Surviving the Shock
Krista Soriano
Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: The Current
Instead, it was like the equivalent of picking up this season of LOST when you only followed the first one or seeing the very place of an answer in your textbook but for some reason not being able to translate it to the final exam. Complete frustration! Confused and unprepared, I literally had no idea what I was doing or what to do. Chances are, I was experiencing reverse culture shock.
In the words of Bone Thugs N Harmony, "it's like I'm takin' five steps forward and ten steps back." In the words of the Forum on Education Abroad, reverse culture shock is the "difficult and often unexpected transition process through which one progresses upon return to the home culture after an extensive sojourn in a different culture."
Reverse culture shock is usually described in four stages, according to the Center for Global Education's Study Abroad Student Handbook:
1. Disengagement
2. Initial euphoria
3. Irritability and hostility
4. Readjustment and adaptation
Step 1. Our last couple weeks in London looked very similar to the beginning of the semester. Roaming central London every night with no regard for the pence-pinching mantra we adopted mid-semester (we offered payment in the change we cumulated over the past three months) and singing Eve 6 and Green Day at the top of our lungs, we already missed each other before we were even gone, and we spent our last conversations trying to obtain a clearer grasp of the events that transpired that semester.
Step 2. Then we were packing up and unearthing all the crazy souvenirs we forgot that we bought for our friends and family and started getting excited about heading home. This stage reached its peak at the airport with only security and an eight-hour plane ride in my way of America.
Step 3. [Insert many harshly-worded Facebook messages about my new college life and everything in it to Messiah alumni and anyone else who would understand here. I'd elaborate, but this is already an over-share.]
Step 4. The onset of this stage for me began slowly but surely. Four weeks into the spring semester, and everyday is easier than the last with routines, friends and spring break plans. Though it seems wrong to measure an adjustment to Grantham in four steps, I didn't realize that how true something termed "reverse culture shock" could be, especially after hardly experiencing the more common form when I made an international move.
In the end, life outside the endearingly-termed "Bubble" can be equated to some of the most amazing experiences of my life, but Messiah has always and will continue to have a place in my heart. In the words of an understanding friend: "we may be Messiah College, but we definitely do not have a Resurrection House."
*"Worse" as in greatness, not quality. I highly recommend giving Philly a try if you haven't already.
In the words of Bone Thugs N Harmony, "it's like I'm takin' five steps forward and ten steps back." In the words of the Forum on Education Abroad, reverse culture shock is the "difficult and often unexpected transition process through which one progresses upon return to the home culture after an extensive sojourn in a different culture."
Reverse culture shock is usually described in four stages, according to the Center for Global Education's Study Abroad Student Handbook:
1. Disengagement
2. Initial euphoria
3. Irritability and hostility
4. Readjustment and adaptation
Step 1. Our last couple weeks in London looked very similar to the beginning of the semester. Roaming central London every night with no regard for the pence-pinching mantra we adopted mid-semester (we offered payment in the change we cumulated over the past three months) and singing Eve 6 and Green Day at the top of our lungs, we already missed each other before we were even gone, and we spent our last conversations trying to obtain a clearer grasp of the events that transpired that semester.
Step 2. Then we were packing up and unearthing all the crazy souvenirs we forgot that we bought for our friends and family and started getting excited about heading home. This stage reached its peak at the airport with only security and an eight-hour plane ride in my way of America.
Step 3. [Insert many harshly-worded Facebook messages about my new college life and everything in it to Messiah alumni and anyone else who would understand here. I'd elaborate, but this is already an over-share.]
Step 4. The onset of this stage for me began slowly but surely. Four weeks into the spring semester, and everyday is easier than the last with routines, friends and spring break plans. Though it seems wrong to measure an adjustment to Grantham in four steps, I didn't realize that how true something termed "reverse culture shock" could be, especially after hardly experiencing the more common form when I made an international move.
In the end, life outside the endearingly-termed "Bubble" can be equated to some of the most amazing experiences of my life, but Messiah has always and will continue to have a place in my heart. In the words of an understanding friend: "we may be Messiah College, but we definitely do not have a Resurrection House."
*"Worse" as in greatness, not quality. I highly recommend giving Philly a try if you haven't already.
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