"What did you eat?"

So I am taking another brief respite from the educational stuff (mostly because my next post is about some of the mistakes I made as a beginning teacher and as a teacher new to EFL, and I am not quite ready to finish with that retrospection).  Instead, I am going to talk about the subject that I get asked about a lot by Americans: food.  "But Rachel", they ask, "what did you eat?" Honestly,  I could probably fill an entire blog with just food from the past year and a half, but I will try to give you a picture with just one entry.

Personally, I like it when people ask about food, because it does show that American's do realize, on some level, that the Chinese take out they get is not authentic Chinese food.  As a matter of fact, I am not even really sure where the Chinese takeout available in most areas of America comes from, because it tastes nothing like anything I ate in China.  I have heard a few theories, though.  One is that the food that is served in America more closely resembles Cantonese food (from Southern China and Hong Kong). And that the majority of Chinese Americans in America are from this region.  Some say that in addition to originating from a small part of China, it has also been reshaped over the years in order to better appeal to American customers.  Whatever the reason is, I did not come across anything resembling American Chinese food when I was in China.

Me at a Dunkin Donuts in Xi'an. We spotted it from a bus and I just started screaming. 

My first meal ever in China was actually at Burger King, right after I got off the zillion hour flight from Detroit to Shanghai.  Because yes, they do have Burger King...and McDonalds (that one I learned to say in Chinese; those of you who know me know how much I effing love their french fries), Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Subway, Dairy Queen, Papa Johns...and even a Cold Stone or two.  And especially KFC (this restaurant is everywhere in China). In many of the larger cities, especially on the east coast, you can find your staple fast food chains.  And of course there were also numerous independently owned restaurants, by foreigners or by Chinese who had lived abroad, that served western dishes (some better than others). However, depending on the size and location of the city you are in, these restaurants might not be very common. If you are way out west, you might have to take trains to visit some of these places.  However, Hangzhou is a city rife with international business and tourism; in short, it has these restaurants, and we could access them easily through buses, taxis, or walking.

Burger King: Hangzhou!

Now, having stated that these restaurants are available, let me also say that we did not eat at any of these frequently.  We would go as a treat or when we were really craving something that tasted like home.  We did not frequent these establishments for a couple of reasons.  One, since they are western restaurants, the food was three to four times the price of Chinese restaurants and we were being paid a Chinese salary. At most of the Chinese restaurants, your average cost of food was somewhere between 2.00 to 7:00 USD (and 7.00 is on the pricey side...).  Two, these are fast food restaurants, and while they were good for a cheese fix when you really needed it, the food is not that great for you, and does not compare to authentic American food (whatever your Mama cooks for you at home).  Three, with the exception of KFC and Pizza Hut, none of the western restaurants were really in walking distance from our apartment, and we did not always feel like taking a bus or taxi just to pay for overpriced fast food.  And the fourth and most important reason is: Chinese food is really, really freaking good.  I loved everything I ate there, with very few exceptions (sorry, guys, I just can't handle stinky tofu or chicken feet).

So what did we eat?  I'm not going to lie, we ate a lot of rice and noodles.  One of our favorite places was the Lanzhou Noodle restaurants,  two of which were very closed to where we lived. Lanzhou food belongs to a Muslim minority group in China, and its very tasty.  We frequently ate lunch there, my favorite being a scrambled egg and tomato over rice dish (you could also get it over noodles).  Another favorite was something called Da Pan Ji, or Big Plate Chicken.

Big Plate Chicken. Inside is a whole chicken (head and feet included) along with noodles, potatoes, cabbage, vegetable, carrots, onions, and assorted seasoning. 

Egg and tomato over rice.  In the distance is potato, beef, and peppers over rice.  Some staple Lanzhou food.

There were several Korean restaurants within walking distance, and we would frequent those places often.  We also went to a Japanese chain restaurant by the name of Ajisans, because it was in the same building where we worked out.  Again, we at something over rice or with noodles.  Usually a form of chicken or pork with veggies. My favorite was these thinly sliced pieces of marinated beef and onions over rice.  Another favorite at Ajisans was a dish featuring noodles, veggies, and a ton of clams.  And all along many of the streets near our apartments were several small restaurants (really small, like four tables and the kitchen in the space of a dorm room small). During the summer, when we more prone to walking because it was warm, Liv and I would pick a direction until we came across a little restaurant with a picture menu (we knew how to order some dishes, but those dishes got monotonous, so we would order new ones by pointing at picture menus).  We would typically order some kind of vegetable dish consisting of sauteed cabbage, a vegetable simply called 'vegetable', or mushrooms. The veggies were always cooked (there is no salad in China, because raw veggies are almost never eaten) with spices and seasoning.  Some kind of meat dish (usually chicken or pork), and the third dish we would always try and get something new or maybe a little frightening (because we had no idea what it was).  And of course, this was always served with a dish of rice, because a meal is not complete without rice.

