Counting down to Culture Shock

So now that we’re getting settled and have culture shock to look forward too, I thought I’d share some of our goals for “true adjustment” to our new life over here. In our cross cultural training course we learned that there are five basic elements necessary for “true adjustment”: language and cultural skills, comfortable home base, friendships and support networks, ability to navigate your new environment, and meaningful and enjoyable activities. To get through the period of culture shock (which is usually around 3 months and lasts for 3-6 months according to our “expert”), we set goals for 2, 6 and 12 months that specifically address each of the five elements. So here are our goals:

Within 2 months:
- Find an Arabic course to enroll in (culture/lang skill)
- Buy something for our house at the souks (cultural and comfortable home base)
- Look up and join golfing, diving and health clubs (friendships/support network and activities)
- Get our drivers licenses and a car (navigating Doha)
- Establish VOIP and build our website (friendship/support network)

Within 6 months:
- Enrolled in an Arabic course
- Build a friendship with someone local
- Have a dinner party
- Go camping or diving

Within 12 months:
- Be conversational in Arabic
- Think of Doha as home
- Take 6 regional trips to Oman, Bahrain, Dubai, etc. (yikes- that seems like a lot- we may have to revise that one)
- Buy pearls for Erin (yay me!)
- Improved health and golf handicap

So, we’ve done pretty well with our goals. We should have our pathfinder this week. We’ve started Arabic lessons (in fact, we’re about to head out to lesson 2). We’ve joined a health club but we still need to work on the golf and diving. This afternoon we’re making our first trip to the souks and, since you’re reading this, our website is up and running! We’re even making a dent in our 6 month goals- we’re working on friendships with some local Qataris and are already enrolled in Arabic. So, hopefully these goals will see us through our next few months. I guess they serve two purposes- to distract you from your current misery of culture shock but also to help you adjust to your new situation. Steve doesn’t expect to feel much culture shock but I expect I’ll be pretty miserable for a while. Why Steve signed on for this I’ll never know- but I can think of things I’d rather do than put up with an unhappy me! Admittedly, I really like the sense of accomplishment I get from checking things off our to-do list!