Adjusting to A Foreign Culture: A Personal Experience

Leah G. Flautt

Introduction

I lug my bulging suitcase through the crowded, noisy Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy. I have a splitting headache and attribute it to lack of sleep on the overnight plane. It is 8:00 a.m. in the morning – 2:00 p.m. my time – but it feels like midnight. I realize I have not eaten anything in almost sixteen hours, but I am not the slightest bit hungry. I attribute this to nerves. I exit baggage claim following a large mass of people, all of them speaking the completely foreign Italian language. I have never been so relieved to see two men in white shirts holding a green sign that reads “UMBRA.” I made it. Finally, I can relax…

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