Matador Network's Blog, page 2143

Signs you’ve been traveling SE Asia

Photo: Aurimas

1. Crossing the road is no longer second nature but a dangerous and terrifying ordeal.

That’s not because your home roads are crazier than in Asia — far from it. It’s that several months of alternating between right and left-hand driving (left in Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia; right in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) has inevitably taken its toll and left you distinctly confused, whilst the moped madness of places like Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, and Bangkok have firmly erased the concept of a pedestrian crossing from your mind.

2. Your ankles, wrists, fingers, and toes are covered in wristbands, half of which you no longer remember getting.

From that lucky-charm anklet you just had to buy (how else are you going to achieve peace and prosperity?) to the YOLO-embroidered wristband you now regret (I speak for myself here), to the wristbands proudly lining your arms as well-deserved marks of Laos tubing achievements, the majority of your body is now covered in string — and maybe even the odd elephant tattoo, done with a bamboo needle and lots pain the traditional Thai way.

3. You’ve forgotten how to use toilet paper.

The ‘bum gun’ is the holy grail of toilets in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It’s a hose which squirts out high-pressure water to clean the nether regions (arguably more hygienic than the classic Western wipe). Toilet paper is a rarity — to the extent that when you return home you no longer know how to use it (and maybe even find yourself reaching for the shower head).

4. You try bartering for everything.

Southeast Asia without bartering is a bit like Britain without rain — unheard of. Trying out bartering back home, however, is a different matter and all it’s likely to get you is evacuated from the premises.

5. Every time you splash the cash, you think of what it could have got you back there.

In Thailand, you can have a heaping plate of pad thai for the same price as your cereal bar back home, five fresh fruit shakes for the cost of your bus fare, or a suit for the price of some (nice) socks. A restaurant dinner in Cambodia costs around four dollars (if you’re pushing the boat out). A whole day canyoning in the beautiful town of Dalat in the mountains of Vietnam costs $25.

6. You try to find a moped taxi, or at least a tuk-tuk, but can’t see one anywhere.

In the major cities of Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, tuk-tuks and moped taxis are often cheaper and more adventurous alternatives to standard cabs. Tuk-tuks are a first choice in Cambodia, whether for a trip to the harrowing Killing Fields, or to spectacular Angkor Wat. Traditional taxis just don’t cut it anymore.

7. You’re now the proud owner of an entire tailored wardrobe.

If you’ve been to Hoi An in Vietnam, chances are you’re currently sporting something you got custom-made there. It’s tempting to return with a new piece of luggage stuffed with bespoke clothing because it costs around a tenth of the price you’d get it for in your home country.

8. You can’t remember what potatoes taste like.

Rice with curry, rice cakes, rice balls — a typical Southeast Asian diet consists largely of rice, noodles, and rice noodles. That’s not to say there’s no variety from Vietnamese pho (flavorsome noodle soup) to fresh spring rolls, Thai green curry to coconut soup, Cambodian amok to stir-fried tree ants, Southeast Asia offers delicious cuisine with something for every palette — except potatoes and bread.

9. Talking to random people on public transport is no longer acceptable.

Travelling in Asia means talking to anyone and everyone. But you’re no longer on a night bus in Southeast Asia, it’s a city commuter train in rush hour. Your neighbor has her head buried in her tablet. Another is bobbing his head up and down to the music blasting out of his hipster headphones.

10. You’re already looking up flights back.

Life in Southeast Asia is so vibrant — the streets are alive with smells, sounds, and sights, the architecture is sparkling and colorful, floating markets glide over the rivers as vendors sell produce from their boats, outdoor culture is king, and street food vendors are everywhere. You yearn for those crazy travelling days and that impulsive lifestyle you once led on the shores of paradise (from Cambodia’s Koh Rong to Thailand’s Koh Tao) and realize the only way of rediscovering that version of yourself is by hopping on a plane back over there — and fast.

Can you pass the crazy hard geo quiz

Featured photo by Brent Danley

2 lies about France (and 3 truths)

Photo: Antoine Robiez

I was born and raised in Zimbabwe to Zimbabwean parents. I had little to no idea what to expect when, in 2002, in the midst of a political and economic crisis, my family made the difficult decision to leave our home and move to France. My adopted country was full of surprises.

1. The French are hairy.

This one is a little outdated. While my groovy French aunt didn’t shave and went topless on the beach, the younger generations have completely rejected the freewheeling heritage of the soixante-huitards.

