After a wonderful weekend in Antwerp with my Aunt Sam, I will be on the move again bright and early in the morning. I'm taking a train from Belgium back to Holland, where I'll board a plane to my final destination - Nairobi, Kenya. When I arrive at the airport, I am most excited to meet up with other students from my program. I plan to buy them coffee with my remaining euros given that it will feel like the middle of the night for them.
Once I reach Nairobi, I will inform my loved ones that I've arrived their safely the moment I find wifi but then I plan to repeat an assimilation strategy I did last time. I call it the Western World Purge. Culture shock and homesickness sucks. There is hardly a mellifluous way to put it. It is hard, it aches both physically and emotionally, and I expect it to happen as it did last time. So I'm going to take 10 days to myself to adjust to my new surroundings and culture without the distractions of social media and overseas contact. I won't have my teachers disciplining me to stick to the purge so I'll have to rely on my own self discipline this time. We'll see how it goes.
I can only ask of my friends and family to support me in doing this although I know it is a bummer. It is for me but also for you. Cultural adjustment can be a roller coaster and I don't want anyone to have to serve as a crutch for me except myself.
If a crisis occurs in the area, of course you will hear from me letting you know I am okay. But other than that, I'm peacing out for a bit. Know I am well, happy, and assimilating.
Here are some goofy snippets of my gallivants about Antwerp for the meantime.
Once I reach Nairobi, I will inform my loved ones that I've arrived their safely the moment I find wifi but then I plan to repeat an assimilation strategy I did last time. I call it the Western World Purge. Culture shock and homesickness sucks. There is hardly a mellifluous way to put it. It is hard, it aches both physically and emotionally, and I expect it to happen as it did last time. So I'm going to take 10 days to myself to adjust to my new surroundings and culture without the distractions of social media and overseas contact. I won't have my teachers disciplining me to stick to the purge so I'll have to rely on my own self discipline this time. We'll see how it goes.
I can only ask of my friends and family to support me in doing this although I know it is a bummer. It is for me but also for you. Cultural adjustment can be a roller coaster and I don't want anyone to have to serve as a crutch for me except myself.
If a crisis occurs in the area, of course you will hear from me letting you know I am okay. But other than that, I'm peacing out for a bit. Know I am well, happy, and assimilating.
Here are some goofy snippets of my gallivants about Antwerp for the meantime.