The ups and downs

When you live in a culture different than your own there are waves of Culture Shock that people go through. Some days it can feel very intense and other days you might hardly notice. I have started to recognize in my own heart when this happens. Typically it is every 3 months and is seen as feelings of wanting to pull out of the culture you are in, you can become very critical and negative, things might start to make you annoyed or upset that didn't when you first got here, and/or you start to compare your culture with the current one. It can feel like a storm building momentum.

These ups and downs can be hard depending when they hit. I have had a few while some teams are here and I try to speak out of what I know is true instead of how I might currently be feeling. When teams come everything is amazing and wonderful. Everything is new and different, it is easy to Romanticise it. But when you live some place, just like in America, things start to get old...fast. But add on top of this that you can't speak the local language and are sitting in a city of 4 million people with a different definition of what is rude, well you can see why this would cycle around. The good news is that it is normal and that helps.

This past week I realized I was feeling "off" and just wanted to sit in my room, I was having trouble concentrating on work and on some days simply gave up trying. The amazing thing to me (still) is that once I talked to one of the other girls in my house about it, it all seemed to go away. It didn't feel as big anymore which helps take away the power it can feel it has over me. The good news is that it is easy to deal with, some self care time and talking about it with others who live here and I am feeling back in my groove.