Reading about culture shock this week was really interesting. In fact, I think sometimes we can even experience a kind of culture shock during the course of our normal lives, even when we haven't actually gone anywhere that actually constitutes a new culture.
I felt something like culture shock the first time I came back from a semester at school. Home was kind of like going to a new culture: my family had moved to Missouri right after I graduated from high school, so it wasn't really home to me, and when I realized that life at home had gone on without me, that I'd somewhat lost my place of belonging within the family, that there were jokes I wasn't on the inside of ... it was really rough. I was all kinds of emotional for about a week before I could get anywhere even close to normal. Not exactly the best time of my life, but it certainly taught me a lot of things. I think one of those things might be how culture shock is going to affect me. I could almost go down the list of symptoms and say, "Yep, that's going to be me" and "No, I won't do that." I'm sure most people would argue that you can't know until you get there. I'd argue that I'm more in touch with my emotions than most people I know, and I'm almost 100% certain that I'm absolutely right. I'm sure that at some point in the first month of being there, I'll write a post about whether or not I'm correct at present (just wait and see ... I will be!)
My mom has been dealing with me for the past 21 years, and so she's really got my number when it comes to handling my emotions (which are many, and frequent, and potent), and I'm really grateful that she's taught me so well how to take care of myself because (1) I need it badly, and (2) I think it will help me cope with culture shock. I mentioned this in class, but she gave me a mantra a couple of years ago, kind of a set of questions to ask myself when I'm feeling upset or angry or whatever and don't really know why. Or even if I know why, but I'm overreacting. The mantra is, "Never let yourself get too hungry, too tired, or too lonely." So, when I feel myself getting down, I ask myself: Have you eaten today? Are you well rested? Have you talked to people today? Have you taken time to be by yourself today? (Because for me, being over-socially-stimulated can be just as lonely as being under-socially-stimulated.) In class, we also talked about making sure we get exercise, so maybe that'll be another question to ask myself, though I don't think it's as likely to be a problem since I plan on taking long, lovely walks every morning, and I don't exercise any more than that on a regular basis anyways :)
So, that's my plan for handling culture shock! I'm 150% sure it's coming, but at least I have a plan. It feels good to have some kind of preparation!
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