Originally from India, went to Finland on student exchange. First night there, I'm at a party and everyone is going to a sauna. I'm prepared with my bathing suit and all, and then bam - find myself in a mixed gendered sauna, with all the people I've been hanging out with all evening, butt naked.
Then after 30 minutes of sweating, they all went rolling naked in the snow. Took me a while to deal with it, and finally get my swimsuit off.
Winebooks
In India, they do this head-bob that's part nod, part head shake. After 3 months of living there I still had trouble deciphering it. Sometimes it means yes, sometimes it means no, and sometimes it means "I don't have enough information to give you a reasonable answer at this time."
The Indian head-bob is the magic 8-ball of nonverbal communication.
[deleted]
Going to DR Congo where police walk around the streets with what appear to be AK-47s. The traffic is essentially lawless and you'll have piles of traffic 3-4 cars wide attempting to merge into a single lane because everybody is trying to pass each other using the footpath and the opposing traffic lane. The electricity in the city can by only on in certain areas for a few hours in the dead of night because there's not enough supply and it gets diverted to the city center during the day and evening. If you are of certain races you are considered rich by virtue of your skin tone regardless of how much money you actually have.
Wasn't really a "shock" for me because I knew before I visited that this is what it is like, but it could be a great shock for somebody who's not prepared for it. A very different place to Australia.
AlarmingInteger
Went to Italy in 2011 and had no idea that some people just took an hour or two off of work in the afternoon. It dawned on me that those people were living the life.
iWasteTimeAtWork