Another interesting place we ate at was something called Hot Pot, which is very popular throughout China.  It is kind of like fondue, but instead of hot oil or cheese, you simply use boiling water.  So, when you order, you choose a flavor for the broth; something spicy or mild, depending on preferences.  You then order a bunch veggies, mushrooms, thinly sliced beef, shrimp, clams, muscles, meatballs, quail eggs, turtle bits, frog; whatever you want, as exotic or as tame as you wish.  When your water is boiling, you dump all of the stuff in the water, wait for it to cook, and then fish it back out again.

Hot Pot in Beijing!

I didn't know what to expect when it came to food when I traveled to China.  I wasn't too concerned because it is rare for me to come across food that I do not like; I was sure I would be able to find something.  However, I did not expect to love it to the extent that I did.  I am not saying I did not miss American food, ask my students or my fellow teachers; when it got to be near the end of my time in China, all I could talk about was going home and eating American food.  And there are some foods that I ate while in China that I am 100% okay never eating again.  But overall my food experience there was amazing, and if any of you are planning on traveling to China, I highly recommend diving right into the food, no reservations.  I would also recommend bringing some Imodium with you... especially if you are going to dive into the street food.  But its all worth it.


Oh, and this one time I ate scorpion.

And here is a slideshow of the more everyday food that I ate in China.  It's all pretty wonderful (though, I probably ate my last scorpion).

Man, I'm Tired of Singing: KTV

I am taking a break from my focus on education to talk breifly about one of my favorite things about China, and one of the things I miss the most.

KTV 

The Entrance for the In Love KTV in Wumart

For those of  you are unfamiliar with what this is, allow me to explain. It is Karaoke Television, or sometimes called Korean Karaoke.  Now, the word 'karaoke' seems to be off putting for many Americans.  It conjures images of crowded bars and people with no vocal ability screeching their oft-drunken hearts out to a judgmental drunken crowd.  Or worse, someone with vocal talent that puts the rest of the crowd to shame; who wants to follow that act?

However, I wish all Americans could visit China or some other KTV-friendly countries because your perception of karaoke would totally change.  In China, Karaoke is totally different.  Instead of being on a mic with one or two friends in front of a zillion strangers, you are with a group of your friends in your own room.

This is a typical 2-5 person room. Its a bit larger than your average dorm room. 

And this is not just an ordinary room.  There are couches and chairs all around the room, several microphones, and usually a small stage with a stand up mic.  Mirrors line the walls. interrupted only with several flat screen televisions.  Over to one side of the room is a little touch screen television where you choose from literally thousands of songs.  Depending on how big your city is and how many foreigners live there, you can have slim pickings or extremely updated list of American songs. Once you have selected your song, the lyrics and accompanying video begin playing on all those flat screen televisions around the room.  The KTV we spent most of our free time at was only 2-3 weeks behind on the top 40's list, and you could always recommend new songs.  They got them pretty fast.

One page of the selection; I have to thank Amanda Woomer for taking this shot. In 2 years, it never occurred to me to photograph this, although I know she was only excited that they had Jedward. 

This is because there are no copyright laws in China.  So not only were these songs available in terms of text and music, but they (with some rare exceptions) also played the music video on all available television screens.

Above: me, rocking out to Pink's Family Portrait. Below: Liv, striking a pose. 

At any time during the evening you can visit their well stocked supermarket for refreshment (and, of course, beer and white wine-liquor).  Or you can call one of the many attendants and they will come in and you can order food.  You could literally live there from about ten in the morning until closing time...at 6:00 am the next day.  And yes, we have stayed until pretty close to closing before.