In truth, business is booming for waxing salons in France. There’s even a pubic hairstyle called the Metro Ticket, in honour of the famous Parisian tickets — minuscule little white rectangles that you can find clogging up the city’s drains.

2. France is just like in the Flight of the Conchords song “Foux Da Fa Fa.”

In Zimbabwe, I was taught French out of old 1970s exercise books that my school had inherited from Europe. They were filled with fine line drawings of an outdated, almost mythical France. “Pierre et Marie” always seemed to be on their bicycles and their neck-scarves were always aflutter. Their only concerns were baguettes, saucisson, and TGV trains taking them to colonies de vacances.

As you can imagine, this left me utterly unprepared for the real place. But if there was one thing that lived up to my expectations, it was the SNCF trains that ran along the rural lines of Lot-et-Garonne where my family suddenly found itself. They had mustard-colour leather seats. The fluorescent strip bulbs above the windows invariably flickered and the pleats of the tweed train curtains reminded me of the creases down old-man trousers. I could just imagine myself with “Pierre et Marie” on the way to my very own colonie de vacances.

***

1. The French Revolution’s legacy is alive and well.

A family friend from my parents’ university days found us a housesit. It was a rambling old farmhouse in the middle of dry yellow wheat fields. The owner was straight out of the pages of history: an old-money aristocrat living in a state of metaphorical ruin, a relic from the downfall of the French Aristocracy.

Her countless cats ran wild throughout the house. They left scat on the marble feast-length table. Instead of cleaning up their mess, she would cover it with pot lids. She was a fervent Catholic, received fax messages in Latin, and harboured dreams of sainthood.

Her family’s wealth was such that her son would never have to work a day in his life and yet her ex-husband owned a château that clung to a cliff and was slowly falling into disrepair.

2. France is the epicentre of seduction.

I might not have had much to go on before arriving in France, but its reputation for romance and mystery hadn’t escaped me. Paris is internationally considered to be the capital of love and a candlelit dinner on the terrace of a chic restaurant is one of the archetypal images of seduction.

What I discovered is that the French consider this to be misguided. For them the Italians are the romantic ones. When they dub Pepé Le Pew into French, they give him an Italian accent. In fact, that’s their go-to solution for most French characters in Anglophone movies and cartoons.

There are so many things that we consider to be quintessentially French, but once you get here you realise it’s all just a question of perspective. What English speakers consider to be a French plait, the French call an African plait. What we call a French manicure, they call an American manicure.

3. The French love France.

While I’d heard of France’s reputation for romance, I was completely oblivious to its reputation for arrogance. Suffice to say I discovered it for myself.

After several years of living here, I travelled to Cape Town to visit a cousin and happened to pick up his copy of The Onion’s satirical, tongue-in-cheek atlas. I opened it up to the entry about France, it began: “One Nation Above God.” While the writing was snarky, I couldn’t believe how spot-on most of the comments were. I felt like they’d read my mind.

The Académie Française is one of the oldest institutions in France. Created in 1635, it’s made up of 40 members called the Immortals. Their job is to safeguard the French language from the influx of English and “bastardized” French from the Maghreb, the old sub-Saharan colonies, and Canada. The literature syllabus is cluttered with dead, French, white males. The history syllabus emphasizes De Gaulle and de-emphasizes Pétain to an alarming degree.

To the mind of many French, there’s no better language, no better cuisine, and nothing better to watch than the Dupont family at their traditional campsite in July on the news.

Kayaker makes art out of waterfalls

As exemplified by this insane edit of Catalonian kayaker Aniol Serrasolses, the next generation of kayakers is pushing ridiculous limits on techniques for running waterfalls, and the result is beautiful and inspirational.

Featured image by Jasper Gibson

kids strap roman candles to a drone

When Canadian kids are bored when stuck in the family cottage in the middle of summer, it seems that their creative power goes through the roof.

While their parents would have used a BB gun and a handful of pellets to “play war”, these young guys opted for a some high-tech instruments: a drone and a bunch of fireworks.

No need to say that this is a rather unsafe game, but looking at them being chased around the yard by a weaponized quadcopter is a lot of fun!

