<p class="ingestion featured-caption">I moved to the Midwest to pursue a college education.Alex Potemkin/Getty Images</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>I moved from <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-eras-tour-expensive-us-vip-tickets-brazil-2023">Brazil</a> to the Midwest when I was 19 and experienced a few significant culture shocks.</li><li>I initially thought Lake Orion, Michigan, would match the images of American cities I'd seen on TV.</li></ul><p>When I moved from Brazil to Michigan at 19, it was my first time in the US — and, despite having parents from <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-fast-food-chains-in-midwest-everyone-should-try">the Midwest</a>, I didn't know much about the country.</p><p>By the time I was born, my parents, who had relocated to Brazil as full-time volunteer missionaries in their early 20s, had lived in <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/surprising-things-cheap-22-day-cruise-holland-america-line-2023-4">South America</a> for almost 10 years. Having no intention of returning, they avoided reminiscing about their pre-missionary lives or glamorizing their homeland.</p><p>As a teenager, I opted out of the missionary life my parents hoped I would dedicate myself to and decided to <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.insider.com/lessons-i-learned-from-dropping-out-of-college">pursue a college education</a> in the US. I planned to live with a close friend who had moved to Michigan, and though I knew it would be an adjustment, I felt ready for something new.</p><p>So, in 2009, I packed my bags and left my urban home in Curitiba, the capital of Brazil's Paraná state, and relocated to the Detroit-area suburbs.</p><p>Here are a few of the biggest <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-jersey-to-puerto-rico-biggest-culture-shocks-2024-9">culture shocks</a> I experienced when I moved.</p>