Culture Shock

I think I am beginning to understand what "culture shock" means.

It's not that there is anything wrong -- it's just different, different, different, different.... Different road signs, different rules for crossing the street, different rules when you walk into a house, different food, different directions on doorways, different advertisements on the metro, different transportation, different cars, different money, different ways to measure distance, different bathrooms, day after day sitting with people as they chatter away in a different language and you don't have any idea what they are saying, going to a museum and someone gives you a long, detailed explanation of what you are looking at, and you only understand 0.1% of what he is saying. Sometimes, you may even recognize that this new way of doing something is better than what you do at home, but that still doesn't stop it from being different...

You aren't mad at people -- after all, they're just doing the normal things they have always done -- you just get TIRED. Tired of having to THINK about all the little bits of living that you never had to think about before. Tired of having to work so hard to accomplish the normal little bits of life that you have to do every minute of every day.

I've loved this trip to the Czech Republic, and to be honest, I'm still loving it, but I think I will be very, very glad to be home.