culture shock – Come From Away

Adjusting to Oman: My Dangerous Taxi

June 27, 2025June 26, 2025

I left Oman exactly one year ago and I miss Salalah every day. This is one of the first essays I wrote about Dhofar, sent to friends in October 2005

When I said I was moving to the Middle East and people asked me, “Isn’t that dangerous?” I replied “Not really.” What I meant to say was “What is ‘dangerous’ is not what you would understand nor what I would I be able to foretell.” Witness my taxi driver.

In many place in the Middle East, taxis don’t have meters and there is an accepted ‘in-town’ fare for ‘just go’ and one for ‘go and come back’ which, considering how long it takes to get a check cashed, find the right form, mail the letter, etc. basically means the driver will wait 10 minutes or so for free. And since usually you are running around trying to get your errands done Thursday morning (ME equivalent of Saturday morning) from 9 to 12, if you have a driver who doesn’t smoke, spit, leer or drive like a maniac, you will often just keep him all morning, giving him one lump sum when he takes you home.

If you find a really good driver (knows some English but doesn’t ask if you are married), you can work out a weekly rate for taking you to and from work every day and Thursday morning errands. As you can’t lease or buy a car without your official visa, which can take up to a month once you are in-country, getting a good driver quickly is essential. This is usually a process of having a lot of bad taxi rides (blaring music; passing on the wrong side; getting lost) until you find a guy you like. The paradox is that drivers who offer to be a regular driver are usually exactly the wrong kind of guy (a “any club who would have me as a member…” issue – you want a taxi driver who does not particularly want to talk to a Western woman, who treats you as one more anonymous fare).

My second night I was in town, I stopped by a schwarma stand (a few tables inside, clean, well-lit) and sat for a few minutes to have my chicken wrapped in pita bread and fresh fruit juice in peace. My colleague, X, walked in by chance so I started to ask him what some of the items on the menu were. X didn’t know what “Maryam” meant in this country and as we were discussing, a middle-aged local sitting at another table, explained the meaning (mixture of orange and mango juice) to X in Arabic. I asked about another term; X asked the local guy, who explained with a few smiles and gestures, fruit juice and frozen ice cream. I tried a third item; X, not interested in my linguistics endeavors, left. As I was paying, the local man introduced himself as N and asked if I wanted a taxi.

I said no, but, impressed that he had kept talking to X, not trying to talk directly to me until X had left, I asked for his mobile number. After he gave it to me, a man walked up to me and asked “You want a taxi,” I laughed, then glanced at N, who met my eye and laughed too. Ah, a sense of humor!

The next day I asked one of the secretaries to call N to pick me up from work. We went to the telephone company – I wanted a mobile, the ne plus ultra necessity of ME life. I had various forms, all of which were rejected by the clerk. N, who had wandered over to see what the problem was, jumped right in. Fifteen minutes of heated discussion later, the clerk agreed I could have a cell phone. Then it was two hours of paperwork and waiting. Once I had the phone chip in hand, back in the taxi. “Could you please take me somewhere to buy a phone?”

This was a request, but also a test – were we going to end up in his cousin’s overpriced House of Cell Phones? Nope, straight to a real store (i.e. you would get a warranty). But the man at the cell phone counter hadn’t shown up for work yet. I told N I would go to the grocery section for 15 minutes. When I returned 20 minutes later, he tapped his watch and said “I have been waiting five minutes!” Part of me thought “give me a break, I have been in-country 48 hours, I don’t even own a coffee cup”; part of me thought “Getting scolded by your taxi guy is a good sign. The more he sees you as a regular person, the better.”

Cell phone man arrives; I pick out a phone; N takes over. He installs the chip, sets the date and time, adjusts all my settings, programs a password, calls my phone and puts his name on my contact list, then calls himself on my phone so he has my number. We are now joined.

I put my groceries in the truck and collapse into the back seat; “Time to go home” I say. N drives off in the opposite direction. I am going to get a tour of the town and there will be a quiz: “This is Water Roundabout. What is the name of this roundabout?”

“Water.”

“Very good.” Then he heads out of town – as in away from all buildings and up a mountain road. Hmmmm, then he turns off the main road and onto a small side road. I contemplate whether I should ask him to turn around, attempt to jump out of the car or scream. I wonder how one calls the police, given that I have a brand-new cell phone in my purse, which for all he I know he has sabotaged. I wonder if this qualifies as “dangerous.”

I don’t do anything – trust? stupidity? jetlag and culture shock and general weariness? Ten minutes later he pulls up at beautiful scenic overlook. “Too much beautiful” he proclaims. Well yes, not that I wanted to go a scenic overlook, but then I hadn’t seen anything of the town yet except the inside of offices, so it was rather nice.

After sufficiently impressing upon me how nice his town was, he pulls into an open air restaurant and disappears for 5 minutes. When he comes back he hands me over a carefully wrapped plate of something. “Fish,” he says with a smile. “Special fish.”

Then he drives me home. Where I discover it is a plate of grilled beef cubes. Ok.

Two days later we are out for more errands. We go to find me two small lamps, which he insists on plugging in to make sure they work; fuse boxes, which he inspects carefully; plastic bath mats, which he allows me to choose in peace; cleaning supplies, he picks up and looks at, but doesn’t comment on. I’m starving.

He pulls up to a mini-cafeteria, toots the horn and asks me “chicken or egg?” Well that is a Mobius strip sort of question. The guy comes out of his shop and looks at N. N looks at me. OK. “Egg.”

After a few minutes, the restaurant comes back and hands me a wrapped sandwich which is a bun shaped like a hotdog roll, but sweeter, with a chopped up boiled egg, cucumbers, tomatoes, ketchup, mystery sauce and cold French fries – which pretty much covers whatever one could possibly want or need.

“Nice?” N asks.

Nice indeed.

He has a real job besides taxi driving so he can’t take me to and from work every day, but I call him for errands and for longer missions. When I was stuck at a hotel far from town with 2 obnoxious Brits and a bunch of local taxi drivers who wanted 5 times the going rate, I called N.

“Let’s take one of these taxis and just pay what we want to pay when we get there, not what we have agreed to pay,” said one of the obnoxious guys.

