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People Describe The Biggest Culture Shock They've Ever Experienced

They say travel changes a person - that a little bit of culture shock is good for perspective.

But let's talk about people who got more than just "a little" culture shock. Let's talk about those moments that kind of short out your brain for a second.


One Reddit user asked.

What was your biggest culture shock?

And yeah ... we can see how elephants in traffic might blow your mind.

Drive Through

America has drive through everything! Drive through coffee, drive through ATM, drive through liquor store!

- ExampleOtherwise

The drive through pharmacy and atm blew my mind

- NirvanaTrippin

Drive thru pharmacy is great. You drive up and there is a speaker and this long pressurized tube with a canister in it. The pharmacist asks what you're there for and then you send your ID and any relevant documentation's through the canister and then they do their thing, send you everything back through the tube and you're on your way.

I just did a COVID test through the drive through - they give you the bag and all relevant test materials, tell you what to do through the speaker and then you deposit the test in a biohazard box. I think it's pretty neat honestly.

- cocoaboots

Birds Indoors

Bird Deal With It GIF by moodmanGiphy

Canadian working in New Zealand.

Birds indoors. This may seem minor but it was so weird to see.

When I got off the plane in Auckland there were birds flying around inside the airport.

In Canada if a bird gets inside everyone takes notice. Some people even freak out. If it doesn't fly away on it's own, animal control is called.

In NZ nobody gave a sh*t about all these little birds zooming around inside the airport. I sat there watching these guys in complete amazement.

This was just my first observation. NZ got progressively weirder as time went on.

- Ramone2017

The Least American American

My dad was a US diplomat so we moved to a new country every three years or so. I had never lived in the states (born in Portugal) and 4 countries later when my dad decided to retire, we moved to the US (Maryland).

Being in America was the biggest shock.

From the "safeness" I felt, to the way people were. Yellow school busses. Everyone sort of being the same. It was a shock, among many other things.

I felt American my whole life living abroad, being associated with the American embassy, hanging out at the marine club houses. And when I moved to the US, I did not feel very American at all

- Scrappy_Kitty

Oh Canada

Dutch guy here. When we went to Canada for the first time everything was HUGE.

Big cars on big roads, big streets and restaurants and malls. I remember we were driving for what seemed like hours through suburbs and I just kept thinking "surely after the next turn we're out of the city" but the city just seemed to be endless - kind of scary almost.

Also; distance was huge. In the Netherlands driving from the Eastern to the Western end of the country takes 2-3 hrs. In Canada, what seemed like an infinitely small distance on the map took 2.5 hrs to drive.

- yehboyjj

Contrast And Clash

India was my biggest culture shock. Extreme poverty and extreme riches right next to each other.

- LouiseHam89

It clashes hilariously when the rich try to use their wealthy materialistic possessions on poverty level infrastructure. Your Lamborghini is useless in these pothole filled roads.

- poopellar

Yeah. The way some hotel windows are frosted near the bottom to hide these massive trash dumps with children digging through them or something. It's so sad.

- Layra_GhostQueen

Nigerian Dogs

My cousin visited me from Nigeria and couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that we have entire stores here just for pets and pet products. In Nigeria most of the dogs are allowed to just run wild.

- ShepherdUseful241

My former coworker was also from Nigeria, and she had a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that we allow pets to sleep in our beds with us.

I have no idea what area/city she's from originally within Nigeria and this was also a long time ago, but she said doing so back there would have been considered disgusting and weird. Then she got a roommate who had a dog and fell IN LOVE with it.

Last conversation I remember having with her, she was talking about how she was curled up in bed on a Saturday with all of her dogs.

- sleepytimeghee

"I Would Rob You" 

Went to the states for college at Indiana. I lived in Tokyo, Japan my whole life before this. 1st day, I went to the gas station to buy something. I had a lot of $100 bills with me cause I didn't have a card yet.

The cashier literally told me "You shouldn't carry that much cash around. If I saw you with that on the street I would rob you."

I was like "okay.... thanks for letting me know?"

This was like 6yrs ago and in Japan, people normally carry / use cash for a lot of things back then. I knew and saw people having $500 (50,000 yen+) in their wallet on a normal given day .

