Europe from "In Between"

The first time I travelled to Finland where I live now, I was invited to a student party. The invitation said "Oma pullo mukaan - Take your own bottles". I had a bottle of votka that I bought from Tallin, so I took it with me. When I arrived, nobody offered me a glass. Strange. Since this was in a communal kitchen, I wasn't sure wh to ask. I decided to wait and see. There were some students I knew and Finns I have never met before. Since I didn't want to go mingling with people with the bottle in my hand, I put it on a table. A Finnish boy came to me and said: "Don't leave it there. Somebody will take it". What do you mean? I brought the bottle to share. I will be offended if nobody drinks from my bottle. Because I didn't understand what he said, I left the bottle. During the course of the evening, I gradually learned the rule: everybody had his or her stock of bottles or mixed drink, and they drink only their own staff. No sharing. My bottle was gone by the time I figured this out, of course. People asked if I don't drink alcohol. It is not that, but I felt too stupid to explain what happened. I mumbled some excuses.

In Japan, we would have put all the bottles on the table and bought some chips, pizza, cokes etc. to share. This was my mindset for "own bottles" but my interpretation in this party was totally wrong.

Lawrence of Arabia says." How can I, as me, meet these new people? How should I change? What part of me is superficial and can be sacrificed and what I should keep to stay myself?" The same questions that I had to ask myself many times during my stay in Finland.

When you travel to a new culture, you may find yourself in a situation where the value of your own culture and that of the new one conflict with each other. Through these situations you have to rebuilt your value world, as no doubt many of Nomad members have done. Long process, but for now I am satisfied with my current small corner between the two cultures. Waiting for the next identity crisis, when my stay in Finland is longer than the time I spent in Japan where I was born.