The Effects of Returning Home After Travel
April 3, 2009
One thing that I was warned about continuously before I left for study abroad in Argentina, at orientation once I’d arrived, and for several weeks after was culture shock. Many symptoms were given and we (me and my fellow study-abroad buddies) were offered unending amounts of support and provided numbers to call if we need to talk to someone. But one thing they neglect to elaborate on is the reverse culture shock you face upon returning home. In fact, reverse culture shock was something that was mentioned in passing as we prepared to leave, and something that professors, friends, and family back home don’t know anything about and thus, usually end up frustrated with you because they don’t understand why you’re acting the way you are: critical of anything and everything American, suffering from depression, withdrawal from friends or activities you would normally enjoy, loneliness, and the list goes on.
Initially, it was great to be back State-side, able to see friends and family, but in a matter of weeks I was ready to go back. I was so bored here and threw myself into anything I could think of to make things exciting. I signed up for cooking classes, I went to the Fernbank Museum to check out an IMAX film I was interested in, I took up knitting, and I even picked up my guitar from Birmingham and decided that this was going to be the year I finally made good on that goal to learn to play guitar. But none of these things could even remotely compare to strapping on a 25-pound backpack and hiking around Patagonia by yourself for two and a half weeks. Or constantly meeting new people, taking classes in Spanish, taking weekend trips, and just living and breathing a new culture and new surroundings. Even just getting lost at least once a week or having to constantly check my Guia T to figure out which combination of buses I would have to take to reach my desired destination was enough to stir up the pot and keep things interesting. And then here you are, back where everything is familiar. The language is boring, the sites are the same, the mode of transportation is one you’re familiar with, and classes seem the most wasteful thing after you’ve spent 5 months writing 10 page, 1.5-spaced papers in Spanish and you come back to a country where students grumble about writing a 5 page, double-spaced paper in their native language.
I did some reading a few weeks ago to understand what it is exactly I am going through emotionally and how to deal with it, and one of the sites I came across mentioned that the longer you were gone, or the more you immersed yourself if your host culture, the more likely it is that you yourself have changed so much that a previous notion of ‘normalcy’ will be hard to cope with and thus, the harder the reverse culture shock is likely to hit you. I don’t consider 5 months to be a significantly long amount of time abroad considering, but I don’t know that it would’ve been possible for one to adjust to a new culture better than I did.
“First, research suggests that the better a student adjusts to the host country, the worse the reverse culture shock will be (Bochner, 1973). This is due to the fact a person who adjusts readily can accept new ideas, is more of a risk taker, can meet and talk with people from many different countries and be happy with the stimulation that they find everyday. When this same person goes home, they may readjust poorly because their new ideas conflict with tradition. In other words, they can not find any internationally minded people and finds no stimulation in the country they already know so well.” — source
As I was watching a show on TV yesterday evening a commercial came on that really resounded with me. It was an advertisement from the Michigan tourism board and as it portrayed images of happy people walking around, dancing, and dining, the voiceover declared, “When we get to a place where no one knows us, we become most ourselves,” or something to that effect. I sat there stunned for about 30 seconds as I repeated it to myself a few times thinking how true that statement really is. While it sucks that most of time friends and family don’t understand the magnitude of your experiences, it’s even harder to realize that they don’t understand to what extent you have changed as a result of those experiences.
I still haven’t figured a way to drag myself out of the funk I’ve been in ever since I got back, but I have enrolled in more cooking classes, I’m still attempting to teach myself how to play the guitar, and I’ve cast on (and knit!) several rows of a scarf that I plan to have finish before next autumn. That being said, the only thing that has served to occupy my mind is focusing on upcoming travel plans, an impending graduation in December, and the hope that I will get to return to mi Argentina querida sooner rather than later.
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interesting perspective. i can see where returning home could be a bit of a buzz kill. having to be tied down by responsibilities again… in a place that you like but is so familiar, like you said – it would be disheartening for sure.
you have much more travel in your future though. think of it as a temporary situation.
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I have never spent an extended amount of time in a foreign country, so I can’t relate in that way, but I’m originally from KY and have lived elsewhere for the past 5 yrs. Sometimes (when I go back to visit) I find myself feeling almost resentful of how closed-minded some of my family seems to my life, what I experience outside the tiny town, etc. Hopefully you’ll find yourself growing more comfortable with things soon
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