The culture shock video reminded me of my experience studying abroad in Switzerland. One big thing that I never got used to was the greetings where you kiss people 3 times on the cheek. I felt very uncomfortable especially when I was meeting a bunch of people at once. I heard that the Swiss were more reserved so I wasn't expecting kisses to be a thing. When I met people instead of saying it is nice to meet you they would say enchante in french, meaning enchanted. It kind of threw me off guard when I met guys that would say that to me. In my head it sounded way too romantic to be a casual greeting. One of the students in the video talked about he thought that he was supposed to explain how he really was when someone asked how are you. I think it's pretty similar in French. People would say ça va, which is just a casual how are you and could answer back with the same word meaning I'm fine.
I definitely think I experienced the honeymoon phase. I was in love even before the plane actually touched the ground as I saw the mountains alongside the runway. Everything was so new and cool and I felt like I was on vacation. Settling into my host family threw in some challenges to the vacation phase because it was a period of adjusting into living like the Swiss do. I almost felt like I was in a less developed country, but it was just because people lived more simpler and therefore didn't have as many amenities in their house. For example, my host family had a washer but not a dryer so we had to hang our clothes and keep the window open, which got difficult as the colder months came in. I also noticed that my host family produced much less trash than I did alone. I think I stayed in my honeymoon phase all of my fall semester. It was't until mid-spring semester where I finally felt the desire to go home and it wasn't because I was bored of Switzerland, it was more because I wanted to move on with my life and school. Thinking about Switzerland now makes me want to go back. But while I could see myself living there, I don't think I would actually live there.
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