Culture Shock
Chapter 4

Here I was. Day 1 at my Picturesque University Campus in Brisbane, Australia. The bus trip to Uni was awkward as I could not understand the driver’s accent and missed half the announcements. Lucky, the bus went right into the University and there was no chance of me missing my stop. This Jaw-dropping gorgeous campus was going to be my home for the next few years. I could right away see the University Catalogue I had sighted in Nairobi come to life as I saw the Gardens, Woodlands and Ponds etc.

I made my way to International Student Centre to get guidance as I had missed Orientation week and needed to know what courses I was enrolled in. I had never heard of elective subjects and it was great to have a student advisor school me on the structure of the courses and how we would be assessed through- out the course. It was a very different structure to how we were assessed in high school. We would be marked on attendance, participation, presentations, assignments and the final exam. 10% for me speaking up? Smiles galore as that would be my biggest strength. True to form, every unit with participation marks was one I aced without issues.

Finally, here I was being walked to my first lecture hall. Nerves Galore!  I remember walking in, slightly late and finding a room with at least 200 other students. The lecturer had listed the three textbooks that we were required to buy for that Unit. I was a bit confused as this is one area my parents and I had not discussed. We had totally overlooked that area. The shock on finding how costly books were and realising I had 3 other classes each possibly requiring expensive books, was something else altogether.  Down went all the budgeting mum and I had done for this first semester and as you can guess, I found myself back at International Student Centre. I honestly had not factored books and since I was still so new at the budgeting thing, I simply needed help.

The advisors were helpful yet again and this time I was directed to notice boards where students who took that course a semester before were now selling their books. As a start, I was advised to go to the library and photocopy a few chapters for the next lecture. I would then contact those students on the notice board and organize to buy books from them affordably. That was a great option for me and second hand books it was, all the way. In time, I would visit other Universities to look at their notice boards for cheaper course books, though truth be told I was  interested in seeing what other Universities looked like and especially their libraries. The Architecture in these libraries overseas is out of this world. (There you were thinking, it was the books that fascinated me)!! I remember the student advisor stressing that I should always be one chapter ahead of the lecture as this would enable me to breeze through Uni. That was GREAT advice. Every Sunday, I found myself reading what we would cover in the coming week especially since I was struggling with the Aussie accents and for sure, this made the difference.

Culture shock was creeping in slowly as I was now in an unfamiliar culture. There was a major feeling of anxiety and discomfort as I tried to understand this new environment. I had to remember the wise words of my mentor who told me experiencing culture shock would only make one stronger, so here I was ready to adapt to it. I knew I would slowly get used to the new weather conditions, cuisines which tasted very different (me being polite!!) and perhaps even end up enjoying those same flavours. I slowly discovered my capabilities and developed thicker skin since I had to deal with a lot of unfamiliarity. I had to learn to calm my nerves and even laugh when I had to do stuff I felt was not quite within my culture. There were different ways of doing things that were neither wrong nor inferior. It was time to go easy on my own culture knowing very well there was no way I could lose it, more than I could forget my Swahili by learning another language, in this case Aussie Slang! Lol. Our culture is deeply ingrained in us. See you soon.