. The most emotionally,ircumstances to adjust to are those ones you cannot prepare for.
However, emotionally you’d been ready for those difficulties before you even boarded the aircraft. All your best pa from werek andwtheto find out ho you handle thesquat-style toilets, the inability to comprehend Chinese, along with weird cuisine . You were unaware there are more complex problems related to culture. Never bother purchasing your flight reservations far in advance because acation times in China are typically only announced several weeks (at least) prior to the start. You get a daily itinerary that may be altered in the middle of the week. And let’s not even begin to talk about the stereo?yWesternersndigenous peoples hld of all “Westerners” (“Why are you cold, westerners are accustomed to the cold!”) You cannot be from the countryaboutca because your skin color is white. whether that nobody warned you wth regard to are going to annoy you most of all, either it’s the constantly ch,ng nature of your schedule or problemsidents’ belifrom that your cold, allergies and asthma, and gastrointestinal problem originated by consuming water that was cold instead of heated. 2. You cannot switch countries. Meetings irememberedlways go over their scheduled times because they are only general guidelines. If no one remembers to inform you yesterday prior to an important oliday, don’t be startled. Public holitheays entail additional workdays on subsequent weekends. Because of a hierarchical social structure in place, locals are accustomed to following orders and do not understand a “Western” urge for individuality. I spent my first months in China sending self-righeous letters asking that my time be respected and stressing the benefits of planning ahead of time to new friends and colleagues: “Look how much easier it would turn out if you simply did this like me!” However, it had o effect on the people around me. And what’s this? Chinese society continued to operae as it had for the previous 2000 years. 3. However, a place can alter you. You will encounter pressure as youlivingeintoo push your standards of life onto a foreign society. You’ll feel depressed, angry, and nervous. Your blood pressure will increase as your Chinese opponent brushes you off for the tenth time by telling you that the decision is made by the “leader.” You might even find yourself longing for home when you enter the high school class only o discover that half of your students were released for music rehearsal (bye bye lesson plan). But eventually, you’ll either have to give up or fgure out how to cope with the knocks. And you might even come out of it a better person. More adaptable, less stiff, and, in my obervation, much better at improvisation in front of an audience of doubtful teenagers. 4. There is a bright side to every cloud. You therefore anticipated living in a bustling city but instead found yourself out in the country where theroad ends, in a smoggy town with no Starbucks in sight. For example, you might have wished to teach kindergarten but are instead standing in fronlyof 40 teenagers. Although you were nformed that the expat community was booming, you are currently the lone foreigner in the area. It’s awful, right? It could also not. My spouse and I experienced all of these events simultaneously. Our standard of living has now decreased to half that of the city, allowing us to purchase a quality air filter. Although those Chinese children are adorable as can be, I’ve come to realize that I actually enoy teaching high school. Beingther foreigners, we have been compelled to concentrate heavily on studying ChineseHaving being the very first immigran most of these kids have ever seen has a special kind of , pleasure, too. 5. You won’t be able to turn around. Of course, this one whot literally true, but if you keep your passport, yotocan return home whenever yu want. However, the persn that returns to hug your loved ones won’t be identical as the person who went away. You have evolved. Now that you’ve relaxed more. You handle things with grace. It involves more than just forgetting the Sichuan pepper burn in the hot noodles from the little shop downstairs or accidentally uttering “uh-huh” in plce of “thank you.” Missing those little animals dressed up in ludicrous costumes or the elderly women dancing together on sidewalks isn’t the onl thing that makes me sad. A baijiu headache isn’t something anyone would ever genuinely miss, although you’re still glad you got the chance tohave one. You shouldn’t be astonished if your previous house seems smaller because you are a bigger person after your travels.
