Dealing with Cultural and Mental Exhaustion

Video Transcript

When you go into a new country, a new culture, you're going to have culture shock. And that's that fun wave of you are really nervous, and then you get there and you're like, 'Wow, this is so cool. I'm in a new place.' You're at this peak. Then about two weeks in you're just kind of like, 'Oh dang, I'm here for another nine months. How am I gonna get through this?' So you go through a slump. During that time, one of the best things to do is, again, to reach out to family and friends back at home. It also may help to talk with other individuals in your cohort. If you're studying abroad with individuals from the same place as you, you can talk to them and say, 'Hey, I'm going through this difficult time. Can I just chat with you?' And you may find out they're feeling the exact same way. And that's another way that you can sort of bond with the cohort of people you're with. Taking a day for your mental, emotional, physical health, especially during that culture shock slump, is one of the best things you can do to then make the rest of your experience as meaningful as possible.

A Boren program representative discusses strategies for dealing with mental exhaustion.