day one of orientation

Hello!

I have finally arrived in Toronto for my orientation, and after a day of intensive community building and culture exploration, I am eagerly awaiting the many days, weeks, and months to come.

A look into the life:

icebergs:

-think of a person as an iceberg. The top is their actions - what we can see as observers into their lives. The middle represents their thoughts - social norms, and the bottom stands for their feelings - where their values lie.

situation:

- after an 'experience' you and a peer react to a situation differently - the tip of the iceberg is different.

- normally, I would assume that since their action is different than my their thoughts and feelings may be different as well.

-however, their action is what I would place with very different t and f.

- think of it different. Think that they could have the same thoughts and feelings but different actions, due to culture.

ie.

(true experience of the leader)

- canadians on a CWY exchange in Uruguay bring snacks randomly to events and meeting during training in Uruguay. They individually eat their snack. Culturally for them this is totally acceptable.

- for Uruguayans, this is very rude. All food opened is always shared equally with all others in it's presence.

- This action is associated with totally different things in Canada and Uruguay due to culture.

We went over six areas where these norms very across the world. This was an example of the linear scale of collectivism and individualism.

I'm in Toronto until Friday. We fly from Toronto to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Kiev, Ukraine. After our flights, we hop on a bus to Ostrosh, which supposively takes 7 hours to go between 300 and 400 km! As long as our flight! It should be quite the experience.

Ukrainians are already beginning to interest me so much....soon I'll be living with them!