6/22 Observing

the dynamics of a group is very interesting to me. I always wonder if I'm really seeing people for who they are... especially on such a short trip and in such a different setting. Are they the same people they are at UD? Are they the same with their friends at home? Their reactions to clubbing and going out at night... are they real? Or are they responding to their own expectations about what a studyabroad should be about? Maybe their enthusiasm stems from their ideas of how they should be acting. Or maybe they really are that excited.

And everyone loves to complain. But do people complain more in a group or less in a group? You complain to connect. But do you complain less so as to not come off as a negative nancy? Debbie Downers, Johnny Raincoat, what have you. OR do you complain more because other people are complaining too? Do we complain about Professor Leonard because we actually dislike him? Maybe it was just one person that perpetuated a dislike and we clung onto a "bonding"/"mutual" feeling.

Do you know a person more after living with them --because they let their guard down? Or less about a person because you don't have a broader view of them? Or maybe they act differently around you because they know they always have to be around you. People could be completely different towards strangers.

Do you judge a person based on how they act towards you? Or how they act towards someone they just met? Or how they act towards those above them? Or how they act towards those they consider below them?

Should you judge a person if they don't try to assimilate to a culture? If they don't blend in? If they try to avoid the stereotype of a loud american... could you accuse them of being ashamed of being American? There's nothing wrong with being American.... but UD study abroad, for two hours during my orientation, lectured me on the consequences of fulfilling an American stereotype. Maybe the loud, rude Americans are simply proud of being Americans. Should we reward them for their pride? Or judge them for their arrogance? Don't we like standing out? If we try to blend in, don't we lose our identity? But if we don't, we lose it anyway because we're just another American.

I'm babbling. There is no sense to this post. Maybe I should've warned you a few paragraphs ago.