So in training, we learned the steps of culture shock. It comes in five stages. Stage One is the euphoria of "I love this city, I love my life, I love the food, I love the scenery, I love that dog, I love the bus, I love it all" and it can last for days or weeks or an hour. Stage Two is "I hate this place, I hate the food, I can't function, I miss my life, I want to go home" and it can last for days or weeks or an hour. Stage Three is acceptance of your place and new city and culture. It is supposed to be a peaceful stage. Then there's Four, or the moment you get off the plane back home and want to turn around and go right back to what's been your home for the past few months. Stage Four is supposed to be the hardest stage, as it's reverse cultural shock. You're back home and realizing that life has gone on without and no one really cares what they have in French grocery stores or what the Spanish word for "toe" is. Its the readjustment and I am not looking forward to it. And finally, Stage Five, or The Big Acceptance. You get readjusted to home, back in the swing of things, caught up on TV, and people remember that you're back and to include you in their lives. Looking forward to that stage. But I explained all of that to tell you this: I woke up in Stage Two this morning. My first thought when I opened my eyes was "Crap, I don't want to be here" But I'm going to fight it. I'm going to make quesadillas and drink some Coke and eat gummy bears and fight it. And hopefully I'll have it defeated by June.
And also, I guess a factor assisting in my Stage Two-ness is that it's Valentine's Day (or, as my lovely teammate refers to it, Single's Awareness Day) It's my first V-Day to actually be with someone and I'm not actually with him. So that sucks. And I've also gotten in the habit of taking pictures of couple. One reason is pretty obvious but another reason being that I'm trying to become a better photographer and there's just a magic that couples have that I like to try and capture. Plus it just makes me happy. But here's what I have so far:
Pigeons need love too.
And this is probably my favorite:
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