That's what we calling "Singing it Out"

You can go with a large group of people or with just you and a friend--we would often go for a few hours after the gym (it was in the same building, on the same floor) to rock out or sometimes during the afternoon (when it's cheaper--kinda like a matinee) on a weekday that we did not teach on.  Or, on one memorable occasion, we took about 12 students as a reward for doing the best in the class that semester.  We have had birthdays there, and celebrated one of the best Christmases of my life at KTV.  The establishment is a very fancy warren of different sized rooms depending on the size of your party.  And there is no karaoke stigma in China, so if you go on a Friday or Saturday night, you might be waiting a long time for a room.

Liv's Birthday, for example, we had Dave, Theresa, Justin, Alex, Olivia, Lanaya, Sammy, Tom, Pretty Young Trainer, a couple other guys from the gym and myself. 

Amanda, on Christmas, rocking out with Olivia and I. 

The advantages of KTV are as follows: It's effing fun. It's stress-relieving. It's cheap (at least, it is in China; a couple hours is about 20 bucks for a room for 2-5 people).  And if you are sitting there saying "man, I wish I could go to China and KTV", don't worry: many large cities in America have KTV's.  Although, they are typically not quite as fancy, considerably more expensive, and their selection somewhat more limited, as America does have fairly strict copyright laws.  But the premise is the same; you, your friends, and singing it out. I highly recommend you do some research and see if your local metropolis has a KTV, especially if the only thing holding you back from regular karaoke is shyness or complete lack of talent; KTV was made for you, trust me.

...and if you really want an example of what KTV looks like, here is a duet of Dave and myself singing the 90's Backstreet Boy classic: I Want it That Way.  We are being a bit ridiculous in this particular rendition, but hey, that's the beauty of KTV; if you can't be ridiculous in a room full of your friends, where can you be ridiculous?

Oral English: Part II

My first semester was a great deal of teaching by reaction.  I had little idea about what to expect from these courses and little direction in what I should be teaching.  Therefore, my lessons did not begin with a very clear plan and tended to change as I saw fit or as I discovered or learned more about the course or student interests and needs.  Therefore, my first semester was spent teaching the course, then spending a week researching ways to teach the material better.  So there was very little consistency from week to week, with the exception that they would perform a skit at the beginning of each class and it would be on the theme discussed the week before.

I believe I was grading final exams in this particular picture, but  I  am pretty sure I wore the same expression  when trying to formulate lesson plans. 

My second semester, was an entirely different matter.  At the end of the first semester, the three teachers discussed what we wished to do with them next semester.   We each talked about our successes and failures this semester and how we wanted to change for the following semester.  I talked about how the students, after some initial hesitation, showed enthusiasm for the skits, and improvement in some the areas I was able to focus on.  I suggested we make some kind of performance the basis for all three of our sections next semester.  After some debate, we all agreed.  We then talked about what we could do, and while, in hindsight, our plans were a tad too ambitious for one semester, we were certainly more prepared than the previous semester.

This was our plan.  We would do Romeo and Juliet, and before you roll your eyes, wait just a minute.  We would do Romeo and Juliet and each section (with each teacher) would choose a different genre and rewrite one part of the play in that genre.  We chose Action, Science Fiction, and Horror.  We would spend the first 5 weeks with the students discussing the genre, showing examples of the genre, and rewriting the script (after assigning the film as homefun--a cheerful alternate title for homework).  Similar to the first semester, we would also rotate teachers each 5 weeks.  The second 5 weeks we would work on the pronunciation  intonation, inflection, and memorization of your lines.  The final 5 weeks would include body language and facial expression.

Now, it turns out that you might not want to have students in an Oral Speaking course focus 5 full weeks on script development  but what can I say, I was fresh out of a University that spent 6 years telling me about student ownership of projects, and I thought students would be more invested and interested if they wrote their own work (which was true, we just did not really have the time for it)*.  I suggest if you are reading this and thinking, "hey, this sounds like a good idea for a speaking course!" to consider pre-writing scripts for your students, with the option for them to make changes as they like.

While this course certainly had its own set of frustrations, our students, as a whole, demonstrated remarkable improvement in pronunciation  intonation, and in particular, body language and facial expression.  And since  I taught some of the same students the following year as sophomores, I can tell you that they retained those skills.   Their final assessment was to perform their entire section of their play for the 3 of us and their classmates, and with a few exceptions, they did a very, very good job.  They were wonderfully creative their adaptations of the script to the new genre, they were humorous, and they demonstrated improvement in the areas we had targeted.  My mom, who came to China to visit during the semester and sat in on a few of my classes was equal parts entertained and impressed with their rehearsals.

