Hawai'i to Washington

I thought that Jackie's post was interesting and that I could tell a little bit about my "culture shock" experiences here in Spokane and at Whitworth.  Leaving Hawai'i was very hard for me.  To be honest, I still feel extremely homesick every single day that I am here.  There are many cultural differences between Washington and Hawai'i and they stood out to me right when I got here.  One of the things that happened in the beginning of the school year, when I met people here at Whitworth.  In Hawai'i it is normal and somewhat a custom to give people a hug and a kiss on the cheek when you see them or greet them.  I received so many handshakes and no hugs.  Also, my roommate last semester and I had our differences between what we liked and didn't like to eat.  I would make Kim Chee noodles for dinner sometimes and it basically would make the entire room smell like Kim Chee and then when I would throw it away she would tell me that the room still smelled really bad.  She was super surprised that I ate Kim Chee and liked it because it is spicy fermented cabbage.  The whole "fermented" idea and smell completely grossed her out and made her not want to eat it or smell it.  There were many other accounts of my roommate not liking a lot of the things that I ate.  Especially when it came to LI-HING.  Ever since it snowed a lot, I stopped wearing my slippers outside.  But up until then, I would wear my slipper basically all the time.  I feel that it is more comfortable than shoes or boots.  Even though it makes me feel colder, I still like wearing them because at home I wear them all the time and I like to be comfortable.  There are still so many cultural differences between Hawai'i and Washington and how I am trying to deal with being in such a different place than home.