Re-entry
On Sunday evening, we arrived safely home. We appreciated the drive home from the airport, the orderliness of the traffic and the fact that we were not heading towards any other vehicles at any point in time on the drive!
Re-entry – that is the term that is given in the scholarship on international, cross-cultural experiences. It applies to the experience that those who have been “immersed in another culture for some time return home.
Having spent only two weeks in Vietnam, it is relatively easy to slip into my own culture. With globalization of airports and the increasing numbers of westerners, especially Americans, at each stop and on each plane, air travel, provides a kind of transition zone that seems to prepare the traveler for re-entry. Gradual and not so gradual changes occur in language, food, beverages, and people’s preoccupations. After not eating sweets for two weeks, they are now readily available in the airports and in the airplane meals. American coffee, however, took a little longer (I don’t generally regard airplane coffee as “American” coffee. Sometimes I think it comes from another planet altogether.
I have now completed a full day back. While the “culture shock” of re-entry clearly does not describe my experience (mostly my head feels like a big balloon, perhaps it is), I notice a certain kind of distance in my sense of being and place. I already miss our new colleagues and friends, and I miss the people on the street. It is hard to put into words, really, so perhaps I won’t try. But it does feel different. Sort of like when you come back from an intensive retreat. And of course, day feels like night and night day, at least that’s what my body wants to think.
In the next few days, I will post a few more pictures to the blog, after I wake up. It was a fabulous experience, and I feel we are indeed quite privileged to have had the experience.
Re-entry – that is the term that is given in the scholarship on international, cross-cultural experiences. It applies to the experience that those who have been “immersed in another culture for some time return home.
Having spent only two weeks in Vietnam, it is relatively easy to slip into my own culture. With globalization of airports and the increasing numbers of westerners, especially Americans, at each stop and on each plane, air travel, provides a kind of transition zone that seems to prepare the traveler for re-entry. Gradual and not so gradual changes occur in language, food, beverages, and people’s preoccupations. After not eating sweets for two weeks, they are now readily available in the airports and in the airplane meals. American coffee, however, took a little longer (I don’t generally regard airplane coffee as “American” coffee. Sometimes I think it comes from another planet altogether.
I have now completed a full day back. While the “culture shock” of re-entry clearly does not describe my experience (mostly my head feels like a big balloon, perhaps it is), I notice a certain kind of distance in my sense of being and place. I already miss our new colleagues and friends, and I miss the people on the street. It is hard to put into words, really, so perhaps I won’t try. But it does feel different. Sort of like when you come back from an intensive retreat. And of course, day feels like night and night day, at least that’s what my body wants to think.
In the next few days, I will post a few more pictures to the blog, after I wake up. It was a fabulous experience, and I feel we are indeed quite privileged to have had the experience.
posted by John at 7:07 PM
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