Probably one of the more frustrating parts of this course was another lesson in Chinese culture.  Boys and girls in China who are not related and who are not dating...

do. not. touch.    Ever.

I had encountered this a little the previous semester, but I did not really think about it too much.  One, there are not really that many boys in the majority of our classes and two, they had written the scripts themselves! I figured if they wrote it down, they would be willing to perform it.  And I am by no means talking about anything scandalous; I am talking about hand holding and the occasional hug.  And these are college students.  We did not discover this problem until the last 5 week section, when we were actually up and moving about and rehearsing, and by then it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too late to change around characters or start deleting scenes, although we did some editing where possible.  It was in this section of teaching that I learned the value of modeling desired behavior.  Justin (one of the other teachers) and I spent a lot of time circulating between groups and demonstrating appropriate body language for the scenes, and about half of our reluctance issues were solved merely by us being willing to do the same thing.  The other half did not give up so easily and required a little more attention and rehearsal, and some script editing.

While in theory the idea to rotate teachers sounds nice--students are exposed to 3 different teaching styles and to the particular strengths each teacher brings to the table.  However, for the structure of this particular course, it might have been better to stick with the same teacher.  Each time we rotated, we would need to familiarize ourselves with the new scripts, the new students, and their set of issues, just as we had made progress with the last group!  And of course, we each had different ideas about each group, which would need to be communicated to the next teacher (or fail to be communicated, and instead entirely redone by the next teacher).  And we were, of course, more invested in our first group, as we helped them with their scripts and their initial ideas.

*While I stand by what I said, that having students spend so much time writing their scripts in an Oral English class, nothing will beat the collective reaction to when we presented them with their finished scripts and we reminded them that they wrote the whole thing.  That was a very rewarding day.

Our Finished Product!

A video from our Romeo and Juliet Skit Final: This is Act 1, Genre: Horror

Oral English: Part I

The Oral English class that I taught began as a little bit of an experiment on the part of my supervisor and the honors college.  Most class sizes in China are somewhere between 30 and 40 students.  This seems to work out okay as most of the courses are lecture based.  However, having 40 students (or in the case of one class, 45 students) in an Oral Speaking course is a bad idea.  If you have taken a language course in college, you might recall that your class sizes were usually between 15-20 students.  This is done on purpose, to ensure that all students have plenty of time and opportunity to practice speaking their foreign language and to have the help and attention of the teacher.

My supervisor, who had been teaching pre-service teachers in the States for the last 20 years decided to do something new with the students in the honors college.  She asked both myself and another foreign teacher to split the class into thirds, so our class size would be groups of about 12 each, which is much more reasonable for a speaking class than groups of 40.  We would have the same group for 5 weeks and then we would rotate and teach the same 5 week lesson to the new group.

This sounds really good in theory, of course, but was a little difficult our first semester, in terms of practice.  Part of this is because we did not have a lot of direction and partly (due to various reasons) the three of us were unable to meet with each other to really discuss the course in depth.   As a result, each of us went our own direction, which made the final assessment somewhat chaotic.  One teacher stuck to the text book, which included a series of videos concerning the life one college aged girl and her experiences and speaking activities revolving around her life.  I took the themes from this text book and worked with the creation of skits using vocabulary and concepts associated with the text book.  The third teacher decided to toss the text and do debates.  I can't even begin to imagine being a student in this course; I am sure it was chaotic.

Left pretty much to my own devices, I decided to choose a different theme each week. (I would learn with practice that a new theme each week, when we only had about 80 minutes together each week, was too much, and dropped it to 3 themes in the five week period).  Our first theme was "Going on a First Date." So I spent the weekend reading through the textbook, researching like a mad-woman on the internet about teaching Oral English as a foreign language and researching about skits.  And I came up with a first lesson plan and walked into my first solo-class as prepared as I knew how to be.  So I explained to them what a skit was (but at this time, did not model it-I was new and didn't know any better!) and what I expected from them for each performance.  That the skit must be 3 minutes long, that each person must speak and the speaking must be equitable, and that the skit must be pertinent to the theme discussed that week in class. This was met with the same varied reactions you would imagine in any classroom around the world; some were excited, most were accepting of the inevitable, and some were obviously terrified.

