In this video I’m talking about cultural awareness abroad—and I’m not talking theory. I’m talking a simple “hack” that helps you survive culture shock (or at least minimize it): get out among people and do something that pushes you outside your comfort zone. My wife and I chose a date-night-style experience that felt straight out of the movie Hitch—a cooking workshop we found in a WhatsApp expat group. It was hands-on, social, and it forced me to stretch a bit… because it was vegan, and I’m a meat guy. But that’s the point: learning begins as soon as you’re uncomfortable. What made it powerful was the cultural mix. We’re in an Ethiopian restaurant we love, learning Jamaican cuisine from Chef Troy, with Chef Betty (Ethiopian) and Chef Ashley (Philly—don’t confuse that with “American”) guiding the whole thing. While we chopped, stirred, and ate family-style with our hands off that big tray with the thin bread on the bottom, we ended up rubbing elbows with expats from places like Panama and Denmark and hearing real stories—why people left, what’s happening back home, and how they’re choosing where to settle. My takeaway is simple: your way is not the way. When you put yourself in shared experiences like this, you build empathy fast, you learn how other people operate, and you start blending into your new environment in a real, practical way.