The fear of the shock

I won't check myself into Counseling and Psychological Services just yet, but I won't be surprised if I need to come January. I, along with many other juniors studying abroad, should be prepared to go slightly insane upon returning to the University of Richmond. Don't get me wrong — I love Richmond. I love America. I love Panera and Wal-Mart and Dunkin Donuts and baseball. But I don't know that I am fully prepared for what so many juniors have gone through during the past: the reverse culture shock after studying abroad.

I do not aim to compare Europe to Richmond, because frankly, they can't be compared. Neither can be said to be "better or worse" because they are just different. The people here are different, the lifestyles, the food, the clothes, everything. I am excited to go back to school and to see all my friends, to have an omelet at D-Hall and to go to a lodge again, but I also worry about the return. For those of you juniors riding camels in Cairo, meditating in Mumbai, drinking in Dublin and surfing in Sydney, are we REALLY ready to go back to cramming in the quiet section? When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter abroad that didn't involve Red Bull Vodkas and Tiesto?

I've been able to "stalk" many of my friends via Facebook photos, and, honestly, their experiences seem incredible. Mostly, they are all vastly different. Two of my best friends are roommates at Richmond. One is studying in Dakar, Senegal, and the other in Paris. One is eating meat off an open fire with her cute little hands, fasting for Ramadan and sweating in the heat without air conditioning. The other is sipping coffee and eating croissants at cafes, attending fashion shows and sporting her cool black leather jacket. These two will move back into the same room in Richmond and look back at their past four months as completely opposite. Will the other understand? Will anyone?

My mom studied abroad in a small city in northern Spain about two hours west of my host city, San Sebastian. She told me that when she came back from abroad, she was more sophisticated. "Snobby, actually," my dad said. She took the Spanish lifestyle back with her to Holy Cross. She ate Spanish, dressed Spanish and spoke Spanish most of the time. People in Worcester, Mass., had no clue what she went through culturally, and they never fully would.

As I said before, it is not that the Spanish lifestyle is better, but rather, it is just different. We, as abroad students, have had to adjust completely to a different life. I recently took a trip to Prague, Czech Republic. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. And thinking back now, it is hard to compare Prague's 11th-century buildings to Richmond's "historical" Monument Avenue.

I already made a list of things that I am excited to do, see and eat when I get back. Some are: seeing my family, speaking English at school, using American dollars, reading a newspaper in English and watching a TV show without having to find it streaming on some illegal Web site. And bagels, bagels and more bagels.

I am sure most of you upperclassmen will agree. I remember as a freshman girl coming back from winter break and being shocked. "Who were these people?" I thought. Suddenly, there was what seemed like 600 new faces to become accustomed to. That meant 300 new older girls to become intimidated by. Great. That's right, freshmen. We are coming back. Don't get too comfortable yet because you have a lot of new people to meet.

For us juniors, we will come back missing the seniors who had just graduated, and will be sad that in a few months more of our best friends will be gone. We will be agitated that our time abroad has ended and that we will have to sit through hours of recruitment meetings for sororities and fraternities. We will have to get adjusted to doing "real" work, researching for papers and waking up to go to class again. So if you, my fellow juniors, feel as if no one understands when coming back, look to the rest of us for help. There are other ways to get a dose of abroad. Befriend an international student at D-Hall. Eat a foreign meal once a week (not including margaritas and quesadillas at Mexico's). Cheer for your team in the World Cup and keep up those language courses. And if that doesn't work, screw senior fall midterms. We're going back to Oktoberfest.