Culture Shock
When I left Easter Island I felt empty, yet so full. I was so confused. When arrived to Santiago, I spent about an hour with Adrien in her apartment before heading to the metro to go home. On my way towards the station, I had such an urge to cry and I didn´t know what was wrong. I didn´t want to go home and be alone. I called my roomate Hector, hoping that he would be there, but he didn´t pick up his phone. Then I remembered that he was also travelling and that made me almost sick to my stomach.When I got home, I turned my key in the lock....and the door wouldn´t open. Someone inside came to the door and opened it for me. It was Amanda, an Australian friend of Hector´s that he had met on Easter Island. She had been crashing at our place for the past few days because she has a flight to the US in a few days and didn´t have anywhere else to stay. I was so relieved to see her.
When I came in, she commented on all of the shell necklaces that I had around my neck. They were given to me as a sign of good luck by all of the friends that I had made on the island. Once I started talking about that...I spilled my guts about ALL of my experiences on Rapa Nui.
By 2am (I had arrives at about 10:30) I had sorted out many things and I realized that most of all- this was my first experience with culture shock. After the eleven months that I had spent in Chile, this past week was the first time that I had had such an experience.
The funny thing was that while it was happening, I hardly noticed. Maybe that was because it seemed like such a dream. And it all didn´t really hit me until I was leaving. Being in such a small town, aliented from practically everything while at the same time having contact with the world was so...tumultuous.
Right now, I am coping well. I spent the day cleaning my room, reading, and writing. And thinking. And reflecting. A lot. Last night, all I really wanted to do was put on my backpack again and travel down south to forget everything and be by myself. But now, I have kind of grounded myself and need to take care of a ton of things before I have the opportunity to do some more travelling. Tomorrow I will post some pictures and some of the thoughts that came out of my pen while taking off in the airplane from the island. I promise. :-)
<< Home