TikToker Is Sharing 15 “Culture Shocks” That She Experienced After Moving To The USA From The Philippines

Moving to a new city might feel disastrous to a teen. But leaving your life behind and starting a new one in another country? That's a real challenge for anyone.

Christen Eve grew up in Davao City, Philippines. However, when she was 15, Christen had to pack her bags for the US. Now 28, the singer/songwriter has been revisiting the big transition in a TikTok video series where she reveals the "culture shocks" she had experienced back then.

It provides an interesting comparison between the two countries so we figured you might enjoy it as much as Christen's 395K followers.

More info: TikTok | Instagram

P.S. If this turns out to be something up your alley, check out Bored Panda's publications on the "culture shocks" this Canadian woman went through after moving to Sweden as well as the ones this American woman faced in Australia and this Brit was exposed to in the US.

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TikToker Is Sharing 15 "Culture Shocks" That She Experienced After Moving To The USA From The Philippines When I moved to the U.S. at 15 I was surprised to find out that not everybody in the world uses cement and shards of glass as their security system. At our house in the Philippines we didn't have an alarm system, hell, we didn't even have a smoke alarm, but we had broken bottles of glass dammit and that's all we needed

christen_eve Report

Final score:

74points

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Roxy Eastland 3 years ago

Used to see this in the UK, I think it's illegal now. Imagine if the emergency services had to break in, for example.

21points

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TikToker Is Sharing 15 "Culture Shocks" That She Experienced After Moving To The USA From The Philippines Breakfast in the Philippines vs breakfast in America. A huge adjustment for me when moving back to the States is how sugary the breakfasts are here.
"What do you want for breakfast?"
"Oh oil and sugar pls"
In the Philippines we always had rice for breakfast. I mean you had rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but like with fried spam, egg or like fried sausage w/ eggs. When I first moved here and I would try eating the typical American breakfast I would feel sick afterward honestly cuz it's just so bread-based and corn syrup and sugary

christen_eve Report

Final score:

71points

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Sara Rosen 3 years ago

Don't believe the sitcoms. The "typical American breakfast" is pretty rare. Most people just have a piece of toast or some yogurt and fruit. The whole eggs, pancakes, sausage thing is just a special treat.

101points

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TikToker Is Sharing 15 "Culture Shocks" That She Experienced After Moving To The USA From The Philippines Note: I understand this doesn't include everybody in the U.S.

At our house in the Philippines we always had lizards or geckos, whatever you wanna call them, all over the walls and they were great at taking care of flies and mosquitoes. It was common to just be, you know, going about your day in your house and all the sudden just hear *gecko noise*. And the other thing we always had was ants - ants all over the kitchen, forming a line, doing their thing. We didn't bother them they didn't bother us. When I moved here I was so surprised at how much people freak out over having these things in their house and ants in their kitchen, and they buy all these chemical things to get rid of them.

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Final score:

71points

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KJ 3 years ago

Hell no to having ants in the kitchen.

97points

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TikToker Is Sharing 15 "Culture Shocks" That She Experienced After Moving To The USA From The Philippines I moved to the U.S. when I was 15, I'm 28 now... I still don't know how to not stare. In the Philippines, staring is not a big deal. It's not considered rude or bad manners like it is here in the States. Staring is Caring OK. If there was an accident on the road, you would always know, because a huge crowd would form in the middle of the road watching whoever got injured, yes, in the middle of the road with traffic continuing to go by, and of course because I grew up there since I was a baby, it is very normal for me to just sit and watch people. People would stare at me and I would stare at them. Now in America my boyfriend has to tell me all the time to stop staring

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Final score:

57points

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Mark Melton 3 years ago

There's areas of America where holding a man's stare is the same as saying, "I want to fight you". So don't be rude and stare!

14points

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TikToker Is Sharing 15 "Culture Shocks" That She Experienced After Moving To The USA From The Philippines McDonald's, McDonald's instead of McDo and not being able to order chicken and rice or spaghetti at Mcdonald's. That was a really weird one and I was super bummed out about it. Because the brown gravy that goes with the chicken and rice at the Mcdonald's in the Philippines is to die for and yes I would drink it

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Final score:

55points

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Kona Pake 3 years ago

A scoop of rice, two eggs and spam or Portuguese sausage.

