Culture Shock (Blog #3 Due April 5th)

5: Cultural Differences

The town of Olomouc is quickly becoming one of my favorite places, and I feel that the adjustment from America to the Czech Republic has gone pretty smoothly.  This does not mean, though, that there haven’t been any obstacles in the process of the adjustment.  Each and every day I am finding out more and more about the Czech culture, and just how different it is from America.  For this blog post, I will stick to some of the most shocking cultural differences that I have discovered:

Everything is cheap.

With the exchange rate of 1 U.S. dollar being 25 korunas (Czech currency), I was expecting things to be a little bit cheaper here in Olomouc, but I had no idea it was going to be THIS cheap!  On my first trip to Globus (the Wal-mart of Olomouc) I gathered lots of groceries, wine, shampoo/conditioner, body wash, and several other items to buy.  I was expecting it to be an expensive purchase, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was only 368 korunas, or about 20 U.S. dollars!  Most of my meals in the cafes and restaurants here are under 5 U.S dollars, and tipping is usually not expected.  With the prices being so low here, I am already dreading the higher prices of American products and food when I return home!

Everyone takes their time.

In America, everyone is all about doing tasks at the fastest pace possible. I even consider myself to be this way most of the time.  I, like many Americans, like to get things done quickly and move on to the next task as soon as possible.  Also, Americans love convenience.  By convenience I mean fast food restaurants, driving everywhere, and basically having everything delivered to them.  Here in Olomouc, it is almost the exact opposite lifestyle.  The people here take extended lunch breaks, rarely work at all on weekends, spend leisurely time eating their meals, and walk nearly everywhere.  It is very rare to see someone with a coffee “to go” because everyone spends their time relaxing and drinking their coffee in the cafes.  Whenever I have seen someone with a take away coffee, it has been an American.  This also goes for restaurants.  There are absolutely no “drive-thru” fast food style restaurants, as there are in America.  Even though Olomouc has a McDonald’s, there is no drive-thru window, and people almost always sit inside to eat their meals.  These differences really made me evaluate the average American lifestyle, and I am learning that it is okay to take your time and really enjoy the things around you.  This laid-back lifestyle is a wonderful change from the American lifestyle I am used to, and that is something I know I am going to miss.

Water is hard to find, and beer is cheaper anyways.

Trust me; I’m not lying on this one.  In most restaurants, beer only costs about one U.S. dollar.  Water, however, is a different story.  Although it doesn’t cost that much more than beer, it is often hard to order just plain tap water.  I can’t even count the number of times that I’ve asked for regular tap water in restaurants and ended up getting sparkling water-which I do NOT like.  Especially when I could have ordered a beer for less money!  I’ve gotten to the point where I just ask for Sprite or Coke because that way I will know exactly what I am getting.  On the plus side, the food here has been amazing.  I don’t think I can recall ordering a meal that I didn’t like.  Some of the best foods I have had here have been pizza, crepes, paninis, chocolate pastry twists, cheesecake and ravioli.  Hazelnut seems to be a huge food item here too.  I am constantly seeing Nutella, hazelnut chocolates, hazelnut flavored cereals/oatmeals and other hazelnut items.  I have to admit that I do miss some American foods, especially things like ranch and peanut butter.  The Czech people do not use many condiments for their foods, and when I have asked for condiments they either don’t understand or they bring it in very small amounts.

Religious views are different.

This was a hard concept for me to get over since I have been in the Czech.  Back in America, almost everyone I know is religious in some way.  I had only met one “atheist” in America, and I remember thinking about how strange their lifestyle would be.  I am not going to preach or anything, but I personally could not imagine a life without God.  However, in the Czech it is more common to not believe in a god rather than believe in a god.  We learned that Prague is about 80% atheist, while Olomouc is around 60% atheist. However, the word "atheist" takes on a different meaning here.  In America, we think of atheists as a people who are not religious in any way shape or form.  In the Czech, being an atheist does not necessarily mean you have absolutely no religious morals, it is more that you do not believe in a specific god.  Many Czechs do have some sort of religious/spiritual views, but they like to keep them personal and private. This whole concept was shocking to me, and it made me a little sad knowing that there are so many beautiful churches here in the Czech Republic that are not being used anymore.  Although it was unsettling, I definitely used this as a learning experience.  I realized that while I was in America, I was so wrapped up in the American lifestyle that I did not think about how different other lifestyles across the world could be.  I now understand how the Czechs can see "atheism" as a positive thing, while Americans usually look down upon it. 

Overall, these past few weeks have been such an incredible learning experience.  Being out of my comfort zone in a different culture has taught me how to adapt to new situations and learn from my mistakes.  I almost feel as though I was stuck in the thought that everything revolved around the United States, and now I have a brand new outlook.  It is so refreshing to have a new perspective on culture, and I can’t wait for what I will learn next.