FRUSTATION

"Being in a foreing country means walking a tightrope aobve the ground withouth the net afforded a person by the country where he has family, colleagues, ands friends, and where he can easily say what he has to say in a language he has known from childhood" (from Milan Kundera's novel "The Unbearable Lightness Of Being")


Definitivamente estoy en la fase 3 o en la fase 5. Segun un folleto sobre el shock cultural que me dio la universidad cuando llegue el shock cultural cursa diferentes fases:


1. Application. Anxietly
2. Selection/arrival. Fascination
3. Initial shock
4. Surface adjustement
5. Mental Isolation
The novelty wears off completely and the difficulties remain. Frustrarions increase, and a new and more pervasive sesnse of insolation can set in. Many times this period is accompained by boredom and a lack of motivation as teh individual feels lettle stimulus to overcome the deeper and more troublesome difficulties he may be facing. There may be unresolved conflicts with friends, hosts, or basics language problems that continue to cause difficulty long afeter initial laguage adjustementes.
6. Integration/acceptance
7. Return anxiety
8. Shock/reintegration

Mis sintomas de este fin de semana coinciden con los que expone la guia: homesicknes, boredom, withdrawal, need for excesive amounts or sleep, compulsive eating, loss os ability to work effectively. Afortunadamente la guia da tambien unos cuantos consejos muy utiles que voy a poner en marcha ya mismo.

Nunca me habia pasado esto. Es una sensacion nueva. Me siento tan torpe, tan desaprovechador del tiempo, tan aislado, tan poco capaz... frustrado, al fin, expectativas que no se ajustan a la realidad. Menos mal que de todo se aprende.