Bio Intro to Classes Essay

Submitted By NinaRenae1
Words: 695
Pages: 3

Hello class, my name is Nina, and I was born in Germany, Schweinfurt. I was raised there until I was 13 years old. After that my family decided to move to the United States. When I first came to the United States, i lived in Texas for about a year, then came to Oregon, and have stayed here since. People always ask me what most surprised me when I came to the United States, what differences I notice, or how I adjusted.
Something that surprised me when I first came to the US is how open everyone was in public. I felt like people had less self-respect for themselves, and they didn't care how they looked or what they wore when they went out into public. Now, after living here for so long, I wouldn’t call it “less self-respect” anymore, because I’ve learned to understand that here in the US everyone just feels more comfortable, and they aren’t afraid to show who they truly are, which now, after living here for a while, I see as a great quality that I was lacking back then. Another thing that was more shocking than surprising was how many fast food places there are EVERYWHERE. In Germany all we had back then was a McD, and BK was barely getting started. Now we have still McD, some more BK, and subway is getting there as well, but all in all, Germany has way less fast food.
Some differences I've noticed is that the mentality of Germans and the Americans is very different. There is of course a different style of raising, and just the way people are is different. It's hard to explain, I suppose you could say their ethics and morals lie differently than the ones here in the US. Also, friendships here don't seem to go very deep, unlike friendships in Germany. Another thing that is different is that here every young person strives to move out as soon as they are done with high school, but in Germany, young people aren't thinking about moving out until they are at least half way done with college. In Germany the young people don't push as hard to move out and the families are a lot more understanding with kids growing into adults and still needing help from parents. I’ve noticed cases here in the US where kids aren't being supported from their parents in my opinion. Also, having kids at a young age doesn't seem to occur as much in Germany as it does in the US. There is a lot more teen pregnancy here than in Germany.
How did I adjust- I think it was easier for me to adjust to the US than it would