Day 2 of orientation today. We woke up early, dressed in professional clothing, ate breakfast, and traveled to the State Department. We were all exhausted, but we dragged ourselves through the two layers of security. While waiting in the line, Julien (our ODI representative, original from Cologne, Germany) chatted with us about his experience. He can speak German, French, and English, in that order of proficiency, which is very impressive because his English is very good. He spoke in German with some of the diplomats at the State Department and it was very encouraging because I could easily understand what they were saying even though they were speaking at a normal conversational pace. It took me a second to process and translate the German into the English, but I got it!

We went into the meeting room and sat in a circle. Our first section was discussing embracing other cultures and culture shock (renamed as cultural adjustment) and how we’d react to that. The general gist was that culture shock occurs because your expectations/norms don’t align with the culture around you. I’m sure that will affect me, because I’ve lived in the sanctuary of my home where everything is constant. This will be a very new experience for me. We then participated in a diplomacy nation, where we each represented a different fake country. We were Budan, a country that was passing laws persecuting a minority group (though we justified it by saying that since those minorities were economically successful, they must be using unfair business practices). The minorities of this group were fleeing to a neighboring country, Gilbia, though the number was so great that they couldn’t support all of them. Budan was clearly in the wrong, but we still had to fight for our side. I was the representative for our side and I emphasized all the good things and denied the Budanese government’s involvement in the crisis. It was an interesting exercise and somewhat uncomfortable to argue so strongly for a position we did not agree with.

Then, we spoke to a diplomat who had gone through similar experiences with her job. She’s a very tough lady. She joked and laughed with us, but by the way she was talking, it was clear that she was well-read and she knew what she was doing. She told us that she almost resigned once because she had to fight for a position that she didn’t believe in, but then she chose to stay because she decided that it was probably better to stay and advocate for what she really believed in. This is why I don’t think I could do law; I don’t think I could take fighting for a position I don’t believe in. It would eat at my conscience. I suppose that’s why so many foreign service people resign.

After lunch, we continued our discussion on culture shock, and then departed. From there, we had some free time, so I walked with some others to a boba shop. I didn’t get any, but it was interesting to speak with some of the others on their backgrounds. Trey (from Iowa) is interested in welding, and he’s going to MIT for welding after this year. Alex (from Pennsylvania) is interested in medicine, but she hopes to explore other fields as well to make sure she really wants to do medicine. It was fun to explore the DC area and figure out the directions by using Google Maps as little as possible. Some people there who are accustomed to things like public transport found it very easy to navigate. This other girl Braidyn (from Utah) and I did not find it so easy, but they will be giving us a presentation on transportation in Germany, so I’m not too worried.

After that, we had dinner. We moved into the lounge and I brought cards, so after we ate pizza I brought everyone together to play Spoons and Slapjack. Brent (from Wisconsin) won Spoons and I won Slapjack. It was fun because all awkwardness just completely disappeared. Everyone was just intensely fixated on winning. It’s the main reason I love card games: it’s the ultimate tool to bring people together without too many resources. Ruby (our CBYX mentor, from Minnesota) said that she brought two decks, so we can play more cards games at the airport tomorrow.

From there, we were weighing our luggage and packing anything we needed to pack. Before my suitcase was weighed, I asked all the people in the room if they wanted to predict the weight. Remembering the chocolates in my suitcase, I promised chocolate to the person who was closest. It was fun! I didn’t expect so many people to join in but chocolates seemed to motivate everyone. Even one of the mentors (Zach, from California) and Carrie joined in. Zach ended up coming in second place, but Andrew (from Illinois) won. He ended up passing out the chocolates to everyone anyway. I love how easy it is to do little things to bring these groups together. Everyone is very friendly and looking for friends.

Last modified on 2024-08-01