Week 3.4 - ICC - Culture Shock, 20- and 30-something angst and the IEM.

Regarding the stages of culture shock, and maybe this is an Idiotic Eureka Moment, but I was surprised that frustration and feelings of being anxious etc (the second stage, after the Honeymoon period) was culture shock!

I've lived in three countries and I've experienced it in each, but I'd never considered it Culture Shock (CS). I'd realised the Honeymoon period and the joy of the new, but when the frustration came, I just thought that, rather than CS, I'd actually just peeked through the curtain and seen the reality of the country with all its filth and fury.

I wish I'd known it was just a CS phase. It would've made it much less angsty.

Until reading the Decapua/Wintergerst (E.h.Ds) book, I'd always thought that I'd never really experienced culture shock. Not me, no way - ol' Bailey here just gets on with it, no shock from me.

In reality, I've been through every stage three times.

In some ways, it feels like I've regressed into the CS phase again recently. After nearly seven years here, I've found myself again and again saying "I need a break from here", "I don't necessarily want to go back home, but I want a break from here".

Is this a return to the CS stage or just something?
Is it possibly to re-enter the Honeymoon stage?
Or does having a deeper cultural knowledge prevent this? Like a couple can never go back to that boyfriend/girlfriend stage of their relationship because they have years of good/bad/heartwarming/heartbreaking baggage that will always colour everything they do and say?

Could we not apply these stages CS to the STG program? The honeymoon period - the joy of being back in academia...

Would Big be there to catch me when I fall?