I think the last time I came back from India I was feeling much more traumatised, and I'd developed some weird allergies that I hadn't before (like to the feathers in the doona which I had been using for a whole year in Melbourne). I just constantly felt itchy and dirty. Watching Slumdog Millionaire didn't help either, especially that scene when the male protagonist as a boy gets to meet Abitabh Bachchan.
I suppose after any long trip to a place that's different from home (doing fieldwork or not), coming back can be a little of a shock. Reverse culture shock, they say.
I don't think I've ever experienced (severe) reverse culture shock. Returning home - whatever 'home' means - has often been a relief for me. I suppose it also helps that I'm 'homeless' in that I often refer to both Melbourne and Singapore as 'home' but don't feel like I quite belong in either place. But coming back, there are things I often need to adapt to again. Some are 'nice' things to be reacquainted with, like potable tap water and meals not based on rice - things I pointed out in my previous post. Some are somewhat harder to readjust to.
The main thing I suppose is the price of stuff in general. Everything's started to feel expensive, and I'm only in Singapore now. Wait till I get back to Melbourne and have to pay A$3+ for crappy public transport or A$10 for a 'cheap' meal...
Also, yesterday as I was coming out of the pool, I had this sudden urge to cough and spit out some phlegm. I caught myself just in time and even choked a bit when I remembered I was in Singapore. Now, as disgusting as people find it (myself included after a period of time being home), I find being able to spit in public quite a liberating experience. I did it all the time in China when I lived in Urumqi, and I did it often in India - of course given the amount of pollution I was inhaling, I would rather have it go out than stay in!
But the hardest thing I think is the constant explanations to people about what I've been doing and where I was. There are some people I've been chatting with online who seem to ask the same questions over and over again. 'Are you still in Nepal?', 'Where's Nagaland?', 'What are you doing there?'. The questions certainly don't stop when I get back, and while I don't expect people to keep up with everything I do, it does get a little tiring having to explain myself over and over again. Some days I'm glad I'm not actually from Nagaland, if only because I'd get so tired of explaining where Nagaland was every time I met someone from abroad - it was bad enough having to explain to people in Europe where Singapore was all the time!
Oh well, at least I've got my little speech about what I'm doing and where I am / have been all prepared. And frankly, it's only when the small minority of people I find myself repeating basic stuff to that annoys me (like the person who thought I was doing 'logistics'). I'm usually more then happy to talk about what I've been doing and what I will be doing.
I suppose after any long trip to a place that's different from home (doing fieldwork or not), coming back can be a little of a shock. Reverse culture shock, they say.
I don't think I've ever experienced (severe) reverse culture shock. Returning home - whatever 'home' means - has often been a relief for me. I suppose it also helps that I'm 'homeless' in that I often refer to both Melbourne and Singapore as 'home' but don't feel like I quite belong in either place. But coming back, there are things I often need to adapt to again. Some are 'nice' things to be reacquainted with, like potable tap water and meals not based on rice - things I pointed out in my previous post. Some are somewhat harder to readjust to.
The main thing I suppose is the price of stuff in general. Everything's started to feel expensive, and I'm only in Singapore now. Wait till I get back to Melbourne and have to pay A$3+ for crappy public transport or A$10 for a 'cheap' meal...
Also, yesterday as I was coming out of the pool, I had this sudden urge to cough and spit out some phlegm. I caught myself just in time and even choked a bit when I remembered I was in Singapore. Now, as disgusting as people find it (myself included after a period of time being home), I find being able to spit in public quite a liberating experience. I did it all the time in China when I lived in Urumqi, and I did it often in India - of course given the amount of pollution I was inhaling, I would rather have it go out than stay in!
But the hardest thing I think is the constant explanations to people about what I've been doing and where I was. There are some people I've been chatting with online who seem to ask the same questions over and over again. 'Are you still in Nepal?', 'Where's Nagaland?', 'What are you doing there?'. The questions certainly don't stop when I get back, and while I don't expect people to keep up with everything I do, it does get a little tiring having to explain myself over and over again. Some days I'm glad I'm not actually from Nagaland, if only because I'd get so tired of explaining where Nagaland was every time I met someone from abroad - it was bad enough having to explain to people in Europe where Singapore was all the time!
Oh well, at least I've got my little speech about what I'm doing and where I am / have been all prepared. And frankly, it's only when the small minority of people I find myself repeating basic stuff to that annoys me (like the person who thought I was doing 'logistics'). I'm usually more then happy to talk about what I've been doing and what I will be doing.
I'm planning to ask you once and again what you have been doing, just to stop you in the middle of your explanation and walk away to "do something important" and then come back and ask you again.
ReplyDeleteVic
glad i'm not the only person whose had their career confused for logistics! :P
ReplyDeletei'll let you tell me the good parts rather than ask you every gory detail on Thurs