1.

DEPARTURE

Most if not all descriptions of culture shock indicate a progression of attitudes regarding one’s self and others from a lower to a higher level of development . . . [in] the form of a three-to-five stage U-curve. . . . [But] the actual progression of culture shock is seldom as neat and orderly as a U-curve suggests. Only rarely will a person achieve as high a level of functioning in the host culture as in the previous home culture, suggesting a backward J-curve as perhaps more authentic.

• Paul Pedersen, The Five Stages of Culture Shock

Whatever you do, don’t fall in love over there.

• My mother