{"id":12582,"date":"2019-12-23T07:09:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T12:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internsdc.com\/?p=12582"},"modified":"2019-12-23T07:09:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T12:09:08","slug":"5-bizarre-things-youll-deal-with-as-an-intern-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atdevserver.com\/Internsdc\/5-bizarre-things-youll-deal-with-as-an-intern-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Bizarre Things You&#8217;ll Deal with as an Intern Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was born in Portland, OR, and to be honest, even I experienced slight culture shock when I got to DC. \u00a0Something about the lack of hemp products or organic coffee shops, maybe. \u00a0But if I were from another country (Portland might be another country, to be honest), I can only assume things would be even weirder.<\/p>\n<p>This one goes out to all y&#8217;all studying or working abroad this semester or next semester. \u00a0I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;re aware that by moving to DC for a few months, you&#8217;ve signed up for some culture-shock weird times.\u00a0 What you might not<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>know is you were signing up for this stuff:<\/p>\n<h2>1.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 People Randomly Thinking You\u2019re Exotic<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/internsdc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Im_From_Michigan.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3021 \" src=\"https:\/\/internsdc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Im_From_Michigan.jpg\" alt=\"Im_From_Michigan\" width=\"418\" height=\"529\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo this is Sa<em>raaaa<\/em>.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s actually just Sara.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Get ready to have your employers or coworkers get very excited about having an intern from [insert your country here].\u00a0 \u201cYes, this semester we even have a student from <em>India<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 To you, your existence up to this point has been completely normal, but to your new American co-workers, it&#8217;s \u201cinspiring\u201d or maybe even \u201cso much realer than anything we have here\u201d.\u00a0 I know. Wow.<\/p>\n<h2>2.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYour English is so good!\u201d<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What kind of Asian are you?\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DWynJkN5HbQ?start=29&#038;feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Is this casually racist? \u00a0You bet. \u00a0Is it malicious? \u00a0Probably not. \u00a0Americans have little to no concept of how many people in other countries speak relatively fluent or fluent English.\u00a0 Also, keep in mind, when this is said to you, it will probably be followed by \u201cI can\u2019t speak any other languages. I really should learn but, eh, I dunno. \u00a0Oh well.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>3.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bizarre Holiday Schedules<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/internsdc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/49027571.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3022\" src=\"https:\/\/internsdc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/49027571.jpg\" alt=\"national-holiday-meme\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>MLK Day, Columbus Day, Presidents\u2019 Day, etc. There are a bunch of random long weekends thrown into the American work year. \u00a0Enjoy them! \u00a0DC is especially big on those national holidays, so watch out for the crowds.<\/p>\n<h2>4.) \u00a0 \u00a0Irritating Pop Culture References<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/internsdc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/i-woke-up-ft20pp.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3023\" src=\"https:\/\/internsdc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/i-woke-up-ft20pp.jpg\" alt=\"i-woke-up-like-this\" width=\"353\" height=\"294\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t feel bad for not knowing why everyone keeps saying &#8220;they woke up like this&#8221;. \u00a0Don&#8217;t feel bad for not knowing\u00a0exactly what <em>Keeping Up with the Kardashians <\/em>is. \u00a0Don&#8217;t feel bad for not being able to exactly decipher what phrases such as &#8220;I can&#8217;t even&#8221; really mean. \u00a0Believe me, you&#8217;re only here for a few months, you\u2019re better off without such knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, if every now and then, you find a friend who is SHOCKED that you\u2019ve never binge-watched <em>Ru Paul\u2019s Drag Race<\/em>, know that a little time spent in the presence of trashy American pop culture never really hurt anyone.<\/p>\n<h2>5.) \u00a0 \u00a0Figuring Out the Metro<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/internsdc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/wrong-doors-dcmetro.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3024\" src=\"https:\/\/internsdc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/wrong-doors-dcmetro.jpg\" alt=\"wrong-doors-dcmetro\" width=\"449\" height=\"599\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Yes, those are the doors opening on the wrong side of the train. Whoops.)<\/p>\n<p>This doesn&#8217;t only apply to foreign interns, but if you come from somewhere without a subway system (or even if you do), prepare for a steep learning curve. \u00a0The DC Metro: Does it close super early?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Does the red line barely ever work?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Is there a reason @UnsuckDCMetro exists on Twitter?\u00a0 Oh absolutely. (and you should follow it for delays and closure updates!) Luckily, collective hating on public transportation is something that makes everyone feel like a local, so if you summon that frustration early, you&#8217;ll fit right in. Nothing like coming into work and complaining about the trains to get the conversation going.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>If you&#8217;re interning abroad right now, feel free to share your own whacky or wonderful experience while here in DC via Facebook. \u00a0Despite it all, living and working in another country is a total rush, no matter what bizarro things come up along the way. \u00a0Take a chance on an adventure in DC &#8211; you&#8217;re sure to come back with at least a few stories.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was born in Portland, OR, and to be honest, even I experienced slight culture shock when I got to DC. \u00a0Something about the lack of hemp products or organic coffee shops, maybe. \u00a0But if I were from another country (Portland might be another country, to be honest), I can only assume things would be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[17,35],"class_list":["post-12582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dc-culture","tag-career-tips","tag-college-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atdevserver.com\/Internsdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atdevserver.com\/Internsdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atdevserver.com\/Internsdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atdevserver.com\/Internsdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atdevserver.com\/Internsdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atdevserver.com\/Internsdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atdevserver.com\/Internsdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atdevserver.com\/Internsdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atdevserver.com\/Internsdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}