I’ve spent my life traveling. Since I was a kid I used to be a part of different non-government organizations. And when you are a member you travel a lot. Another good thing is that you constantly work on yourself and your development. I became open minded, tolerant and I broke lot of stereotypes that I had had, during the seminars that I’ve attended. But that was in Europe.

I didn’t know the situation in the States. I didn’t have any prejudices about the people there. And I didn’t know what kinds of stereotypes exist there. On the other side, I was not there for a seminar or conference. I came to live and work for four months, and I had to experience everything by myself. It is different to talk about stereotypes and sit in a hotel’s lobby and to go out and run into them.

My first cultural shook was not about the color or the rice. I’ve never seen a Native American before, but I was not used to black people too. But as I said that was not important. During the first two months of my stay I thought that the people from the US are the best-example of how not to discriminate. I notice that they all had equal rights and the low was stick. I loved that. In my country we say that ‘there are lots of holes in the low’, which means that the low is not as good as it is supposed to.

But when I moved from Madison in McFarland and I kept my job in Madison I faced same problems. I had to change two buses and after that I biked all the way to McFarland because there was no a direct bus line. The people that I worked with said that the area where I waited for my first bus, in the South of Madison, was dangerous. I didn’t even realized what was dangerous. But I noticed that every morning they asked me if I had some problems on my way to work. I thought they were ridiculous. I’ve never saw anything strange there.

But I noticed that at my bus station a strange guy was sitting every morning. He looked like a drug dealer because there were always same strange people sitting with him. However, he never said a word and I didn’t find him dangerous. But one rainy afternoon I was late for work. I missed my bus and I didn’t have time to wait for the next one. There was a storm coming and nobody was around. I wanted to kill myself because I didn’t have a cell phone and I couldn’t call my manager. The strange guy appeared behind me. I had to admit that I was scared. He was drank and he advised me to bike to work. I didn’t know the shortcuts.

“I’ll bike with you” – he said. I was not sure. I was scared because the area was known as dangerous. He was strange and drunk. But I didn’t have any choice. I had to go to work. I accepted.

I biked with a black drunk guy on a stormy afternoon. Yes, I am still alive. My colleagues were ashamed when I told the story. He was supposed to kill me rape me or something, just because he was pour and black and he lived in that area. My country is not reach but we don’t kill each other. I faced that the stereotypes exist everywhere. In every corner in the world people live with prejudices. I’ve always fight for individuality. Don’t judge groups, judge the members individually. We are all different.

I even felt guilty because I was suspicious. When we arrived he said “I know you were scared. I didn’t do anything did I?” and he turned his back. “And remember, don’t drink and drive, drink and bike” - he laugh.
I couldn’t stop but think about this new friend of mine.