Paddling Lake Michigan icebergs

A couple weeks ago, we published a teaser for this video. Now that the full-length version is out, it sure doesn’t disappoint. Filmmaker Seth Haley delves into the motivation required to pull on a 6/5 wetsuit and jump into ice-choked water, while also supplying even more incredible footage of the paddlers in action. Filmed in Saint Joseph, Michigan, this video follows a group of intrepid surfers and paddleboarders as they make the most of the waves, wind, and ice of Lake Michigan in wintertime.


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Paris 100 years ago

When one knows Paris as it is now – cramped, noisy, polluted – it is hard to imagine that it used to look like a village with women selling flowers out of carts, horse-drawn vehicles on the Alexandre III Bridge, and a traffic-free Place de la Concorde.

The following images, captured between 1907 and 1930, were taken using the autochrome Lumière process, an early method of photography that allowed artists to capture the world around them in its natural colours. It is believed that most of the pictures featured below were taken by Léon Gimpel, Stéphane Passet, Georges Chevalier, and Auguste Léon. Thanks to Nicolas Bonnell and his blog Paris Unplugged, we are now able to see what Paris looked like over 100 years ago.




1

Flower merchant, Cambon Street, June 1918

Photo: Auguste Léon

2

Faubourg Saint Denis Street, 1914

Photo: artist unknown

3

On the Alexandre III Bridge

Photo: artist unknown

Intermission


1
This is the sickest ski video we’ve ever seen
by Matt Hershberger




A photographic journey through the Torres del Paine, Patagonia
by Michael Marquand




Inside Charlie Hebdo: The Paris attack targeted paper that mocked fundamentalists
by Paul Ames













4

Homeless man by the River Seine

Photo: artist unknown

5

Gardens of Les Invalides, 1909

Photo: artist unknown

6

Family on Pot de Fer Street, June 24th, 1914

Photo: artist unknown

7

Citroën Commercial on the Eiffel Tower for the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts

Photo: Artist unknown

8

Military man at Les Invalides, 1918

Photo: artist unknown

9

Place du Caire, 1914

Photo: Stéphane Passet

Intermission


46
22 reasons why we should all be moving to Barcelona right now
by Elisa Stutts-Barquin




5 reasons to go motorcycle camping
by Rory Moulton




Remembering the 17 victims of the Paris attacks
by Allison Jackson













10

Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, 1920

Photo: artist unknown

11

Montparnasse Street, July 22nd, 1914

Photo: Stéphane Passet

12

Christmas decorations at La Samaritaine, 1930

Photo: artist unknown

13

Auteuil metro station, 1920

Photo: Frédéric Gadmer

14

Place de la Concorde

Photo: artist unknown

15

Movie theatre, 1918

Photo: artist unknown

Intermission


58
19 things you need to do in the US while you’re still in your 20s
by Katka Lapelosová




NASA releases the highest resolution photo ever taken
by Morgane Croissant



2
20 real world places that have inspired Disney movies
by Matt Hershberger













16

Exhibition at the Grand Palais, 1909

Photo: artist unknown

17

Kitchen gardens in the 16th arrondissement, June 28th, 1918

Photo: Auguste Léon

18

Paris decorated for Bastille day, July 13th, 1919

Photo: Auguste Léon

19

Departure of the zeppelin Zodiac III, August 28th, 1909

Photo: artist unknown

extreme unicycling is badass

Caving requires some serious guts, but unicycle caving is a whole new level of crazy. Combine the risk of being trapped in a small space underground to the one of falling from a one-wheeled vehicle onto rocks and there, you have it.

Regular unicycling looks incredibly technical and physical, but the balance and focus needed to ride the rugged terrain of a cave are even more impressive. “Riding about is second nature, it’s just an extension of my body, […] it’s easier than walking for me!”, explains Tom Luppon. Just looking at these guys riding makes you feel like you’re doing core work.

Even though they remain careful, the passion that drives Steffan Thomas and Tom Luppon is what takes them to push the limit of this unusal sport. “There’s so much stuff underground which is unlike anything else you’ll see above ground, and we just have to unicycle it!”

Feature image: kfsk casual photography

All of the Super Bowl Ads

THERE’S AN ENTIRE subsection of America that has no interest in watching the Super Bowl, and watches it just for the advertisements. In the age of YouTube, though — now that advertisers have realized that if they’re paying $4.5 million dollars for a Super Bowl ad spot, they might as well get as much exposure out of it as they can — you can watch the ads without having to watch the game. Here are all of the Super Bowl ads that have already been posted online, in alphabetical order.

