I got culture shock when I came back from being abroad

Study abroad has crossed the mind of most Duke students. A little fewer than 50 percent of the students here decide to study abroad, most likely at some point during their junior year. For many, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity where you get to travel to a new country such as Spain (one of the most popular study abroad destinations) and then do the traditional Euro trip that most students living there do at the end of their high school career.

For me, however, it was slightly different. Being an international student, I was technically already abroad by studying at Duke, so when I mentioned to my parents the desire to study abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I wouldn’t say that they immediately happily accepted my decision, and were slightly confused about why I would want “to go abroad from my abroad”.

While I love Duke, I now feel like it is my home, and we all need to get away from “home” once in a while. For me, study abroad was the perfect opportunity to do so.

So, on July 25th, I boarded my plane from Paris to Buenos Aires, and little did I know that it would have such strong effects on the shaping of my experience of my Duke career. As soon as I landed, I knew that my time in Argentina was going to be incredible.

I got to my host family, settled in, and before I knew it, orientation was around the corner. To be honest, I remember laughing at most of the orientation process, as they emphasized to us things like basic common sense in the street, developed thoroughly the concept of telos, also known as “hotel by the hour,” or even how and when we were going to experience “culture shock”. For me, this was the funniest one.

“How to experience culture shock?”

Trust me, during my first year at Duke, I had to attend many of these conferences, and there is absolutely no way to predict how every individual will experience culture shock and when, if ever, it will occur. And so I sat in that room, listening to the psychologist of the program tell us things like “you will notice differences in languages and traditions” or even “it’s okay to feel sad once in a while” and honestly could not help but have a few giggles come out of my mouth.

Yes, the Argentine lifestyle is different. You will go out to a bar at 2am before going clubbing until 7am, while here at 2am it’s bedtime. You will start having dinner around 9:30pm while here if you walk into a restaurant after 9pm they will greet you with a “sorry the kitchen is closed”.

Argentine club

You will learn that being punctual, even to class, is absurd. And I could go on forever about the differences. And I am sure that anyone who studied abroad, either in South America, Europe or Australia, will be able to point out major differences. But for some reason, I very quickly, and even without noticing it, adapted perfectly to that style and rhythm of life.

However, one of the things that I had not anticipated was the culture shock of coming back to Duke. While I was beyond sad of leaving the country that I called home for about five months, I was also looking forward to seeing all the people that had stayed “at home” during their Junior Fall, or the ones who went to seek adventures in other parts of the world.

In January, everyone would be reunited, a thought that was both very exciting, but also a little stressful for me. So I got back, settled back in my apartment, and at the beginning it all felt great and completely normal.

But then I started going out again. And I think this is when I noticed the first real difference. The party scene has nothing to do with the one to which I had be acquainted over the past months, and I am sure that everyone who studied abroad can attest to that.

I also had to get back on an early dinner schedule, but mostly my interactions with people were different. In Argentina, people favored fewer but stronger relationships, while I feel like the opposite is occurring here, something to which I have a very hard time getting used to again.

Lunch at 4pm

So I guess this whole thing made me realize that yes study abroad does change you as a person. It makes you appreciate things you don’t have a little more, it opens your eyes about the differences that exist, but mostly it makes you develop a new critical way of thinking and how to take a new approach towards things.

While I tried to “fight” these differences during my first few weeks back, I’ve now realized that it is better to accept them, because in the end they are what made me love my college experience so much before going abroad.

Yes it is different, but a different that I will only experience for the next 1.5 years of my life, and there is absolutely no way I will be missing any moments of these next 1.5 years, because I can confidently say that so far, Duke has been the most incredible, life-changing, and fun experience that I have ever experienced.