On the subject of pepperoncini…

I don’t know about you, but pepperoncini (banana peppers, greek peppers… whatever you would like to call them!) are kind of a big deal to me. I go through jars of these things at home. They’re lovely with salads, they’re scrumptious with pizza, they’re a fantastic snack with some pepper jack cheese, and they’re absolutely necessary on Subway sandwiches… Major emphasis on “necessary.”

I bring this up not because I want to alarm you, but because I feel as though I have nowhere else to turn with this dilemma: There are NO pepperoncini to be found in London. None.

The other night on our way home from the pub though, we did happen to pop in to a little 24-hour convenience store, where we happened upon a sketchy looking bottle of these elusive peppers. The label called them green peppers, and Lauryn purchased them on the spot. 

However, Lauryn has unfortunately reported back to me that these “green peppers” taste “weird… not very good.” Like I said, they looked sketchy.

Lauryn (an avid pepperoncini enthusiast as well) and I have been dealing with this in silence for the past two weeks, but no more! Something has to be done about this situation…  And so I’m writing a blog post about it. Sharing this alarming information on my blog seemed like a logical step simply because this instance of missing pepperoncini affords me with the wonderful opportunity to talk to you all about, drum roll please… culture shock.

Culture shock is that nasty little side effect that sometimes comes along with being plunged headfirst into a completely new, unfamiliar culture and way of life. From what I’ve read, there are evidently stages that a person goes through before working up to full-blown culture shock. 

The fact that there are stages makes it sound a little more scary/serious to me. Honestly though, reading about culture shock and the stages you can go through was a little bit like reading Web MD… You know exactly what I’m talking about. You turn to Web MD for some simple medical advice on something very minor, and all of a sudden you may or may not have 10 different diseases (“Oh my gosh, I definitely have all of these symptoms… Oh my gosh, Mom!!! I have malaria/typhoid/measles/cancer/bacterial meningitis, and I might lose a limb”). Web MD is not for the faint of heart, people. I certainly don’t recommend reading it, especially if you are prone to paranoia/hypochondria.

Anyway, even though I make light of it, culture shock is a very real experience. I mean, I’m probably in a certain stage of culture shock as we speak! I can tell you that I’ve already had a minor meltdown realizing that I’m going to be dealing with so many new, foreign situations over the next couple of months. Sure, I am in an English-speaking country, and the language similarity helps, but it does not completely eradicate culture shock. Americans understand things in a very different way from the rest of the world, and if there is one place you can really interact with the rest of the world, it’s London. The other day my parents asked me what I thought about the way British people live, and I was like, what British people? Most of the people I have seen and heard and interacted with so far are from everywhere but England! You name the country, there is a population from that country here in London. I learned the other day in my class called “Understanding Modern Britain” that here in London, there are over 300 first languages spoken by school children… Over 300. I probably couldn’t even name 20 currently spoken languages right off the top of my head! (Actually, I just asked Lauryn and Will to help me name all the languages we could think of within a minute, and we made it to only 21 by putting our heads together… 300 languages people!!!)

Let me share a seemingly unimportant example of something that can make an American feel very not at home in London… crisps. What in God’s name are crisps, you ask? They’re potato chips. If you order chips over here with your sandwich, expect to receive french fries (this is Eating-in-London 101, people). What I want to talk about in regards to crisps is the flavor selection… I’ve been having serious issues with this lately. The British seem to love meat-flavored chips, and that is not something that I am about to happily adopt (I have however, happily adopted the British term for being drunk/wasted/smashed/hammered which is pissed because I think it’s fun to say “pissed” and mean “drunk” — I’m all about saying fun words). Allow me to share some examples of crisps that float the Brits’ boats:

I simply can’t do meat-flavored chips. I love meat, I just don’t think I’d love meat-flavor… Who knows? Maybe I’ll try some roast chicken crisps in the near future. I’ll let you know how that goes. So far, I have been adopting sea salt & vinegar crisps as my go-to snack, simply because this is a familiar flavor, not to mention a very popular flavor here in London. I must say though, I miss jalepeño chips. They do have jalepeño chili-flavored crisps here, but they are just nowhere near as wonderful. So I will just have to do without for now!

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that adjusting to a new culture is a very exciting but also difficult experience. It involves homesickness, loneliness, stress, and even some anger at feeling misunderstood. These are all natural things to feel. I personally have been doing well so far, and I think it’s because I talk about it so much! I think the key to helping yourself deal with being completely immersed in a foreign environment is to talk it out with the people around you, especially if you’re with other students who are experiencing the same thing. It’s okay to be homesick! And it’s okay to not enjoy every single thing about another place that you’ve dreamed of visiting your whole life! Admitting these feelings is a huge step in helping yourself adjust and get past any type of culture shock you may be going through.

about the new culture you are experiencing. 

I want to share some other quotes that I think are particularly relevant to this post. The first one by Thomas Wolfe (which can be found on the Wiki link I shared above about culture shock) comments on the experience of returning home after being away for a long time: “You can’t go home again.” Leave home for a long time, and you will come back a completely changed person. It’s kind of a scary thought; change scares us because it involves the unknown – we don’t know what is going to happen. However, I would like to temper such an unsettling quote with Maya Angelou’s response: “You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it’s all right.” I find this response comforting because no matter how much you might change when you are away from home, your roots and your history can never be taken away from you – those are enduring parts of who you are.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where I will leave you today. Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments if you have anything you would like to share! You can leave comments at the bottom of any post!