BMW’s “Newfangled Idea”

Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel reunite to recreate their clueless 1994 discussion of the internet — this time to discuss BMW’s new electric car.

Bud Light’s “Real Life Pac-Man”

Bud Light’s ongoing successful “Let’s throw a party for some poor schmuck who’s so impoverished that he has to drink our beer,” ad campaign continues with the latest schmuck being thrown into a real-life version of Pac-Man — which admittedly, looks like a ton of fun.

Budweiser’s “Clydesdale Beer Run”

Because honestly, the only way you’re buying a case of Budweiser is if a horse bullies you into it.

Budweiser’s “Lost Puppy”

“Budweiser: get drunk on our beer and lose your cute little puppy dog so he’ll be rained on and attacked by wolves.”

Dove’s “#RealStrength”

The secret to being a really good, non-negligent father? Soap.

E!’s “The Royals”

E! has a new TV show that’s about English royalty starring the woman from Austin Powers who turned out to be a fembot. It can’t be bad, right? Right?

Kia’s “The Perfect Getaway”

A commercial about how Pierce Brosnan’s getting tired of cashing in on James Bond by making the poor guy cash in on James Bond.

Lexus’ “Make Some Noise”

If you buy a Lexus NX, you’ll be locked into a parking garage and you’ll be forced to perform in STOMP.

Mercedes-Benz’s “Fable”

The guys at Mercedes-Benz spend 62 seconds kicking the corpse of Aesop by defiling his most famous fable.

Mophie’s “All-Powerless”

Mophie makes a complex theological argument that an all-knowing god somehow didn’t know to purchase their all-powerful phone. Also, the universe is actually a phone, which I guess makes us apps.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 puns on Deflategate by pointing out that “balls” is another word for testicles. This ad wins this year’s “Truest Representation of the Product” award.

Terminator Genisys

Question for the runners of the Terminator franchise: if Arnie’s Terminator is a robot with synthetic skin, why is the robot aging?

Snickers’ “The Brady Bunch”

Actually a pretty solid commercial, but it would’ve been better if it’d turned really dark and violent and had turned into another Machete sequel.

T-Mobile’s “#KimsDataStash”

Kim Kardashian wasn’t sure everyone knew how into herself she was, so she decided to make this PSA.

Victoria’s Secret

Victoria’s Secret does not need to be edgy, funny, or creative. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Why other nations think you're weird

Photo: Fluent in 3 Months

One of the main reasons I travel so much is that I find it fascinating to see how different people are across different cultures.

For new travellers, some of these differences can make people from other countries seem completely weird or just plain rude.

Simple things you take for granted as being done in a standard way — like checking into a hotel, greeting a shopkeeper, or ordering food in a restaurant — can have completely different cultural norms from what you’re used to, sometimes leaving you to wonder: “What is wrong with those people?”

Today I wanted to share a few anecdotes I’ve heard from travellers encountering the weird ways other cultures do seemingly standard stuff. I’ll emphasize how funny some of these differences can be, especially when you look at them from both perspectives rather than critique them as “wrong”.

We’ll start with a story my friend Derek Sivers told me about the way hospitality is done in India.

A confused Indian in Finland

Derek (in his own words):

In India, you’ll notice that hotels feel overstaffed.

There will be 5 uniformed men standing in the driveway, waiting to open the door of the occasional arriving taxi. There will be 2 men next to them whose job is just to open the door to the lobby. Inside the lobby, there will be a dozen men and women there to greet you and point you in the direction you’re already walking.

They will insist on carrying your bag for you, even if it’s just a little backpack. Politely declining seems to shock and frustrate them. Once you check in, there will be one or two people to walk you to the elevator, press the button for you and bring you to your room, then guide you around your regular little hotel room, showing you where the bed, TV, and toilet is, and how the AC remote control works.

I guess it’s a sign of low cost of labor, especially when you find out it’s cheaper to hire a car with a full-time driver to drive you everywhere, than it is to rent a car and drive it yourself.

So I was having lunch with a successful Indian businessman one day, and mentioned my observation of the over-staffed hotels. Even though he’s a worldly guy, he was sincerely surprised.

“Really? You think so?” He thought about it for a bit, then said something fascinating:

“Actually I had the opposite experience. I was flown to Helsinki Finland once for a conference. They put me up at a nice high-class Hyatt hotel.

