Learning is a terrifying experience. That is what makes culture shock shocking. You are exposed to new things; forced into difficult situations; and become a stranger in a strange country. China is a strange country, but everyday I become less and less of a stranger.
I got over the culture shock hump pretty quickly. By the middle of my second week here, I knew where things were and how to get to them. There is a great baozi place just around the corner of Peking University’s Global Village, where we are staying for the summer. The cultural differences were stark but manageable. The Chinese I have encountered are blunter than Americans usually are. I knew how to make my way around the city. The subway system can be both ridiculously packed and freakishly efficient at the same time. I even knew where the basketball courts on campus were.
Although some students had different experiences managing the culture shock that comes with studying abroad, by now, at the end of the third week, most students felt pretty acquainted with their surroundings. They, including me, got comfortable. And that is a problem.
I kept going to the same baozi place for lunch. After finding more Western-styled food services, I found myself gradually going to those places more often. I would get off at the same stops on the subway, and go to the same, “new” places there. I even tried to find the same random locals with whom to basketball at the courts. I carved out an entirely new routine in a foreign country, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. I also, however, stuck to that same routine, which is not what study abroad should be.
So that is the next problem to overcome after the initial culture shock: finding new solutions to culture shock rather than sticking to the old ways of overcoming it. It may feel nice to stick to the routines you develop in China, but it is far more enriching to put yourself out on a limb and find another new groove. That is the ‘study’ part of study abroad. Learning is not supposed to be a comfortable experience, and culture shock should never end.