USF environmental engineering student Adriana Mayr Meija (left) passes by the iconic Sydney Opera House while on a ferry to Manly, one of her favorite Sydney suburbs, with her friend Irene.
Photo courtesy of Adriana Mayr Meija
By Ashley Cline
Travelling to a far-flung country can be a jarring experience. Living and planting roots in one, away from the familiarities of home, is an entirely different beast.
Exchange students know that feeling well — the simultaneous feeling of excitement and shock that comes with establishing themselves in a new culture.
“I would get a rush of blood to my brain every single time,” said humanities senior Mateo Pastor, who spent a year in Copenhagen, Denmark participating in an exchange program.
Over a few months, exchange students create a new life from scratch, making new friends and settling into new routines. But knowing that time is limited, forces them to make another difficult transition — coming back to their old lives.
International business senior Caiden Freimann confronted the reality of returning to his hometown in Virginia after his spring semester in Madrid.
“I did not want to go home, and did not want to leave Spain,” Freimann said.
Teaching assistant and third-year doctoral linguistics student Luoxiangyu Zhang has taught others about the effects of reverse culture shock on travelers returning home in USF’s Language Matters course.
She said that she experienced reverse culture shock herself when returning to her native country of China.
Transportation was a big adjustment for the returning exchange students, who became accustomed to the availability of buses, trains and metros. Environmental engineering senior Adriana Mayr Meija noticed the difference in accessibility upon returning to Tampa from her semester in Sydney, especially without having access to a car there.
“The public transportation was so good, the city was also very well designed,” Meija said. “Whereas coming back to Tampa, I was like, ‘if I want to go do this, then I need to get an Uber.’ If it weren’t for my friends here, it would feel very isolating. In Australia I would go explore by myself some days and it was really easy.”
Freimann missed the “European charm” of Madrid after returning home, from the welcoming attitudes of the locals to the elevated fashion and historic architecture.
The cost of living in the United States, compared to Spain, was a shock for him as well. His grocery bill doubled in price after returning home.
After overcoming the initial transition back to American life, each student leveraged their own strategy to cope with the sudden changes.
“The coming home and aftermath is definitely not talked about enough. I did my absolute best to stay as busy as possible when I returned, keeping myself from getting super sad it was over,” Freimann said. “I found that helped, as well as telling myself this was not my last time there and I would be going back definitely made things easier.”
Pastor decided to pour his efforts into the heavier workload at USF and better prepare for his postgraduate career, with long term plans to relocate back to Europe after his student visa expires in the United States.
He also made sure to prioritize communication with his friends from Copenhagen to help himself transition from seeing them everyday to being an ocean away.
“I make sure that, if they don’t reach out, I do. I want them to be part of my life for a long time,” Pastor said.
Photo courtesy of Mateo Pastor
Meija incorporated the Australian work-life balance she became accustomed to into her life at USF and came to accept that even without daily contact with her exchange friends, the “special bond” they had would not be lost.
“It just really shaped my way of thinking, coming back to the U.S.,” Meija said. “Like now, I’d say my life is pretty well balanced and I think it wouldn’t be that way if I had not visited Australia and lived like that.”
In spite of the sadness that came with leaving the life he built behind, Pastor said that his time in Copenhagen gave him a new level of self-confidence, having been able to practice his adaptability in a foreign country.
“I definitely had some insecurities while being here in Tampa. But getting to Copenhagen and making friends and building up a life there, it definitely heightened my confidence — it skyrocketed,” Pastor said.
Completing an exchange program was eye-opening for each of the students, allowing them to gain new perspectives on life not only in their host country, but also in the U.S.. In spite of the challenges and discomfort that exchange students may face, Meija said that the experience is beyond worthwhile.
“Everyone that [goes abroad] says it’s the best thing they did, and everyone who didn’t go, say it’s the one thing they regret,” Meija said. “You’re going to learn so much about yourself. It’s so hard to comprehend how much you’re going to change and how beneficial it is going to be for you.”
