When I moved here, I had never been outside of the US before...and immediately I found myself overanalyzing every single thing that I saw that was different from what I was used to (and believe me...just about everything is different in some way haha) as a way to sort of stay the culture shock or soften the blow...
and uh well it didn't work. It started to hit me as soon as it sunk in that I was really going to be here for longer than an extended vacation, and the first time each new thing happened, such as the first time I tried to do business--or, for that matter, have a conversation--with Israelis and realized it's more often than not one step down from a fight, the first time I tried to cross the street on foot and almost became a hood ornament, the first time I went to the mall and heard not a word of English, or anything I could even remotely guess at the meaning of, etc.
But then the first time I really realized that I was an outsider here did it. I never felt so alone and isolated in my life. I am always an outgoing, loud, outspoken goofball who never has trouble acting like a dork and talking to no end about anything, but when the culture shock hit me, however, I couldn't bring myself to utter a peep!
I was so completely fucked in every aspect of my personality, everything I did felt weird and out of place...and it forced me to ultimately look inwardly at everything I knew...not just as an American, but as ME fundamentally! I would look out the window and just feel so alone...everything seemed lackluster...and it was exacerbated by the jetlag which made the whole thing feel like a bad dream.
But it went away after not too long...depression quickly gave way to acceptance, which gave way to adjustment, which gave way to adaptation, which finally gave way to absorption into the culture and becoming a part of it
And now this is totally and completely my home! (Of course...speaking Hebrew helps quite a bit...haha)
...this probably means, obviously, that going back is going to really suck since I'm going to be hit pretty hard with the reverse culture shock, but I doubt it will suck as bad as it did when I first came here.
That is definitely something I will never forget.