Reverse Culture Shock

When Home Feels Like a Foreign Country

Most backpackers who have been away for a time feel reverse culture shock when they get home.

I know I did, after three years on the road.

Nothing felt right. Traffic lights scared me. I couldn't understand why anyone would take an elevator for only four or five floors. Everything seemed wasteful and superficial. The food was awful.

Eventually I started fitting in again, got a job, acquired more possessions, and life went on.

But this kind of estrangement is a very real feeling for many of us after a spell on the road.

How can you prepare for reverse culture shock?

The best preparation is... preparation! Be ready for it, because it'll probably strike, even if you've been on the road for just a few months.

The best defense against reverse culture shock is to prepare your return home before you leave. Here are a few things you should bear in mind about your touchdown:

• Your experiences on the road may have radically altered the way you look at the world, so cut your friends and family some slack. They haven't been away for months or years, and their pace of change has been slower.


• Your timeframes may be different. Your friends and former colleagues will be driven by time, while you may be driven by a desire to savor the moment. Try to be understanding. They have to go back to work after lunch. You may not have to.


• Your family may be hungry for every last detail, especially if they've followed your trip along the way. On the other hand, some people won't have have read your blog or emails at all. They honestly won't know what you've been up to, other than 'traveling in Africa'. That close encounter with a lion may not have any meaning for them.


• Reverse culture shock means you may not like the same things anymore. A Starbucks latte may pale next to that Ethiopian coffee ceremony you learned just last month.


• You may be bored. On the road, each day brought new faces, new places. Back home, you may feel you've plunged into 'same old same old.' You have, so accept it.


• Your friends may be envious of your trip. Phrases like 'when I lived in a village in the Upper Zambezi' or 'when I traveled across Bali in a ministerial convoy' may be the absolute truth, but they won't always be welcome if your friends can only counter with 'I've commuted back and forth to work every day.'


• Simple things will seem odd. Like traffic on the 'wrong' side of the road.


• Your routine will be very different from what it was on the road. But that's part of life too.

On the practical side, returning home could involve thinking about some of the following arrangements:

• have some work, even if it's short-term, waiting for you when you return


• sort out your living arrangements - will you be able to stay with family or friends?


• leave some money behind so you're not empty-handed - I suffered major reverse culture shock when I moved from Thailand to Geneva - and paid more for a single coffee than I had for an entire day's meals in Bangkok!

Dealing with reverse culture shock once you're living it

You're home now, and nothing feels right. How can you ease back into a life that no longer feels yours?

Here are some things you can do.

Have a big party
Invite all your friends over - and don't talk about your trip. That's right. Most people have probably heard enough about it while you were on the road. Talk about them and their lives instead. Find out what you've missed and what's changed. It'll help rebuild your sense of community.

Keep in touch with your friends
Just because you're returning home doesn't mean you've become non-existent. Email the many friends you've met on the road. Invite some of them to stay. Share your return trip with them. Find out where they're headed to (although beware, if you're really homesick for the road, this might be too much to take!)

Capture your memories
You can do that in many ways. You can print out your blog and put it in a binder with photos of your trip. You can write a final wrap-up blog. You can put your souvenirs on a special shelf or wall. Don't be depressed, you're not saying goodbye to the road. You're only filing things away for future contemplation. And if you're really homesick for the road, you can always pull everything out, and reminisce.

Go to a restaurant that reminds you of your trip
Did you just spend a year in Southeast Asia? Find a great and authentic Thai or Vietnamese restaurant.

Join a language or cultural group
If you were in one place long enough to learn a new language, practice it when you get home. Join a language group or a cultural group from the country you lived in. The Alliance Francaise or British Council may now feel like home. So could the China Cooking Club or the Brazilian Samba Association.

Help others on a travel forum
Don't let all that great experience go to waste. Plenty of backpacking women out there need your help. This may be their first trip. They could be uncertain or first-timers looking for more confidence. You can pay it forward by passing on some of your special knowledge.

Be grateful to be home
Enjoy your family and friends. Remember how fortunate you are to have a place to return to. Think of what you've missed, and try to catch up.

Plan your next trip
If you're part of the diehard breed of backpacking women, start planning. There's nothing to lift the post-travel blues like planning for your next grand tour.

Still can't get rid of that reverse culture shock?

Then you may have no choice but to try some of the following last-ditch tactics once you're back home:

• Greet everyone with the following questions: What's your name? Where are you from? How long have you been on the road? What food are you carrying? Would you like to trade?
• Move your bed into the noisiest and most crowded place you can find. If no one is around, go outside, round up a few complete strangers, and invite them to share your room.
• Next time you spot someone reading the day's newspaper, move up close, peer over their shoulder, smile, and ask if they don't mind sharing.
• Open your kitchen cupboard, pull out only those ingredients with labels written in foreign languages, and mix them all together. Make a face and swallow.
• Find a bus - any bus - and get on. Immediately begin talking to your seatmate by introducing yourself and asking: Where are you going? How many hours have you been on this bus? Has it broken down often? Where are the bathroom stops?
• Fill your backpack. Carry it around with you every day, even to work. Then lock it to your desk and look back furtively each time you take a few steps away.
• Throw out all your shoes except a pair of sandals, some thongs (for taking showers), and your hiking boots.
• Do not take the elevator, ever. It probably hasn't been checked since it was built. And that little certificate with the date stamped on it is a computer-generated facsimile produced by the owner's five-year-old niece.
• Go to a hotel lobby and hang out just before dinner. Walk up to any well-dressed couple or group, tell them it's dark outside and you're a woman on your own, and ask if you can join them.

Joking apart, reverse culture shock does have its positives and one of the most wonderful things about distant or long-term travel is the wealth of experience and understanding you bring with you upon returning home. Hang on to that open-mindedness, and share what you've learned. Make your world a better place because of your travels.