Culture shock, the second time around...

So, I awoke this morning to check email (as I do about once every ten minutes when I'm awake) and had some IS-generated "Your mailbox has been closed" message, apparently because I had too many emails. Okay, so I try to keep encouragement from friends back home in my inbox so I can re-read them when I feel like doing so. Apparently, this wasn't going to work. I went through and got rid of most of them :( but did manage to 'reopen' my email.

While doing so, I found this email Dr. Laughran had sent me about a month ago about culture shock. Yeah, if I had read that BEFORE this afternoon, I wouldn't have felt so utterly alone for those first few days. I know that someone somewhere did some sort of research on the topic, but I do beg to differ on at least one thing it mentioned. It said "Another phase of culture shock is regression. The home environment suddenly assumes a tremendous importance, everything becomes irrationally glorified. All difficulties and problems are forgotten and only the good things back home are remembered."

Uh, yeah. Nice try, but, um, I don't think so.

I do I think that this idea is on the right track, though. Yeah, I've felt an indescribable sense of patriotism and of course I want to go home, but I don't think I'm being "irrational" because I have a newfound appreciation for people and places back home. I've always loved my country, that sure as heck is NOT a new development. Simply being away from familiar things makes me see how much I had taken them for granted.

I mean, it's not like I've never been culture shocked before. Albeit nowhere near the same level of shock as moving to Europe, moving to Maine was indeed a challenge in itself. At the time, I didn't think anything else could be as bad (I was 18, and I've recovered, gimme a break). At the very least, it was a sort of practice experience for me. I hated Maine at first, just because it wasn't Central New York. And it seemed like too many people were forgetting to pronounce their "r's." (I sincerely do not mean any offense.) For someone who had just graduated from high school, something so petty as an accent threw me for a loop. I can now say, I see that for the trivial first-time-away-from-home homesickness.

I got over it, and more often than I'd like to admit it, I feel more at home in Maine than in Utica. The fact I pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth in September 2003 and didn't talk to anyone but my family and exactly 3 friends in Utica is completely my fault. I have a feeling I will feel something like that here, but at least I know to some extent that it's normal. I spent three and a half years in Maine, with a single non-vactiontime trip home in all that time. I also spent quite a few long weekends at SJC when everyone else went home. Now, I'll be spending Easter here, but my butt will certainly be home for the Fourth of July. That, I made sure of months ago.

Stupid me, I had known Dr. Laughran had sent me the link, but simply forgotten that the email was in there... but certainly I did not delete it. :)