Having spent some time living in America, there are aspects which I like and others I do not really like. The ones that I do not really like range from that during my interaction with people from other culture to the living habits of the Americans.
In Cambodia, girl and boy are not to suppose to touch one another. Even couples can show their affection toward one another in public only at some level, at certain time, and in certain places only. The sight of people hugging, needless to say kissing, is rare in public places in Cambodia. It is just our culture not to show physical affection in public. People who do it to me just get on my nerve sometimes.
Living in the Global Community Floor at Ruston Hall allows me to come into contact with people from many culture. There is one particular boy who is from Central America which is especially “touchy”. Whenever he meets other people, he would stretch his hand and say “Come on, give me a hug”. And the way that boy hug is also different from others. His way is particularly closed and more like a couple hugging rather than simple acquaintances, I think. To my relief, he does not treat me with his “touchy” habits like others, at least not until I talked about it in our global community class.
Another physical contact that get me frustrate here is when people do that Latino dance to me. Dance looks horrible. People would just move their hip in a sexy way, at least they consider it sexy and hot. But to me, as a Cambodian girl, I feel offended. I am open and respectful of other culture, but I just do not like people doing that to me. Whenever people try to dance like that with me, I would just politely tell me that Asian girls don’t do that. Usually, they understand and respect me.
Another behavior that I do not like to see is kissing in the public. Well, it is not something that I get frustrated about because I know that people from other countries love that. But I just do not like to see it; it is just uncomfortable for me. There are lots of times when I walk from my dorm to USI and have to ignore couples displaying their love. In my country, couples would never do like that because it is strongly frowned upon.
I also have problems with other behaviors that do not necessarily related to me directly. Probably, one of the most annoying of all is American overconsumption habit. I notice people take shower more than they should. Moreover, they use it too carelessly. The same goes with food. What I mean is that some students at the Loft take a lot of food and they do not finish it all. And this troubles me a lot because as someone from developing country though not poor myself, I have seen a lot of people who do not have enough food to eat or water to drink. But here people just live like the world has everything to support them. No doubt that people say “if others live just like the Americans, even two more planet earth would not be able to support the world.”
I know that this type of people mean no harm or offense to me, but I just can’t help getting frustrated when seeing them doing or acting like that. They should have known that there are others who are from a totally different culture, and that people might not show any physical affection in public, or that they should have been more conservative in the way they consume resource. However, living in American multicultural society, I guess I need to adjust myself more to fit in.
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