“You can’t do that. And N said he would come, he’ll come.”

“Why would he come all the way here?”

You can’t explain the intricacies of the taxi relationship to Middle Eastern newbies, so I keep quiet. N comes; the guys start to ask him why the hotel taxi drivers were ‘so stupid’ as to charge so high a price that I ended up calling him instead. N doesn’t understand the question, thank goodness, and I try to steer the conversation to other issues. But both men spend the taxi ride complaining about Middle Eastern taxis and the Middle East in general.

When we drop off the second guy, N gets out a piece of paper to write his mobile number. “No, no, no,” I say softly in Arabic. N looks at me – why am I depriving him of a customer? – but puts the paper away.

As we head to my home, he says accusingly, “I give my number; you say no.”

“Those men too much bad, argue with you, not pay you fair price. My friend, I give your number. Not bad men.”

“Bad men?” He looks at me in the rearview mirror, not quite believing but sometimes you just have to trust across that cultural divide.

“Too much bad men,” I say.

“Ok.” He drives me home then refuses to let me pay him. “I was sitting, no work, you call, I am happy.” I tell him to look over there, he looks, I drop the cash in the front passenger seat. He laughs.

He goes to his village for a week and brings me back a large plate of fresh dates and an indescribably ugly black plastic bath mat.

I call him to ‘go round.’ He picks me up and we drive out of town. I don’t say where I want to go, just that I need to be back home at 6pm. “7pm,” he says. He switches on the English language radio station and, carefully avoiding the herds of camels in the road, drives for two hours – beautiful scenery flashes by. I drink the water and eat the ‘pizza’ flavored potato chips he insisted on buying for me.

I trust N with my life on steep, winding roads with camel obstacles; I trust him as he drives lonely roads hours outside town to places I couldn’t find on a map. I get in his taxi, say “Bookcase” and he takes me to the, by his carefully reasoned standards, the best place for bookcases in town.

When I said I was moving to the Middle East and people asked, “Isn’t that dangerous?”, I replied “Not really.” What I meant to say was “I have a lot of fresh dates in my kitchen I am trying to give away and a very ugly black plastic mat I am trying to discreetly throw away.” What I meant to say is, “May I introduce you to N?”

Practicalities of Moving to the Arabian Peninsula: How to Sit, Not Wear Shoes and Use Your Hands

Practicalities of Moving to the Arabian Peninsula: Dealing with Loss

Ethnography – Staying Calm

Ethnography – Navigating Shaking Hands on the Arabian Peninsula

Practicalities: Managing a Short Research Trip to the Arabian Peninsula

June 3, 2025June 3, 2025

Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-96-5326-3

First, look at the calendar closely – check for Ramadan, Eids, national holidays, school vacations – museums, archives, schools, stores will be shut without notice but at least make sure you are clear from the major closures. If you want to see people at a university, look at the school calendar. For example, many universities have their graduations ceremonies in the fall, not spring, so that means several days of canceled classes and everyone being busy. Check for tourist seasons; short-term rents can vary widely depending on the month.

Pack

all the documentation you might need, depending on the archive/ university/ research center you might need copies (or originals) of diplomas, transcripts and/ or letters of reference. You also might want to create a file with documents to leave with someone who can scan/ FedEx paperwork as needed. You don’t want to ask someone to search through paperwork or e-mails for the list of classes you took in your Masters program.
whatever medications you need to get you through the weeks ahead – you don’t want to lose a day or more trying to get doctor’s appointments and prescriptions. Drugs that are over-the-counter in your country might not be available where you are going
loose cotton/ linen/ flax clothing, make sure your body from elbows to knees will be covered with non-transparent fabric at all times (bathing suits for hotel pools and distant beaches), sunglasses (if you can afford it, get prescription sunglasses) and a hat
some kind of scent (rose water, orange blossom water or jasmine water are fine)
if your surroundings matter to you, bring whatever you need to sleep (lavender spray, eye mask, an app on your phone that makes white noise, painkillers/ aspirin/ melatonin) and Blu Tack. If you are traveling on a budget, you may end up in a cement-block room with a LOUD window air-conditioner and/ or a window you can’t open and it’s dark at 8pm. Blu-tacking maps/ fabric/ postcards to your walls can help your space feel less prison-like.

If you are not with a group, politely get in touch with people before hand – use whatever method you want (e-mails, LinkedIn, social media, etc.) at least a few weeks ahead of time. The whole arrive-in-country-and-spend-the-first-night-trying-to-set-up-appointments-for-the-next-morning endeavor is not usually helpful. Once you are in-country and have a few acquaintances, then you need to be ready for last-minute invitations, but try to get some contacts ahead of time.

Get a seat towards the front of the plane, be ready to get in the aisle and move as soon as it is your turn, move as quickly as you can to immigration – immigration can take 10 minutes or 2 hours, get is line as fast as you can.

You want to go to the most important place first but, if possible, try not to meet anyone or go to the archive/ museum/ university/ site on your first day in-country. Unless you already have a lot of experience in the Middle East, the heat/ humidity may be a shock. Give yourself a day to adjust and (depending on your home culture) get used to being stared at constantly. Take yourself for a practice run on the subway/ metro/ bus to wherever you are going to be working, walk around the neighborhood you are staying in, browse through grocery stores, find a café you like, etc.

Figure out what you are going to do for your down time; you can’t always be “on.” Reading, interviewing, translating, searching, walking through libraries, studying, taking photos: all that mental processing in a new culture is exhausting. Take breaks! Go back and forth six times in a row on an abra in Dubai, walk along the beach if you are near one, get a day-pass at a resort and lounge by the pool, read in a hotel lobby, go through the souq and buy cute leather slippers with gaudy, gilt threadwork. Do not try to spend all day every day chasing your research goals. Do not attempt to spend every night writing up notes. Make haste slowly.

