Reverse Culture Shock

I'm sure most of you have heard of this phenomenon, and those of you who have lived outside the United States have certainly experienced it. I am still coming out of reverse culture shock this week after recovering from jet lag. Things seem really different in the United States, the culture, the pace of life, entertainment, and even the food. And I feel perhaps even more isolated than before, isolated, not only in the physical sense of separation, but also in my interactions with my friends. It's going to be a difficult recovery, but I'm sure I'll be able to get out of it soon enough. What makes it even harder is the fact that currently I am in a waiting stage between two life experiences, France and Brown. In ways, this is the summer of purgatory, but maybe it doesn't have to be.

Fortunately, I have been making a reading list, continue to read daily devotions in my walk through the Bible in a year, and am starting to get into contact with the friends I haven't talked to in a long time. I also have some travel plans to see friends and people I have missed. These things don't make it any less difficult for me to get out of my current state of confusion, between France and the United States. The language transition was a little rough at the Paris airport, but I'm feeling a bit better about it now.

I guess it's the price that you pay for being away from the United States for several months. That doesn't mean that it's not been worth it. It's just that there are challenges that I'll have to continue to go through. Necessary challenges all the same. Coming back to the United States, I feel like a different person, someone who has grown up living on my own abroad. No price tag can be placed on that kind of experience. It's like the Mastercard commercials.

As I finally close the blog, I leave my experience in France behind with details archived in the blog text, only to retain the memories that will always stay with me, wherever I go. It's been easily one of the most formative years of my life. But I'm ready to take it with me to the next stage of my life. So here goes.

Home at Last

My final day in Mayenne was a true joy, aside from the slight malaise that ached at my heart as I said goodbye to my colleagues at the lycee and college. Saying goodbye is hard for anyone, but this time it especially was painful. I made Mayenne my home for almost 7.5 months, and it was incredibly difficult to leave it. It was slightly depressive to walk outside in the glimmering sunshine that showered over the small country town and to know that I wouldn't see it the next day. However, it was reassuring to think that I would return to this beautiful place once more in a couple years when I will come back for my graduate program in French studies at Brown.

For lunch on the eve of my departure, I went to a family's home from the Reformed church. They're an elderly bourgeois couple. And that truly manifested itself when I arrived at their home in Fontaine Daniel, which turns out to be literally a former abbey from the 11th-13th centuries. I was wowed with the elegance and majesty of the edifice. The monsieur told me that there used to be a church, which was burned in the incendie (or great fire) during the French Revolution. After a beautiful lunch with their eldest son, I took a tour of the gardens and the walkway where the nuns would walk to mass. I also toured the surrounding area and saw the cloth-making factory, hidden behind an exterior that blends in with the abbey that is right next to it. It seemed likely that the monsieur owned this factory.

After saying my goodbyes to this elderly couple, I went to the lycee and said my goodbyes to my colleagues from the English department. We took pictures and then I headed out to do my final preparations. Coming to terms with my departure became further difficult, but I prayed that God would give me the peace to leave this place with a sense of accomplishment and happiness.

The next day, I woke from my bed around 4:30am, pressed with the question of what I should declare to the Customs agents at the border control in Chicago. So, I ended up calling my father and asking him what to do. It turned out to be much simpler than I expected, which was a relief. I got everything out and into the family's car and left for Laval around 5:45am. Said goodbye and embraced my host father and left on the earliest TER for Le Mans. Once in Le Mans, I ran over to the middle platform to board my TGV for Charles De Gaulle (which happened to have a terminus in Lille). Around 9:30, the train arrived at Charles De Gaulle (Roissy) airport. I grabbed my luggage and headed into Terminal 2, where I proceeded to run into Sam B., one of my Covenant friends, which was exciting. Sam was in Paris for May Term, and we grabbed some coffee together. I then headed to check in at American Airlines and went through security.

I waited on my flight, which left on time, to my relief. It was a 9-hour flight, but I kept myself busy with reading and listening to music the whole time, so it didn't seem long at all. Once in Chicago, I had to walk what seemed like half a mile through the hall to reach the Immigration and Customs area. Got my passport examined and told the people there I had been in France for 7.5 months. They asked to see the contents of my suitcase, much to my chagrin. But nothing was questionable to my relief. I had to go through security yet another time in Chicago and then I went to my gate after grabbing some cash from the ATM and getting a snack before the final flight. I finally arrived in Atlanta at 8:20pm, which was close to 21 hours after I had first woke up in Mayenne. Exhaustion yet hyped with adrenaline. I was so happy to see my parents. It felt so great to be home at last.

The end of a beautiful, life-changing experience

My departure is in five days and I have a few more days to enjoy France. By now, I feel ready to return home. I will return with the souvenirs of an incredible experience that I have chronicled here in this blog. It has been an amazingly splendid journey, and I have enjoyed sharing the various aspects of my life here in France with you. This blog has kept me busy for the time I've been here, and now I prepare to close this chapter of my life and enter into a new one in just a couple months. Here's what I will be up to in the next couple days:

(1) Packing for the departure. This takes some time, seeing as I have to select what I will take with me and leave here (or throw away)

(2) Buying some last minute items to take home to the family

(3) Hopefully going to see Philip and his family for the last time.

(4) Attending church at the Reformed church for the last time.

(5) Visiting the Lycee and college for the last time on Monday.

Departure schedule :

Tuesday morning: TER regional train at Laval at 6:20am, correspondence TGV in Le Mans, arrival at Roissy (CDG) airport at 9:14am.

