Cultural Shock- Acceptation and Adaptation

I am somewhat going through the fourth stage which is the acceptance or adaptation stage. Luckily, another intern came and now her and I have become close friends and started to plan little trips during our stay. If I did not make a friend, I feel like I may have slipped into some type of depression because of having no social friendships with anyone. Now I am experiencing Australia. I have learned to surf, ride horses, paddleboard, travel to Sydney and the Gold Coast and so much more. I even participate in morning tea and eat lunch with all the workers. After work, I go to the Hoey, which is the bar all the employees go to on Thursdays because I feel like I am more accepted and a part of the work team

Cultural Shock- Adjustment Period

A few weeks in to my stay in Australia, I started to get used to things and find my place. This was the third stage or the adjustment period where accepting the new culture begins. The convenience of air conditioning, drying, name brand foods, and transportation no longer seem mundane. They are not necessary to my new way of life and I am beginning to adjust to the slang and speaking like a true Aussie saying things like uni (university), sunnies (sunglasses), and rubbish (trash). I am starting too really like living here. 

Cultural Shock- Crisis and Disenchantment

The second stage is the crisis or disenchantment stage where the honeymoon ends and reality of my new culture sets in. Some things become disappointing, and people can feel homesick, lonely, helpless and confused. I experienced similar feelings during my stay

 My accommodation had no air conditioner, no fans, and very little plug outlets. The weather in Coffs Harbour is very hot and humid, and most days rainy. Often I would have to open the window in hopes that a cool breeze would come in. These conditions were unpleasant and made me feel sticky, sweaty and unclean. I was so used to having air conditioning at home, that the new living conditions disappointed me.

Another difference is that many Australian do not have dryers for drying laundry. Detergents are all eco friendly and environmentally safe. These subtle changes had positive effects because they helped saved on electric and had environmental improvements. However, I was unaccustomed to waiting days for my clothes to dry, which was frustrating since I was used to instant gratification of clean dry clothes. Not only that, but I felt like my clothes were not at the same cleanly standards that I was used to. I work with dolphins and seals so my work clothes often become soiled and smell like fish. After washing my uniform did not have the fresh scent, I was hoping for, and sometimes had a musty odor due to improper drying. I missed the convenience of a dryer, but I learned that it was not a necessary item for life. 

Transportation is also different here and needs some taking use to. In big cities like Sydney, transportation is convenient and easy, but in comparison to the area I, am staying public transportation is nonexistent. I have to ride my bike everywhere since a car was not an option and buses often run off schedule. I often have to cross main highways to get to my desired location, and bike paths are not available. In addition, cars are different in design because they drive on the opposite side of the road and the driver’s seat is on the opposite side. The first time I tried to cross the road I was almost hit by a car. This is because I was in the habit of looking left to right, however in Australia you need to look right to left. I learned that lesson very fast.

Food shopping was my biggest cultural shock. Meat here is so expensive that I cannot afford to buy a small steak based on the budget I set aside for myself. Bread goes bad within a week, and fruit goes bad two to three days after I buy it. Many people go food shopping every three days for that reason. All the name brands I know and love from home are hard to find here. A box of fruit loops, which is the only cereal I recognized in the isle, cost 8 dollars, and that was for a small box. Shampoo and conditioner are also expensive. A small bottle can cost ten to 15 dollars. Water here costs more than soda. When I went into the cheese isle, I did not recognize anything. They have cheese names such as very tasty. I have learned to buy very tasty cheese because it is the closest thing I could find to the American cheese I love. Australians are also very big on vegemite, which is a yeast spread for toast. Well I tried vegemite, and it is not very exciting. It is salty and gross, but with the tasty cheese, it makes for an all right breakfast. Although I found the prices and brand names to be very different, I was excited to see that healthy foods were more reasonable then foods back home. I was never big on eating vegetables and fruits, but here I had the opportunity to change that as I started to be more conscience about the foods I was consuming.

I found relating to the people I worked with to be very hard because I felt as if I was in the way since I had not yet found my niche and I had a difficult time understanding the slang. People acted like they were interested in me and talked as if they wanted to hang out, but I found that many were had their own lives and were unable to spare time to show me around. For the first few weeks, I had nothing to do, and nowhere to go. I felt very lonely because there was a 15-hour time difference between my friends and family back in New Jersey. When I was awake, they were asleep, and when they were awake, I was asleep. This combination made me feel so alone and as if I would not make any friends here in Australia, because no one wanted to get to know me outside of work, and because I was missing everything that was happening back at home.

Cultural Shock- The Honey Moon Stage

Cultural Shock occurs when a person moves into a culture that is different from his or her own culture. An emotional trauma occurs from the frustrations of dealing with the host cultures way of communicating, customs, and value systems. Frustrations can come from anything the new culture offers such as food availability, standards of cleanliness, personal safety, accommodations, and much more such as the difference in routine. People may feel like an outsider, holding different values in comparison to the people within the new culture. People loose what is familiar and normal to them and may experience the cultural shock.

The first stage of cultural shock is excitement. I was very excited when I landed in Australia because I landed in Cairns and had the opportunity to dive the Great Barrier Reef, play with kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, and ATV through the jungle. I was then headed for Coffs Harbour to work with dolphins and seals, which is something not many people get to do. This was my honeymoon stage because everything was so new and exciting. This is the stage where most employees feel a sense of excitement for new opportunities to work and new steps in there career.