Never get into a situation you can’t get out of. Until you have been in-country a few weeks, stay in more public areas and don’t rely on phones, electronics, web sites, apps, etc. to help you the same way as they did in your homespace. For example, if you meet a local, have a great conversation and they invite you to a restaurant for lunch, there are a lot of ways this could go right and some ways this can go wrong. You could ask a taxi driver if they know the restaurant, he says “yes,” you get in, he starts driving, then he confesses that he does not know, you can’t find the location on-line and it’s 30 minutes of aimlessly driving in the general area. Maybe that’s fun; maybe that’s not fun. Or you get to the restaurant, your friend cancels and you don’t feel comfortable in the place alone. Or you have a great lunch, your friend takes off and you decide to walk back to your hostel at 2pm, when it’s 98 degrees with high humidity. By the time you decide to get a taxi, there are none because everyone rests from @ 2pm until @ 4pm, so you have given yourself heat exhaustion and are in bed for a day. Malls are your friend until you are settled.

Judge what is going on by actions, not words. If you are from a culture in which people point out mistakes and/or say what they feel, it may be disorienting to have people tell you what you want to hear, which might have no relationship with reality. If you can, ask “is it better if I do x or y” questions.

Remember that on the Arabian Peninsula, self-control is highly valued. If you are rude, sometimes locals will stay calm and pleasant, so you may not be aware of how big a mistake you are making. If you come from a confrontational culture in which it’s accepted that people argue loudly and with passion, it may be disorienting to have people who won’t engage with you. If you love dashing into political talk (or as one American undergraduate did, met Dhofari women and within a few moments asked them if their husbands beat them) you might find people who are happy to argue, but are always busy if you want to meet them a second time.

Practicalities of Moving to the Arabian Peninsula: Using the Arabic Language

Ethnography – Finding the Middle Ground, part 1 of Discussing Photographs

Bibliography for ‘Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula’ (2025, Palgrave Macmillan)

Practicalities of Moving to the Arabian Peninsula: Getting and Sending Mail/ Packages

Practicalities: Managing a Short Business Trip to the Arabian Peninsula

May 30, 2025June 3, 2025

Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-96-5326-3

If you travel a lot for business, you should be all set in the Arabian Peninsula – just remember that you never want to do anything to draw attention to yourself. Unless you are a social media influencer, stifle the urge to share details about your life or emote. This is not Italy and this is not the place for hijinks.

If you don’t travel a lot – make sure you have your basics covered for what you need to get good sleep. Jet lag + hot, humid weather + new cultures + no sleep does not usually equal good life choices. Bring what you need: lavender spray for hotel rooms perfumed with oud, eye mask, an app on your phone that makes white noise, painkillers/ aspirin/ Imodium in your purse/ briefcase at all times.

Get a seat towards the front of the plane, be ready to get in the aisle and move as soon as it is your turn, move as quickly as you can to the immigration line – immigration procedures can take 10 minutes or 2 hours, get is line as fast as you can.

Get a duty-free cologne – a good scent is mandatory. People in the Middle East are very sensitive to scents and you do not want to be the reason someone moves places in a meeting.

Unless you are in fashion/ media, you need clean, bland clothes. Remember that locals have worn the same type of outfit in public (black abayha for women/ white dishdash for men) for all of their adult life and most men and women keep their hair covered in public. You will never be able to tell the price differences of these outfits, so stay in your lane: clothes, watch, shoes that you can afford which do not draw attention. I strongly recommend that women carry a pashmina/ shawl with them at all times; the AC can be brutally cold.

Know yourself and know your body – one of the worst-case scenarios is you are tired because of jet lag, drink coffee to wake up and end up so wired you sound like Alvin the Chipmunk. Pace yourself with the caffeine.

No sudden movements, no big movements, no stretches, no cracking your neck or knuckles and for the love of all that is good in the world, no yoga poses in public. Keep your body calm and under control.

Do not bring the focus of the conversation to you – if you are asked your opinion about anything regarding the country you are in, your response is positive and brief. This is not the time to share your experiences or opinions unless they are specifically related to your work.

Do not, whatever the temptation offered, start talking about your hobbies except in the most general sense. Trust me. For example, if you run marathons and someone mentions marathons, do not start talking about marathons. People who run marathons start chatting and within minutes they might be comparing stories of how much they threw up and grisly descriptions of blisters. Understand that people may bring up topics as a way to judge and understand you, so that someone with zero interest in X will mention X as a way to see how you respond. Keep your focus on work.

Do not express surprise or get thrown off track by someone casually mentioning a fact about you that is hidden/ not on your resume/ not widely known. Do not ask, “How do you know that?” Blandly say “yes” and return to work topics.

Do not get tangled up in trying to get all the cultural conventions right; even very small companies will have employees from 20 different countries. Try to hold back and watch what others are doing but if something goes wrong, do not create a fuss. If you are male and try to shake hands with a female who refuses, say “I’m sorry” and move on.

If you are trying to recover from 12 hours in a plane by leaning over to touch your toes, then you straighten up and realize that 5 people have quietly walked into the conference room and are staring at you, say “I’m sorry” and walk over to begin introductions.

If pour a cup of coffee down your shirt, say “excuse me a moment,” go to nearest bathroom and do what you can, then walk back in and resume meeting as if nothing happened.

Keep calm in the face of whatever happens – laugh later, cry later, vent later, scream later. In a business setting – or after-work dinner! – you should be as emotionally available as an ice-cube. [Note, this is for short business trips. If you work for an extended period or full time, then of course your personality and interests will shine through, however a 2-day/ week-long business trip should be treated as if you are on a long job interview.]

Practicalities of Moving to the Arabian Peninsula: Using the Arabic Language

Practicalities of Moving to the Arabian Peninsula: How to Sit, Not Wear Shoes and Use Your Hands

Ethnography – Staying Calm

Ethnography – Navigating Shaking Hands on the Arabian Peninsula

Practicalities of Moving to the Arabian Peninsula: Getting and Sending Mail/ Packages

April 4, 2025June 3, 2025

I recently realized that I did not write about mailing issues in Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions [ https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-96-5326-3 ]. This topic came up because the book’s publisher asked me where I wanted my complimentary copies sent. I gave the PO Box of my former university in Oman so that a friend who still works there could give out the books to the Omani people who helped me do research. But the publisher does not ship books to PO Boxes and Oman does not deliver mail to street addresses, all mail goes to PO Boxes.

Welcome to the world of trying to get what you want where you want it!