I began to discuss our theme and, utilizing my recent degrees in education, decided to activate their prior knowledge, by asking them who had been on a first date.  As college students, I was expecting that at least a few of them had not only been on a date, but would be willing to share some details of their experience.  Well, at that time I had been in China for all of 3 weeks and I had a lot to learn about Chinese culture.  This was one of my early lessons: Chinese teens (at least the teens that wind up in universities) do NOT date.  And if they did, they do not ever admit it.  So there I was, standing in front of a group of students, watching my carefully planned lesson on First Dates unravel.  But I rallied, and ask them if they had ever watched a movie or tv show where people went on dates, to which most of them said yes.  Phew, back on track.

So I asked them some questions and we brainstormed: Where to go on dates, what we might be feeling on a date, and what we might do to get ready for a date.  I then had prepared a short clip of a first date using a clip of That 70's Show when Donna and Eric finally go on a date.  I explained a few dating vocabulary terms and  I then broke them into groups.  I explained that they  had the remainder of class (about 30 minutes) to come up with a 3 minute skit featuring a first date.  I explained that it could be serious or humorous, it must simply be on First Dates and cover the themes we discussed in class.  I told them that they could use this time to brainstorm ideas (just like we did together) within their groups, to write down dialogue, get my help with said dialogue, and then begin practicing.  They would perform at the beginning of our next class.

Their performances for our next class were surprisingly creative in terms of concept, and largely humorous, both intentionally and unintentionally.  But what I realized from most of them, was that while their pronunciation was fine, many of them lacked intonation, inflection, and any connection to what they were saying to what they were doing with their bodies; they had absolutely no body language.  And so my next mission became researching ways to improve those three areas of weakness.  But first I had to figure out how.

You Can Enjoy the Fresh Air After Finished Civilized Urinating

One of the adventures of teaching in a country that does not speak your native language (and I use the term adventure, fully aware that my memories are currently deluded by nostalgia and diluted by being back in my home country for over a month) is trying to communicate with your students.  And trying to communicate in general, of course.

Signs in China are good examples of the  "missing link" that exists between English and Chinese. 

In China, most students who have reached the university age, at a mid to high level university, have been taking English classes, and have done okay in them, since they were about 10 years old.  Sometimes even younger.  And many of them  have taken extracurricular courses throughout their high school lives to improve their English.  Additionally, many of them love American television shows (particularly Gossip Girls and Vampire Diaries) and watch them regularly.  So, for the most part, they have a general competency in English.

However, the majority of them have learned English from other non-native English speakers, and they learn English the same way American's learn Spanish or French in high school.  And unless you are incredibly lucky, in America, and in China, you are not likely to have a teacher who is a native speaker of whatever language you are learning.  So, many non-native Spanish-speaking Americans can "speak" Spanish.  So long as it is unaccented, slow, and we stick to the basics.  And in China, it is the same; if the English is spoken slowly, we stick to those prefabricated conversations, and our English is accented in Chinese (difficult for American teachers to achieve), everything is fine. This is true for many of our students, especially those who are non-English majors.  Most universities still require students to take English courses for their first 2 years of study (some universities mandate the entire 4 years) even if your are not an English major or pursuing a career where English is going to be used regularly.

Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, Beijing

It also does not help that English and Chinese do not translate well, in a literal way.  I am very grateful for the way I learned Chinese, which was largely learning the meaning of several often used phrases, rather than learning the translation. Allow me to demonstrate why the translation can be misleading.  The phrase for "be careful" or "watch out" (it's used interchangeably) is Xiǎoxīn.  However, it's literal translation into English is "little heart".  The phrase "bu hao yi sa", is a very informal way to say "I'm sorry" or sometimes "excuse me."  But it's literal translation is something like "not good something".  And for just one more example, the word "panda" in Chinese is Xióngmāo, but the literal translation is "bear cat".  Needless to say, if a student tries to directly translate their Chinese question or phrase into English, it still might not make sense, which, as you can imagine, causes some problems in teacher-student communication. 

Tianzi Mountain, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park

So, when I, as a foreign teacher entered my first classroom, having experience working with  non-English speakers, but not by any means in a teaching capacity, I stood in front of a classroom of very attentive and quietly excited students whose expectant faces quickly clouded in confusion when I began to introduce myself.  Because there I was with my American accent, throwing out strange vocabulary, and speaking waaaaay too quickly (even though I thought I was going slowly).  And if you remember from my earlier blog, my first class was with non-English majors.

