When you move to a foreign country as an expat, there’s one thing you can expect to experience… culture shock. No matter how prepared you are for the move, it will hit you at some point.
Linda, a friend of ours who writes the Uruguay My Way blog, wrote a really great description of the five stages of culture shock. I wasn’t even aware that there are stages to culture shock.
The five stages are:
- Honeymoon
- Cultural Shock
- Initial Adjustment
- Mental Isolation
- Acceptance & Integration
Similar to Linda’s experience, I think we have also flip-flopped all over the place without having quite gotten to Acceptance & Integration yet.
After this initial post, she’ll be writing five more blog posts about each of the five stages of culture shock. Make sure to keep up with this series on her blog if you’re interested in learning more about the culture shock that expats experience.