I took a picture of an older indigenous man while in Nicaragua. When I showed him the picture on the LCD, he began to cry.

Puzzled, I asked the translator why he was crying.

Her response? "He's never seen himself before".

Image by

Went to Italy in 2011 and had no idea that some people just took an hour or two off of work in the afternoon. It dawned on me that those people were living the life.

I was pretty shocked at not being allowed in Japanese bars because I am white.

I was backpacking through Portugal with a friend. I think we were somewhere near Coimbra -- I could be wrong, this was about twenty years ago--at the time and it had been a good long while between showers.

So, we were on a bus fairly late at night with a random hostel plucked from a guide book as our goal but we had no real idea how to get there. I tried to make myself understood to an elderly lady sitting near us, but she didn't speak any English, and my pronunciation of the very little Portuguese I could speak was so bad that both she and I knew immediately that the situation was hopeless. I showed her the scrap of directions I had copied (in English), but she shook her head. She showed her gentleman companion and another elderly couple nearby the scrap: no luck.

Pretty soon, however, most of the passengers were trying to help us, and eventually the note made its way to the driver.

The driver pulled the bus over and gave us what I assumed were instructions but of course we couldn't understand. He proceeded to park the bus, and then he took us by foot to our destination, maybe five minutes away.

Summary: random non-English speakers gathered together to help two stinky self-absorbed Americans who hadn't bothered to learn enough Portuguese to get around competently. A bus with passengers was temporarily abandoned late at night so that the driver could guide two strangers to a somewhat sketchy location.

We were humbled for quite a long time.

I went to Tanzania alone for a couple months to do research. People on the street would just strike up conversations. It took me a few awkward interactions to realize that if someone you just meets says "we should do something," or "you should come visit my house," these aren't empty words, and agreeing means you're probably going right now. I didn't know a soul when I arrived, and by the time I left, I couldn't walk across town (Arusha, a relatively large city) without stopping to chat with a dozen friends.

Also, complete strangers can ask your marital status within ten seconds of meeting you.

I went into it figuring I'll never get another chance, so if I got invited to do something or eat something, I did it.

I ended up at a Maasai cattle market where several Maasai men tried to get me to trade my pocket knife for a cattle stick, I ate roast goat with my hands (amazing)!, sugar cane (amazing)! and unwashed cow stomach (not my thing)!.

Best of all, I was invited to people's homes to learn how to cook chapati and pumpkin leaves and stew. I was invited to meet people's families and children, to drink tea and eat cold yams. If someone invited me to hold a chicken, I held the chicken. I was invited to visit a teacher's class, so I spent a day at the school. If someone wanted to pose for me, I took their picture (but never without being invited). If the bar owner invited me to have a drink, I had a drink. The only thing I turned down was marriage proposals.

When partying in Reykjavik in a ground-level apartment, the police came around midnight and told us to be quiet. Being a tourist I was so scared we would end up in some sort of ice dungeon (or whatever they do for jail) until the cop politely suggested we take a couple of beverages for the road and head to the bar.

They proceeded to joke around with us and offered some directions to their favorite watering holes.

Coming from a city where I've had a boot on the back of my neck for way less than a noise complaint, I was truly in shock.

My biggest culture shock was when I went on holiday with my girlfriend (I'm a woman too) from London to rural Georgia in the U.S. to stay with friends I had met at school here in the UK.

The family we were staying with gently suggested it may be better to pretend we weren't dating as locals "aren't great with the whole 'same-sex' thing".

A waitress showed me a picture of Jesus and told me he was her boyfriend.

On Sunday literally every person I met asked me what church I belonged to and seemed scandalized when I said I didn't. Some also quite rudely demanded to know why I hadn't gone to church that morning.

Someone asked if African-American people were allowed at my university.

It just went on like that.

I've been to a fair few countries that could be considered the stuff of 'culture shock' to Westeners, but I can honestly say I've never encountered anything as alarming as that holiday.

I've been to America a few times since and most places aren't like that at all. But the realization that some states really are "like that" was shocking to me.

I'm a second generation Asian-American, so some people still think of me as a foreigner in the U.S.

When I went to Asia to visit family, I realized that no matter where I go in life I will always be treated as a foreigner.

Moved from Romania to the UK, and while I was familiar with British culture and had no problem integrating, I was really shocked when people were thanking the bus driver when getting off at their stop. Soon enough I started doing the same and once I moved back to Romania and kept doing that people gave me the oddest looks.

I had the greatest culture shock of my life as a Canadian visiting Rio De Janeiro.

Don't get me wrong, I love the city, one of the most beautiful in the world. I'm married to a girl from there so it's like my second home now, but holy cannoli, the social and economic divide is staggering to see first hand.

Favelas are everywhere. Over 600 I believe. Some with a many as 300,000 people living in them. They dot the hills in almost every direction you look. I personally toured the largest of them (Rocinha) and it was incredible to see the way people live inside of a favela.

Someone once said that Rio De Janeiro has the greatest social divide amongst its people in the entire world. The rich are as rich as the richest Americans, while the poor are as poor as the poorest people in Africa. That's a pretty incredible statistic.

I visited Morocco once and saw the walled city of Tetouan (part of the Raiders of the Lost Ark was filmed there).

It was a bit freaky to step back in time by about 2000 years. Only part of a desert was visible from where we were but we saw a Bedouin riding a camel like they had for thousands of years. Then I noticed he was wearing a Sony Walkman and was singing Queen loudly.

