Eeeek... Culture Shock!

It all starts as a downward spiral, you make your way to the airport and say goodbye to good friends you’ve made while travelling. Handing over your passport at Customs the feeling sinks in, you’re going home, this time for good.

Elation through to saddness, you worry whether everything will be the same, or whether things have changed. Whether your friends you’ve made travelling will stay in touch, whether your dog will recognise you after four years away. Culture Shock, a reality whether you are travelling to a new place or returning home.

Personally I cope better with Culture Shock when I arrive to a new city, town, or country. It’s the adrenalin that makes the differences exciting, from squat toilets of Asia, the ’taxi, taxi.. you want taxi’ while walking in Ubud, Bali, to the non-exsistant customer service of England. Because travelling is not a permanent state, my mind shifts from needing life and the world to be a relatively easy place to live, to being inspired and enlighten by challenges that cross my path.

Returning home can be a different story. The Culture Shock of being back in your old home town, can leave you with sleepness nights and a total feeling of being trapped. I experienced this heading home from Asia.

After six weeks in Asia returning home to Wellington was the most bizare experience I had ever had. I noticed how everyone was in a rush to serve, the convenience of 24 hour markets, and the WIDE WIDE streets. Walking past a taxi stand I was ready to defend the nuisance ’taxi, you want taxi?’ calls. This all made me smile, I felt elated and appreciative of everything around me.

In Asia the traveller is a constant magnet for hawkers and ogglers. I guess I felt glad that I could just now mingle in with society without any bother, and become another insignificant being obilvious to the world for a little while.

For an instant the feeling felt great, but then it felt odd. I digged deeper into my inner-self and questioned change, ’why hadn’t anything changed since I had been back?’. Seeing people live the most humble lives in Asia with so little and still being happy, I wondered, ’does materialism and convenience really matter to happiness?’ ’Who are these people in glam clothes, wondering about their next pay check?’

It appalled me that I found comfort in the warm cocoon of my duvet, and pleasure with a hot shower and scrub. It appalled me that we planned our week around Friday nights and how ’smashed’ we could get, or whether we would ’pull’. I felt like screaming, ’don’t you know that this is bullshit! There is a world out there so incredibly amazing, people who are less able who will offer you their hospitality and go without, while you sit there and complain how your life is so miserable.’

As a traveller, everything seems so significant when you reach your destination, from the smiles on people’s faces, through the the quaintness of rustic buildings. Reaching home, I wanted to so much cling to the brilliance of just being.

Travelling makes you realise that your worries are worthless. You are this tiny insignificant being, just living. Regardless of what you do or say, the sun still rises and sets, families still beg on the streets. Travelling opens your eyes, not only to the world around you, but to your inner-self and who you really are.

How did I cope with Culture Shock? I took moments to just step back and breathe, and appreciate the world for all it’s ugliness and all it’s beauty. I adjusted slowly into the work mode, appling my thoughts and values I had discovered while overseas to everyday life. I accepted people as they were, I didn’t expect them to change just because I had. At those times I felt I was becoming too self-consumed in tiny thoughtless worries, I thought about my travels, the people I met along the way, and what a fantastic opportunity life had given me.

I now have the prospect of entering another phase of Culture Shock when I return from living in Italy for six months, to the craziness of London, UK. The same Culture Shock anxieties drift in and out of my thoughts, (remembering how to cross a road!), but all I have to is rely on my inner-self and never let go of the brilliance of travelling and being.