Reverse Culture Shock: Signs and Symptoms

Just because you're not traveling doesn't mean you have to stop carrying a suitcase.

I took a shower today, at my mother's request (Mom: "Treat the world to a better you." Me: *rolls onto back and plays dead*). In the shower, I got to thinking: reverse culture shock is kind of a misnomer. (Showers, like beer, really get me thinking deep thoughts.) Nothing about returning to New York shocked me; after all, how surprising can your hometown really be? Not very, methinks.

Reverse culture shock, instead, might be more properly identified as reverse homesickness - for me, at least, it's not that American culture is so shocking; it's just that there are a whole bunch of things that, in the year-long interim of traveling through Europe, I forgot pissed me off in the first place. 

Take TV, for example. OH IT'S SO REVERED/REVILED, ISN'T IT? After only a week of being back at home, I thought my head was going to explode if I watched even one more show about any of the following: a) severely obese people b) the U.S. prison system c) drug addicts or d) pageant children and their mothers. IT WAS TOO MUCH. It started to seem that every television program that was meant to "educate" us actually just showed how horrible other people's lives were - so we could point and laugh. It honestly started to affect my mood, and I longed for the TV-free life Dan and I had been living as travelers.

But TV can be avoided - there is that handy little "off" button, after all. Other, less controllable things started to bug me . . . like going to the grocery store. After a (nice) trip to the Trader Joe's in Union Square (a store we adore) (<-- that rhymes), we realized we'd missed a few items and had to go to a local Fine Fare. That's when it happened. The complexity and abundance of products was overwhelming. Everything had screaming orange stickers with "2 for $5!" or "Buy 2 Get 1 Free!" on it. And worst of all, the labels could have been written in Cyrillic for all I could tell: I was so used to purchasing simple, natural ingredients that I'd forgotten how to navigate in this land of "high fructose corn syrup" and "red coloring #3." It was confusing and intimidating, and I remembered how much I hated the lengthy process of deciphering food-industry-speak just so I could make healthy choices. 

This is what downtown Manhattan looks like from across the East River in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

So I purchased a tank of propane and a box of matches and set that shit ON FIRE made a decision to stop wishing I was back in Europe and start embracing the fact that I was home. Here's what I did to overcome my reverse culture shock/"home"sickness:

1. Took off my pants. Why not be comfortable, right?

2. Made, then ate, a delicious burrito. Because everyone knows there isn't any real Mexican food in Europe.

3. Made a list of little stuff I'd missed doing while I was in Europe - things I could only do at home. Here are some of the things I put on the list: paint my nails (not that painting your nails is illegal in the E.U. or anything, I just didn't want to be carrying highly flammable, potentially messy nail polish + remover in my suitcase), leisurely read old issues of Harper's magazine while drinking green tea, eat pumpkin pancakes with maple syrup, and wear pajamas for entire days at a time.

4. Started doing stuff on the list . . . slowly.

5. Changed my mindset. Even though this is my native culture, I resolved to treat coming home as an adventure, much like I treated heading off to Europe.

6. Made plans of things to look forward to in both the near and distant future. Things like grabbing lunch with a friend (near future) and buying tickets to the TBEX (that's Travel Bloggers EXchange) conference in Colorado (distant future).

7. Stuck to a routine. Despite escaping the initial horrors of jet lag, I found that after two weeks of being home my sleep and work (i.e. writing) schedules were way off: some days I was falling dead asleep at midnight and waking up at 9; other days I'd be stuck with severe insomnia which kept me up until 5 AM, and then not wake up 'til afternoon. Make a schedule; stick to it. Melatonin helps; so does red wine.

Then PRESTO CHANGE-O! REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK BE GONE! 

See, it's like I'm a doctor, but better, because my advice is free. 


Have a good day! Bye!