I'm 100% Hispanic but an extremely Americanized one, so visiting my family's tiny hometown in Mexico and noticing how little regard they have for health and safety was quite off putting for a "guerita" like me. I'm talking mold on restaurant walls, waterfalls with sharp rocks being a great place for the kids to play, a bridge above the river that is missing some planks, and seat belts being a suggestion.

I'm a current Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia and am having a hard time pin-pointing the biggest culture shock I've experienced. However one of the first memories that comes to mind is the first night I spent sleeping in my host family's home. They made me a dinner of white rice with an overwhelming amount of salt (they heard Americans like salt) and then all six of them tucked me into bed at 7pm telling me they loved me and were so happy I was there.

That was when I first realized how close families are there and the importance of family time.

Being a young woman in Egypt.

There were celebrations taking place at the Al-Hussein Mosque, in Cairo. Thousands of men showed up to pray. My family and I were trying to navigate our way through the crowds. My father told me to go in front of him, but I didn't understand why. I initially said no because I didn't know the direction.

Soon I realized, when countless hands were reaching to grab every part of my body, that my father was trying to protect me. I went in front of him, and he had to bodyguard me through this crowd of men. His arms were covering my body, but hands still went there.

I pushed one of the men and yelled in Arabic for them to get off me. There was a scene.

Later, my dad felt really guilty and upset about what had happened, and tried to make me feel better by saying he's proud of how tough I am, how I nearly knocked a guy over. It was pretty wild.

Also, during that trip, a group of boys were very eager to make friends with my family, asking if they could have pictures of us. It was bizarre. I said to my dad, "Aw, they are being so friendly". My dad chuckled, "It's only because they think you are beautiful; they want your picture".

Another shock to my system was when I was sitting in Starbucks in Cairo. Two young boys reached through the railings and begged me to pass them the spare food and drink left by the previous customers. In Arabic they cried, "Anything, please, give me anything". I handed him a drink, "This"? and he snatched it from me like he was famished.

It really, really opened my eyes. I looked around at the Starbucks customers, many of them rich I am sure, and felt this profound sadness. I thought about the gap between the rich and the poor and thought about how we were all drinking and laughing without a care in the world, when beneath us starving displaced children were begging for some sustenance.

Thinking about it still saddens and almost disgusts me. No one should live like that.

Went to the Philippines.

On the trip from the airport a group of displaced children took control of a bridge and demanded payment for people crossing it. People actually paid too.

I'm a journalist. I was covering independence celebrations there in 2011. I'll say one thing for South Sudan. After you've been there, you're ready for anything.

I'm from one of the most unequal countries in the world, but going to India still blew my mind. Delhi is a heaving, throbbing city, people sleeping in literal dirt next to mansions. Perhaps the pilgrimage to the Taj Mahal was the most eye-opening. By far the most beautiful, perhaps most opulent, man-made structure I've seen on earth, but its mired in the most saddening poverty imaginable.

I paid $20 to my taxi driver for a ride in Honduras, and I thought it was for the twenty minute ride to the beach, but it was actually for her to be my personal driver for the day.

She asked me if I was rich, and I was forced to say, "Si, muy rico".

My friend and I were walking around Reykjavik, Iceland and we came across a stroller next to a small shop with a baby in it all bundled up. It was a bit brisk but otherwise not too cold. The issue was that there was no one near this seemingly abandoned child. We walked about 50 feet up and down the road looking for the parent of this child.

Turns out the mother was just in the store across the street. It is perfectly acceptable to leave your unattended infant on the sidewalk apparently. Crime rates are so low in Iceland that the people there are much more trusting of each other I suppose.

In addition, during out stay there, we saw only one cop...and he was guarding a U.S. Navy vessel at the port.

Worst culture shock for me was going to India. By far. Let me preface this by saying that I'm a pretty accomplished traveler. I was born in the Caribbean to an American and a Brit who both felt that travel was very important to them in raising their kids. I'm 25 and I've been to all 7 continents and some pretty "random" travel destinations.

The first thing I noticed getting off the plane in India was all the people lacking certain limbs EVERYWHERE. I mean you walk out of the airport in New Delhi, and there are people missing limbs, eyes, etc. literally lining the streets.

I was told that they often congregate at the airport to catch the visitors coming out of the arrivals section.

On the drive from the airport to our hotel, we got stuck in the most crazy traffic I've ever experienced. From what I can tell there are no road rules in India. You drive where you have to in order to get where you're going. Left side of the road, right side of the road, middle of the road, doesn't matter. Huge traffic jam? Could be because someone flipped a truck, but it's more likely because a cow is crossing the highway and everyone has to wait for it to leave. Cows are sacred to the Hindu people, so you can't do anything to them and they can literally walk right onto the highway during rush hour.

When we hired a taxi to give us a tour of the city, I thought we were going to get taken. Every time the car stopped, children would come up to the window and show us their maimed limbs or their scarred faces and try to sell trinkets and things of that sort. The taxi driver took us down an alley and tried to make us go into a sketchy looking shopping mall area, which was not on the list of the three things we told him to take us to.

I've never felt more afraid in a foreign location than I did outside this creepy alley in a taxi in New Delhi. After about 10 minutes of shouting, the driver left without making us go inside.

It's just a totally crazy place and the culture is unlike anything I'd experienced anywhere else. The amount of people, and the crazy gap between the poor and the wealthy is also astounding and very much in your face the moment you enter the country. At least that was my experience! India's a wild place, I'd definitely recommend going but it's not for the weak of heart. Or bowels.