Experiential Blog 7

During my time abroad I have been exposed to a variety of interactions with people of different cultures.  People's attitudes about time, personal space, foreigners, and moral are notably different in Europe and change in different countries as well.  A large and general difference throughout Europe from the United States is that most European countries use military time.  Whenever I would look at a clock in a bus, on a plane, or in public I would see the time reading 20:17 for example and I would have to do math in my head to realize what time that actually meant (8:17 pm for those of you who were wondering).  In regards to how people spend their time I have noticed that a lot of Europeans do not waste their time.  In Vienna, Prague, and London it seemed as though everyone had somewhere to go or some task to complete.  Although everyone was busy no one came off as stressed out which surprised me.  Perhaps this is because America is a lot lazier than European countries, and in America people look forward to and plan for leisure time while in Europe people find leisure while completing their daily tasks.  Personal space has changed from city to city.  In Vienna most of the locals kept to themselves and did not appreciate loud voices or crammed spaces.  I mostly noticed this trend in the subways because no one spoke to each other while on the train and everyone had a personal space bubble around them.  In Prague people were very vocal and personal space was not a big issue because the streets were very narrow and crowded.  In London I felt a happy medium between Vienna and Prague because people were polite but charismatic, and personal space was respected but if a subway was crowded I did not receive weird looks from locals if I accidentally bumped into them.  I felt as though foreigners were treated with lower regards in Vienna because the imperial city had a great deal of pride surrounding its history and as a foreigner I have not grown up with or truly experienced this history.  In Prague foreigners seemed to be treated as gullible and vulnerable because Prague is a new capitalistic city and most of their money comes from tourists.  In London foreigners were treated with little difference.  I feel this is because London is a hub for international relations between people so foreigners were not anything new or special there.  My assumptions before traveling to Europe were that most people would have the same views as myself in regards to 'universal law', I was expecting the tone of voice and personal space to not be as different as it was and I was not expecting to be viewed as a blatant tourist.  This critique taught me to be more open minded and accepting of other cultures because I did not grow up with the same morals, history, and manners as others.