For some people who move to the Arabian Peninsula, mail is never an issue. But if you will need to send/ receive papers or objects, it is worth thinking through what is the best way to manage that. Because, like everything else when you are in a new country, a simple act like mailing a letter can go sideways.

Three overarching issues:

1) Mail is not used for communication very often, to the point where some people do not have or need a mailing address.

2) The kind of mail delivery depends on the country. There is no home mail delivery in Oman; in Saudi Arabia there is home delivery; in the Emirates and Qatar, mail is delivered to a PO Box, usually at work, and you can pay for home delivery if you want to.

3) Some countries have post office clerks who do all tasks; you stand in line and whoever is there can help you. Arabian Peninsula post offices are set up with clerks who do specific functions, so you need to look/ ask to make sure you are in the right line; for example, there might be one counter for domestic stamps/ letters, one for domestic parcels, one for international parcels, one to pick up a parcel etc.

The first concern is when you are sending boxes to yourself so that they are there when you arrive. If you are moving for work, get specific instructions from someone on your team. It is probably better if you address the boxes to someone who is already working there, not to yourself. If you use your name, someone at the post office or your company might not recognize it and return your box.

Also, talk to someone if you are sending something that is not standard household goods. This is the sort of detail that you will want to check and double-check as you do not want your boxes to sit in limbo at customs or in the depths of the package room at the main post office.

If you are going for research, you might be able to send a box to your hotel (but check with them first) and/ or the archive you will be using.

Once you are in-country, you have a couple of choices:

1) use your work address to receive mail, which is what most people do – the drawback is you are dependent on someone else (the people who go to post office, sort the mail and deliver to your office) but most companies have employees who pick up the post every day or every-other day and get your letters to your desk within a few hours

2) get a PO Box for yourself, which means greater control of when you get your mail but also that you have to drive to pick it up

3) use a transshipping company, which means everyone you know/ every store you buy from sends letters and goods to a street address in your home country, then the transshipping company opens the boxes, combines all your mail into one box which is sent with FedEx/ DHL/ Aramex etc. I used Stackry and never had a problem but there are many companies to choose from – this is most expensive but also fastest, most reliable and your boxes are delivered where you want, either home or office.

Remember that moving items within the country or within the Arabian Peninsula can sometimes be done more easily by bus. There are a lot of bus companies which will take even the most haphazardly wrapped items as cargo. I used to buy rugs, pillows, tablecloths, etc. in Muscat and put them on the bus to Salalah; they arrived overnight and it cost a few dollars. A friend once sent me a paper shopping bag, stapled shut, full of lotion and perfume in glass bottles and everything arrived in good shape. This also works between countries!

Also remember to ask people who are in-country what the delivery times are. Shipping companies and national postal organizations can chirp about “3-day delivery” but the people on the receiving end will know the actual transit time.

As with many other errands, you can decide if you want to pay for help. In the States, I would never think of paying someone to mail my letters. In Oman, I would sometimes drive across town only to find that they were out of stamps or the stamp-clerk was on break, so it was worth it to me to out-source some post office visits.* There are often people at work who can help you pick up and/ or drop off packages (sometimes called “runners”) but it is only fair to use them if you pay them well. Ask the going rate, then add a generous tip.

Lastly, the chances are good that you will end up with a horror story about shipping. When the mail goes wrong, it goes terribly wrong. There is no perfect company and no way to know when it will fall apart. One package from DHL took 21 days to arrive and I got into an epic 3 week fight with FedEx to get a box out of customs purgatory. There is so much written about “global village” and “instant access” that it can come as a surprise when you can’t get some little thingie from here to there: it’s a postal strike or a federal holiday or bad weather or the mailing label got torn.

If it is something important/ irreplaceable – carry it with you or pay extra for special services.

* Unless you have hired a butler, it is in no one’s job description to run your personal errands. I don’t think there is anything wrong in hiring people to make your life easier if you treat them with respect and give them honest wages. It is unconscionable to be rude or underpay.

Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions

Reflections on Ethnographic Research: Deciding to Hire Expat Workers (part 1 of 4)

How NOT to Describe People Who Are Foreign to You: Exoticizing Omanis

Leaving Oman: Grief, Grandeur, Museums and Bringley’s ‘All the Beauty in The World’

Navigating Working in USA without Speaking English, part 2

January 12, 2025January 12, 2025

Navigating Working in USA without Speaking English, part 1

I recently walked into a branch of a large, nation-wide company and realized that no one who worked there could communicate in English. It was not that they clerks did not understand fast, idiomatic English or they spoke with hesitation or they had some grammar mistakes. None of the three workers could answer the question “What is that?” when I pointed to one of the few products that they were selling.

The store was set up so that customers typed their request into a computer on the counter and paid with a credit card. When the computer pinged that the order was paid for, the clerks packaged the product and put it in a bag. If customers had questions, they were supposed to go the company’s website. I was messing up the system by talking to the clerks.

I have taught non-native speakers of English for over two decades so I was smiling, talking softly and trying simplification, restatement and other communicative methods, but they didn’t have any basics. I have been in countries where I could not communicate, but to work with such a linguistic chasm? Scary. It was after dark, 15 degrees outside and if one of them was in trouble, they could only run outside and hope to find someone who spoke their language. If there was any kind of problem they could not get information quickly; imagine if someone ran in and yelled “fire.”

This is personal as I am haunted by the death of Hawa Barry’s son in February, 2003. Barry was riding in a Boston subway car when a man yelled out a warning that someone had a gun. As other passengers tried to take cover, Barry did not understand the warning and stayed in her seat. She was struck by a bullet and went into premature labor. Her son died shortly after birth.

At the time, I was teaching a Red Cross citizenship class to students who had a low-level of English. When I read the news article about Barry, I thought, “that could have been one of my students.” During the next class, I tried to teach my students what to do if someone yells “duck.” The students thought this was very funny but I was trying to hold back tears.

In Oman I was back on the other side of a linguistic divide. Despite my repeated requests, the university where I worked usually sent out e-mails only in Arabic. I would open one with a few sentences in a huge, red font replete with exclamation points and have to call the secretary to find out what was going on.

