Culture Shock in Manchester, Nh

Culture Shock Experience in Manchester, NH

When I first came to live in Manchester, New Hampshire, it was as if I must flip a switch in my head. I had to change my mind and behavior of life from Indonesian environment to the American one. Before I left Indonesia, I heard that living in the USA is totally different from Indonesia. I tried to prepare and find some information from my friend who has any experienced life in USA. I bought a book about USA and searched information from the internet. I hoped that getting more information about USA would make adapting to life easy. However, it was not as I expected. It takes time and hard effort to adjust my behavior. There are three main aspects that I should adjust for living in USA: time, food, and language.

To begin with, time difference between Bandung, Indonesia and Manchester, New Hampshire, USA is twelve hours. When I arrived at Manchester, my body had to adapt with the time to sleep and awake. For example: in the first week, I felt so sleepy during daylight and I could not restrain drowsiness. On the other hand, at night, I felt fresh as if I was ready to do any activity. Adaptation with this situation was not easy. I needed a week to adjust my body and became familiar with Eastern Time.

Secondly, before I arrived in Manchester, NH, I imagined that I would have difficulties with food in the United States. Like most Asian people, my staple food is rice. In the beginning, it was hard for me to find restaurants that sell rice. I thought that I would never eat rice in US, except I can cook rice by myself. In the first five days, I stayed at hotel in Manchester, NH and the hotel always served cereal, bread and milk for breakfast. It was because I am not used to breakfast with that kinds of food and I did not eat rice at all, so I got trouble with my stomach. In addition, I only ate bananas and apples as replacement rice