I take the taxi from the airport to the hotel, the taxi driver drops me at the door, and there I stand, alone! Nobody around to help me with my bags!

I wondered if perhaps the hotel has gone out of business.

I walk into the lobby, and again, empty! I was starting to get worried until I saw a woman behind the counter at the other end of the lobby.

I tell her my name, she checks me in, then gives me my room key, and tells me to have a nice night. I thought, What kind of nonsense is this?

How can a hotel have no staff? Am I just supposed to find the room by myself?

I eventually did, but thought it was outrageous, and mentioned it to the conference organizers the next day. They laughed and assured me that’s how things are done there. So strange.”

***

Derek’s story shows that the weirdness of a country is completely a matter of perspective. From a western perspective, the idea of someone pushing our elevator buttons for us and telling us precisely where inside the bathroom we’ll find the toilet is ridiculous. It’s too much. But for Derek’s friend, the absence of this sort of hospitality left him feeling neglected.

I really appreciate this story, because I distinctly remember arriving in India last month and experiencing exactly what Derek described.

I had just arrived in India, flying in from Indonesia at around 11pm at night. I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was get the key to my hotel room and faceplant into the pillow.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, I did indeed have to “endure” the local hospitality, complete with a tour of my room and instructions on how to use the phone. The whole time I was mentally begging the attendant to please leave please leave please leave! and I was left overwhelmed and a little agitated by what I considered to be an excessive and over-the-top greeting for simple hotel accommodation in Mumbai.

Something similar happened to me in Singapore, when the attendant of my rented room listed out and pointed out literally every item in the apartment. “You have two forks (shows me the forks), two spoons, (shows me the spoons)” and on and on and on until she had covered literally everything we had, right down to the two curtains and two curtain ties. I shit you not.

Luckily we weren’t tired or jetlagged during this particular adventure, so we took it in good humour!

Weird restaurant culture
Asking “how are you?”

One of the first conversations I ever had with Lauren when I met her was about how confused she was, from her American perspective, about “something” she was “doing wrong” in restaurants as she travelled through Europe. She told me she kept getting strange looks from people, but couldn’t figure out why.

Ten minutes into lunch with her, I knew exactly why. She would say “Hello, how are you?” enthusiastically to waiters or waitresses whenever they came to they table. And OF COURSE they would give her strange looks as a response. I say “of course” because I benefit here from the European perspective, which screams: Why would she want to know how they are doing?? They just met her!

In Europe, we don’t do that. Questions like “How are you?” are reserved for friends or people who you genuinely want to know how they are doing and what’s going on in their life. If you’re a European just doing your job at the restaurant where you work, having a customer who’s a total stranger ask how you’re doing is just plain weird.

And this is of course a completely different perspective from that of North America, where it’s polite and friendly to ask the question as pretty much a universal greeting!

Beating around the bush

In another example, a Canadian reader told me she was in Berlin in a Starbucks, and wanted to Instagram her coffee. Suddenly the German waiter came up to her while she was getting ready to take the photo and said “Please don’t take photos in our café. Thanks.”

She was horrified by his rudeness!

Of course, in Germany saying that is perfectly reasonable, as Germans tend to be more direct and don’t “beat around the bush” when giving bad news. But in Canada, the norm is to “sandwich” something so “blunt” with pleasantries.

A sensible Canadian waiter would have said, “Hi there, how are you? Everything OK with your mocha? Anyway, no biggie, and I’m really sorry to disturb you, but unfortunately we have a policy of not allowing photos to be taken in our café. I hope you don’t mind! And I’m so sorry about this. Thanks again for coming to Starbucks and enjoy your drink!”

To Europeans like me, this is a mindbogglingly verbose and roundabout way of saying something much simpler.

I, again, can relate to the European perspective here, and I’ve gotten into trouble with some American friends and colleagues for not sandwiching my bluntness! I actually sometimes ask Lauren to “edit” my emails to American companies to soften my language after I once learned the hard way when a very innocent email I sent nearly ended an important business arrangement.

“Good” service or “bad” service depends on which side of the pond you’re from

One of my funniest interactions with North American vs. European differences was when I used Yelp to find a restaurant in Berlin, and I read a two-star restaurant review that went something like this:

….so, I get here and sit down, and then nobody came over to me. I waited several minutes and the waiters just ignored me! I glared at them the entire time and they didn’t flinch. I couldn’t believe it, and I finally had to actually raise my arm and wave them over to give my order! Then, after I finally ordered my food, it took over 20 entire minutes for the food to arrive. When I was finished, no one brought the check and I had to ask for it myself!

