What is one thing that will ease your transition into a new culture and help you absorb the culture shock that you are getting ready to experience?
This is a question that I start packing, as I start planning, as I watch my friends and realize that people I've known for years won't be with me on a daily basis. The realization of knowing that you won't be waking up at Maryville college, won't be waking up next to your roommate, boyfriend, family is somewhat daunting as a first overall thought. But it shouldn't be something that shouldn't be completely feared or pushed away. A thought, and feeling, like this should be embraced and in turn accepted and talked about.
Culture shock, instant cracking of ice, is something I believe will happen, and as I prepare for my coming time I look into these symptoms of Culture shock and try to associate myself with things that I assume with happen to me, and how I would (or maybe how I should) react to these situations.
Changes in eating habits and sleeping habits - I feel this happens to me all the time already just with the simple change of weather. As we are experiencing now, much like a hibernating bear I feel more need to sleep longer, deeper, need to continue eating or snacking. With this issue I would hope to regulate what I am doing by following my dietary needs with my PCOS--if the eating gets bad enough that I would need to regulate it--and use that as leverage on myself to make myself know that my future health is much more important, logically, than that extra set of french fries.
acute homesickness; calling home much more often than usual
being hostile/complaining all the time about the host country/culture
irritability, sadness, depression, self doubts; sense of failure,withdrawing from friends or other people and/or activities - I am going to add all of this into one because I feel like they have a common answer that would be redundant to answer multiple times. While depression runs in my family, i could surely see this happening to me if the situation came down to it. The best way that I deal with this, or the way that I have dealt with situations like this in other times of my life, is to write or talk to someone about it (as in a school therapist, a church official, a teacher). Writing, even if it means writing it down and then burning it, helps me release stress and relax which is moves into my next point.
To answer the question, "What is one thing..." My one thing is my writing. I tend to fall on my writing a lot but there are many things that a book won't judge you on for saying that a person will judge you for. There are places, times, and situations where writing down my emotions/almost keeping a diary, would be more helpful than talking to a person.
But--keeping my writing in mind--I would try and find a safety net, which would include teachers, Brock University's "Kirsten", doctors, other international students, and share my experiences with them (as long as it is relevant) and help myself get over what is going on by sharing my experience and talking with other people.
This is a question that I start packing, as I start planning, as I watch my friends and realize that people I've known for years won't be with me on a daily basis. The realization of knowing that you won't be waking up at Maryville college, won't be waking up next to your roommate, boyfriend, family is somewhat daunting as a first overall thought. But it shouldn't be something that shouldn't be completely feared or pushed away. A thought, and feeling, like this should be embraced and in turn accepted and talked about.
Culture shock, instant cracking of ice, is something I believe will happen, and as I prepare for my coming time I look into these symptoms of Culture shock and try to associate myself with things that I assume with happen to me, and how I would (or maybe how I should) react to these situations.
Changes in eating habits and sleeping habits - I feel this happens to me all the time already just with the simple change of weather. As we are experiencing now, much like a hibernating bear I feel more need to sleep longer, deeper, need to continue eating or snacking. With this issue I would hope to regulate what I am doing by following my dietary needs with my PCOS--if the eating gets bad enough that I would need to regulate it--and use that as leverage on myself to make myself know that my future health is much more important, logically, than that extra set of french fries.
irritability, sadness, depression, self doubts; sense of failure,withdrawing from friends or other people and/or activities - I am going to add all of this into one because I feel like they have a common answer that would be redundant to answer multiple times. While depression runs in my family, i could surely see this happening to me if the situation came down to it. The best way that I deal with this, or the way that I have dealt with situations like this in other times of my life, is to write or talk to someone about it (as in a school therapist, a church official, a teacher). Writing, even if it means writing it down and then burning it, helps me release stress and relax which is moves into my next point.
To answer the question, "What is one thing..." My one thing is my writing. I tend to fall on my writing a lot but there are many things that a book won't judge you on for saying that a person will judge you for. There are places, times, and situations where writing down my emotions/almost keeping a diary, would be more helpful than talking to a person.
But--keeping my writing in mind--I would try and find a safety net, which would include teachers, Brock University's "Kirsten", doctors, other international students, and share my experiences with them (as long as it is relevant) and help myself get over what is going on by sharing my experience and talking with other people.
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