And, of course, it is not just language. To be in a new place means constant adjustments and occasional panics. When I was sitting in a cafe in the mall, I heard a loud alarm going off. I looked around me, wondering if I needed to get up and leave. A man at near-by table said to me, “ok, smoking, no problem.” Not exactly reassuring (what was smoking?!) but since no one was moving, I decided to stay put.

I later found out that the alarm sounding meant that meant a man decided he wanted to smoke but didn’t want to walk all the way to the main entrance, so he walked out the emergency exit, triggering the fire alarm. No problem when you understood what was going on, but scary when you didn’t know.

I will never buy anything from that company again as I feel that company’s behavior is unconscionable. They want cheap workers and people want jobs, but to allow your staff to work in such a precarious position is evil.

Returning to USA – Culture Shock essays

Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions

How NOT to Describe People Who Are Foreign to You: Exoticizing Omanis

“What He Thought,” Heather McHugh

Returning to USA – Culture Shock essays

December 29, 2024December 29, 2024

Culture Shock – Returning to USA

Culture Shock: The Basics

Culture Shock: (Not) Being Under Observation

Culture Shock: The Parable of the Boxes

Culture Shock: The Land of Detachment and Toolboxes

Culture Shock: Bumpy Reentry and Moral Dilemmas

Culture Shock – Communication is Always the Worst Part, part 1

Culture Shock – Communication is Always the Worst Part (Don’t Lie), part 2

Culture Shock – Drugs, Medicines, Choices and Chances

Cultural Preferences for Gathering Information – Talk to a Person or Type into your Phone?

Navigating without Language

Teaching: Reflections on Culture Shocks

Bibliography – Creating Effective Interactions: Researching, Teaching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula (forthcoming, Palgrave MacMillan)

December 4, 2024December 4, 2024

Creating Effective Interactions – Dr. M Risse – working biobibliography

(authors in bold have additional publications which are not included in this list)

Abdul-Jabbar, Wisam. 2024. “Towards a ‘Study at Home’ Education in the Arab Gulf Region: Reterritorializing the ‘Study Abroad’ Mode.” Journal of Gulf Studies 1.1: 21-39.

Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2016/1986. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.

—. 2016. “The Cross-publics of Ethnography: The Case of ‘the Muslimwoman’.” American Ethnologist 43.4: 595-608.

—. 2013. Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

—. 2011. “Seductions of the Honor Crime.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 22.1: 17-63.

—. 2008. Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories. Berkeley: University of CA Press.

—. 1991. “Writing Against Culture,” in Recapturing Anthropology. Richard Fox, ed. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press. 137-62.

—. 1990. “Anthropology’s Orient: The Boundaries of Theory in the Arab World,” in Theory, Politics and the Arab World: Critical Responses. Hisham Sharabi, ed. New York: Routledge. 81-131.

—. 1989. “Zones of Theory in the Anthropology of the Arab World.” Annual Review of Anthropology 18: 267-306.

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Marielle Risse

Books

Houseways in Southern Oman. Routledge, 2023

This book explains how modern, middle-class houses are sited, designed, built, decorated and lived in with an emphasis on how room-usage is determined by age, gender, time of day and the presence of guests. Combing ethnography and architectural studies, the author draws on over sixteen years of living in the Dhofar region to analyze the cultural perceptions regarding houses and how residential areas fit within the urban areas in southern Oman. Dhofari houses are also compared to houses in other Arabian Peninsula countries and positioned within the theoretical frameworks of the “Islamic city” and the “Islamic house.”

Foodways in Southern Oman. Routledge, 2021

This book examines the objects, practices and beliefs relating to producing, obtaining, cooking, eating and disposing of food in the Dhofar region of southern Oman. The chapters consider food preparation, who makes what kind of food, and how and when meals are eaten. Foodways connects what is consumed to themes such as land usage, gender, age, purity, privacy and generosity. It also discusses how foodways are related to issues of morality, safety, religion, and tourism. The volume is a result of fourteen years of collecting data and insights in Dhofar, covering topics such as catching fish, herding camels, growing fruits, designing kitchens, cooking meals and setting leftovers out for animals.

Community and Autonomy in Southern Oman. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

This book explores how, in cultures which prize conformity, there is latitude for people who choose not to conform either for a short time and how the chances to assert independence change over time. The main focus is on how the traits of self-control and self-respect are manifested in the everyday actions of several groups of tribes whose first language is Gibali (Jebbali/ Jebali, also referred to as Shari/ Shahri), a non-written, Modern South Arabian language. Although no work can express the totality of a culture, this text describes how Gibalis are constantly shifting between preserving autonomy and signaling membership in family, tribal and national communities.

Publications – scholarly articles and chapters – anthropology/ culture/ travel writing

“Lifeways of Traditional Fishermen in Dhofar, Oman,” in Fish as Food: Lifestyle and a Sustainable Future. Helen Macbeth, ed. International Commission on the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition – Alimenta Populorum series. 2024: 155-170. https://archive.org/details/macbeth-young-and-roberts-ed-fish-as-food-anthropological-and-cross-disciplinary

“An Ethnographic Discussion of Fairy Tales from Southern Oman,” Fabula: Zeitschrift für Erzählforschung / Journal of Folktale Studies / Revue d’Etudes sur le Conte Populaire 60.3-4 (De Gruyter, Berlin) 2019: 318–335.

“Understanding Communication in Southern Oman,” North Dakota Quarterly 84.1 (Special Issue on Transnationalism) 2017: 174-184.

“Generosity, Gift-giving and Gift-avoiding in Southern Oman,” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 45 (Oxford: Archeopress) 2015: 289-296.

“Understanding the Impact of Culture on the TESOL Classroom: An Outsider’s Perspective,” TESOL Arabia’s Perspective 18.2, 2011: 15-19.

“Cultural Refraction: Using Travel Writing, Anthropology and Fiction to Understand the Culture of Southern Arabia,” Interdisciplinary Humanities 26:1, 2009: 63-78.

Publications – scholarly articles and chapters – literature/ pedagogy

“Using Cultural Understandings to Improve Teaching in Oman,” in Unpackaging Theory and Practice in Educational Sciences. Abdülkadir Kabadayı, ed. Lyon: Livre de Lyon. 2023: 129-141. https://www.livredelyon.com/educational-sciences/unpackaging-theory-practice-in-educational-sciences_595.

