Culture Shock

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That hourglass over there is supposed to represent the fact that it took me a long time to figure out the nature of my culture shock. As a matter of fact, at first I thought I was just fine and didn't realize that I was actually messed up until my third weekend here.  That was when I was ready to scream when one co-worker wanted to line me up for Saturday afternoon (we work Saturday mornings) and another wanted to book Sunday.

Problem in a nutshell: I had no private time. And my concerned Chinese friends only wanted to keep me busy so I wouldn't feel lonely.

It caught me off guard that third weekend when I realized that I just couldn't take it any more.  Thankfully, by then I had made acquaintances in two unrelated groups, so I resorted to a white lie and for that third Sunday I told each group that I was spending the day with the other group.  And I got away with it.  And I did absolutely nothing all day.  And I felt great. Since then I've explained the situation to everyone, so they're quite understanding if I turn down an invitation from time to time or tell them in advance that I need some private time. By the way, that concept of private time was a hard one to explain.  All I can say is, if you ever have Chinese visiting or working with you, keep them busy if you want to help them through their flip-side version of this type of culture shock.

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