Iknow/knew these kids. Erin my friend never really pushed to doanything in her life. She's from Jersey she got money from deadrelatives and graduated from some fashion college, which she had nointerest in and never used the degree. Then decided I want to helppeople so I want to be a sheriff or a cop but no place that's urbansomeplace safe in New Jersey, I want to protect those people. Marinawho would visit me from upstate, and be depressed all the time. Woulduse her sexuality to get us into the clubs that we shouldn't be in,and being with men in bad situations.Or the kids that I would meetwhen I went to camps and on vacations. They were all kind of whitetrashy kids, with one or two being way to old for the group makingthem the "parents" and they had cars and they smokecigarettes and we would go driving to a 7/11! (there were never anyin NYC)just sit some place look at stars and I'd watch them get high.I love these times with them because I felt free and I had no curfew.I could be with them as long as I wanted, because my mother knew Iwas vaguely in the area. I was astounded when these kids said theywould do it every day in their everyday life, and that their parentsnever knew what they were doing.
Iwas amazed and jealous that they never checked in! To me this wastheir culture and there culture norms.I suppose subculture now but Istill look at my cultural artifacts with fondness like my friendshipbracelet made from Thread or my first rock/metal cd given to me by a"rocker".One of my coworkers who just moved here fromWisconsin a month ago just experienced a crazy culture shock. She gotstiffed on a hundred and $40 bill which she had to pay back.Everybody always told her to get a credit card first but I guess it'snot normal in Wisconsin. She was literally shaking all night becauseof the loudness, and because we had to move at high-speed and, peoplewere getting impatient with her she just wasn't used to it and wentto the bathroom and cried.
The boss was good about it, and said ofcourse you would be like this you're in Brooklyn now. He said don'tworry I'm sure this won't happen again. I wonder how much thiscountry mouse can take before the big city scares her away.Iasked her was it hard to be in a place so multicultural, what was theethnicity’s that she had back home, and did everybody she know cowtip and do drugs, cause thats all there was to do there. Haha. Shesaid yes the lack of white faces was something to get use to. Theyhad mexicans and some sort of asian people, neither of which she hungout with. It offended me that she didn’t know the kind of asian.With the cow tipping and drugs yes once your out of the city thatswhat they do, which is why she came to the big city to make somethingof herself and not be a townie?
I really enjoyed the reference you made to the chapter and the term “culture shock” with your friend who just moved here. I can imagine how different Wisconsin must be from New York City. She sounds like she felt overwhelmed and out of place. This is only normal for her to feel this way considering that she is somewhere completely different to what she has known most of her life. New York City is big and has an immense amount of diversity. People here probably aren’t as friendly as they are in Wisconsin. The fact that she is now experiencing and fast paced society with impatient people is a culture shock in itself. I can relate to this because I moved to California and lived there for about 4 months. It is so different than New York, the suburbs always are. There wasn’t a lot of big building or late night stores to go to, loud noises I was used to or a lot people to try to get past anymore. I felt out of place and homesick. All I knew all my life was the city and to be taken out and placed in California literally across the map, felt out of my own culture. Your co-worker is just having a hard time adjusting to our society’s culture norms but eventually she will get used to it or maybe not, some people have a hard time but it is only natural. I also agree with your comment that if offended you when she did not know what type of Asian and that is exactly why she should remember that it is healthy to be around different people, whatever Asian or Hispanic or African American you may be, you become more open minded instead of just tipping cows haha!
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