Finding a “multicultural” experience that brings me out of my comfort zone is something I found difficult. I moved to the city but am a small town girl at heart. I grew up riding a dirt bike, partying in fields, listening to country music, and hosting birthday parties that my friends and I built tree forts at. My first vehicle was a rear-wheel drive manual Chevrolet pick-up truck that I had to put weight in during the winter so I would not slide across the road. I lived on 140 acres of land, and the closest town was 15 minutes away. Since then, I have moved to the city and began, enjoying the convenience of everything like, bringing clothes to the dry cleaners, riding my bike to work, and preferring to lounge by the pool on a summer day, rather than explore like I used to.
In college, I studied abroad in Scotland for a semester and had the opportunity to travel around Europe to England, Switzerland, Spain, and France. This experience exposed me to a number of different cultures, currencies, and experiences. It was the highlight of my college experience, but I became extremely homesick after a month and a half and, since then, have had no desire to visit anywhere abroad for longer than a couple of weeks.
In addition to being familiar with both the small town and city lifestyles,not many things turn me off or make me uncomfortable. On the other hand, because I come from a small town, there are a few things I am unfamiliar with. I am not as familiar with different races or cultures, the wealth and fashion that comes with living near city suburbs, or the religion of anyone who isn’t Catholic. This is excluding the Europe experience, when I spent most my time in English speaking Scotland. Because of this, I chose three events that would expose me to new things in each one of those categories.
Event #1: A Brazilian Carnival The first event took place at the Fine Line Music Café in downtown Minneapolis. Classmate, Sarah Holman and I went to a Brazilian
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