Istanbul
People make each other stranger than they are. Living for five weeks in Istanbul I saw a proof that cross cutting cleavages through a society are a lot more important than the one between cultures.
With the knowledge of all borders of culture being lose and dynamic, I sometimes saw myself being confronted with views which involve borders. I could observe that there was identity construction through me. As I was sometimes told of something being Turkish, meanwhile me not seeing it particular as Turkish. Was it introducing parts of a culture to me, reminding themselves of what is suppose to be Turkish. I am really aware of identity construction, because I know reification is bullshit and done by anybody to simplify and it is me being mostly in charge of constructing my own identity. Still I felt as if anybody was trying to make me a part of "the Germans", was reducing me. The same people at the same time, overreacted if they just felt a slide hint of me saying something was Turkish.
This all shows to me that even though you might be intellectually aware of the phenomena of In-group/ Outgroup processes, you could still do in conscienceless way. Even though you might say everybody is the same, you still look at the differences.
For my experiences, I didn't see a lot. It mostly depended on what you do as your job. Lifestyle is far less influenced by cultural heritage as people believe.
Not to say culture isn't a factor. Rather saying that culture consists of multiple factors from which people choose, with the conclusion that after equation from different cultures similar sums might come out.
Looking back at Istanbul, I just saw the lifestyle of my environment, which at the end didn't differ so much.
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