From the moment I arrived in Palermo, I felt a cultural shock right away. I felt like this already 2 years ago when I moved from Mexico to Germany. The funny thing is that moving to Palermo was a bit like moving back to Mexico, but it still felt like a cultural shock, because I was so used to the German lifestyle. Sicily is very similar to Mexico in many good things like finding incredibly friendly people all the time, having amazing food to try, a beautiful beach nearby and sunny and warm weather, even though it is already end of November. Can you tell I’ve missed Mexico during my time in Germany and this is why I chose Palermo for my semester abroad? But as Sicily is similar to Mexico in many good things, it also resembles to Mexico in some not so good things. Some of these are the crazy way Palermitans drive (I thought I saw it all in terms of driving when I lived in Mexico City, but Palermo is another level), the trash on the streets, the disorganization, unpunctuality of people, insecurity, lack of public transportation or the city’s infrastructure. But as it is almost always, you can’t have only the good things in life. And to be honest, it’s all of it, the good and not so good things, that makes Palermo such a unique city.
My landlord told me when I first arrived: “People who just moved to Palermo waste too much time thinking that there are so many things in this city that don’t work properly. Once their back in their home city, they realize how all those things were so unimportant in comparison to the good things, the charm, and the unique experience that Palermo has to offer”. It is hard to understand this when your feet are soaking wet, because it rained so much and the city’s infrastructure is not made for handling that much rain, but you anyway must walk to university because there is no reliable public transportation. But whenever I laid at the beach, knowing that Germany had already 5 degrees and probably a gray sky, then I understood my landlord’s words better than ever.
I want to share with you in this blogpost a few silly specific things that made me feel a bit the cultural shock and that in case you plan on going to southern Europe for a semester abroad or internship, you should probably be prepared for.
- Pedestrian streetlight -> running for your life
In Palermo you find very few pedestrian streetlights. The first thing the people from the international office told us was: “Be careful crossing the streets in Palermo. You have to stand at the crossing and look at the driver on their eyes with a “STOP NOW” look”. And indeed, it is like this, although you never know if they will stop until 10 cm before the car might touch you. I used to complain in Germany how long the pedestrian streetlights take in order to cross 10 meters. But if I have to choose between waiting or thinking constantly “Am I going to get ran over today”, I think I choose spending a few more minutes waiting to cross the street. The adrenaline of crossing the streets in Palermo is fun though! :P
- Dish washer -> washing dishes by hand
I washed the dishes by hand my whole life in Mexico since dishwashers and simply not a thing in Mexico and mostly in all South America. But I got too spoiled in Germany, by having a dishwasher in my apartment. I find washing dishes by hand quite annoying because I don’t like touching wet food rests, but I also think it takes quite a lot of time a day. Dishwashers are also not a very common thing in Italy, but they have this great dish dryer invention though. They have a cabinet on top of the sink, which seems like a normal cabinet where you would put clean, dry dishes, but the surface of the cabinet is open, which allows you to put the wet dishes there and let the water fall into the sink, while it doesn’t look messy, since the cabinet has doors, and you can’t see all the plates that are drying.
- Vacuum cleaner -> broom
I still remember arriving to my apartment in Palermo, seeing how dirty it was and realizing that I had to clean it all with a broom. In Italy as in Mexico, vacuum cleaners are also not a thing. I know, you might be thinking, why do we live in such a not modern world when it comes to electro domestics. It is not that people wouldn’t have the money to buy a dishwasher or a vacuum cleaner, but the culture is simply different. I know when I say this it seems like the culture difference here means making our life more complicated, and basically yes. I still don’t get it, but it is simply like this. Thankfully, all my flatmates and I were not willing to clean every time with a broom, so we decided to buy a vacuum cleaner. A lot of our friends are jealous, but the funniest thing was that our landlord ended up also buying a vacuum cleaner, when he saw how easier cleaning is when you own a vacuum cleaner.
- Tap water -> bottled water
Probably the change I enjoyed the most when moving from Mexico to Germany and what I miss the most now that I live in Palermo and drinking tap water is not recommended. At least in Mexico the water truck came twice a week and the workers carried they huge water bottle to your house. But imagine buying a 6 L pack of water in Lidl (which by fortune is 500m away from my apartment), carrying it first from Lidl to your place, and then all the way up to the fourth floor, without having an elevator. This definitely turned into a constant workout! Let’s look at the bright side: I am losing calories every time!
- Electrical stove -> Gas stove
I don’t particularly miss electrical stoves, but I do think they are more practical than gas stoves. Try to imagine first my flatmate cooking and taking the pot from the stove with a kitchen towel because the pot was too hot and suddenly seeing the kitchen towel in flames :D. Now imagine me cooking and all of a sudden starting to notice a weird smell, until I realized that I was standing too close to the stove and my white sweater was already black because it was getting burnt :P. These stories are part of the cultural differences, but I only have to laugh when I think about them!
I think all of these “cultural shocks” are part of the Erasmus experience. Some things make you miss or “appreciate” a bit more your home country, some others make you fall in love more with the city in which you are abroad, but in the end, they all give you memories and funny stories to remember. I think going to a country which is exactly the same as yours in many things, might not allow you to learn new things, new ways of living or give you a new unique experience. Just take all these changes as temporary changes that are part of getting to know a new culture.