Culture Shock: Part 3

OK so back to the culture shock article I read. Here is a bit more:

The first stage of culture shock is the honeymoon, or tourist stage; this is the fun part. This is the stage where everything is new and novel and exciting and fun and different and cute and quaint and happy, and all the quirky little cultural anomalies you run across make you smile. Since I actually entered the first stage of culture shock while we were still in the States, it did not take me very long after arriving in China (like, the next day) to go from happy little tourist to spoiled, ugly American. I went from "Aren't those pedicabs cute?" to being mad at all the pedicab drivers because they didn't speak English.

I went from being fascinated with China to being nauseated by the sight and smell of Sichuan food. I went from desperately wanting to learn the language to not being able to stand the infernal racket of their constant, unintelligible chattering, and of course there was no doubt in my mind that they were all always talking about me. As I moved into the third stage of culture shock, I began to reject everything that China and the Chinese had to offer.

This is an interesting part because we have experienced this same thing. It's funny when you look around and wake up and start missing the things you had in America. We have on more than one occasion thought people were talking about us knowing we were American. We have also realized how spoiled we were in the states. We start to see things we took for granted. At the same time however, we stopped appreciating the differences the this country has to offer. Like I said before, the stages of culture shock for us has been a roller coaster.

We miss some things, like the day I traveled for 3 and a half hours by metro to find the fixins to make chili...but oh man when it was done...we had a chili feast for 2 days. Then we had Thanksgiving miracle when we found popcorn. We get excited over a different set of things these days...usually it's little things that make us the happiest these days.

Then we see things that we love about being here. The fact you can get anywhere around such a big city by jumping on a number of different public transportation choices. You can travel city to city or just make a trip to an historical monument here in the city. The architecture is amazing and there is so much to see. We try to embrace their cultural differences and understand that we are in THEIR country. We have to play by their rules. This is challenging at times but we love being around the Russian people and listening to their beliefs and thoughts. It widens our thought process.