Culture shock

A friend of mine arrived to the U.S. a short while ago. She sent me a message full of passion and words written (I'm sure) in the same breath.

She is very disappointed by the discrepancy between a smile that an American throws at you without effort and the coldness that he later shows when getting to a more substantial dialogue. She hates the lack of curiosity that an American has regarding the whole world except for his dear country. I quote: "What's most upsetting is not even [that] they haven't crossed the borders of their own state, but [that] they don't even dream about going somewhere different."

From a psychological point of view, she's right in the middle of the well-known "culture shock". Everyone is going through that, and it's not about having it or not, i's about coping with it one way or another. The interesting part is that, according to the psychological theory, one is getting first through the "utopian phase" (when one gets to see everything in pink), and only afterwards through the "distopian phase" (when one counts all the disadvantages and flaws a culture has, and begins to see "home" as the perfect place to be).

Well, I guess the truth is somewhere in between. I agree, American culture has flaws. I felt them also. But they are not that big as they seem; and Europe is not that flawless as it might look right now.