Hi everyone,
so before leaving, I wrote this post that I never posted (idk why), so there it is. I hope it'll be helpful to you.
As you probably all know, an exchange student feels so many different feelings and she/he may also discover new ones during her/his exchange year.
At the orientation, the women of the association tried to explain to us the different fellings we may feel through a plan.
This is the the plan and the two red lines are the moment when you arrive in your host country and the moment when you leave.
Warnin! It's not the same for all the exchange students because every exchange student is different.
- When you first arrive you may be super happy and excited to be in your host country doing what you have always dreamt about
- Then you may start to have good and bad days, so the black line goes down
- Then there is the culture shock when you start realizing all the differences between your host country and your home countries, the good ones, but also the bad ones. A basic example may be that in America most of the people own guns, or the fact that they are way more patriotic than every other country haha. So it may be hard to get used to some things.
- After that there may be the period when you start doing what Americans do, live how they live and act like they act, so it may seem like you got used to everything and you're cool with everything
- Then you may start thinking about your home country and start noticing all the differences again. This is usually around Christmas period which is usually the time of the year that you've always spent with your family, so it may be hard
- After that period tho, it'll all be fine. You are already used to everything, you can now speak English fluently and you can understand everything, you've made strong friendships, you're confident and you're happy. Plus, the weather is getting better, so there's more things to do and there's prom and graduation if you go to America
- The last mood change in your host country, we'll be during the last month. You'll be happy to see everyone from your home country again, but on the other side it'll be the end of an amazing journey that made you grow into the person you became, so it'll hard to let that go
- Once you're home, you'll first be happy. Everyone is happy to see you and you're happy to see everyone, but when your routine will start back again, there'll be the reverse culture shock. You'll probably feel like nobody understands you and it probably feel like you're home because your heart is now divided into 2 places, so yea it'll be hard
- But at the end you'll find your ways to cope with everything!