Banff

A couple of weekends ago, we disappeared off to a fabulous vacation that almost wasn't.  Hubby had to go on a work trip to Banff in Alberta, Canada, and asked if the girls and I wanted to come along.  "Obviously!" was my response.  From the grey skies and hills of Pittsburgh to the huge open skies and flat plains of Calgary and the Canadian Rockies in the distance...my sense of awe felt tremendous.  I gained such peace, relaxation and joy just from the sheer majesty of the landscape.  Before long, words deserted me and I became prone to throwing my arms up at regular intervals in an overcome gesture of "Will you just look at this?!!!" (so please excuse me in the photos to follow where I adopt the "go big or go home" approach)


We stayed in the Rimrock Resort (the location for the conference that brought Hubby there).  We soon took to enjoying most of our meals in the lounge, where the views from the windows was this:

A few minutes walk took us to the gondola ride up Sulfur Mountain.  I am no fan of instability at height, and I admit that gondola ride--while stable and very well-maintained--was a wee bit scary for me (which amused my children to no end).  The sights from the top, however, were worth every bead of nervous sweat.  360° views of the Rockies and an unobstructed view down to the town of Banff nestled in the valley.  

In order to keep the effusiveness relatively sane, I'll toss out there that we also visited Lake Minnewanka and the Cave and Basin Museum (which was the birthplace of the Canadian National Park system, in case you like trivia).  The food in Banff was delicious (the French Toast at the Bison Restaurant was revolutionary).  We even managed to test out the health care system during our trip, and we are happy to report it seems top-notch!

Another wonderful benefit to our trip was meeting up with an old friend who now works in Calgary.  Although we are in touch, we hadn't seen him in many years so it was a fabulous reunion with him and a chance to meet his sweetheart.

The trip was amazing and felt much longer than its three short days.  We came back renewed from the crazy weeks past and ready to move on to the new challenges ahead.  Thank you, Banff!  We'll be back.

A truth about culture shock

If you Google an image of culture shock, most of what pops up will be a variation on the theme of a W shaped curve.  The description is this: You are high at home, hit rock bottom in the new culture, reach a new high in the new culture, hit rock bottom after returning home and then readjustment is high again.

More realistic curves have far more ups and downs and several plateaus.  There are names for phases like "surface adjustment", "mental isolation" and "return anxiety".  Until you have experienced living in a culture different from your home, it's hard to understand what all this means, especially how it would be possible to suffer shock once you are "home" again...but that's where I am living these days, and I can attest that it is very real and fairly challenging for someone disinclined to wallowing.

If I had to plot myself on one of those charts right now with honesty, I would be in a low "mental isolation" phase.  The good news about being at the bottom of the curve is the only way to go from there is up.  I've been through all this before.  I know what it looks like, what it feels like and how it will change from month to month, year to year.  If I get on with it, it will get better, bit by bit...but I can also attest that the process is difficult, possibly never moreso than when one is at "home" because it is easier for people around you (or you yourself!) to comprehend your difficulty when the culture that challenges you isn't the same as that of your birth.

I noticed lately that I haven't been writing: not blogging, not emailing, not journaling...not much of anything where I would be inclined to record and share my thoughts.  I like to keep the negative self to myself, but then I also realized that I am not alone in this.  Culture shock, or in my case reverse culture shock, is a real challenge, and sometimes it is reassuring to find in Blogland that you are not alone.

*I know the pics are a bit random, but I thought they were interesting in relation to different cultural experiences.  One is from Holland; the other is from Qatar.