Lamorindans And College Friends Summer Abroad In Real Time

As discussed in a of my own, there is an increasingly popular trend emerging amongst college students who choose to spend their last long summers studying and working abroad. Aside from the extra financial costs, the decision to celebrate the last days of youth distant from the domestic working world is seized by those who wish to travel before society forces us to settle on reality. Or so it seems. As it turns out, there comes with the experience of crossing the seas a fair amount of culture shock in finding what our international allies think of the American way of life. And this perception may apply to Lamorindans more than we realize.

To see exactly how such students are faring in their summers abroad, I spoke with three Bay Area natives to discuss what they are finding in their summers beyond the Bay. The three students I interviewed – Erin Woo (Alameda), Katy Geisreiter (Moraga) and Lara Zysman (Berkeley) – are in three entirely different cities for three different reasons (studying art history in Florence, taking Spanish immersion courses in Córdoba, and interning for the Transatlantic Policy Network in Brussels, respectively). And as such these travelers are having vastly dissimilar experiences – sketching outside the Basilica of San Lorenzo, hiking the mountains of Salta, and dining with members of the European Union.

Despite these differences, the choice to head abroad is a change of scenery for all. “I'm just learning about a whole new culture,” says Erin Woo, a Communication Design student at Washington University in St. Louis. “We're being actively encouraged to stop housing ourselves in doing our art and architecture assignments and explore the outside and explore Italy.”

Katy Geisreiter, a Spanish and International Studies student at University of Richmond, Virginia, notes a similar experience in Argentina. “I'm taking two Spanish classes at Universidad Blas Pascal in Córdoba,” she says. “But we get outside…we have trips and excursions to learn more about the culture.”

But the ways in which these students seek to embrace the cultures of their host countries are noticeably tainted by local perceptions of the American tourist lifestyle. Though we like to believe that leaving our own continent means learning the ways of another, it seems that we exude enough of our Americanized behavior while abroad to convince foreigners that we fit a specific, sometimes negative stereotype.

Lara Zysman, a philosophy student at Harvard University, notes that most tourist areas in Brussels are focused less on Belgian culture and more on “entertaining the Americans.” Knowing that Belgium is famous for two main products – chocolate and beer – Zysman can see exactly how American drinking culture sets us apart from European nationalities. “There are shops [here] that have really Americanized, fratty beer T-shirts which try to acknowledge Belgian beer but ignore how different beer culture is here,” she says.

“A Belgian friend of mine who spent time at UC San Diego…saw a college kid chugging directly from the tap at a bar while others cheered. He was horrified…But the American tourists say, ‘beer culture! Chug chug chug!’ They spend a day or two here, buy bottle openers in the shape of the Mannequin Pis, eat a few waffles, and go on to Paris or London.”

A few countries away, Woo sees similar interpretations of American culture. “It's unfortunate…I think that throughout the popular countries of Europe, Americans have this negative image of being stupid, drunk, loud, and rude,” she says. “The places that cater to Americans my age here are bars and clubs that have [trashy] signs like '5 Shots for 5 Euros,’ etc."

Overall it is, if nothing else, a culture shock to see one’s own idea of culture treated in a different light by those of another region. Geisreiter, who is located in a low-tourism part of Argentina, does not see Americans being treated disapprovingly. In fact, “everyone [in Córdoba] is super friendly… it's clear that we're here to study, so I think that makes a difference,” she says. “Plus, we're not walking around in white tennis shoes and fanny-packs, so it's not like we're unbelievably obnoxious…Córdoba just isn’t a tourist attraction.”

Nonetheless, she can sense a strong contrast in cultures that feels encouraged by an outsider status. “The way Argentineans treat women and kids is very different,” she says. “There are so many cat calls on the street. It's considered perfectly acceptable to honk a million times when driving past women and to scream things out the window of a moving car…But one of our tutors said that it does happen all the time and that it should be considered a compliment.”

The same is true of Florence, a city that, unlike Córdoba, receives over 2,000 foreign students per summer. “There's a lot of cat calling [in public],” says Woo. “The men here just aren't afraid to say things to you…things like 'ciao bella, mamma mia, bellissima' and so on. My friend was actually shouted at.”

Perhaps because Brussels is home to the European Union headquarters, Zysman says that her sense of a culture shock is “less between the US and Belgium, but more between work and home. Brussels is really composed of two universes - the locals and the internationals drawn by the EU. For the internationals, there's no romantic mythology about Brussels in the same way as Barcelona, Paris, London, or Rome, so its cultural differences are often quickly deemed failings,” she says.

But experiencing the difference is well worth the time, these students argue. When it comes to having chosen to go abroad and roll the financial dice over staying at home for a paid job, these students don’t regret the risk.

“I think the decision to study abroad or get a job is tough because there are so many factors that go into picking which one,” says Woo. “I fully encourage study abroad just because it's going to be an experience that is very unique to the individual… But I don't think there should be a divide between [jobs and studying abroad]. I think making either happen is difficult in different ways, and they are both notable things to achieve.”

Addressing the judgment that those who study abroad do so as a last resort after failing to find a place in the workforce, “there may actually be validity to it. But not in the negative sense in which it may be intended,” says Zysman. “If you're going to be stuck in a mediocre job or in a classroom all summer, by going abroad you create more opportunities for personal growth than you may have had at home.”

As such it seems unfair to assume that a summer abroad is the easy way out of the harsh atmosphere that is the US working world. Rather, what ought to be summarized of the experience is the way in which it shocks us – it shows us in the mirror who we are not to ourselves but to those whose lives we impede on for “cultural” purposes. And on that note, perhaps it is not unreasonable to require such experiences for all young Americans.