When I first got to my campus in Hong Kong, I thought people here were not as friendly as Iowans. I am used to complete strangers greeting me with a big Mid-western “Hello,” or at least a smile.

Here, one of the first things I noticed was the residents here would not even make eye contact with me. The moment they saw me walking down the street, they looked everywhere except for where I was.

I was under the misconception that people here could never be as friendly or as hospitable as Iowans. Then, I was proven wrong. It turns out that people may not react to each other the same way across cultures, but being nice is more than just an “Iowa thing.”

People here are just as considerate. They just happen to show their consideration in different ways.

Instead of holding the door open for me at the entrance of Marston Hall, they keep the elevator door open so that I have time to safely make it in.

Instead of making eye contact, and giving me a big smile and a warm “How are you?” the girls on my floor always say good-bye. It doesn’t matter if we have only been in the bathroom together for two minutes while brushing our teeth I still here “good-bye” right before either of us leaves.

Even though people have been courteous and kind to me since I have been here, for some time I forgot to take off my own attitude.

It was my own expectations about what friendliness should be that blinded me from realizing that people here are much like the friendly Midwesterners underneath all of the societal influences.

The thing that made me realize that people here are just like the people in Iowa was something called “hot pot.” Hot pot is like church potlucks.

At every single potluck I have been to, everyone always brings a huge dish with plenty of food. They also bring even more love. There, at the potlucks, I witnessed families getting together with other families and having a good time no matter what was going on in the outside world.

Hot pot is the Chinese version. At a hot pot, there is a huge pot of boiling water in the middle of the table, and everyone brings a type of food, but they leave it uncooked. For example, people bring things like strips of raw beef and chicken or mushrooms.

Then, they dump it into the water to cook it. The best part is when the food is done. This is when everyone reaches into the pot of boiling water with their chopsticks and pull out what they want and put it in their bowl before eating it. This process of cooking and eating continues until the food runs out and everyone is full.

At the hot pot, I saw the same things that I see at the potlucks. It was not the type of food, or how people cooked it. What I saw was the people. Everyone I saw had a good time and laughed with their friends. They all ran around the table making sure that everyone got enough to eat. I could see the exact same type of love that I saw all those years at my church.

That night, I learned the people here are just as loving and friendly as the people in Iowa. I also learned that expression of friendliness is not a universal experience.

It can be expressed many different ways. I learned that I need to leave my expectations about what should be behind. After all, the way of expressing love may be different, but underneath everything, the feeling is still the same.

Ariel Ringlein is a junior in management from Guthrie Center. She is in Hong Kong for the semester as part of the ISU study abroad program.