Honeymoon phase?

In the first lecture of the course Get Finternational (hey, what a familiar name right?) the teacher explained us about the different stages of the cultural shock. And let's be honest with you, I didn't even thought about getting a culture shock before I started my adventure here in Finland and didn't felt like I had the real culture shock.

But while I am reading the stuff about culture shocks, I am getting second thoughts about that.... It sounds all a little familiar, oops.

So let me explain the phases of the cultural shock. 

You are ready to leave your home, starting a new adventure and you are all excited, anxious, scared and all the possible emotions at once. You will dive right in the honeymoon phase. The phase where you are all excited about your new city, it is the best place you have ever been to and you can't wait to explore it (I'm sorry Turku, but I missed this thoughts when I first saw a glimpse of you...). You're overwhelmed by all the new things and in this phase you can't wait to see the culture differences and get to know how it works here. 

After the honeymoon phase the fun is over... You will feel lost. irritated, angry... You will feel frustrated when you don't understand someone for the 1343738th time. You will become more and more aware of the culture differences. Yep, you made it to the rejection phase.

But hold on! You got this and will get into the next phase. After the time of frustration and not getting along with your new home country, it's time to get adjust to all of this: Adjustment phase is here! Everything will click into place, everything will become more and more familiar and will soon feel as the new 'normal' to you. You will learn more about the new culture that you're now part of and will feel more at home. 

After all these hard times it is time for the last phase. the acceptance phase. You will finally feel as a local. Of course there will be moments of homesickness or frustration, but there will also be moments where you can't imagine it doing any other way. 

And you know what? You will have to do it all over when you will be back in your home country! How fun is that?!

While I'm reading through all of this information I realized that I', trying to find my way through these different phases of cultural shock. Maybe more of a mix of all the phases, together but I am definitely going through this. 

But you know what, I kind of like this mess of emotions, new experiences and adventures, the exploring and trying to fit in here in Finland.

Nähdään!

Aniek