12points

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TikToker Is Sharing 15 "Culture Shocks" That She Experienced After Moving To The USA From The Philippines In the Philippines I was so used to just leaving the house with my hair wet. Everyone did it, all the women did it, that's how I grew up doing it there. Take a shower right before you leave the house, and you just leave with your hair completely wet and not dried or styled. When I mover here and found out that's not really a thing I was like *squeak*. I still didn't care. I was like "I can't do this" even in winter I would leave the house with my hair wet and it would get so hard and cold

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Final score:

53points

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Random Panda 3 years ago

I'm in the US and I leave the house all the time with wet hair. Just did it yesterday while going to the store. Why do people think that's weird?

55points

RMA 3 years ago

A number of people from European countries (eg Italy) are convinced it will make you sick.

7points

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Cassie 3 years ago

I'm in the US and do it, too, but I sometimes get comments about it. Not a lot of people leave home with wet hair. I actually own a blow dryer, but haven't used it in 20 or so years. I pulled it out to dry up a spill on the carpet one day and my teenagers were like, "What the heck is that??".

5points

Eucritta 3 years ago

I do so frequently also, and I've never had anyone comment on it, even when I still had long hair.

4points

No Fox Given 3 years ago

I do this and I’m in the uk. I don’t see the problem. It’s only hair… that’s wet 🤷🏻‍♀️

4points

Xenon 3 years ago

I do it all the time, even in the dead of winter.

2points

Eglė Bukauskaitė 2 years ago

laughs in northern european

1point

Satya Bain 3 years ago

Same. My hair doesn't style so I make sure it is clean. If that means leaving the house with wet hair, it's just what needed to be done.

1point

Ashlee King 3 years ago

Same here! I'll hop in the shower, wash my hair, get out, get clothes on and just go *shrug* I don't see the big deal about that or maybe I simply don't give a damn about what people may think lol

1point

Silence Mangrum 3 years ago

I live in Alaska and if you try to leave the house with wet hair in any month other than June or July you will have a sheet of ice before you take 5 steps and will probably get sick.

0points

KatHat 3 years ago

More people should do this. Shake the norms around appearance. If you're clean and mainly covered up then people should mind their business. I'm so much hoping that post-pandemic people won't want to go back to the same levels of make-up, styling, high heels, etc. Save money and time and effort.

7points

Becky Samuel 3 years ago

Bras. Goddammit don't let's go back to 24/7 compulsory bras.

8points

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Martha Meyer 3 years ago

I had a Spanish colleague do this in Germany in the middlwe of winter and end up with icicles in her hair.

5points

Shannon Soltesz 3 years ago

I do it. But I have naturally curly hair that I wear curly. If I blow dry it, I end up with a fizzy mess on top of my head. :) But I do feel like it's rare where I live in the Great Lake region of the US.

4points

Honu 3 years ago

I have curly hair. I can dry it without frizzing with the right diffuser or a bonnet, but I don't do it often since it's damaging. Plus, my hair just looks better when I air dry. It doesn't get terribly cold where I live, though. When I'm going somewhere cold, or if I'm on a business trip and need to look professional early in the morning, I pack a cloth bonnet attachment that hooks on to the end of a dryer. It takes up about as much space in my luggage as a shirt and can dry my hair enough to be presentable in 5-10 minutes while I'm doing my makeup.

2points

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Whitney Anderson 3 years ago

my hair air dries in the ugliest way possible so I could never do this, I'm always jealous of people whos hair dies completely straight and nice.

2points

BetweenTheCracks 3 years ago

I use conditioner in the shower and a leave-in and still end up looking like an electrified Cocker spaniel. So I just dgaf anymore, ha!

2points

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Gabrielle Daylano 3 years ago

I live in the Netherlands and I do this too.. I really don't have the time to do my hair in the morning (I have really thick and long hair, drying it will take hours) and my hair is actually nicer when I just let it dry.

1point

Big Chungus 3 years ago

I always leave my hair wet...going out, going to work, going somewhere...

