Step One (",)

Just two days before our flight, I recalled that I have to pack my things already for our US trip. On that day also, we met our program coordinator (I don’t know what’s the label of his title), Mr. Tony Perez, for a short orientation about how will the program go and what are the things to expect. Primarily, we were given the basic information about the host school for this year Study of the Summer Institute for Student Leaders, and some of the few things we have to know about US (like the electric current on power outlets, implementation of rule of law, weather and climate, etc.). Well, one of the things that I always seek to learn is the culture of a particular country.


According to Mr. Perez, Americans are individualist by nature. At first, I was wondering how individualist Americans were and how will it affect our relationship with them as participants of the program. We were advised to be assertive as much as we could because that is the common nature of the Americans. They speak their minds- as reflected by foreign films we get to watch.

Well, they have lots of practices which are very familiar to me- as Filipino elites (people from the upper class ) adopt and practice them. Maybe it has something do with their exposure on westernized culture.



From Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), we landed at Narita International Airport in Tokyo Japan (at least we get to step on Japan’s land even for a 2 hours or so) for our connecting flight to Detroit. From Japan, we start seeing our American co-passengers from the boarding area and I was trying to sense how they act and behave.



In the past, I was able to meet Southeast Asian on what of the conferences that I attended in Thailand. I noticed that most of the Asian nationalities are accommodating and they are socially assertive. On my end, I was trying to assess if people from the West do it also. I start believing that films can really mold our perception to some people to a certain extent. On most of the movies that I have seen, Americans are fond of conversing with people most especially if it is a social gathering.

Like any other American movie consumer, it is safe to assume that most people will expect tall buildings from this place. Busy cars, strict police officers all over the place, heavy cost of living and other stereotypes we often see on movies.




Breaking the Wall of Expectation.

Well, there are still rural parts of the US. When we were on our way to Carbondale, I was wondering why are seeing cornfields and plains on our way to Southern Illinois University (SIU) . I realized, even though US is an industrialized country there are still place where they can shoot Jeepers Creepers etc.

For barely two weeks of stay in Carbondale is way far different than our molded perception to American people. Yes, their government represents their image in the global village but meeting them first hand is a different experience. Even though they are undeniably individualistic (not on a negative light), they also love conversing and accommodating people. Of course, it was not comparable with the asian accommodation because we grew from different cultures. Indeed, the orientation about the cheap electronics, expensive goods and big servings on fast foods were true. There are still days to come and a lot of learning will still be on our way. Good Luck SUSI 2010 Participants! LET’S GO!