Spain!

     Some of my friends in my spanish 3 class are going to spain over spring break. I had the opportunity to go, but i decided not to because i thought i would feel uncomfortable in a new country and staying with someone that i did not know. Not only would i not know them but i don't really know all about their rules and aspects of their culture. I think if i went i would have culture clash and culture shock because i might not be able to completely communicate with them and i would have to change some of my culture to fit in with theirs.
     An example of culture shock that i can think of would be that they drink alcohol on a regular basis with their friends, and i am NOT used to that. Also, they leave school in the middle of the day for a nap and they spend a lot of family time. An example of culture clash would be me not being able to communicate what i need to them because of the language barrier. I thought of all of this and the thought of going to Spain was uncomfortable so i decided not to go, but when my friends get back i'll be sure to ask them all about the culture they were a part of for a week.

Culture shock!

I found myself thinking sociologically when in class we were discussing the Middle East and Muslims and how their culture is so different than ours! 8th grade to sophmore year i "dated" a muslim, and i say "dated" because at the end of freshman year he broke up with me because of his religion, but we pretty much still considered ourselves together after that. At first everything was great between us and it was like any other relationship but then his parents started pressuring him with their culture and convinced him to stop dating me.
     We stopped dating officially but we still talked everyday. He would ALWAYS talk to me about his religion and he even tried to convert me to muslim. He told me about how they pray 5 times a day and have a certain way to cleanse themselves before a prayer. His mom wore the Hijab and she thought it was kind of disrespectful of me to wear a sleeveless shirt the first time i met her because she was all covered up. I would consider this culture shock because our cultures were so different, and his mom had trouble adjusting to how Americans dress and act. Although i'm sure she's used to seeing girls dressed without a Hijab, she wasn't prepared to see her son's girlfriend dressed so differently. The differences between our cultures were too strong and obviously that never worked out, but i think it was a good experience for me to see how other cultures can be so different than us Americans!

CULTURE

I found myself thinking sociologically when i was driving home from my boyfriends house the other night and i was listening to the radio. They were talking about the lastest celebrity gossip...mostly about Charlie Sheen and who's dating who. When i got home my family was eating dinner and they were talking about Miami Heat and just about sports in general. When i went to my room i turned on the TV, E News was on so i started watching and it was MORE about celebritys and who's wearing what. I didn't really think much of it at first but then i remembered what we were learning in sociology. This was all pop culture!
     I never realized before how much pop culture is around us at all times but it is a hhuge part of our lives! The media can make you believe pretty much anything they want about someone just from what they put out there. I think America is the way it is today because of the media and i don't know if that's such a good thing. Peoples lives revolve so much around pop culture, that can't be healthy!

Symbols for Americans!

I chose these Benjamin's because this is a major symbol for Americans. We have so much focus on money in America and everybody wants to be wealthy and successful which is what money also represents. If you don't live in America you recognize America for its supposed wealth and opportunity. Money is of course one of the main things i think of when i think of America.

I chose hotdogs, hamburgers, and fries as symbols for Americans because it's something most americans eat weekly and some everyday! It's a symbol of majority of our fast food restaurants and it's basically known as American food! Americans have this food at bbq's with family and the first thing i think of when i think of Americans is this kind of food.

I chose this picture as an American symbol because in other countries they think that America has a ton of crime! and we do! Every single time i turn on the news there is some type of crime they are talking about and some Americans find it entertaining to hear about the latest shocking crimes. The crimes in America are outrageous and people in other countries look at America as a crime filled place. Thats completely understandable to me.

The handshake represents American culture and an American symbol because everyone in America pretty much knows that if someone reaches out their hand they are waiting for a handshake. It is a way to greet someone you don't know or haven't seen in a while and everyone knows what it means. In other countries they don't know that thats how we greet eachother sometimes and they are caught off gaurd, as we discussed in class.

The atomic bomb is a symbol too because everyone knows that America is very advanced in nuclear technology. Whenever someone would worry about an upcoming war with the Middle East, they would be comforted by someone telling them "dont worry, we have the most atomic bombs out of everybody and ours are the most powerful." America is also known i think for having a lot of good war technology like tanks and things like that. I see the bomb as a symbol for how strong and powerful our country is. 





Mass Hyseria and Panic

     I found myself thinking socologically when i was talking to my grandma about what we were learing in class. I was telling her all about groups, statuses, roles, mass hysteria and panic. I explained to her the difference between mass hysteria and panic and gave her examples that we used in class to describe the differences. It turned out she already knew the difference and had her own story of mass hysteria!
     She started to tell me about back in the 1960's before she had my dad she worked in a dress making factory. She said while she was working some women started having strange syptoms like suddenly becoming numb and vomiting! Supposedly it was bug that was going around and many more women started having the symptoms and less and less of them were coming to work. The ones that had the disease said they were sure they got it from the factory. The women that were left including my grandma started seeing word of the illness in the news! My grandma said over 50 people soon claimed to have the bug and even went to the hospital! Everyone that was left was hysterical and praying they wouldn't get bitten by the so called bug. Eventually though, it was found that there was no such thing as the bug and nobody even had bites. Most of those women got the symptoms from the anxiety alone. I thought that was crazy for all those people to think they had a disease when really there was no such thing!