Surviving the Shock

When you park in front of Kelly apartments thinking it's Smith, or you call the Restoration House the "Resurrection House" by some weird slip of the tongue, you know you've been away too long. Over a third of my college career has nothing to do with Grantham, PA. I spent two semesters in Philly and one in London last fall, joining 97 other students in venturing abroad and away from the Bubble. Each place brought me further than I have ever been from home, and not just geographically.

I wouldn't consider my initial adjustment to London life challenging (with the exception of the exchange rate), perhaps because my introduction to the city via Philly prepared me more than enough. The people I shared my London experience with made all the difference, as explained in a passage on culture shock from my attempted blog written two weeks after I arrived:

They [referring to the Arcadia study abroad admen] babied us a lot when we first got here about transitioning into a new culture. My colleagues still ask me how I'm adjusting to the accent, the smoking ban (I don't smoke) and having a cup of Black English tea every hour. Frankly, I'm more concerned about my microwavable food intake and becoming broke before I book flights to Italy and France. As Prasana put it, "I experienced worse culture shock* moving to Philly last year." Amen!

We joke that the "culture shock" we're experiencing in London is running into a house mate of the opposite sex on the way to the shower, draped carelessly in nothing but a towel, and generally co-habitating with people who don't call themselves Christians. This is certainly not to say that back at main campus or in Philly did everyone act like well-behaved, self-controlled, straight-edge young adults, but somehow, after 14 years (and counting) in Christian education, I'm finally starting to feel like I'm in the real world.

So what did I miss here? Two Welcome Weeks, the South Side Café opening, Feist. In some silly na'veté, I assumed returning to campus and adjusting to Grantham life for the final three months of being an undergrad would be like watching an old favorite movie: you know exactly what to expect and maybe you even have more important things to worry about than Jack Black punting an innocent Baxter into the river. "Yeah, I'm going back today, classes start tomorrow. Want to help me pack?" What is there to adjust to, I thought, other than shorter walking distances, more movie nights and an 8 a.m. class? Never have I been so over-confident about anything.

Instead, it was like the equivalent of picking up this season of LOST when you only followed the first one or seeing the very place of an answer in your textbook but for some reason not being able to translate it to the final exam. Complete frustration! Confused and unprepared, I literally had no idea what I was doing or what to do. Chances are, I was experiencing reverse culture shock.

In the words of Bone Thugs N Harmony, "it's like I'm takin' five steps forward and ten steps back." In the words of the Forum on Education Abroad, reverse culture shock is the "difficult and often unexpected transition process through which one progresses upon return to the home culture after an extensive sojourn in a different culture."
Reverse culture shock is usually described in four stages, according to the Center for Global Education's Study Abroad Student Handbook:
1. Disengagement
2. Initial euphoria
3. Irritability and hostility
4. Readjustment and adaptation
Step 1. Our last couple weeks in London looked very similar to the beginning of the semester. Roaming central London every night with no regard for the pence-pinching mantra we adopted mid-semester (we offered payment in the change we cumulated over the past three months) and singing Eve 6 and Green Day at the top of our lungs, we already missed each other before we were even gone, and we spent our last conversations trying to obtain a clearer grasp of the events that transpired that semester.

Step 2. Then we were packing up and unearthing all the crazy souvenirs we forgot that we bought for our friends and family and started getting excited about heading home. This stage reached its peak at the airport with only security and an eight-hour plane ride in my way of America.

Step 3. [Insert many harshly-worded Facebook messages about my new college life and everything in it to Messiah alumni and anyone else who would understand here. I'd elaborate, but this is already an over-share.]

Step 4. The onset of this stage for me began slowly but surely. Four weeks into the spring semester, and everyday is easier than the last with routines, friends and spring break plans. Though it seems wrong to measure an adjustment to Grantham in four steps, I didn't realize that how true something termed "reverse culture shock" could be, especially after hardly experiencing the more common form when I made an international move.

In the end, life outside the endearingly-termed "Bubble" can be equated to some of the most amazing experiences of my life, but Messiah has always and will continue to have a place in my heart. In the words of an understanding friend: "we may be Messiah College, but we definitely do not have a Resurrection House."

*"Worse" as in greatness, not quality. I highly recommend giving Philly a try if you haven't already.