Culture Shock

There are five commonly accepted phases of culture shock:

1) The Honeymoon Phase, in which everything is exciting and new.

2) The Distress Phase, in which everything is confusing.

3) The Reintegration Phase, in which you remember everything being better/easier back home.

4) The Autonomy Phase, in which you recognize the differences between your host and home cultures and recognize that their are good and bad aspects of both.

5) The Independence Phase, in which you are able to realistically see and appreciate the host culture.

It takes different people different amounts of time to pass through all five stages, some have long honeymoons while others spend long periods utterly confused. As for me, and I think for Matt as well, phases three and four come and go. Some days I get frustrated by little things like people telling me that they will do something when in reality they have no idea what I just asked of them. Poor Matt gets an earful when I need to vent about such things. But then there are other days when I realize that I am the confusing one, with my American accent and vernacular. On these days I laugh and try to reword my sentences to sound more Indian, or at the very least, more British. I have learned that a reservation for a table at a restaurant is actually a "booking" and trash cans are in fact "rubbish" or "dust bins".

While I waver between dreaming of cold mornings in Washington and craving the South Indian delight that is the masala dosa, I find myself experiencing more of the former than the latter. India fascinates me as well as frustrates me, but the irritations are minor in comparison to the experience. Just the other day, when I was almost ready to lose my cool with the mail room for not sending my packages to reach home in time for Christmas, an Indian friend of mine brought me some surprisingly tasty camel meat. I am usually able to find a balance between the two. Now that balance might not come on the same day, but it always comes within the same week.

As we are settling in, decorating our apartment for Christmas, Chennai is beginning to feel a bit more like home. I'm sure there will be more phase three days before we reach phase five, but I look forward to the process.

-Abbie