Culture shock

Many people who travel or live overseas experience what is commonly referred to as “culture shock.”

During the first stage, often described as the "honeymoon," everything you see and do in the country you are visiting is exciting and positive. But in the second stage, known as "culture shock," you can feel a sense of dislocation and general unease. In 2020 I made the decision to move with my partner to italy from London uk to be with his family (which I never met before) at the time I was 7 months pregnant with my first child and never left London before “sounds crazy right “ well that’s what all my friends was saying when I told them my plans to go to italy at the time we wasn’t aware their was going to be a pandemic either so I suppose you can say my situation was a little different but the culture shock hit me hard. When I first arrived in italy I didn’t speak a word of Italian other then “ ciao and “scusa” (scusa meaning sorry) and me and my partner had a lot of things to organise and plan hospital appointment,scans, paper work , residency documents. It was a lot to take in but after only two weeks I wanted to return to London but couldn’t just after only two weeks we was all on quarantine and I was heavily pregnant. I started to really miss the foods I ate at home specially a full English breakfast and my morning costa coffee, I started missing places and family members I wasn’t really even that close to I felt a little low in mood from it all. Once the baby arrived I was little bit distracted but the feeling of missing home didn’t go away I couldn’t understand why I felt this way when I wanted to leave London for so long the feeling kept getting worse I kept filling that empty hole with sugary foods and snacks I ate so much of unhealthy stuff and just wanted to be alone. Couldn’t watch a movie or do any activities I would just feel so distracted. It was a very low moment for me in my life.

A year on from that and things have taken a different turn I’m still in italy and didn’t return to London with my baby.as the coronavirus is still quite bad back home

I still live with my in-laws but I go out most days and things are looking positive with the quarantine over I manage to explore the town and find cuisine and supermarkets,to buy the food I like so I don’t eat pasta and pizza everyday as much as I love pizza ,I start to understand where I am going and find my favourite coffee shops etc and my Italian is much better so I start to feel more comfortable here and can see my self settling here and making plans for the future , reminding myself why I wanted to make the move here in the first place.

For anyone moving country it’s hard and the culture shock will kick in for most people. To sum it all up my advice is give it time and be patience with yourself it’s so easy to see all the negative things about a culture or place when you miss home so much. I would say daily stay connected with people from home FaceTime,email,phone whatever way fits best for you. At least once a week have a dinner that you would do at home I do that now and it makes me feel little less home my favourite thing to cook from home is a roast beef dinner or something a little bit more simple scramble egg on toast things I would eat all the time at home.

Recently I made a friend that was from London too she was fifteen years older then me and been here for ten years but sharing with each other our experiences over coffee was a big help and help me to feel positive about moving here and gave me hope so if you can find someone that from where you are offer a coffee chat and try to befriend them . I feel that their is people from everywhere in every country at some point your find someone to connect with and theirs also the help of the internet for that .. but for anyone now that are in the situation I was in last year give it time and explore and be patience with yourself with the language and understanding another culture. This time last year I was so overwhelmed with everyone everywhere speaking Italian I really felt at the time I couldn’t never learn the language but here I am a year on having a conversation and people actually understand me that excites me still going shoping and going out all day by my self and getting along just find it just taken patience and time.