Reverse Culture Shock: What is Normal?

Greetings from Highland Park Illinois! The last two nights I was in Canton Ohio, the night before that I was in Montclair New Jersey and the night before that I was in Aubervilliers France. Whew.

Most travel blogs would stop once their author returned home, but as I do not have a clearly defined sense of home and do not feel settled at all I will keep posting for a while more. Plus I still haven’t talked about most of my time in France, nor have I finished talking about my Spring Break, nor have I even mentioned the fact that I went to Asturias and Germany. So I still have many posts ahead of me to write; be excited.

I am now back in the United States and I am having a hard time readjusting. I feel more unsure and confused now than I did when I first got to Spain (the misadventure about going to the wrong house aside). I think it is because I went to Spain knowing that I will face a host of new sights, ideas, sounds, smells, habits, foods and pretty much everything else. That kept me on my toes which made me well prepared to face the challenges of life abroad. But coming back has been hard because I had the entirely wrong mentality. My Georgetown program hosted a talk on dealing with reverse culture shock, but instead of going home right after that, I spent two months in France. Thus, while I was prepared for reverse culture shock, I just got a lot more of the normal kind. 

I came back to the US thinking that I was going back to where everything would be “normal” for me again. But, I had a taste of my current problems with the highly charged word of “normal” on my British Airways flight from England to the US. A flight attendant asked me if I wanted tea or coffee, I asked what kind of tea there was and she said “the normal kind.” I did not know what she meant. Normal tea (the cousin of Honest Tea) for me in France was actually a berry infusion popular in Germany. Normal tea for me in Andalucía was Moroccan sweet tea. Normal tea for me in Salamanca was a Lipton Earl Grey. It ended up being a black tea, my first cup of black tea in my seven months of tea in Europe. I guess I am abnormal in the eyes of British Airway flight attendants.  I came back thinking that things would be familiar and comfortable, but in my few days home I have already felt very out of place and confused, not to mention the jet lag.

Thus starts what promises to be an unusual part of this travel blog: the documentation of my re-entry into American society. I know that most of my audience is American so me turning the lens to examine our country may come across as odd. But it is odd for me too. I am now surprised and confused by things that were normal to me eight months ago and I am not sure if I will be able to explain my state of mind as clearly now than I was able to earlier. Self-examination is always tough.

Although I am physically within the United States, I still feel that I am on the outside looking in. This unusual situation of being outside my own culture is compounded by the issue that I am both being invited to delve back into it, as it surrounds me and thus forces me to participate in it, but I am also being asked (and volunteering) to tell of my adventures abroad. My readjustment is made more difficult as I cannot let myself (nor do I particularly want to) let go of my memories of Europe. I could more easily acclimate myself to European life as I wished to temporarily shed my Americanism and put on a new skin. But while I was ready to come home, I was not ready to readjust to American culture.

Really, I just want to eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but I still want to eat it at 3pm and then take a siesta.

Comments

[Maud Lavin]

If the U.S. seems odd to you, that's a very healthy sign. I enjoyed your post and loved the last line especially.

[Mara]

I'm looking forward to hearing about our culture from the outside in... part of the reason why I'm a total sociology nerd ;-)