According to my program guide, there are four stages of culture shock: initial excitement, irritability & hostility, brighter outlook, and finally enjoyment of differences. Essentially, what I can expect is a cornucopia of crazy emotions, and finally I'll settle down and get comfortable... only to all to soon be sent off home, where I get to experience re-entry shock. Which is the reverse of culture shock. These aren't exactly things to get too excited about! But, then again, I would much rather be aware that these things were going to happen than be surprised about them.
During the 2nd stage of culture shock, I have all these lovely emotions to watch out for: "frustration, loneliness, homesickness, depression, irritability, and loss of appetite." Seemingly simple things, such as doing laundry or food shopping, can apparently entice so much stress that one finds themselves flung into the 2nd stage. If the culture shock is really severe, then I have uncontrollable crying fits, compulsive eating, and inability to work/study to expect. Now, this post is making it seem like I'm trying to find reasons to not want to go, which could not be further from the truth. With 7 days until I hop on my flight with my lovely travel companion, Lana, I'm going through phases of extreme excitement, and extreme anxiety. The point of this post, is to warn you (the lovely readers) that some of these blog posts will be erratic, emotional, and probably a little whiny. However, I think going through culture shock is going to be an integral part in making my whole experience in Berlin.
I'm just hoping that I'll be able to communicate with people from home enough to help my keep my head together. My main fear is that I will get stuck in the 2nd stage, and be completely unable to enjoy myself there. I'm going to try my hardest to not let that happen, but it might. I think if I can't find a way to pull myself out of that stage the whole journey will have been for naught. Fortunately, I already have a friend on the trip who I will feel comfortable talking to about this stuff, as well as another friend who is off gallivanting in Nepal (!) being a volunteer. So hopefully talking to those girls will help me keep my head focused. It'd better, because as I've already said, the food in Germany, not so healthy... I really can't afford to get into the compulsive eating stage for long!
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