The Swedish culture is known for keeping personal occurrences to themselves, whereas in the American culture it is common to share most experiences with others. This created a difficult task since my project demanded a high level of openness and trust. The subject of my independent study was not common educational material, so I had to expand my communication abilities despite the cultural and linguistic barriers when conducting questions towards my fellow peers. In order for healthy interaction with my fellow Swedish classmates I firstly made myself available to answer and discuss any questions they may have about Americans, thus creating a gateway for reciprocity. This gateway was taken advantage off as the Swedish classmates began asking me questions regarding the American culture and it’s many views on Sexual relations, to which I answered clearly and vastly.

 

Part of studying a different culture includes the allowance of the other culture to study your own, and thus creating an interchanging path of communication. In other words I could not have had the opportunity of enculturation into the Swedish culture without offering rich knowledge of my culture in return. I was able to overcome my initial cultural problem by sparking the curiosity of my fellow colleagues into the interest of American sexuality patterns in adolescence, same of which led them to compare themselves with the American tendencies regarding sexual behavior. I achieved to create a safe space for interchanging information in a culture that was new and unknown to me which put my sociological though into perspective and made me aware of the great power that comes with the understanding of a culture.

 

Traveling with a group of individuals I had only previously encountered twice, and had yet to create a bond with, was a very delicate matter. Living with others, having to share personal space and moving schedules in order to accommodate everyone is extremely hard and something that I received a lot of experience with. There were a couple of individuals that had never left the country before and although the process became more emotional for them than for others, that had left the country before, we all came together to support the ones in need. Even though most students understood that since we were to spend two weeks together, the group as a whole had to learn to tolerate, learn and come to terms with our differences, some thought otherwise and did not integrate in the group or created conflict. One individual in particular was going through a lot of emotional conflicts, which caused her to create problems such as separating from the group, secluding herself from group activities and causing problems between classmates. This individual shared a room with me throughout the trip and that experiences gave me the ability to interact pleasantly and effectively with individuals in stressful and uncomfortable situations.