The beginning of second semester is a strange time for everyone at Duke. Freshmen are going through rush and finding themselves with new social groups, seniors are embracing their last semester of college while preparing to go out into the real world, and a good chunk of the student population is voluntarily sleeping out on a lawn in subfreezing temperatures. But the group with the biggest adjustment might be the juniors returning from their semesters abroad. Culture shock when going abroad is expected, but lots of students are taken by surprise by how difficult their transition back to “real life” is. Reverse culture shock is real, and it can definitely be hard to deal with, but luckily there are ways to make your readjustment a little easier.
1. Redecorate your room
If you’re like every other study abroad student, you probably took a semi-ridiculous amount of pictures of your friends, your host city, and all the places you traveled. Put them to good use by printing them out and making a collage to put on your wall. You can also hang up the random memorabilia you’ve accumulated – subway maps, tickets to fun events, postcards, you name it. Another cute idea is to buy a world map where you can mark all the places you’ve traveled, like this one (http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/scratch-map) that lets you scratch off all the countries you’ve visited! Now anytime you start to feel nostalgic you can just look around your room and be reminded of all the wonderful times you had.
2. Keep in touch with abroad friends
This one is especially relevant for anyone who went on a non-Duke program. If your friends were from other schools or even other countries, it’s a huge adjustment to go from seeing them basically every day to not seeing them at all. Being thrown into a situation like study abroad where you’re all pretty lost can help you form close friendships, and you shouldn’t lose that once you’re all back at school. Chances are, they’re having trouble readjusting too, so you can support each other now just like you did while you were abroad. Whether it’s over text or Skype, set aside time to catch up with your friends about their lives and to reminisce about all the fun times you had.
3. Travel
Yeah, it’s a bummer that you can’t just hop on a RyanAir flight to Spain anymore, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on traveling completely. You can satisfy your travel bug just by looking into day and weekend trips right here in North Carolina. Gather up some friends and head into Raleigh for the day, take a road trip to Asheville, or head down to the coast for some much-needed beach time (maybe wait until spring for that one, though). You can even switch up your routine just by going into Durham more often. Although right now the Bull City may seem a little boring compared to Paris and Rome, it’s actually a very cool place, so why not take the time to do a little exploring?
4. Look on the bright side
Right now, there’s a good chance you’re so nostalgic for abroad that you tend to forget it wasn’t all perfect. One major downside to being abroad is all the things you miss about home. So instead of lamenting how strange your life seems right now and how much you wish you were back abroad, take this time to embrace everything you took for granted before leaving America. Call your parents, and make sure to spend plenty of time with your friends. Eat all the food that was nearly impossible to find in your host country (peanut butter, I’m looking at you). Go to a basketball game and be reminded of why there really isn’t anywhere in the world quite like Duke. Your memories of abroad will always be with you, but don’t get so caught up in missing it that you fail to appreciate everything going on now.