Culture Shock, eh?

History books left and right have come up with their own ways of defining what culture is, eventually coming to a common definition no matter how they tried to phrase it. Culture is really the overall, general lifestyle of socially-grouped individuals as well as the values, views and materials they share. We’ve all seen it; we’ve all experienced it in some way, shape or form. For the outsiders looking in, a group’s culture often leaves us wondering if there’s a method to what we often call madness but they call ‘just another day in our lives’, a little thing we like to call ‘culture shock’.

I’ve been lucky enough to get the opportunity to travel to many different places and experiences unique ways of life. As somebody who’s done her share of traveling, I really wasn’t expecting much of a shock-element to Canada because I kind of figured it’d just be somewhat of an extension of the United States since it was pretty buddy-buddy, tight knit on the map as we know it. What I witnessed when I arrived was something that completely took my expectations and just tossed them aside because the difference from what I thought I’d see and what was actually in front of me...well, that was something to blog about. It was a little bus tour I took with my parents and a large number of others roughly three years back and we’d stopped in multiple provinces for two days at a time but Toronto was that place that stuck out for me now that I look back on it. Canada is truly anything but 'America part deux with a few provinces'; it has its large share of cultural diversity and let's just say, culture shock ran high when I came to see that if anybody thought the United States was a melting pot, they hadn’t quite seen the wow-factor that is Canada.

Of all, the United States is known to have the greatest diversity of ethnicities and cultures and what have you but somewhere down the road, ‘Americanization’ came around. Then you have a place like Toronto, the largest city in Canada and the hotspot for tourists from all over the globe, that holds a population that isn’t even 100% Canadian; maybe 50% at best. That alone was shocking so I couldn’t even begin to think of what else there was to know, much less see. Of the two days we spent sight-seeing and exploring around and about Toronto, I could’ve truly said that there was nothing like Yonge-Dundas Square, commonly known simply as Dundas Square.

It’s a beautiful popular attraction, not only for tourists but for the residents of Toronto as well; downtown Toronto’s focal point for outdoor entertainment, a concert venue, or just an opportunity to sight-see from a spot in a chair in the middle of it all. You can seriously see each and every culture pass you by in a matter of minutes. Europe and America are brought together to really give people in Toronto something to talk about. Dundas Square is almost the smaller long-lost twin of the Big Apple’s finest Times Square, maybe the name’s a giveaway, maybe not. I spotted a few of the common retail names: Sephora, H&M, and even the Hard Rock Café but noticed the Toronto-spin on things by the added mix of French into it.

I really couldn’t miss the fact that Toronto is a mini NYC with a European flair, practically becoming fluent in multiple languages just by listening in to conversations at the coffee shop, not to mention getting an earful of the Toronto-ian slang among the younger public: ‘wicked’ being the new ‘awesome’ and ‘jokes’ as the American way of saying something was funny (e.g.: That movie was jokes.). A short walk through a little marketplace left me with the privilege of encountering people from South America, Africa and even parts of Europe. Needless to say, it would be quite the treat for an open-minded anybody from any culture.

So yet another attempt at blogging and here goes a little bit about the girl behind the updates. My name's Melana Portnoy, I'm 20 years old and have just begun my third year at Baruch College as an accountancy major and a psychology minor. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, growing up in a Russian household yet keeping in touch with my American roots. Aside from English and Russian, I can speak Spanish and Italian fairly well from courses taken years back. I'm the kind of girl with a very eclectic laundry list of interests, varying from attending a head-banging, hearing-terminating, rock concert from time to time; to cooping up in my room with a good mystery or romance novel. Time spent with family and friends typically trumps it all for me- whether it'd be a casual dinner or an unforgettable night on the town, with those that'd raised me and with those that have stuck by me, there's never really been much of a dull moment. I have my fair share of hobbies; the rock shows, the shopping sprees, reading, creative writing, the bad karaoke and dancing worries away. With that said, I've also made time to focus on academics, as I probably should, and consider just what the future looks like through my own eyes. Up until that first day of college, I've changed my mind regarding my major and career so many times. It's all gone from art and acting, to becoming a child psychologist or a teacher, but now I'm pretty sure I've settled well on going into the business field with accounting. Maybe even changing my mind along the way once again. This basically seems about right when it comes to describing myself in a nutshell; just simple, open-minded me.