Home Town Tourist. Liverpool. UK.
Reverse Culture Shock and Re-learning the Meaning of Home
Becoming a tourist in your home town
Reverse Culture Shock
I remember the first time I came home from long-term traveling and living abroad. Even after two years away, I wasn’t ready to go home. I remember feeling intense sadness on our way to Bangkok airport. It wasn’t easy to tear myself away from this beautiful, colourful and vibrant country.
I was so happy to see my mum again and excited to reunite with my family and friends. Despite this, I felt a strange dark cloud envelop me as we drove back from Manchester airport to my home. I looked out the window and was shocked at how devoid of colour the world was.
People joke that England is a grey country, but grey was all that I saw. The only colour on the palette that life here had been painted. Grey sky, grey clouds, grey buildings, even the people looked small and sad and grey. All wrapped up in dark parka coats, frowning into the wind.
We arrived back in my home town, and everything felt so much smaller than it had felt before I left. To my detriment, I had come home in the depths of winter. The cold, the wind, and the rain was a shock to the system after months of exploring…
