Choque Cultural (Culture Shock)

Even if you're the most open or prepared person in the world, you can still experience culture shock. Culture shock is basically just depression or stress steaming from being immersed or faced with a different culture. There ar three main stages to cuture shock.

1. The Honeymoon Phase

     I was in this phase for the first few days. Everything is exciting and pretty and amazing and you want to do everything. You are excited for the new things and can't wait to dive into the culture. 

2. Cuture shock 

     This hit me the first Friday I was here, after I went in a walk with friends. I had realized that I really didn't have any close friends here, because I met all of the people for the first time on the plane trip. I realized that I had very few comforts that were familiar, which stressed me out even more. I started to fell really lonely and stressed about the smallest things, like buying a train ticket or booking a hotel. I worried about everything and had trouble enjoying myself and relaxing because of this.

     To deal with cuture shock, I had to work things out in my mind and try to resolve the things I was worried about. I started to plan my trip and got everything booked. I made sure to hang out with my friends and I realized that I didn't need a specific group of friends because the whole group was extremely close. I also tried to be more positive and to not overreact, which can be hard, especially with those people who overthink and stress a lot. I also tried to make connections between home and Segovia and found that they were more than I had previously believed. Taking showers and keeping busy can also helps lot, or at least they did for me. 

3. Acceptance

I'm still not completely there yet but I am better. I can calm myself down and I find I am excited for the independent trips instead of worried. I don't fell as excited as I did in the Honeymoon phase and I have moments where I am stressed, but it is no longer as bad. 

     Every person will have a different time schedule when it comes to culture shock. Some may have a long honeymoon phase, with the cuture shock hitting later in the trip while other may hit culture shock upon arrival. Understanding what you are going through can help you deal with cuture shock and overcome it. 

     Also, the intensity of the phases can differe fro person to person as well.

FYI most of this is just what I went through and did but we did have have a page on this in our preparation materials at my college.