In late June, after nine hours of flying, I finally touched down at Pearson Airport in Toronto. My family was waiting for me and welcomed me back. As we were on our usual route on the highway back to our house, I felt nostalgic seeing the familiar surroundings; the tall buildings, road signs written in English, Lake Ontario.
Reverse culture shock is something everyone goes through once they are back from their stay in another country. It happens when you feel uncomfortable toward the original culture that you were comfortable with before your departure abroad. It definitely happened to me when I returned to Canada.
Eventually you will be able to adjust back to the culture you were familiar with, but not completely back to how you were behaving before. A lot of the time, there will be a shift in the behaviour towards the culture of the country you were living in. In my case, since I stayed in France for one year, living through French cultural norms had become a habit.
For instance, the majority of the businesses in France are closed on Sunday. It is actually restricted by law to be open for more than a few hours on Sundays. Most businesses, such as shopping centres, postal offices and even grocery stores, are closed. So normally, people finish their grocery shopping by Friday and Saturday.
On Sundays, people stay at home to spend some quality time with their families and friends. I also followed the French weekend pattern during my stay, so I usually finished all my outdoor shopping activities before Sunday. This habit has still hung on even after returning to Canada. Whenever I go out on Sundays and enter a store, I feel slightly uncomfortable with the idea of being in there. Seeing the opening hours as ‘opened’ on Sundays, my experience tells me to that I should be staying at home and enjoying the rest day with my family. Such a change in one’s lifestyle requires some time to adjust back completely.
Another change that I noticed is that I often look for French food when I do grocery shopping after my return. I was never interested in buying baguette or cheese before going abroad, but nowadays, I find myself constantly heading over to the bread corner, picking up a few baguettes, or standing at the cheese section looking for the best cheese that would go well with the bread. As my family is used to eating processed cheese, adding block cheese to our menu of regular foods was quite a change.
The experience also introduced me to new products. There is a soft drink called Orangina that is popular in France. I often bought the drink every time there was a get together in Nancy. It was surprising to see the soft drink in the aisles in Canada, as I thought Orangina was only available in Europe. Having these physical products here in Canada definitely helped to share the experience with my family and friends. Nothing is more interesting than looking and trying out stuff with your own hands than listening to stories.
Now that I look back at my one year stay in France, I was so lucky to make countless new discoveries and valuable friendships with people all over the world, and live through more adventures than I can count. It was a busy year but it was an unforgettable experience that I've added to the journal of my life.Thank you to everyone who has been reading my entries!