The Shock of Culture Shock

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The definition of culture shock from the Webster dictionary states it as ‘a feeling of confusion, doubt, or nervousness caused by being in a place (such as a foreign country) that is very different from what you are used to.’ This definition, however accurate, gives us a very 2-dimensional understanding of what culture shock is and only skims the surface of how one deals with, perceives, or experiences their own bought of culture shock. What we see and also experience alongside Jamie Zeppa in in her book Beyond the Sky and the Earth is her very own, very 3-dimensional and personal brand of culture shock. The beginning portion of the book deals with Jamie preparing herself to live in Bhutan as well as her actually getting to Bhutan. It’s interesting to see how quickly she turns from, “I’m packed, I’m ready, I am going,” to feeling like “my body has arrived but the rest of me is lost, perhaps in transit.” (Zeppa 12,22) This change in character makes it obvious that Jamie has not fully accepted her transition from her cozy, seemingly predictable and safe life in Canada to her now third world reality that goes by the name of Bhutan. This loss of body also sticks with her for quite a while, even after she opens herself up to the Bhutanese culture, we still see apprehensiveness in Jamie and we see just how lost she really feels. How Jamie deals with her culture shock is, to say the least, different from what we would envision the average person dealing with their own culture shock. She obviously admits that she has it, that she hates being in this new country. She hates being so far away from her boyfriend, from her life that she had. For a while it seems her only solace in this whole ordeal is “you only have to stay a year, you can go home at Christmas and not come back.” It makes one wonder how badly she must have truly perceived her situation for her to have been
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