1. Denial
You’ve just gotten home and already you’re starting to feel overwhelmed. You’re hungry, you’re jetlagged, and the fact that you’ve already left your host country hasn’t hit you yet. Your body has left but your mind’s still there. Next thing you know you’re already packing for Siena and wondering where the time has gone.
2. Reverse Culture Shock
Then the reverse culture shock hits you…hard. Only a few months ago you were sitting in a cafe on a culinary journey and now you’re at Saga. Everything from the food and the clothing to the way people talk and act are different. You spent so much time adjusting to your study abroad culture and now you’ll have to readjust to the American way of life.
3. Depression
All you want to do is go back to your study abroad country and it makes you sad to know that you can’t. You called your host country your home for a semester or two, so it’s only natural to miss it. Combined with the reverse culture, it’s hard but you have your Siena fam and your friends from studying abroad to go through it with you.
4. Obsessively talking about your time abroad
Somehow no matter how hard you try to not talk about your time abroad, it always works its way into all your conversations – so much so your friends and family start to hate you. You can’t help it that everything reminds you of your former host country. And all you want is for everyone else to love your study abroad country the way you do. To be honest, this stage lasts the longest.
5. Adjustment
You’ve settled back in at Siena and you’re glad to be back in the swing of things. In a way, you’ve grown up tremendously over the course of your study abroad experience. You’ve found a new appreciation for both other cultures and your own. You hope to apply this newfound growth to your future and hope to go abroad again one day soon.