This new life that I live is not what I had expected. Being back really isn't being back at all. Instead it's more of an out-of-touch experience in which I don't belong. I found people indifferent as they had already moved forward with their lives. Once again, the lesson is an important one- the world continues to turn and people continue to live without you.
At some point, most of us return from our time abroad and reenter the familiar world that we had once left. But, we awake in our old bed, see the faces of friends we used to spend time with and find that this once familiar world is now more foreign than the country we had just left. The realization that life back home is now different, that the world has continued without us, and the process of readjusting to these new conditions as well as actualizing our new perceptions about the world with our old way of living causes discomfort and psychological anguish.
Reverse Culture Shock
Reverse culture shock has two main parts: