It is easy to be knocked over when adjusting to a new culture when studying abroad, but the return home can be just as unsettling. This psychological stress is known as "reverse culture shock."
After immersion in a foreign country and its customs, those norms become most familiar, and the everyday things in the United States may seem strange. Not only do you have a more sophisticated view on American life, but, having lived with a different lifestyle, things people once took for granted may seem new again.
There are normal stages students go through when reentering the country, according to Rebecca Laumann, director of the international exchange office at The University of Memphis.
"It begins with excitement," she said. "But soon you realize that other people are not as excited to hear about your experience as you are about sharing it."
Following this, you may feel depressed or irritated or antisocial, but these feelings will subside.
"I felt really weirded out," said Jessi Beigel, a senior marketing management major at U of M.
"This is your home, your own culture, but it's still weird," she said. "You've gotten used to a different culture."
Beigel studied in Edinburgh, Scotland, last spring.
The experience can be disorienting to some and a great letdown to others.
"Initially, I was grateful and relieved (to be back)," said Stephanie Kim, a senior theater performance major who studied in Arezzo, Italy, last semester.
But the return to friends and family was, for her, "anticlimactic."
The hardest adjustment can be re-entering the routines of the community you left, she said.
"One of the first things I felt (in Memphis) was an overwhelming sense of commercialism, she said. "I walked into Wal-Mart and hyperventilated for five minutes, and I used to love that store. But one of the biggest things to adjust to was the difference in social clocks. Schedules here are more defined and hurried."
When abroad, you learn new rules about human interaction, food, language and daily schedules. Upon returning, you are more observant about the rules of the society you were born into.
Will Thompson, an assistant dean of undergraduate studies for the college of arts and sciences, said the study abroad program is meant to give students an appreciation of other cultures.
"You become keenly aware of the differences between our culture and other cultures," he said.
This heightened sensitivity to the U.S. culture grows from the appreciation of other cultures developed while abroad. While it can be a difficult, gradual process, it can bring greater understanding of more than one culture from only one trip.
The international exchange office gives articles to further aid returning students. However, the best resource is speaking with another student who has already completed a study program, according to both Kim and Beigel.
"I had a friend who went through the same program, and I relied on her. It was calming to know others felt the same way I did," Beigel said.
