Cultural Emotion Blog

   After being in Germany for 6 weeks I have definitely experience culture emotion throughout this trip but mainly in the first few weeks. The chapter talks about two types of cognitive elements of emotion and they are primary and secondary appraisal. Primary appraisal is the overall emotion of you being in a certain place, the textbook makes the example of using a person being in the state of Pennsylvania and your general emotional experience in the state. So when I first arrived in Germany just even in the airport having to just take a step back and realize that nobody is going to understand me hit me pretty hard and I was very frustrated and had doubts if i would make it the whole summer. then the secondary appraisal is when I arrived in Erfurt specifically and I had a similar experience of frustration but at the same time I realized that this will be my home for the summer so I had to develop patience and control my emotions and keep a happy and calm mindset. Secondary appraisal  also talks about how will I make the situation different for myself and how can I manage my feelings and I feel like that just comes with time, the longer I am in Erfurt the easier it will be for me to adjust to their way of living ( the locals).
   During chapter 5 the book also talks about goal congruent emotions and goal incongruent emotions. Goal congruent emotions are any positive emotions but there are only 6 of them " Happiness, hope , love , pride , and relief" (Sudweeks, Stewart 1995) , I have experienced every single one of those emotions except for love while being in Erfurt. Pride, because I love to represent the united states, happiness because I am stepping out of my comfort zone and really enjoying this trip. I experienced hope because I was very nervous before I left and all I wanted to make sure is that I had the best experience I possibly could, finally I experienced relief when I finally settled in after a few weeks and realized how much I really am enjoying myself and also how well I know my way around the city as well as going about my daily routine as best as I can to the one I had back in the states. Now I have experienced a few of the goal congruent emotions as well and some of them are , anxiety especially but that is obvious for someone who is living across the world for a summer with strangers and having to adjust to a brand new culture when all I was used to was the American way. I also experienced a little bit of fright , again this is because of having to adjust to the new culture and even making new friends all over again with the group that I am currently with, and finally a little bit of sadness because there are times where I find myself more free time then I like and I get homesick and wish I could just teleport home for a little bit then come right back here!
     Overall it is safe to say that I have defiantly experienced cultural emotion while being on this crazy adventure in Erfurt but have no regrets at all and I have enjoyed every second of it.  

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