At the age of 16, l arrived in Australia to go to high school for one year and lived with a host family (寄宿家庭).
When the plane touched down (着陆), I was so excited that I was finally in Australia, something l had been planning for many months. In the first few weeks, I was completely over the moon about everything —l mean everything, from cultural parts such as ways of living and communicating with others to clothes, music and food.
However, after about two months of excitement things started to feel strange. Differences became clearer and I started mission mv friends and family more and more. My head was full of the thoughts like. "Nobody really understands me. My English is not good enough. I wish people would just be able to speak German for one day! Why is it so difficult to find a piece of bread that I want?"
Over the next few months, though, I slowly got used to the life there and a sense of belonging more and more took the place of my worry and homesickness. I developed my own little routine(日常事务) and made many new friends. My English improved greatly and l learned to appreciate new ways of thinking. During those months, I also developed a very interesting sleeping pattern where I would sleep about 14 hours a day, because my mind needed more time to recover after experiencing so many challenges throughout the day.
Things started to make sense (讲得通) and I understood Australian culture better and better. Over my last few months abroad, I felt more and more comfortable with my new home. My happiest moment was when my dear friend one day said during a conversation, "You are Australian now, Jude! You sound just like us!"
Now I still stay in touch with my host family. I'm very thankful for their kindness when l went through culture shock.