1point

Auntriarch 3 years ago

I do it too, people sometimes stare. There was a post here a few months ago suggesting that it is disrespectful to go to work with undried hair. I don't mean actually dripping.

1point

Eglė Bukauskaitė 2 years ago

i do that too in northern europe. They dry up within hour or two, so by the time i get dressed, they're almost dry, so meh 🤷‍♀️

0points

Huddo's sister 3 years ago

In Australia it is quite normal for people to go out with wet hair, but I get weird looks if I say I go to sleep with wet hair. My hair curls so much more naturally if it's wet when I go to bed.

0points

Cydney Golden 3 years ago

This list is filled with generalizations. America is a big country. I think a lot of these listers based their posts on a few small isolated experiences.

0points

Stannous Flouride 3 years ago

Average temperatures in the Philippines usually range between 21 °C (70 °F) and 32 °C (90 °F) with the average yearly temperature coming in at around 26.6 °C (79.9 °F). I'm sure her hair tried pretty quickly there and, btw- the thick, lustrous hair of most Filipinas is not likely to frizz up like many Euro-Americans' hair does.

0points

Amanda 3 years ago

I live in the US and I like the wet hair look as well. Always wet my hair when I’m trying to look my best. 😎

0points

jtrisn1 3 years ago

Who lied to this girl? I leave my house with wet hair all the time. No time to dry it, gotta get to work and s**t

0points

Tee Witt 3 years ago

Wet hair soon dries outside, unless raining or snowing

0points

Mazer 3 years ago

I see people with wet hair in public all the time (California), maybe the OP lives in a landlocked state?!

0points

aubergine10003 Premium 3 years ago

I never use a hairdryer.... so yeah, I always leave my house with wet hair. Nobody looks twice.

0points

OCDRobot 3 years ago

Not a big deal to me! I don't even own a hair blow dryer.

0points

April Walters 3 years ago

Yeah, I don't care if my hair is wet. I'm not going to waste time drying it.

0points

BasedWang 3 years ago

I dont see why this would be a problem .. You do you gurl

0points

lara 3 years ago

I do not see what the problem is, really, people go to the beach, come back with wet hair. Hair is hair.

0points

Caro Caro 3 years ago

Maybe a mix of weather and culture differences. In SE Asian countries they don't bother too much with styling hair because of the humidity (my hair would plunge / sag / refuse to stay).

0points

InfectedVoice 3 years ago

It's bad to leave your hair wet apparently, hair can absorb a third of it's own weight and causes damage etc

-1point

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TikToker Is Sharing 15 "Culture Shocks" That She Experienced After Moving To The USA From The Philippines The brooms! This freaking "broom" doesn't do s**t. My boyfriend and I got into an argument about this one day when we were cleaning the house because he was like "What's wrong with the brooms here? I don't understand. There's nothing wrong with them" I was like.. this thing you're gonna defend this really? When I had to sweep with this crappy thing for the first time here in the States, I was like I'm not gonna survive here. This thing does not do anything and it's awful it's stiff and just bleh. Now this is a broom that actually sweeps PROPERLY

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Final score:

44points

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Susie Keegan 3 years ago

I hated those brushes when I lived in Thailand, you need a proper sweeping brush like we have in Ireland otherwise its back breaking!

3points

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TikToker Is Sharing 15 "Culture Shocks" That She Experienced After Moving To The USA From The Philippines Everybody eating bread with almost every meal here and barely eating rice. Bread is a snack and rice is a staple

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Final score:

41points

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Caro Caro 3 years ago

This I totally get. Even here in France bread goes with everything, even a meal with potatoes or a pasta.

15points

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TikToker Is Sharing 15 "Culture Shocks" That She Experienced After Moving To The USA From The Philippines There weren't any Sari Sari stores anywhere. Sari Sari stores are everywhere in the Philippines and our neighbors had one next door so we would always go there and get snacks. You walk up and just pick out what you want, pay for it and just get it out of that little window right there. Also if you were out and about and you were thirsty, you could go up to one of these, you could get a little plastic bag that had been filled with water, tied at the top and put in the fridge. You'd just bite the corner and drink some cold water