Even culture shock can’t bring down an amazing summer
About the author: Sally Egan ’22 is an FSI Global Policy Intern at the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia.
Today I am moving out of the apartment I’ve been living in for the past seven weeks, meaning I have only two weeks left before I depart Riga. These past three weeks have been a whirlwind, with many ups and downs mentally, but overall, I am now confident I will be coming out of this internship stronger.
I’d heard of culture shock, but wasn’t really expecting to experience it myself- after living in Jordan for six weeks without a hitch, I figured a European country would be a breeze. However, in the past few weeks, the lows of culture shock finally kicked in. The first few weeks of living here, I was in the honeymoon stage still, where everything was new and exciting and every day felt like an adventure. Around week four, though, the frustration stage kicked in. Connecting with friends back home was difficult because of the time difference, and my roommate felt like the only person I could really relate to. I was frustrated by the fact that many things seemed to close by 6pm, leaving my evenings feeling empty. Overall, exciting weekends of seeing random friends and traveling to Brussels, Warsaw, Vilnius, and Helsinki were sandwiched by feeling sort of lonely on the weekdays.
I am happy to report, though, that at the beginning of this week, week seven, I realized that I had breezed through the adjustment stage and have made it to the acceptance stage. I’ve had multiple visitors from life back home this week, and as I’ve showed them the restaurants, beaches, live music, and folk dancing that Riga has to offer, it dawned on me that I’ve really made a life for myself here. I feel like I know the city well at this point, and I feel more confident in my abilities at work, especially after my boss informed me that someone from the main NATO headquarters commented on how interesting the social media posts were. A few time zone differences don’t change this summer from being anything short of amazing thus far.
