Culture Shock - Re-Entry to Your Home Country

Once you have completed your U.S. adventure, you will be on your way home and back to your friends, family and old routines. You will feel excited and proud of yourself for having made it through the ordeals of culture shock now that your U.S. adventure is over.

Warning! It is not necessarily over. For many people the process of re-adjusting to life in your home country can be just as complicated as adjusting to a new culture. If you are like most people, you will return home expecting things to be just as you left them. However, two things will have happened.

• Your friends and family will have continued with their lives while you were away, so things will actually be different than when you left them.
• After living in a new culture, you may have formed new ideas and return home a different person with a new outlook on life.

You will most likely find that while you were away, you learned a lot about yourself and your home culture. You will observe how U.S. culture is different from your own and in what ways it is similar. You may find yourself being critical of your home culture and the ways that some things are done. Be aware of these issues and view your re-adjustment as another step in learning about a different culture. You may find this to be one of the most enlightening aspects of the program.