To me, this review is hilarious because from a European perspective, this is an example of perfectly good service!

For my confused American friends, let me explain.

In Europe, the whole experience of eating in a restaurant is that the waitstaff bothers you as little as possible. Meals tend to be a very slow process, and part of the restaurant experience is that you get the table to yourself and call the waiters over when you need them. They expect that if you want something, you’ll tell them. Otherwise, they’ll let you sit there, undisturbed, for hours on end, reading your book and pondering whatever you ponder! So for me, calling waiters over in obvious gestures and waiting 20 minutes for food is completely normal.

Whereas in North America, good service requires that waiters and waitresses double check that you have everything you need as often as possible. They’re supposed to anticipate your needs, for example by bringing you the bill before you even have to ask.

I can also attest after spending a lot of time in America that the food just gets prepared way faster there. I don’t know how they do it. In comparison, restaurants in the UK and Europe are tortoise slow. Lauren actually commented to a British person once, “You know how food is really slow to come out in the UK?” …and he had no idea what she was talking about.

Food service in America is completely different to Europe. Kitchens are well-oiled machines where turnover is as important as quality. And it’s not just “fast food” that’s fast — it’s all restaurants! For my American friends, 15 minutes is a long time to wait for food in a restaurant. Anything over 20 minutes is an outrage.

But on the other side of the pond, 20 or even 30 minutes of waiting for your food to arrive is totally normal!

Now try to imagine the American restaurant experience from the eyes of a foreigner.

This means that Europeans in North America feel very rushed and pestered in US restaurants. I can imagine a European Yelp review of an American restaurant saying something like this:

…this restaurant is in too much of a hurry. They made the food in a hurry, slamming it on my table five minutes after I ordered. After that, my waitress wouldn’t leave me alone! Every five minutes she’d annoy me with another question, interrupting an intimate conversation or asking me how my food was while I was chewing! And they brought my bill before I asked for it, basically telling me to hurry up and get out!

When I’m in America I have to remember not to wave down a waiter/waitress whenever I need something, as this is considered quite rude of the customer (as my ex-waitress girlfriend confirms every time I do it). I have to try not to get frustrated when they interrupt me every five minutes to ask how my food is. And I still can’t get used to my bill getting slapped down on the table with a waitress saying “Whenever you’re ready hon!” since it feels like I’m getting kicked out.

That’s a formula for unfortunately misplaced Yelp reviews if there ever was one!

And then there’s the whole tipping thing. I’m not even going to try to explain it — so I’ll just refer you to this article instead!

An Indian on car horns in America

Okay, last story (but I could go on and on!)

When Westerners first get to many Asian countries, the endless car horns can make it seem like everyone has road rage. Because they do indeed honk their horns all the time.

But it does not mean the same thing as it does when people do it in the West, where it usually means something like “Move out my way, asshole!” or “I don’t like that thing you did just there and this is my way of informing you of that fact!”

On the contrary. In many Asian countries, like Thailand and Indonesia and certainly India, it’s simply their way of indicating they are doing something, like turning or passing you. So it’s actually an important part of second-by-second communication on the road.

To wrap up, Derek tells us another story he heard from an Indian on this subject:

“I commented to a young programmer in Bangalore India on the cacophony of the ever-beeping horns of every car, truck, and scooter on the roads there. Again, he felt the opposite.

He had just been flown to America for his first time for some consulting work, and said, “Here I was. Chicago! America! It was even rush hour when I arrived. But in the taxi from the airport to my hotel…silence!

Hundreds of cars, but none of them making a sound! It was eerie! Like a funeral!

Why so silent? What’s wrong? It was hard for me to sleep that night with all that spooky silence.”

***

From my many years of travelling, I’ve learned to appreciate these cultural differences (or at least try). By looking at my own culture retrospectively, I’ve been able to make cultural adjustments with Parisians, I’ve broken through cultural stereotypes to get to know Germans, Dutch, Japanese, Egyptians, Chinese, and many other cultures and I’ve picked up quite a few new habits myself!

I suggest you give it a try the next time you travel, and try to imagine how your ways might seem “weird” from the outside perspective.

This article originally appeared on Fluent in 3 Months and is republished here with permission.