Cathy asked if we had gone through any culture shock. Well, let me tell ya;)
Things are pretty different from what we're used to. Like in some places in the country and around the world, there are a lot of people who live together and never get married. One thing that's different here, though, is that there is no cultural priority to ever get married, even after 20+ years and 10 kids. Consequently, even in these homes, there is still a very family-centered atmosphere. They refer to all companions as "honeys," mostly because they want to not have to guess about whether or not they're married.
Another thing is classroom behavior. To illustrate, during my student teaching I could ask even the hardest of my students to join me in the hall to talk if I needed to, and they would come with only brief protest. Here, I tried to talk with an average student in the hall, and she flat out refused. It took a few minutes of her not budging, and she eventually came when she saw I wasn't going to back down.
We have also been able to see the unfortunate endgame of entitlements played out in the lives of some people. There are some people who only work as much as they absolutely have to, and not at all if they can. I will say, however, that there are many hard working natives here.
There are a few of the things we've noticed.
:)!
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