In late September of 2004 I boarded a plane for a little North African country called Tunisia. Most of my friends had never heard of the place. Those that had seemed to perpetually confuse the heart of Roman Africa with the South Asian country of Indonesia. In fact, when the tsunami hit the Indian Ocean in December of 2004, I received many panicked emails and calls asking if I was okay. Were I not living in a country located on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, thousands upon thousands of miles away from the epicenter, perhaps there would have been reason for concern. As it was a holiday break in Tunisia for the new year I was actually out of the country to renew my Tunisian tourist visa, relaxing in Malta. When I returned to Tunisia, a flood of emails had inundated my inbox as the rumors of my demise had spread far and wide. After the first few replies, explaining that I was very far away from any Tsunami destruction, I changed my approach. The rest of my replies descended deeper and deeper in to the realm of viciously sarcastic. Until I returned to the states, many people genuinely thought that I had escaped the tsunami through the sheer dumb luck of climbing a mountain that day.
While in Tunisia, I had the opportunity to take several trips to other Mediterranean countries. During winter break, I visited the island nation of Malta. Over spring break, I found myself in Albania, Greece, and Kosovo. On my way back to Tunisia from my Balkan adventure, I became stranded in Italy for five days during Pope John Paul II’s funeral. Yes, I saw the dead pope in person. While I did manage to see many interesting countries and lots of amazing places within Tunisia, I never was able to secure the proper visas to visit Libya and Algeria. Those two countries still hold my attention, begging for me to pay a visit. One day I will…
After nine months spent immersed in Tunisia, I found myself on yet another airplane to yet another country. My wandering brought me to Germany for a summer spent working at Universität Karlsruhe in the Institut für Produktentwicklung on the SFB 588 Humanoide Roboter project. While there, I went on several excursions through surrounding countries including Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and The Netherlands. Later on, I took a three week holiday through Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.
Exactly one year and a day after leaving, I returned to the United States and my home university. Nineteen countries and two continents later, I found myself in a strange and completely foreign land. In my mind, America had changed and morphed into a grotesque caricature of itself. Not having ever experienced culture shock before, I had no idea how to handle such intense reverse culture shock. It took nearly a year before I had readjusted to life in the states.
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