Flight schedule: Departure at 12:15pm for ORD Chicago O'Hare, arrival at 2:24pm local time. Departure for ATL at 5:25pm. After all the traveling I will have finally arrived at 8:15pm EDT.

It'll be here really soon.

Adventures along the Spanish Costa Brava with the orchestra (Days 3-5)

The third day was the biggest adventure of all. Our driver was stopped near the border for apparently having not slept enough the night we arrived in the South of France and for not properly scanning his documents. We spent about 45 minutes trying to negotiate with Spanish policemen, who were demanding 1000 euros. The French got it down to 300 euros. Kind of embarrassing. This shortened everyone's visit in Barcelona in a significant way. But wait, there's more...

We hardly got to visit Barcelona at all, given that we only had a couple hours to walk around and do the stores. Everyone, at the very least, got to snap shot the cathedral shown above. The town of Barcelona is filled with pickpockets and it is really infernal how much theft happens in this international city. Spain, being a poor country, in comparison to France obviously has its share of crime and poverty. This turned out to be to the group's disadvantage when a pickpocket stole a bag with the medication and passports of two elderly New Zealander chaperones. This happened right in front of their eyes. I think, in the end, the couple has been able to contact the Embassy and get necessary paperwork together, but still, they were robbed of credit cards and 400 dollars in cash. Such a sad reminder of the world we're living in.

The second and final concert of our trip took place in a middle school in Sabadell, which is a suburb of Barcelona. A truly beautiful room where we gave our concert. The kids seemed to be appreciative of the music, even though they weren't well-behaved. But kids will be kids, no matter where you go. Of course, I know this well after having taught middle school for 7 months. They started clapping to the beat at the end of "Pirates of the Caribbean," which was pretty funny but enjoyable. And we gave an Encore performance of the piece at the end.

When we were done with the performance, we greeted our bus, which was escorted by the police. I have to say, our bus driver was the weirdest part of our trip, since he got us turned around multiple times, had to turn around on what seemed like a cliff. And for all the mishaps that he caused us, he never once apologized. But you have to forgive the poor guy, since his job wasn't exactly simple. Oh well...

The fourth day was pretty free. And I took advantage of opportunities to shop for my family. Got to drink Sangria on the beach with the entire orchestra. The brass band played and entertained beach-goers. And it was a pleasant moment to wade in the Mediterranean Sea in spite of the rocky state of the beach. Later, in the evening, I went with the English travelers to a bar to drink more Sangria, prepared by the Spanish. We had some complementary hors-d'oeuvres with our Sangria. Nice ending to the orchestra trip.

Day five: Traveling all day from 8:30am to 8:30pm. It was a long day, but fortunately, I picked up a Le Clezio book to keep me occupied for the remainder of the journey. There is so much joy in the journey.

Now to pack my things and prepare for the departure home.

Adventures along the Spanish Costa Brava with the orchestra (Days 1 and 2)

My travel adventures have, as of yesterday, come to an end. It was a bittersweet ending to it all, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the chance to discover four different countries across Europe during my stay here. The travel adventure in the South of France and the eastern cost of Spain was interesting, convivial, and, not to mention, French. Just like my experience in London, almost everything was done in French, making it perhaps less authentic than I would have liked. That did not, however, keep me from enjoying it. Little things spoke to me as I hung out with my orchestra colleagues.

The Orchestre Symphonique de la Haute Mayenne is more than an organization; it's a family of people who gather weekly not only for the music but for enjoying one another's company. That is something I haven't ever seen in the States. I suppose it has to be very French for it to be so convivial. It certainly is a testament to the French lifestyle of living healthy and happy lives. The conviviality of the group helped make this trip a thoroughly worthwhile experience.

We started out early on Saturday morning, heading to the Gare de Laval, where we would board our TGV train for Avignon. TGV trains still excite me just as they did when I arrived in France on my very first day in September. I love reveling in French superiority when it comes to high speed rail, because they really are among the best in that area. (They are in other things like healthcare, too. But that's for another time.) Our train arrived in Avignon after five hours of traveling, where it was pretty hot. And we transferred to the autocar (bus) to take us to Goudargues, where we played our first concert at a Roman church in the area.

Goudargues is actually in the South of France and it is a very beautiful town. It's actually where our conductor grew up. It was such a balmy and sunny day in the South of France, and I relished every minute of being in that area of the country. (In fact, I'm recognizing how many times I've actually traversed the country and how many areas I've actually seen. Pretty cool.) Our concert went okay. Unfortunately, due to the reverberations of this old church, it was extremely difficult to stay together, and I found myself struggling through. I wasn't the only one in any case. The people of the town provided us with a beautiful dinner with pate, couscous salads, and various other things from the South of France.



The next day, after spending a night in a Formule 1 hotel, we crossed the border into Spain, traversing the Pyrenees, which was very enjoyable. We went to the Dali Museum in Figeras, which was a shrine to surrealism. As much as I tried to get into surrealism, it didn't really work. I enjoy psychoanalysis in literature, but when it comes to art, it's very hard to understand certain things from a psychoanalytic perspective in surrealism. The art is very exaggerated, very out of real life, almost in another world. Perhaps, however, it goes into a deeper part of reality that which lies within the human psyche. That makes it more difficult to figure out. That's the reason why I was rather perplexed upon leaving the museum. Nevertheless, it was interesting. After the museum, we checked into our hotel in Lloret de Mar, the Aquarium.

Costa Brava (Mediterranean Sea)

 

 

 

 

Barcelona