Culture shock
A thought occurred to me recently: I haven’t experienced the highs and lows of culture shock as I was warned to expect in Hong Kong.
That’s because I forgot about the month I spent with family in Zhangzhou, China just before my Beijing trip (and then Hong Kong)1.
It was my 9th visit, and 1st extended stay as an adult. Since my teen years (4th visit), I haven’t enjoyed my time there. I guess when you grow up, you notice more things.
Little things at first. Having to shower at my aunt’s home, the hard bed, having to walk since I can’t drive, no English-speaking church, people putting food on my plate or asking me to eat more, my grandma’s daily awe that I don’t use warm water with milk powder, eating lunch at 11:15 and dinner at 5:15, no Wi-Fi at my grandma’s home, the Great Firewall, the heat, the humidity, the loud air-conditioner, strangers who knew my name, not knowing how to address people, people I weren’t familiar with constantly inviting me to dinner…
Then big things. A friendship problem, bad news about another friend back home and watching my grandma struggling to breathe daily.
I broke down over a FaceTime call with my mum about a week in. I spent the next few days extremely upset. I moved forward my return flight by three weeks.
Soon after that, I don’t quite remember how, but I became very close friends with a cousin. Things got way better after that.
So, relative to China, Hong Kong was a breeze. I’m even used to the harbour view from my hostel now!
Takeaways? My background may be Chinese, but I’m definitely an Australian. And, you will get over culture shock, it gets better.