Culture Shock and Stress

Choose Your Own Adventure

The doorbell rang while I was prepping the dining room table to get started with homeschool. When I opened the door, I found a Hello Fresh box sitting on my doorstep. I wasn’t a subscriber to Hello Fresh, but this was the second time someone’s box had accidentally been delivered to me. I picked up the box and carried it into the kitchen, contemplating what to do with it.

I could open it and enjoy it myself. After all, it wasn’t my fault it showed up here. But before I cut the box open, I decided to look up the address. The blue GPS line meandered its way to the destination and calculated the distance. The house was just one street over.

I sighed as I looked at the box of ingredients, knowing what needed to be done. I slipped my shoes on, scooped the box into my arms, and made my way to the neighbor’s house.

Current Collection, Culture Shock and StressAlicia BoyceApril 17, 2023Comment

Climbing Above

It was barely dawn when my eyes opened, yet I was fully awake. My long week—intensified by the mounting heat and humidity of the rainy season—had left me completely exhausted, and I hadn’t slept well. It wasn’t yet 6:30 a.m., and the air around me was already sticky and hot. Realizing the likelihood of falling back asleep was low, I rolled my eyes and flopped out of bed.

Current Collection, Life Lessons Learned, Culture Shock and StressGuest WriterApril 17, 2023Comment

Compassion Fatigue

“Is he ok? Are you ok?”

My friend’s message surprised me. She had innocently asked how my day was going and I told her how our neighbor was attacked with a bush knife while coming home by public bus. Was I ok? Not really—and yet, somehow I was.

I think at times my abnormal life becomes so “normal” I no longer take time to process traumatic events. Being woken up by the cries of my sister-in-law telling the story of how thugs stopped the bus our neighbor was on and how he was attacked in the process was, of course, an unsettling way to start the day.

Current Collection, Culture Shock and StressGuest WriterApril 17, 2023Comment

Romanticize Your (Expat) Life

One of the expat influencers I follow on Instagram, Cecilia, lives on Svalbard—an island close to the North Pole. As you can imagine, it’s cold there. The extremely low daily temperature features heavily in this influencer’s stories. On Svalbard, there are no trees. The land is frozen tundra—permafrost—so there are no gardens. The sun shines twenty-four hours a day through the summer, but the high is only six degrees celsius. They call that the Polar Day. And in the winter, Svalbard experiences four months of complete darkness, called the Polar Night, and even longer without actually seeing the sun. It’s fun that Svalbard claims to be Santa Claus’ home, but it is literally the last place on earth I even want to visit, much less live.

Culture Shock and Stress, Current CollectionRosalie DuryeeApril 17, 2023 Comment

A Liturgy for Making Things from Scratch

A little over a year ago, I hopped on a plane with my husband and our young daughter and moved across the ocean. For years, we had been praying and planning for this day. We participated in trainings about living overseas, received our undergraduate degrees in ESL education so we could teach in a different country, and completed courses on what felt like every element of what it means to live as an expat. However,I soon learned some elements of expat life can’t be taught via a training—they have to be experienced.

Culture Shock and StressGuest WriterJanuary 16, 2023 Comments

Out of My Comfort Zone: Tips for Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

Culture Shock and StressAlicia BoyceOctober 14, 2022Comment

Sink or Swim—Or Float

Culture Shock and Stress, Mental HealthGuest WriterOctober 14, 2022 Comment

Holding Space for Both the Highs and Lows

Culture Shock and StressCaroline SwartzOctober 14, 2022Comment

Three Ways to Combat Expat Doubt

When I packed our suitcases to move overseas for the first time, carefully checking each piece multiple times to make sure it was just the right weight, I had no idea that a silent stowaway had crept in that would rear it’s ugly head time and time again once we got to our host country:

DOUBT.

Reflections From Abroad, Culture Shock and StressHeather FallisSeptember 4, 2020doubt, questions, Struggling, struggling expatComment

The Wonder in Returning

When we first moved overseas it was on a two-year commitment, unsure of what our future beyond that would hold. After a few months, we knew we wanted to make a life here. We enjoyed our jobs, had great chemistry with our co-workers, and loved the culture and people. Our kids adjusted exceptionally well, and although we dealt with our share of challenges, overall we had a wonderful first two years in our host country. When we left, we were excited to return.

Stalled in Expat Survival Mode

When you experience a major life change (moving to a new country, starting a new job, getting married, or isolating during a global pandemic), it's natural to shift into survival mode. For many expats, significant changes occur together, so survival mode is a given during those seasons.

But what happens when you stall—get stuck—there?

A few months ago, I realized survival mode had become my daily reality.

Culture Shock and StressChristie ChuJune 15, 2020Stalled, COVID-19, transition, grace, pandemicComment

The Benefit of a Good Cry

No matter how long you've lived there, the stress of figuring out life in a different country can feel overwhelming.

Go ahead and have a cry. It's actually good for you.

Every expat knows times of stress, whether that stress is physical or emotional. Transition times are frustrating, finding an unwelcome creature in your house is frightening, and dealing with unwanted attention while out and about makes your body pulse with tension.

Culture Shock and StressChristie ChuJanuary 9, 2020stress, crying, emotional healthComment

Sorry, Not Sorry: Cross-Cultural Triggers and How to Respond

We have an unusually large kitchen for where we live, but an unusually small fridge. At 5’2” I look down on it, and our 9x12 Pyrex dish with the snap-on lid only fits in perched at a diagonal. Essentially, trying to make everything fit can easily become a game of Tetris, and last week I lost the game.

Without thinking through the consequences, I set a glass bottle of Sprite on a higher shelf on the fridge door to make room for something else. I’m sure you will not be surprised at what happened a little bit later, when I opened the fridge…

Culture Shock and StressCaroline SwartzDecember 17, 2019Comment

Off the Edge of the Map

A life overseas takes us to the edge of our known world and into an unknown world. In ancient times cartographers would draw dragons and sea monsters on maps to mark the delineation of distant and unexplored territory. When we move overseas we find ourselves off the edge of the map of our comfort zone, knowledge, and experience.

Culture Shock and StressJulie MartinezNovember 15, 2019self-awareness, the edge, expectations Comment

When the Expectation Balloon Popped

Do you remember the early days of your cross-cultural journey? Maybe those days when you were packing and announcing your plans to friends and family and saying some hard good-byes. But those goodbyes were overshadowed by the excitement to come, the realization of a life of significance, the answer to a call,