Culture chock

What does it mean or do to you to move from a big city in one country to a VERY small village in another? I have not really thought of it before since I consider both places, Vienna and Svangemåla, to be “home” but today it hit me that it is a bit like a culture chock. At first you feel like you are on a holiday and you enjoy every new aspect of the new situation and location. At the same time, and since I know both places so well, this feeling disappears after just a few days and you are “back” and the first feeling of almost euphoria is definitely gone. Old memories come back and remind you of both the good times and the bad times. You get involved and engaged in the lives and events that are the daily lives of those who live in the place you have just come to and forget about “the other place”. It is particularly difficult if you move from a situation where you have broadband to one where you hardly have any “band” at all. The flow of information and communication is, when I move from Vienna to Svångemåla, suddenly reduced to a trickle of telephone conversations, short SMS, emails and glimpses of the most important web-pages. The radio and the TV are there but the one-way communication they provide cannot at all replace what a broadband connection can do for you.

All in all, it takes a lot of mental energy to get settled in and in the meantime you forget what you normally remember, like a good friend’s operation, and you get a bit disorganized since you are trying to do too many things without proper planning and thought out strategy. This is normal for any culture chock and I know that I am soon back to “normal”. In two weeks or so, my life and work will be as well organized as they used to be and nothing will be forgotten or cause any frustration. J

And it has started to rain. It is needed but it also means that I am stuck indoors and cannot enjoy what Svangemåla is all about, the nature.