“Teaching Paired Middle Eastern and Western Literary Texts,” in Advancing English Language Education. Wafa Zoghbor and Thomaï Alexiou, eds. Dubai: Zayed University Press, 2020: 221-223.

“Teaching Literature on the Arabian Peninsula,” Anthropology News website, October 7 2019. http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/10/07/teaching-literature-on-the-arabian-peninsula/

“Selecting the Right Literary Texts for Middle Eastern Students: Challenges and Reactions,” in Focusing on EFL Reading: Theory and Practice. Rahma Al-Mahrooqi, ed. Muscat: Sultan Qaboos University Press, 2014: 165-188.

“Frosty Cliffs, Frosty Aunt and Sandy Beaches: Teaching Aurora Leigh in Oman,” Ariel: A Review of International English Literature 43.4, 2013: 123-145.

“Who Are You Calling ‘Coddled’?: ‘Cloistered Virtue’ and Choosing Literary Texts in a Middle Eastern University,” Pedagogy 13.3, 2013: 415-427.

“Do You know a Creon?: Making Literature Relevant in an Omani University,” in Literature Teaching in EFL/ESL: New Perspectives. Rahma Al-Mahrooqi, ed. Muscat: Sultan Qaboos University Press, 2012: 302-314.

“Reader’s Guide” for the English version of Khadija bint Alawi al-Thahab’s My Grandmother’s Stories: Folk Tales from Dhofar (Translated by W. Scott Chahanovich, U.S. Fulbright Scholar at Dhofar University, 2009-2010). Washington, D.C: Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, 2012: 17-23.

Conference Presentations – anthropology/ culture/ travel writing

“Conducting Research on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference. Nov. 14, 2024.

“Windguru and Other Gurus: Fishing off the Coast of Dhofar, Oman,” Navigating the Transcultural Indian Ocean: Texts and Practices in Contact Conference, sponsored by the Rutter Project. June 5, 2024

“Crafting a Home: Interior Home Design in Southern Oman.” Home/Making Symposium, Concordia University. Montreal. May 12, 2023. https://www.concordia.ca/finearts/events/home-making.html

“Good Governance and Open Spaces: How the State and Residents Negotiate the Use of Government Land in Dhofar, Oman.” AnthroState Talks for the European Association of Social Anthropologists Network on Anthropologies of the State. May 4, 2023. https://easaonline.org/networks/anthrostate/talks

“Explorations in the North-west Indian Ocean: The Research Journeys of the ‘Palinurus’ along the Omani Coast in the mid-1800s.” Research Expeditions to India and the Indian Ocean in Early Modern and Modern Times, sponsored by the German Maritime Museum / Leibniz Institute for Maritime History. Nov. 3, 2022.

“Private Lives in Public Spaces: Perceptions of Space-Usage in Southern Oman.” Middle East Studies Association annual conference. Montreal, Quebec. December 2, 2021.

“The Costs and Benefits of Fishing in Southern Oman.” Fish as Food: Lifestyle and a Sustainable Future, annual conference of the International Commission on the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, hosted at the University of Liverpool. Sept. 1, 2021.

“Ethical Eating in Southern Oman.” Just Food, virtual conference of the Association for the Study of Food and Society; Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society; Canadian Association for Food Studies and the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, hosted by the Culinary Institute of America and New York University. June 12, 2021.

“Foodways in Southern Oman,” for the session “Uncovering Truths, Building Responsibility in A Pandemic: Insights from Emerging Monographs at the Nexus of Culture, Food, and Agriculture.” American Anthropological Association. Nov. 9, 2020.

with Keye Tersmette. “Ghurba at Home – Views from Oman.” The Arab World as Ghurba: Citizenship, Identity and Belonging in Literature and Popular Culture, University of Warwick. June 21, 2019.

“Accounts from the Journeys of the Brig ‘Palinurus’ Along the Dhofar Coast in the mid-1800s.” Maritime Exploration and Memory Conference, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England. Sept. 15, 2018.

“Recent Views on Oman.” British Society for Middle East Studies, University of Edinburgh. July 6, 2017.

“Female, Femininity, Male and Masculinity in the Gibali-speaking Tribes of Southern Oman.” The Gulf Research Conference, Cambridge University. August 2, 2017.

“‘Words Mean Nothing’: Fluency in Language and Fluency in Culture in Anthropology Fieldwork in Southern Oman.” British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Wales. July 15, 2016.

“’Why Would I Hurt a Woman?’: Respectful/ Respecting Women in Southern Oman.” Middle East Studies Association Conference, Denver. Nov. 21, 2015.

“Generosity, Gift-giving and Gift-avoiding in Southern Oman.” British Foundation for the Study of Arabia’s Seminar for Arabian Studies, The British Museum, London. July 27, 2014.

“‘I Do Not Need the Night’: The Gibali Conception of Self-Respect in Southern Oman.” Middle East Studies Association Conference, New Orleans. October 12, 2013.

“They Came, They Saw, They Fought, They Compromised, They Left: The Foreign Military Presence in the Dhofar War (Oman, 1965-1975).” Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference; Edinburgh. July 3, 2012.

“Waiting for [both] the Barbarians”: Tourism in the Dhofar Region of Oman.” Traditions and Transformations: Tourism, Heritage and Cultural Change in the Middle East and North Africa Region; Amman, Jordan. April 6, 2009.

Conference presentations – literature/ pedagogy

“Finding the Right Texts for Teaching Literature, Cultures, and Empathy in the Middle East.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference. April 9, 2021.

“‘I Came to You for Good’: An Ethnographic Discussion of Folk Tales from Southern Oman.” Third Joint Seminar of The Folklore Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute, Royal Anthropological Institute, London. Oct. 26, 2017.

“Antigone, Alcestis, Deanira and Philoketes visit the Empty Quarter: The Reception of Greek Drama on the Arabian Peninsula.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference, University of Utrecht. July 8, 2017.

“‘A Man Was Always Catching Fish’: Fairy Tale Elements in the Ali al-Mahri/ Johnstone/ Rubin Gibali Texts from Southern Oman.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. March 18, 2016.

