It has been a good couple of months since I have returned home from my IFYE experience. I have gotten back into somewhat of a 'normal' routine and definitely gone through some reverse culture shock (which I will expand on further, later on in this post). However, in the last couple months I have had some time to reflect on my experience and even began to process some experiences while talking about them with friends and family. Some questions were easy to answer, with my responses being similar each time the question was asked. But other questions were challenging: Is IFYE something for school? What do you get out of the program? What's the benefit for you? I often found myself saying IFYE is like a gap year program, IFYE is a resume builder, it's family tradition. Which are all true, but not quite exactly the benefit of it for me. Long story short IFYE benefited me by being a period in my life for expanding on my travel experiences. What I got out of it was an ability to take those travel experiences on my next trips. I also built life long relationships with other IFYEs and my IFYE families. I created an outlet (this blog) for my travel hobby. I re-established my love of food; including growing my own foods and cooking from scratch. And something I didn't expect to gain from IFYE was an appreciation for home.
There's not much for numbers or stats that I can put on my credit card for the IFYE program. The benefits of it are purely qualitative. But maybe one of the greatest lessons travel has taught me is that not everything in life needs to further your work or educational careers.
My point on the culture shock curve after returning home
As for reserve culture shock, it is a real thing. After adjusting to life in a new country. I also went through a time that I had to adjust to life at home again. After stepping off the plane to go home I had to start thinking about how I used to do things, while using my Austrian style thinking still. Some major things I had to get used to were: transportation, money value of products, and quality of food and waste. At home I don't have public transportation easily available. It is most common to drive your own personal vehicle. A strange muscle memory experience to have after not driving a car for three months. Inflation and exchange rates aside, it was an adjustment to get used to different prices for a variety of things: gas, groceries, restaurants, entertainment. Then add into the mix the quality and process of those items. I remember saying to myself after being home a week, "I've thrown away more garbage in less than a week than I had in Europe in three months". Food for thought. On the culture shock curve, I would say I teeter back and forth. Some days it feels great to be home, being around my family, friends, and pets, working. But other days I find myself thinking about future travel plans and determining how to make them come to life, and thinking about how it would be to go back right now. None the less, I've got my IFYE experience to benefit my future plans at home and while traveling.