. If one of my friends starts thinking the windshield is a viewfinder for foes and obstacles and thinks things are going to jump out and kill them through the windshield, I'd be pretty worried

Is that the standard nowadays? As long as escapism and living in your own fantasy world helps you somehow in daily life (ie become a better driver), it's a good thing. Even if you start imagining your house to be a military fort and anticipating things to jump out at you while you drive.

Shovelin'

Finally snowed enough for a large chunk of people not to come to work, or to come 2 hours+ late.
Working at home today for the first time; a lot of fun

Snow day mindset

So much snow this winter!

I got a lot of "practice" driving in snow, since I still have to get to work even if there's 1-2 feet of snow on the ground. "practice" because you never quite get good at it. You might become more experienced, like no sharp turns, slow down when you turn, etc. but there are still areas where driving in snow is unpredictable, even for the experienced. No amount of practice makes it completely perfect/safe. Like, there was one time, I was making a very wide turn--wasn't even a sharp turn--, and i was physically turning the wheel very slowly, but still going straight even though I was turning the wheel. My car just made beeping sounds at me, telling me that my steering wheel wasn't in sync with my physical tires. Finally after a few seconds, it started turning--just in time. When I was driving back home from work, even the highway was not cleared of snow. You couldn't see where each lane starts or stops, since the whole ground is white.. And it was still snowing sideways--the snow was going straight at my windshield. Since it was dark, all I saw was snow flying at me--couldn't see the road ahead or anything.; probably only saw a few feet in front of where i was driving. Every couple exits, there's a car on the side of the road due to some driving-in-the-snow accident

I don't even give a second thought to all this. I have gotten used to the many snow storms while living here. Driving in the snow is no big deal now. In new jeresey, if it snows this much, there would be a "state emergency" declaration and no one would even bother going to work.

In my company, everyone still came to work. Maybe 50% of the people were an hour late, but that's it. Just an hour. Our vendors/suppliers, however, had "snow day mindset". They'd email us and say that they can't make it to the 11am meeting, since the highways weren't cleared yet, etc. .... My coworker complained that all of globalfoundries was here, what do they mean they can't make it. I was explaining to him that it's not that they can't make it. It's a mindset thing. They just have "snow day mindset". If it snows, they're like OOOO snow day ! . no school, no work. whereas we have a 24/7 operations mindset. The plant operations go on even if weather is terrible.

So yea, it's all a mindset thing. I've worked here so long that I don't even think twice at whether or not I should go into office if there's a snow storm. Of course, I should have this kind of discipline/training for spiritual things too.