“Analyzing Arabic Teaching to Improve English Teaching.” TESOL Arabia Annual Conference; Dubai. March 14, 2014.

“John Clare Looks Good in a Dishdash: Linking John Clare to Middle Eastern Poetry.” Modern Language Association Annual Conference, Chicago. January 7, 2011.

“How Can You Hate the Sun?: Translating Western Conceptions of Nature.” Humanities Education and Research Association, Chicago, Illinois. April 9, 2009.

“Do You Have Anything on Cowboys?: Creating a University Library in the Middle East,” with Chris Sugnet. Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque. Feb., 2000.

Creative Non-fiction

“Yemen with Yul,” in Emanations 11. Independently published, 2024: 417-429.

“Questions About Food and Ethics,” in Emanations: When a Planet was a Planet. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2021: 403-408

“Ok Kilito, I Won’t Speak Your Language: Reflections after Reading Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language,” in Octo-Emanations. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2020: 233-236.

“Predator Anthropologists, Anthropologist Predators: Anthropological Metaphors in Popular Movies,” Open Anthropology Research Repository. Aug. 25, 2020. https://www.openanthroresearch.org/doi/abs/10.1002/oarr.10000333.1

“What’s in Your Bag?” Anthropology News. American Anthropological Association. Oct. 30, 2019. http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/07/23/whats-in-your-bag-2019-edition/

“Living Expat,” in Emanations: Chorus Pleiades. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2018: 308-318.

“Research in Foreign Cultures,” in Emanations: Foray into Forever. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2014: 355-358.

“Throwing Children in the Street: Explaining Western Culture to Omanis,” in Emanations: Third Eye. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2013: 265-274.

“To Learn Arabic, You Have to Talk the Talk,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. May 31, 2012. http://chronicle.com/article/To-Learn-Arabic-You-Have-to/132057

“Your Zimbabwe Stories” and “Memsahib 101,” in Emanations: Sidestepping Academic Dicta into the Higher Ecstatic Ethos. Carter Kaplan, ed. Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2012: 305-312.

“Bringing Theory Home in Oman,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. July 10, 2011: B24.

http://chronicle.com/article/Bringing-Theory-Home-in-Oman/128139/

“In the House of the Infidel or Perfume: The Great Healer,” Button 16, 2011: 6-9.

“For Middle East expats, a fake-holly, not-so-jolly Christmas,” The Washington Post, Dec. 23, 2009: C3.

“An Open Letter to Alice Walker,” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Feb. 20, 2009: B11.

http://chronicle.texterity.com/chronicle/20090220b/?pg=11#pg11

Cultural Preferences for Gathering Information – Talk to a Person or Type into your Phone?

November 14, 2024November 8, 2024

4 months into readjusting to the States and my cultural shock is ebbing. I am thankfully out of “toddler brain,” when I said anything that came to my mind. My imposter syndrome is also slowly fading; I no longer feel that I am “playing” at being American.

The exhaustion still comes and goes in irregular waves. I am still surprised at how many Americans move through the world distracted: looking at a screen, listening/ talking as they walk. I am slowly learning not to call people “dear”; in Oman, women at work often call each other a nickname, term of endearments or a matronymic [“mother of,” such as Um Ahmed]. First names are not commonly used in Oman, whereas in American workspaces, using first names is expected and endearments are NOT appropriate.

Three issues have surprised me. The first is what “I am sorry” means. I spent years in Oman explaining that “I am sorry” in America means “I am not happy to hear that,” not “I am responsible.” However, I am now seeing that this is a Midwestern usage.

I drop “I am sorry” several times a day in the office and I am constantly told “you don’t need to say that!” But after 5 years in Wisconsin and 5 years in North Dakota, I am hard-wired to apologize for any of my actions that caused a problem for others. Not to mention apologizing when I hear any kind of bad news and, on occasion, apologizing to pieces of furniture that I bump into. That midwestern outlook is impossible to shake.

A second, more serious, issue is rethinking communication styles. I have written several essays about how Omanis convey information in indirect ways. For example, when a female Omani friend wrote “Hi” to me on a WhatsApp message, I knew that meant there is a big problem to discuss and when I reply, I need to make sure I have at least 10 minutes free to chat about what is going on. (If she was just checking in/ sending a greeting, she would write more than one word. One word = emergency.) As I learned this style of communicating, I contrasted it to a more direct American style.

But now that I am back in the States, I am often confused about what Americans are trying to convey to me. When I hear, “it’s Ok,” I don’t know if that means, “it’s Ok” or “it’s not Ok but I have to pretend it’s Ok so, without my being clear, you should pick up that I am not Ok.”

The most important issue that I am still struggling with is how to gather information. In Oman, you get data from people by walking into someone’s office or (gasp!) calling them.

I am learning that in the States, you don’t call. You chat if you run into someone in the office, but you often communicate with colleagues through electronic means, such as Slack. But even more importantly, you should try to figure out the problem yourself using electronic means: Google, YouTube, etc.

My colleagues have been very patient as I work through this transition. I never think to use my phone when I don’t understand something. I stand up and go find a person to ask. More than once, I have walked up to a group of several people, asked a question and everyone picked up their phone to find the answer. I was startled and embarrassed, although no one has said anything to me, the implication is: figure it out with a search engine.

It’s an on-going adjustment to realize that data is out there in the ether for me to find instead of residing in a person who I need to ask.

Culture Shock: The Land of Detachment and Toolboxes

Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions

Culture Shock: (Not) Being Under Observation

Culture Shock – Drugs, Medicines, Choices and Chances

Reflections on Ethnographic Work: Being Safe and Secure

Culture Shock – Communication is Always the Worst Part (Don’t Lie), part 2

September 26, 2024September 22, 2024

(photo by Onaiza Shaikh, Instagram: Onaiza_Shaikh)

Culture Shock – Communication is Always the Worst Part, part 1

I realized as I am working on my next book, Researching and Working on the Arabian Peninsula: Creating Effective Interactions (accepted for publication at Palgrave Macmillan), that I am often giving the advice “don’t lie” in different contexts.