It's getting better now and it's becoming more cash-less but holy sh*t, didn't think carrying large bills would be that risky lol

- 305_ps

The Elephant In Traffic

things love GIFGiphy

I spent a month living in Thailand when I was 15. The first hour broke me.

The trip there had taken an absurdly long time and long story short I had been awake for about 38 hours by that point. I did not have an ounce of mental fortitude, which I also did not know I would need.

We (group of us) met up with the families we were staying with, introductions, all that jazz. Nice folks. We decided to go home, get a nap (it was 7am local) and meet up for dinner. I say decided but that was the plan all along.

I got into the car in the backseat- no seatbelts. Okay, cool, that's different but whatever.

We pulled out onto the very busy road- on the left side. A bit of a surprise but hey, that's neat.

The city (Bangkok) was wildly different from any place I had ever been. But that was expected, it's the other side of the world, right?

Nearly there, we stopped at a stop light. There was an elephant standing beside me, 10 feet from my window.

That was it. That elephant broke me. It was too much. There were no elephants outside car windows anywhere I had been before. I closed my eyes and curled up into a ball until we arrived.

Lovely country. Wonderful people.

- trabarro

East Coast / West Coast 

I've traveled internationally a lot, but my biggest culture shock was within the US. I'd lived in the Pacific Northwest/Rockies my entire life, and when I decided to move to Philadelphia, everybody was warning me about how rude and snobby everyone would be on the East Coast and how I'd be miserable.

To be honest, the shock to me was how wrong most of those people were.

Like, sure, I've met some people out here who do the stereotypes no favors, but I've overall found folks to be WAY more genuine than people where I'm from. The PNW in particular had this weird, condescending fake-nice feel where I could know someone for MONTHS and still be unsure whether we were actually friends or they secretly hated me. Here, I know within about 0.2 seconds whether someone likes me, and it's so refreshing.

It definitely took some getting used to, but I can't imagine going back now. I also really don't miss people constantly judging me for not being outdoorsy enough. Here, it feels a lot less like there's one "correct" set of hobbies I need to have if I don't want to get sh*t on.

- _MaddAddam

Second-hand Culture Shock

My distant relatives came to Canada and were blown away. We did across country road trip over a week and a half. East coast to west.

They loved it.

But what surprised me, in fact blew me away...the most, was how emotional they got driving through the prairies. They had never seen so much open land and sky. They were crying.

It gave me a new appreciation for beauty of the vastness of the prairies and those "both never ending and yet always vanishing horizons. "-as they put it.

Their culture shock, was culturally shocking for me as well.

- dextermurphy

Dogs Like Squirrels

Dogs roaming around like squirrels.

I lived in Chile for a summer in college and never really got used to the fact that stray dogs are just EVERYWHERE in the streets! And not just like nasty mangy-looking ones, like golden retrievers and poodle mixes and stuff.

My host brother told me that they view pets as totally separate from family members there, so if they get tired of a pet dog they just sort of let it go. Still kind of blows my mind.

- Blaise11

Feeling Insecure

busted GIFGiphy

I live in Israel and there's security check basically everywhere.

You can't just go into a mall, you'll have to go through metal detector and have your bag checked by a security guard. So when traveling to other countries it always blows my mind that you can walk just right in without anyone checking you.

Makes me feel a little unsafe.

- xmishmishx

My Backpack

American living in Japan, my backpack (which I left on the train) full of pretty valuable things and plenty of cash was personally returned to my apartment by a stranger. Come to find out they went over an hour out of their way and would not accept any compensation.

In the US that's gone. Friends living there pretty much all have similar experiences.

- semiprotacoeater

"Woman's Job" 

Just got married to a guy from Connecticut— he does more than half of the chores in the house. It blows my mind.

He voluntarily does the laundry every week. He tells me to relax if I work a long day and he will make dinner.

I'm from the south and never realized how much I internalized the "woman's job" stuff. Omg, I love him so much.

- gettinganewdog

My First Doubts About My Country

When I was 17 my father took us on a month long driving vacation across the country from California.

When we reached the South there were bathrooms that said Colored Only!! I had to be told what that meant, and couldn't believe it!! Gave me my first doubts about my country.

- Valuable_Beginning71

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People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.