Studying abroad can be summed up in a series of moments.

Some of these moments are big occasions. Like getting off the chair lift at the Great Wall and seeing what seems to be all of China spread out before you.

Some of them are small, seemingly insignificant events. Like going on a hike and seeing wild, but docile monkeys and no squirrels.

What they all have in common is that they make you say to yourself, “Wow. I’m in a very different place.”

The study abroad experience comes with big life changes. For the past four months, I haven’t been able to drink tap water. I get stared at every day because I’m blonde and there aren’t many blonde people here. I haven’t been able to find pulp-free orange juice.

However, I’ve gotten used to these things. At the beginning, they made me think about the fact that I’m not home. But now, they’re just part of my everyday life.

Instead, the small moments are the most impactful. They’re the unsuspected things. They take me by surprise.

When I visited Thailand, I walked down the beach with two friends. I saw a little kid digging a hole in the sand. It seemed like an everyday scene, something I used to do as a child. The only difference is when I was little, I used to pretend to be digging a hole all the way to China. I wondered if this kid was trying to dig to the United States.

If someone sneezes, my reflex is to say “bless you,” even if I don’t know the person. Here, that’s not a part of the culture. In fact, they don’t say anything after a person sneezes. Every time I hear a sneeze on the subway, I have to catch myself before I respond. It’s a daily reminder of my distance from home.

One day, I was sitting at my university doing work between classes. Across from me, there was a bulletin board where clubs advertise their events. I’ve seen similar setups at every university I’ve visited.

This one was a little different though. Right in front of me was a bright yellow poster advertising a trip to North Korea to “Reimagine the world’s most isolated state via witnessing the unprecedented changes in the country.” Needless to say, I’ve never seen a poster like that on one of the Syracuse club bulletin boards.

Before coming here, I expected to be awed by big things like the Great Wall of China and to adapt to huge cultural differences like unclean tap water. What I didn’t expect were the little lessons I would learn every day just by living a normal life.

When I first arrived in Hong Kong, everything was new and different, exciting and scary. As the time passed, I started to get into a routine and what used to be exotic and foreign became a part of daily life.

One day, I realized that I wasn’t looking out of the windows on my train ride to school anymore. I was staring at my phone like all the other commuters. What was outside the window wasn’t interesting to me anymore because I’d seen it so many times.

I realized I had adapted. I had built a “normal” life in a very different place. I’m glad that I had my little everyday differences that reminded me about my amazing opportunity to study and live here.

Claire Moran is a junior broadcast and digital journalism and international relations dual major. Her column appears weekly in Pulp. She can be reached at clmoran@syr.edu.

Published on April 27, 2016 at 7:56 pm