Recently, we asked the BuzzFeed Community to share if they ever experienced reverse culture shock after returning home following a long time away. Here's what they had to say:
1. "I studied abroad in Seville, Spain for a year in the early 2000s. Coming back home to the Midwest was a bigger culture shock for me than going to Spain. The two biggest shocks that took the longest to adjust back to was 1) How fast-paced everything is here. In Spain, everyone just took their time and the entire city (except restaurants) shut down for two to three hours in the afternoon for siesta time."
2. "I went abroad for a semester in Europe, and when I came back to buy an iced coffee, I was revolted by the size of it in my hand."
—Anonymous
3. "After returning to the US, having lived previously in Hong Kong for a year, I was just shocked by how *big* everything was. In Hong Kong, everything is built on a somewhat smaller scale. Being back on the US just felt so...big. Everything was big, wide, and almost agoraphobic."
4. "I lived in a small town in Central America that had a lot of poverty. I came back home to California for Christmas one year and I was overwhelmed by the excess. My mom lives close to a mall and observing how aggressive and self-centered people were just to go shopping made me cry. I also kept wondering how much all the Christmas decorations cost everywhere, and how that money could have helped others."
5. "I went to college in Rochester, NY after living in very small towns for my whole life. I couldn't drive, so I used Uber a lot, and when I came back home, not being able to go anywhere was so annoying!"
6. "Returning from South Africa where people may not be wealthy in the North American sense was a shock. In South Africa, they know how to love each other and be a community and have fun in life. Coming back to North America, there may be more financial wealth, but there's seemingly also much more stress, much less community, and the type of socialization where we don't help each other. We often don't have time for each other."
—Anonymous
7. "I spent a couple months in Indonesia and Malaysia. When I came back to the US, I couldn't get over how much advertising there is here. Buy, buy, buy all these products. Everything designed for conspicuous consumption."
8. "I went to graduate school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas after living in the Midwest. I ended up living in Vegas for four years and working my way through school. Living there is vastly different than where I grew up, so after I returned to the Midwest after four years, I had some major culture shock. I had to remind myself that in the Midwest, people wear sweatshirts and jeans when going out and about, and not everyone puts on a full face of makeup to run to the grocery store."
"Living in Vegas can really mess with your head. There is 24/7 instant gratification on just about anything; a ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ mentality where you constantly feel like you have to live and look like everyone else. Getting back to the midwest was a major adjustment, but one I don't regret."
—Anonymous
9. "My husband and I moved from north Philly to rural Costa Rica, which was our first culture shock moment. We went from inner city life to having cows for neighbors. We lived 20 minutes up the mountain from the closest grocery store and it was tiny. Two and a half years later, we moved back to the US and I had a whole mental breakdown in Wegmans because there were too many kinds of cheese, and I could not handle that level of decision making just to make dinner."
10. "I moved to NYC for graduate school several years ago after growing up in New England. I always forget how spaced out everything is, with major stores in different towns, and public transportation being not as regular or reliable. I also always forget that stores close at a reasonable hour and they're closed on Sundays and holidays."
"I kind of expected those, though. What I didn't expect was losing my accent. It wasn't super pronounced to begin with, but it's really noticeable when I talk with a relative of my generation who stayed, and hear an inflection I don't make anymore."
—Anonymous
11. "Lived for awhile in my midwestern hometown of 10,000 after living in NYC for years. Honestly, I learned to cook while living in the city and the thing that got me the most about being home was the lack of diversity in ingredients! I used to chafe at people calling midwestern food bland but uhhh, I get it now."
12. "I spent six months in Ecuador when I was 19. I mentally prepared for the culture shock going out there but really struggled with coming home to the UK. Nothing that my family and friends worried about really seemed to matter compared to the crushing poverty I'd seen, and I fell into a deep depression."
—Anonymous
13. "I taught English in South Korea my first year out of college. The biggest thing for me coming home was hearing English being spoken again. In Korea, I got so used to not understanding people that I would tune everything out. When I returned home and could understand everyone again, I found myself subconsciously listening to everyone's conversations."
14. "I went to an international school in Oman for three grades at the end of elementary school. International schools are pretty diverse in terms of race, background, etc. A lot of military or military-adjacent families enrolled their kids in the school, so people were used to having new students all the time. I got along great with all my classmates. It really felt like we were all friends in this community."
"When I came back to the states, people were not so used to having new students and didn't feel any need to interact with me. My experience with my international school friends made me believe that other kids my age would like to be my friend. I assumed wrong."
—Anonymous
15. "My father was in the military and we were stationed in Japan for six years, from when I was eight until I was 14. When we moved back to the states, it was 1980. I had never heard of, let alone been to, a mall. I thought it was a magical place! But when I first made a purchase, the total came out to a few cents more than what was marked. I was so confused and told the cashier. She simply said, 'Sales tax.' I was mystified and asked, 'I have to pay tax on something I'm buying?' She just rolled her eyes and I left the store empty handed because I didn't have the extra change to pay the stupid sales tax."
16. "Moving back to my hometown after being an expat for several years made me realize how much I had grown in a much different direction, while many things and people back home had stayed the same. People still saw me as I used to be, not for who I am today. So I made the decision to move away again. It was a relief."
Did you ever experience reverse culture shock? Share your story in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.