For teachers, I mean: don’t say anything to your students that you can’t back-up. Making idle threats signifies that your word can’t be trusted. Once students think you say things you don’t mean, then trying to give directions and enforcing rules becomes progressively more difficult.

For researchers, I mean: don’t try to trick your informants. Explain what you are trying to do in realistic and honest terms. I wish researchers on the Arabian Peninsula who despise the people they are studying would be clear about their disdain so that there could be some honest dialog. Just writing down responses while silently reviling the people you are interviewing does not seem an effective way to do research to me.

For business professionals, I mean: don’t lie at the office by exaggerating your connections, your abilities, your background or your opinions.

This is a large generalization that I am still thinking about/ trying to refine but what I see as a common trope in the States is that a ‘boss’ will speak more and employees will listen in one-on-one informal interactions. [I am not talking about formal contexts such as employee reviews or giving information.] Even kindly, well-meaning bosses may assume that they have interesting experiences to share and are often used to people listening carefully to them.

What I often found on the Arabian Peninsula was that non-North American, -UK and -EU managers often want underlings to talk in social conversations/ informal settings because of a differing understanding of the purpose of those conversations.

To me, the purpose is different because of how different cultures conceive of finding out and using personal information. In the States, many people are on websites such as LinkedIn. They often have a personal website connected to their university and/ or job, as well as various kinds of social media, so it’s easy to get data about someone. Plus, most employers have screening as a step in the hiring process and want a diverse workplace, or at the least have to follow state/ federal laws about employee protections.

So, pace outliers such as George Santos, people in a workplace usually trust that others are who they represent themselves to be. If someone says that won X prize or finished Y achievement, there will be some sort of digital proof. Thus, bosses don’t need to figure out who they are working with.

Often on the Arabian Peninsula, it is more difficult to get accurate information about someone. Someone might not be on LinkedIn, or their university/ former workplace might not have an active web presence so it’s impossible to verify their stated qualifications. A person’s social media presence might not be in their name as they might have opinions which would be problematic for their family, social group, workplace or government. And in tribal societies, you could have several people with the same first name, father’s name and tribe name but who have very different levels of social capital.

So, managers might use chit-chat as a way to gather more information, at the same time employees use social gatherings to highlight their social, academic or business credentials. I knew one person who would tell higher-ups that their grandmother was originally from the higher-ups’ country. Over the years, their grandmother changed nationality four times as the person tried to form connections with bosses from various cultures.

Another aspect of social discussions at work is to instill fear. I have known several people from one Arab country (not on the Arabian Peninsula) who would drop an obscure fact about my life into conversations. The first few times I showed my amazement and asked how they knew. They smiled and refused to explain. I realized that the goal was to put me on guard so I stopped reacting. I have never had that kind of interaction with an American.

I could drive myself crazy wondering how they figured out some obscure fact about my life but the easy way to live is to always tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may.

Culture Shock: The Parable of the Boxes

Reflections on Ethnographic Research: Getting it Wrong

Culture Shock: Bumpy Reentry and Moral Dilemmas

Teaching: Reflections on Culture Shocks

Culture Shock – Communication is Always the Worst Part, part 1

September 21, 2024September 21, 2024

(photo by Onaiza Shaikh, Instagram: Onaiza_Shaikh)

A friend recently asked if I was planning to write about culture shock, I laughed and said, “that is all I write about.” And, as I have always avowed, the hardest part of culture shock is how to talk to people. You can adjust quickly enough to the clothes, food, meal times and public demeanor, but communicating is the real terror.

For example, in the States, age is off the table as factor in work conversations. Talking to a person who is older than you does not create a power differential.

Also, American conversations are like ping-pong, incessant back and forth. Someone gets in a comment and then it’s the other person’s serve. I keep forgetting that I am supposed to ask the question back!

After living for years with people who will tell you what they want to, when they want to – I am out of practice of asking questions. Now, someone will inquire, “How was your weekend?” and I say, “Fine, thanks.” Then five minutes later I remember that I was supposed to say, “How was yours?”

In Oman, the research guys and I would do endless repetitions of “how are you?” but no one really cared about the answer. If someone wanted to talk about their weekend, they would start in. And if they wanted to talk for 45 minutes, they would. I still remember the first time an Omani decided to tell me about their weekend: it was a 20-minute monolog. Don’t try that in USA.

This past week I watched a conversation in which one person was trying to explain how to do something and the other person kept interrupting to focus on just the data that they wanted. It was excruciating for me, but the two Americans were well-pleased with each other. One had taught and one had learned in a fencing-match style that was exhausting to listen to (no one finished a sentence!) but was exactly the kind of interaction they both expected and were ready for.

It’s accepted in America that people can pick their input. There’s an implied: I can choose what information you are giving me and I only have to pay attention to information that I think is relevant or important at this moment. For example, all those people moving through cityscapes while texting, missing when the walk sign lights up because they are looking at their phone.

In Oman, it’s more common to pay attention to surroundings and when dealing with people, you need to focus on their motivations as what you are hearing is less important than what you are seeing. For example, compliments were often meaningless, and often used to bring attention to a problem not convey something positive.

One example this week was that several people told me about a mysterious quirk in Google maps that showed up in relation to our work building which had been on-going for over a year. I figured out the reason within a day. I had the same data they did, but I was looking at it from the perspective of an outsider who was unused to navigating with apps. I always had to use my own knowledge to decide where I was walking/ driving.

Another example was when a person suggested a major change in one aspect of the work-flow as a certain delay was creating anxiety in one group of people. My suggestion was to reframe the issue for the anxious people. Don’t buy into their framework that the delay was a worrisome/ bothersome pause. Posit the delay was a beneficial and deliberate slowing down of the system to ensure everything was perfect before the data went live. The delay helps them from making mistakes. That kind of rethinking comes from years of living in Oman and being told (implicitly and explicitly) that I must always know what other people are thinking/ how they see the world so I figure out how I can best communicate with them.

So, I have skills in some areas, but I still need a lot of work in others . So… “How was your weekend?”

Culture Shock: The Land of Detachment and Toolboxes

Bumpy Reentry and Moral Dilemmas – Adjusting to Life in the States

Culture Shock: (Not) Being Under Observation

Culture Shock: The Basics