I've Hit Stage Four

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This term I haven't been writing as much as in the past. In some ways I'm busier than before and in others I'm not. I think a part of it is that even though I'm busy, it's not always doing things that are interesting to read or write about. Every week is pretty much the same. Monday thru Thursday I teach. I'm coaching the speech team on Mondays now, but I talked about that in my last entry. I'm still taking Chinese lessons one night a week and not practicing enough. Weekends are spent resting, eating out, reading, spending time with friends, or watching movies. None of that is interesting to write about and I suspect no one wants to read about it.

There's another reason I havne't been writing much this term. I think I've finally settled into the fourth stage of culture shock, though I'm not shocked anymore, so I am not sure if that's really an appropriate term anymore. I know I talked about them back in 2008, but here they are again, as copied from the CTLC website:


• Honeymoon: Everything is wonderful and you are so happy to be here that no inconvenience is too great.
• Hostility: Now you are grumpy about everything in China. Nothing is right and never will be.
• Humor: You still notice the things that you consider “wrong” because they are so different from what you are used to, but now it’s humorous. This is actually a fun stage because you laugh a lot.
• Home: You are accustomed to the differences and feel that you belong.



I still tend to slide between the third and fourth stages, but now I'm in the fourth more than the third. There are still things here that I find ridiculous or strange. But day-to-day life is no longer the adventure full of amusement and unusual things that it once was. Now it just feels like life with the same frustrations and concerns I had in the US, except that I'm in China. While this certainly makes things less exciting and makes it easy to forget that I'm in China, it's also rather nice. Often I have to remind myself that I'm here, and it almost always brings a smile to my face.

Life in China has become more comfortable and normal. I know how things work (most of the time) and know what to do when they don't. I know how to find what I need and how to improvise when I can't. I no longer feel like I'm lacking for things. For a while, I was more comfortable with chopsticks than a fork. (That was strange.) My apartment feels like home and not just a place I live.

So while life is less exciting, and therefore leaves me with less to write about (because I refuse to write about going out to dinner or going to work), it's more stable. And I'm thankful for that.

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