I feel really bad for saying I don’t miss much about the United States. Beside friends and family I have really created a life for myself over here. Although, I do miss iced Americanos the one time I asked for one they gave me the weirdest look and couldn’t really understand what I was asking.
What I will miss about my host country when I return?
I’m going to miss so much about Australia. So much I might as well bullet point it.
– Vanilla coke where ever I go
– Mint Slices
– Sarcasm in every conversation
– Sunshine all the time
– Beaches
– Cheap ‘Yellow Tail’ Wine
– The people
– How student orientated the University was
– And so so so much more.
Will I experience reverse culture shock when I return?
Yes, I’m really not ready. I’m coming home in the middle of December and I have been told it’s snowing. If you can imagine my face it resembles grumpy cat.
On the plus side I get to return for holidays and be close with my family and eat a lot of comfort food. I don’t think a warm Christmas would have the as effect as a Washington Christmas.
Plan for how I can immerse back into home campus life and share experience with family and friends?
My plan to immerse back into home life is to embrace the holidays as much as possible. Going back to Western will be different but I only have a quarter left. Knowing that and all the opportunities I have ahead of me keeps me going.
I keep telling myself “This is not just a time in my life.” So I have already started planning and some of my Australian housemates have already started their plans to come visit me.
How do I plan to keep my study abroad experience as a key factor in my life; maintaining friendships, language skills, staying internationally engaged?
Well abroad I tried to make the best of it I could. I got in contact with different Australian companies and keep in contact for opportunities. This way I can have better chances when looking for my first major job after graduation. Especially to maintain my International Business’ side of my future career. I also have all my housemates and Australian friends on ‘Facebook’ and ‘Whats App’ to all stay in contact.
Due to Australia being a English speaking country, holding onto language skills wont be much of an issue. I will most likely be going around saying “Keen”, “Motorbike”, “Mate”, and “bits” a lot. But I hope to either be traveling back soon or keep exploring other countries in the future.
Studying abroad has been one of my absolute favorite experiences and I hope other people had the same rewarding experience that I had.
http://escapingroutine.com/re-entry-maintai…onal-connections/