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"It really does broaden your understanding and change how you see the world." Clay Pearson
Birmingham-Southern College
   
Returning to Life Back Home
Just as you had to adjust to your new life abroad, you will also need to re-adjust back to the culture and lifestyle of your home community. At times, this process can be more difficult than your transition into your host culture because you may find things different from how you left them, even though you expected everything to be the same.

Reverse culture shock is described in four stages:

1. Disengagement
As you prepare for your return back to your country of origin, you also begin to realize that it is time to say good-bye to your friends abroad and the place that you have come to call home during your studies overseas. With the hustle and bustle of finals, good-bye parties, and packing, your last few days fly by so fast that you may not have any time to reflect on your emotions and experiences.

2. Initial euphoria 
After the airplane touches down and you are greeted by your friends or family, it will likely seem very exciting to be back in your home community once again. You become reacquainted with the people you have been missing, and much as everything seemed new and exciting when you first arrived abroad, you may find that everything back home seems new and exciting too.

3. Frustration
You may experience feelings of frustration, anger, alienation, loneliness, disorientation, and helplessness and not understand exactly why. You might quickly become critical of your native culture. Depression, feeling like a stranger at home, and the longing to go back abroad are also not uncommon reactions. You may also feel less independent than you were while abroad.

4. Gradual readjustment
Things will start to seem a little more normal again, and you will probably fall back into some old routines, but things won't be exactly the same as you left them. You may have developed new attitudes, beliefs, habits, as well as personal and professional goals, and may see things differently now. The important thing is to try to incorporate the positive aspects of your international experience with the positive aspects of your life in your native country. Hopefully, the knowledge and new perspectives that you gained while studying abroad will stay with you for the rest of your life.

*This section was adapted from "Reverse Culture Shock." Students Abroad. 15 Aug. 2007 <http://www.studentsabroad.com/reentrycultureshock.html>.		  




How to Integrate Your Experience Abroad into your Daily Life Back Home
  • Become a Student Ambassador for Spanish Studies Abroad. This is a great opportunity to stay connected to your own study abroad experiences, share those experiences with others and promote Spanish Studies Abroad programs to your peers.
  • Volunteer to work on campus or in the Spanish-speaking community. Your experience abroad has broken language barriers at home as much as it did in your host country. You can join or create a volunteer organization or interest groups designed to help the Spanish-speaking communities in and around your university or hometown.
  • Continue learning and using Spanish. The best way to maintain and develop the language skills that you have acquired while abroad is to take higher level Spanish courses, join or create a Spanish language club, and integrate conversational Spanish into your daily with other Spanish-speaking friends. It may also be very beneficial to keep up your vocabulary by continuing to read regularly in Spanish.
  • Continue learning more about your host country. Use your firsthand knowledge of your host country as a basis for taking related courses such as geography, history and international relations. Build on your knowledge by reading newspapers and books, viewing films, and basing research projects and papers on your host culture. Use additional information gained in these ways to make presentations about your experience more interesting.
  • Investigate careers or internships building on your international experience. Whether domestic or international, any internship or job will see your experience abroad as a stepping stone towards better communication skills and holistic awareness in any of your fields of interest. Visit your university’s study abroad office or career development center to get the support you need to pursue the internship or career path most suited to your interests. Every potential employer needs bright, independent thinkers with good international skills.
  • Keep in touch. Write your friends in your host country; address and stamp at least two envelopes so you write at least twice a year! Keep up-to-date by sending photos. Write a letter to your host institution explaining what the experience meant to you. Subscribe to a host country newspaper or read current issues in the library or on-line. Plan a return visit to your host country or invite friends to come see you in your home city.
  • Integrate the best of the two cultures. Don't feel you must give up one at the expense of the other!

This section was adapted from "Reverse Culture Shock." International Center At the University of Missouri - Columbia. 30 Nov. 2005. 15 Aug. 2007 <http://international.missouri.edu/studyabroad/after/cominghome.shtml>.
 

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