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I am going home to Dubai early next month for 3-weeks, to be with the family. I haven’t left Europe for about 18 months and am excited, but at the same time a bit anxious and quite pensive.
I know that being home will be great. But I know I have changed, and I know Dubai has changed (probably a lot more than I realize), so I’m not quite sure how I will feel. This will also be the first time home after such a long spell living abroad, it will be the first time I look at my life in Madrid from far away, and re-look at my life as it was 2-years ago in Dubai.
I was speaking to a friend yesterday about the first time he went home to the US after a year in Spain — he said he had “reverse culture shock” (is that a formal term?). Having lived in Dubai over 6 years, culture shock is the last thing I expect, but I really don’t know what I’m going to feel. Dubai and Madrid are as different as gold and omelette, so we’ll just have to see.
Have any of you been in the same position? How did you deal with going back home? How did you feel at home? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:14 am
I’ve lived in Germany for nearly 3 years and each time I return to the US, the reverse culture shock dissipates a bit more. My advice for the first trip back: surround yourself only with those people and things you love. They make it easier to get past all the strangeness you feel being back; all those things you hated about your homeland in the first place only stick out more on your first return so it’s important to stay around positive people.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Yes! This is one of many things that I suppose long term travelers, permanent travelers, expats and the like share.
Recently I have had to return to the US every few years to visit an elderly parent, but before that, like many expats, it had been nearly a decade since I last returned to the US.
It was quite a shock exiting the plane and into the Detroit airport. Almost everyone was so pasty white (like me), and somewhere in the range from overweight to outright obese (again, like me). Ironic, perhaps, to be shocked simply by seeing people like me, but I was.
After that, maybe the next thing was how US-centric, or at least Western-centric, Americans tend to be, and on any range of topics, from poverty to trade to climate to music (guess I should let that go) to language to toilets and on.
Will be interested to read different perspectives on your post.
Cheers, Tom
May 13th, 2008 at 4:09 am
I have never been away from home for more then a couple weeks. In a little less then two weeks, I will be visiting Spain for four week and can’t wait! The landscape of Dubai has definitely changed in the last couple of years, but the people are still the same.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:30 am
I always go back with a little bit of happiness and sadness.
The happiness is knowing that going home is always possible. It’s just a plane ride away.
The sadness for me is realizing that life goes on when I’m not there. People get older, places change. Going down memory lane and remembering the place where this or that happened…
Then I take advantage of everything I LOVE. Maybe I over indulge a little bit, but that’s ok. By the time I leave, I’m ready. Again with the knowledge that these two places are not TOO far away.
As for the culture shock itself, or reverse culture shock… I really combat that when i indulge in things I can’t get back home. Then I notice some of the differences and similarities between me and my surroundings, the place that made me who I am. It helps explain a lot and is a good time to be introspective.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
My wife and I work at McMurdo Station, Antarctica and even though Christchurch New Zealand is the first city we reach upon leaving the Ice, LAX is always the biggest Culture Shock experience for me. Everyone’s on their cell phones, people in a big hurry…easily gets on my nerves quickly after being around only 200 or less people for six months during the Austral Winter!
May 15th, 2008 at 6:46 am
I’m going home to India from Dubai for the first time in eighteen months, in July :)) So I think I know how you feel. I guess the secret is not to expect anything from any place. Take it day by day. All the best. I’m sure you’ll have a blast with your family and friends
May 21st, 2008 at 11:21 am
I’ve felt a similar feeling. I’ve spend time in Quebec and France without knowing too much French. So I grew accustomed to speaking less to strangers and built up assumptions that the people around me wouldn’t understand what I was talking about. That barrier existed when I returned home, especially after Quebec where I was surprised to find few people than France that spoke English. The Americans in the airport seemed very foreign to me.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:32 am
I have been living in China on and off for over four-and-half years, and will be going home to Vancouver on June 30 with my wife who got her immigrant visa in April. I have gone home three times since first coming to China to teach English in 2003, and it gets harder to adjust each time because of the big changes happening all over the city. New buildings have gone up while others have come down, people have either moved on or passed on, all these factors made me felt uneasy when I was home, and couldn’t wait to return to China. The only time I felt at ease was in my bedroom using my own computer, listening to my favorite radio station, and watching my favorite TV shows (I miss ice hockey while in China!).
The good thing this time is that I will not be alone anymore. My wife will experience as much culture shock as I will be experiencing reverse shock. Also, I have been excited about going home, so I hope it will make (yet another) re-entry a lot smoother. I will probably take a week off showing my wife around the city instead of rushing into job hunting just to calm the nerves a bit.
Thanks for reading, I stumbled upon your blog while bored and Googling “reverse culture shock”.