But when I said that last time, I was still in this stage of shock. I didn't think that it was going to be this hard transitioning back in to life in the US. And although I still find myself shocked here and there... I am trying something different now.
I am learning to embrace the culture shock.
This period of culture shock has allowed me to look at my life with a new set of eyes. My experiences from Romania/Moldova are still fresh and now that I am home, I am seeing things differently. I have been taking the time to compare how I lived there and how I live here.
There are things here at home that I love that I once took for granted.
I quickly learned in Romania that people don't smile at each other when passing by. People don't take time to greet someone unless they know them or are about to meet them. I found myself looking at the ground when I walked everywhere because most of the time the response to a smile would be a glare, or later turn in to a catcall as I continued walking down the street. Now that I am home, I smile at everyone! And I used to take for granted the friendly grocery tellers who would strike up conversations with me as I checked out, but now I realize how thankful I am to have that!
There are the things that I don't necessarily like, but that I once took for granted.
As we were walking to our host family's upon arrival in Galati, Paul, our host dad, explained to us that we were not going to want to spend any time in our bedrooms except for sleeping. After taking one step upstairs, I knew exactly what he meant. It was like a sauna, but the thing is... I don't know if that is something that bothered me. I think I am more bothered right now that as I write this post, I am sitting inside on a hot day shivering, wearing shorts and a sweatshirt, as the air conditioners blast the room. During the summer, I layer up to be inside and in the winter I take off layers in front of a high thermostat.
I have learned to appreciate the things that I can do and things that work.
Bus schedules, any schedules, the internet, ATMs, etc.—just a few things that work!
I appreciate things that I can do here that I never really thought about. Things like being able to take a shower at the same time as someone else in the house without having to take a cold shower, being able to flush toilet paper, and not having to squat when going to the bathroom.
There are also things that I learned to live without, and wish it was easier to do so here!
Our host mom was constantly making the joke that her cell phone was EXACTLY like an iphone, yet her phone was one of the older Nokia phones. She just thought it was silly that we all had smart phones. Life seemed much simpler there because there was an absence of electronics. Upon return, it didn't seem hard to quickly adapt back to having my cell phone on me at all times, but I wish it wasn't that way!
Another thing that I appreciated so much while I was there was that my main transportation was walking or public transport. The only car I rode in the whole time I was there was a taxi 2 times. I wish that there was as much public transportation here in the US, where I live, so that I wouldn't need a car!
At first I thought reverse culture shock was such a horrible thing but only because my first experience ended in tears in the middle of a shoe aisle at Nordstrom Rack. Now that I have taken the time to appreciate the things I have here, but also compare some of the things I appreciate there... Reverse culture shock has been a lot easier!
There are the things that I don't necessarily like, but that I once took for granted.
As we were walking to our host family's upon arrival in Galati, Paul, our host dad, explained to us that we were not going to want to spend any time in our bedrooms except for sleeping. After taking one step upstairs, I knew exactly what he meant. It was like a sauna, but the thing is... I don't know if that is something that bothered me. I think I am more bothered right now that as I write this post, I am sitting inside on a hot day shivering, wearing shorts and a sweatshirt, as the air conditioners blast the room. During the summer, I layer up to be inside and in the winter I take off layers in front of a high thermostat.
I have learned to appreciate the things that I can do and things that work.
Bus schedules, any schedules, the internet, ATMs, etc.—just a few things that work!
I appreciate things that I can do here that I never really thought about. Things like being able to take a shower at the same time as someone else in the house without having to take a cold shower, being able to flush toilet paper, and not having to squat when going to the bathroom.
There are also things that I learned to live without, and wish it was easier to do so here!
Our host mom was constantly making the joke that her cell phone was EXACTLY like an iphone, yet her phone was one of the older Nokia phones. She just thought it was silly that we all had smart phones. Life seemed much simpler there because there was an absence of electronics. Upon return, it didn't seem hard to quickly adapt back to having my cell phone on me at all times, but I wish it wasn't that way!
Another thing that I appreciated so much while I was there was that my main transportation was walking or public transport. The only car I rode in the whole time I was there was a taxi 2 times. I wish that there was as much public transportation here in the US, where I live, so that I wouldn't need a car!
At first I thought reverse culture shock was such a horrible thing but only because my first experience ended in tears in the middle of a shoe aisle at Nordstrom Rack. Now that I have taken the time to appreciate the things I have here, but also compare some of the things I appreciate there... Reverse culture shock has been a lot easier!
The phone thing was something I thought about a lot when we got back too... Like we lived for three weeks not plastered to our phones all day... We lived in the reality that we were physically a part of... We existed in the physical present with the people we were physically present with. And while the Internet and smart phones aren't all bad (they do great things as well), there was some sense of freedom in not having constant texts or Facebook notifications or emails access. There was a freedom in being able to just respond to emails in the morning or evening because that's when we had acces... I have tried to stop using my phone ALL day, and intentionally leave it on silent away from myself for a while each day. I did well for like five days... But I need to get back to doing better. I think that's one thing I really enjoye learning coming back :)
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