I always thought people were kind of joking when they talked about reverse culture shock. Or that it was just a way of being really pretentious about how you had traveled and now your normal life feels almost as exotic to you as living abroad first felt. However, I have to admit that I now understand to some extent what the phrase is talking about. For me, reverse culture shock has so far come in two forms.
The first form is where I unintentionally bring certain parts of my life from Palestine back here to the USA. For example, I still say "bye bye" whenever I'm saying goodbye to someone. In Palestine my teachers would always say "bye bye" in English instead of goodbye, I have no idea why, but it really stuck and I ended up likewise saying "bye bye". Now, even back in the USA where I know that it sounds somewhat childish, I still find myself saying "bye bye", particularly to my coworkers and to relative strangers.
I also revert back Arabic a great deal, particularly when talking to children or inanimate objects. My gut reaction when something does not go quite right is, "eh! ya Allah, shu hada??" or if someone does something unwise my instant impulse is, "habibi! shway shway!". I also cluck at things when I disapprove of them.
I feel constantly compelled to offer anyone in my house something to drink. I have even been known to offer my own housemates something to drink, and they are not guests. It is safe to assume that if you are in my house I will offer you something to drink. Probably multiple times. It just feels bad to have someone sitting there without a drink of some sort. I am also surprised at how often people say no, they are fine without anything. It is really engrained in me that one always at least accepts a glass of water, but I guess that is not what Americans do and I probably would not be surprised by that if I had not lived in Palestine for a year. I know that my Palestinian mentors must be proud that I have absorbed this aspect of their culture of hospitality.
Another form of my reverse culture shock is being surprised at American things which I must have never noticed before. For example, as it has begun to get cool outside, I am MARVELLING at how warm it still is inside. Seriously! How do we insulate our houses so well?? If I am feeling a bit cold in my room, I just close my window and then it is instantly warm. If it was 50 degrees outside in Palestine, it was likewise 50 degrees inside my house because the architecture was designed around keeping the house cool in summer rather than warm in winter (we had a particularly cold and wet winter in Palestine last year). Insulation designed around keeping a house warm is miraculous. It also means I have severely under-dressed for the weather outside a few times because I forget that it might be colder outside than inside.
I am also consistently surprised at how well American kindergartners speak English. It really is astonishing. It just comes to them naturally, like a first language. The most time I have ever spent with kindergartners was at my school last year so I expect kindergartners to only speak a few phrases of memorized English and mostly Arabic.
I am also surprised at how much energy, in terms of time, money and brainpower we, as Americans, put into buying things. I went into an IKEA for the first time ever when my housemates and I were getting some last minute items for our kitchen and I was so overwhelmed. So. Much. Stuff. Is buying more stuff really what makes America so great? Every weekend we get so many coupons and advertisements encouraging us to buy more stuff. Then all the commercials in English remind me how much I hate advertising because it is just so obsessed with trying to convince me to buy more stuff. Oh, so you think that you are going to convince me to buy your shampoo so that my hair will smell awesome and men will fall in love with me? Please. That is ridiculous and demeaning. Plus I already have shampoo and it works just fine. Of course, Palestine is inundated with advertisements as well, but Palestine lacks the pervasive culture of consumerism that feels so abundant here. There are even advertisements now where individuals are finding ways to destroy their cell phones so that they can buy new cell phones. Destroy your Iphone 4 so you can go out and buy an Iphone 5. It is promoting buying just for the sake of buying and it is bizarre.
My experiences with reverse culture shock so far remind me of Anthropology and how, as a discipline, it seeks to understand a people or a group from the margin. It seems true that when you find some distance from something, you come to see it in a different light. I think one of the greatest benefits of long-term travel is that you learn to put a critical lens back upon your own culture and country. Why do we do things that way? Why do we think that is the best way to live?
All in all my reverse culture shock has led to some hilarious and thought-provoking moments. Thankfully, I have also found some much needed Palestinian respite in Minnesota. More on that in an upcoming post. :-)
