When we first arrived in Italy, lots of people had questions about what was different. How are the people? How is the food? How is the language barrier? How is public transportation? How do you get around? Is it expensive? What's the best part? What's the worst part? And so on and so on (although most of you ask about the food and then everything else).
All of those have probably been answered in previous posts, and if they haven't, sorry. Ask me again and maybe I'll answer.
I experienced a very different sort of culture shock last week, and I want to talk about it.
One of the more upsetting news stories of the new year was the Charlie Hedbo attack, which I won't heavily detail here. In short, they do satire, pissed off some extremists, and those extremists murdered a dozen people in the magazine's office. I believe this happened last Wednesday. The reason it stands out as Wednesday is this.
I had a lesson Wednesday night with a couple of kids, aged 7 and 9. As I was leaving, their mother got home and we met at the door of the building. I hadn't seen them since before Christmas and so I said things like "hello" and "nice to see you" and "happy new year."
Her response to the last one was an immediate "well no, it's a terrible start to the new year. Haven't you heard about the attacks in Paris?"
I had heard about them. And it didn't register for me as a new-year ruining event because I come from a country where civilians murder cops, cops murder civilians, adults murder children, children murder children, children murder (or sometimes accidentally) adults, teens murder teens, adults murder teens, and teens murder adults. News in the US is basically divided into "who got murdered today?" and "sports/weather."
It was a complete shock to me to see someone with no ties to it having such a strong reaction. I'd be absolutely stunned if she'd ever heard of Charlie Hedbo at all, and yet it was enough to stop her from returning a pleasantry and sparking five days of thought in my head.
Maybe it's a personal thing for me because, ever since a kid shot other kids in the high school that I used to have baseball practice (and which is as close to my home as the one I actually attended), I realized that I can't allow myself to get details on these things because it will just make me too sad. I have still never been able to read about the Sandy Hook shooting - not a single article - because I know that I won't be able to handle it. I don't want to put myself through that even though I know that my sadness would be roughly 1/1000th that of people who were more involved and an even smaller amount compared to those who were directly affected by it.
But maybe it's also a factor of being a 28 year old American whose life can basically be broken down into sections by what horrifyingly sad event/shooting/murder/terrorist attack was relevant at the time.
Don't believe me? Middle school was defined by the Columbine shooting and increased security in the school. Early high school was defined by September 11, 2001. Graduating high school was Hurricane Katrina time and the complete disaster that it proved to be on so many levels. What happened in college? Every single week saw protests about troops being sent to die in a pointless war (generally their words, I'm withholding comment).
Since college it's been all about school shootings, or movie theater shootings, or guns accidentally going off and killing people, or kids plotting to murder their teachers, or god knows what else.
And here's the worst of all of it: On a near weekly basis, bombings in Pakistan, Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, and others. Militant groups murdering hundreds and sometimes thousands, in Nigeria. Civil wars in various African nations killing millions. Planes being shot out of the sky. How much of it do you actually know about? Did any of that sound familiar? There is a Wiki page for the list of African Civil wars and it lists 17 (not counting those related to the "War on Terrorism" of which there are 8) separate conflicts since 2000. Can you name two?
I guess this is my point: Somehow, some way, not everything is bad news. There is good news out there, but it doesn't generate pageviews. That's why dailygood.org doesn't ring any bells but you theweatherchannel.com now uses scare tactics and click bait. There truly are a ton of terrible things going on in the world. I simply can't focus on them anymore. Sorry.
All of those have probably been answered in previous posts, and if they haven't, sorry. Ask me again and maybe I'll answer.
I experienced a very different sort of culture shock last week, and I want to talk about it.
One of the more upsetting news stories of the new year was the Charlie Hedbo attack, which I won't heavily detail here. In short, they do satire, pissed off some extremists, and those extremists murdered a dozen people in the magazine's office. I believe this happened last Wednesday. The reason it stands out as Wednesday is this.
I had a lesson Wednesday night with a couple of kids, aged 7 and 9. As I was leaving, their mother got home and we met at the door of the building. I hadn't seen them since before Christmas and so I said things like "hello" and "nice to see you" and "happy new year."
Her response to the last one was an immediate "well no, it's a terrible start to the new year. Haven't you heard about the attacks in Paris?"
I had heard about them. And it didn't register for me as a new-year ruining event because I come from a country where civilians murder cops, cops murder civilians, adults murder children, children murder children, children murder (or sometimes accidentally) adults, teens murder teens, adults murder teens, and teens murder adults. News in the US is basically divided into "who got murdered today?" and "sports/weather."
It was a complete shock to me to see someone with no ties to it having such a strong reaction. I'd be absolutely stunned if she'd ever heard of Charlie Hedbo at all, and yet it was enough to stop her from returning a pleasantry and sparking five days of thought in my head.
Maybe it's a personal thing for me because, ever since a kid shot other kids in the high school that I used to have baseball practice (and which is as close to my home as the one I actually attended), I realized that I can't allow myself to get details on these things because it will just make me too sad. I have still never been able to read about the Sandy Hook shooting - not a single article - because I know that I won't be able to handle it. I don't want to put myself through that even though I know that my sadness would be roughly 1/1000th that of people who were more involved and an even smaller amount compared to those who were directly affected by it.
But maybe it's also a factor of being a 28 year old American whose life can basically be broken down into sections by what horrifyingly sad event/shooting/murder/terrorist attack was relevant at the time.
Don't believe me? Middle school was defined by the Columbine shooting and increased security in the school. Early high school was defined by September 11, 2001. Graduating high school was Hurricane Katrina time and the complete disaster that it proved to be on so many levels. What happened in college? Every single week saw protests about troops being sent to die in a pointless war (generally their words, I'm withholding comment).
Since college it's been all about school shootings, or movie theater shootings, or guns accidentally going off and killing people, or kids plotting to murder their teachers, or god knows what else.
And here's the worst of all of it: On a near weekly basis, bombings in Pakistan, Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, and others. Militant groups murdering hundreds and sometimes thousands, in Nigeria. Civil wars in various African nations killing millions. Planes being shot out of the sky. How much of it do you actually know about? Did any of that sound familiar? There is a Wiki page for the list of African Civil wars and it lists 17 (not counting those related to the "War on Terrorism" of which there are 8) separate conflicts since 2000. Can you name two?
I guess this is my point: Somehow, some way, not everything is bad news. There is good news out there, but it doesn't generate pageviews. That's why dailygood.org doesn't ring any bells but you theweatherchannel.com now uses scare tactics and click bait. There truly are a ton of terrible things going on in the world. I simply can't focus on them anymore. Sorry.
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