Two Kinds of Accommodations (Revised 1)

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If you have the experience to travel or study abroad, then you must realize the most important thing you have to take into consideration is the accommodation. You can plan nothing on traveling spots, transportation or food beforehand because you can pay a visit to somewhere sometime without a fixed schedule, ask locals about the transportation, cook or eat out when you arrive, but you cannot sleep on the bench of the park! As a result, accommodation is crucial to those who go abroad for sightseeing or studying. For students who study abroad, they would often choose either the boarding house or the dormitory at school. You might be curious about the difference between a dorm and a host family. Actually, they are alike at most of the time but we could still make comparison and contracts between them if we analyze them from the aspects of safety, living habits and culture exchange.

    Firstly, when it comes to safety issue, leaving home for thousands of miles, we must know how to protect ourselves and keep ourselves from potential danger. From my own experience of staying in a host family, I think staying in a host family is safer than a dorm because host families are granted by the government and if we have some serious problems with the home-stay, we can ask the related organizations for help. They are eligible to treat us as long-term guests so we need not worry so much. In addition, if we encounter some difficulties, we can seek help from our home-parents. Staying in a dorm, on the contrary, lacks a certain degree of guarantee. In the beginning, we are not familiar with our roommates and so we need to be very careful. There are cases about roommate bringing the opposite sex into the dorm to spend the night and that has posed a great threat to the other people who stay in the same place. Nonetheless, whatever kind of accommodation we choose, we have to keep our own belongings and valuables with us all the time, just in case.

    Secondly, the living habits part. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” When we stay in somebody’s house, we have to obey the rules. We can not take everything for granted. In our own home, we could do what we like at whatever time point. Nevertheless, in others’ home, we act as guests although we do live in the place. Imagine someone moving into our place, we would likewise hope that he can obey our rules as mutual respect. When I was in Canada, I sometimes took a bath late at night. Then, my home parents told me not to take a bath so late someday because the bathroom was right next to their bedroom and the noise would wake them up. I felt embarrassed on the spot because I saw how ignorant and selfish I was--- always putting myself in the center without concerning other people. I really appreciated for them telling me and from which, I learned an important lesson. In contrast, if we choose to live in a dorm, we have to learn to give and take due to the fact that everyone has his own habits and we could not change other people’s habits to cater to our own favorites. In order to manage a well relationship with our roommates, we have to respect them as well. If the cultural difference has led to an irritating problem, we need to negotiate and try to work out the solution with them because it affects to individuals concerned.

    Lastly, the culture exchange part. The difference between staying in a host family and a dormitory is the degree of knowing a culture. If we stay in a boarding house, we would get to know and experience the culture deeply. We live in a local home so we have to conform to their habits and in this way, we could blend into and immerse in the culture gradually. I would say although on the surface, it seems to be monotonous if we merely recognize one culture but we could explore this culture deeper than what we preconceive. There are always surprises that will make us stunned and fall in love with the culture ever since! Staying in a dorm, on the other hand, will provide us an environment that is mixed with multiple cultures because we will meet students throughout the world; thus, we will undergo the process of the so-called culture shock. For instance, when people speak different languages at the same time at the same place, the other people will try to figure out the meaning when they do not comprehend thoroughly.

To sum up, when we are equipped with an open mind to accept all the possibilities, a heart willing to learn novel ideas and new things, and the courage to experience and solve whatever comes forward, I believe either kind of accommodation--- host family or dormitory will amaze us and make our journey colorful!