My first few months of teaching were frustrating, because I could tell that of the 40 students in my classroom, only about 10 of them were following me with ease.  The others may have been following, but Chinese students are reluctant to speak in class, so I had no idea if they were following each lesson.  Eventually you learn to read your students, and you get really skilled at simplifying your language.  However, what I have discovered probably worked the best is to provide non-verbal ways to reinforce concepts in class.  You can do this through providing pictures when teaching vocabulary.  You can use videos from the internet or ones you have created that help explain ideas or concepts.  And everyday, even though you will sometimes feel foolish, you can use exaggerated body language and facial expressions to help clarify meaning.

In the Lashan Giant Buddha Park, Sichuan

I taught 3 semesters of Oral English and while many of our student's pronunciation was fine, they spoke with almost zero inflection and with sometimes strange or incorrect intonation.  They had a very wooden, flat presentation style, which was also affecting comprehension for those listening to their speeches. We decided that the medium we were going to use to improve their speaking was going to be through the creation and performance of skits.  We thought that getting them to improve their intonation and inflection would be easier during exaggerated dramas. We thought that this would be effective, fun, and might relax that wooden/flat quality. However, we soon learned that getting them to express themselves not only verbally, but also through body language and facial expression, was extremely difficult.  Because they were unused to giving this kind of performance and because they were embarrassed and shy.  And the most effective way to get them up and moving and performing was to model exactly what we wanted them to do.  This meant that we were modeling skits for our students, and I think it made a difference.  After we were willing to get up in front of them and be silly, the students were more willing to do the same.  Some of them were even enthusiastic about it and we discovered that we had several natural performers in our classes.

I realized that teaching is a lot like performing sometimes.  Like a good performer, you need to keep their attention, and you can do that with engaging strategies, and also with your teaching style.  And when you ask students to take a risk, and public speaking and skits would be considered a risk by many shy students, you need to be willing to show them its not that scary and demonstrate exactly what you are expecting from them when they perform their final skits.  In my next post, I will go into more detail about how we structured the skits, the strategies we used, and the problems we encountered and how we improved the course in later semesters.

Outside of a restroom in Lashan, Sichuan

Reverse Culture Shock

So I am taking a brief detour from talking about teaching in China to talk about something that has been on my mind for the past few weeks: Culture Shock.  And its evil twin, Reverse Culture Shock.  With the former,  you are generally pretty prepared. You've researched cultural and environmental differences, you've talked to people who have traveled there, you've consulted the internet; you are prepared.  Even if you are not very familiar with the place you are going to be traveling too, you have the expectation that it is going to be different, that you will have to make adjustments; that things will not be the same.

And of course it sucks to leave your friends...

...and your cat! (Even if the cat was not very nice)

However, coming home is an entirely different experience.  It is not that America, or wherever you come from, has changed.  Of course it has changed; people have moved, graduated, gotten new jobs, had kids, got married, etc. But what you do not anticipate, that for all the changes that have been happening, the lives being lived in your absence, so much is still the same.  And there you are, or in this case me, bursting with with this huge experience, with all these stories, all of these amazing things that have happened in the last 2 years.  And its not just that you don't have anyone to tell them to, because you will have many people with varying degrees of interest asking you about it, but you don't even know where to start.  Its not just that you went on vacation for a few weeks, you lived there.  Where do you begin to summarize 2 years of life?  And when people ask you "How was China?", how do you know what is relevant?  What about 2 years of life do you want to know about? I mean, I ate breakfast everyday just like you did, except I ate it in a different time zone.

This is a sad facsimile of Chinese food.  I would not recommend trying the American version of your away-countries food for a few weeks after your return. It will not be the same. 

It's that sameness that is probably the most disconcerting when you arrive.  And then there is you, who has just been reshaped into this new person, who is trying to be crammed back into the pattern, the routine, the mold, that you had fit in so perfectly not that long ago.  And you don't fit.  And so you either have to make yourself fit, which will be uncomfortable for you, or try to carve out a new mold, which will likely be uncomfortable for those around you (although, the latter is probably the better option for your long term peace of mind. If you are only home for a few weeks before going away again, don't bother).

And for you and your friends and family back home, the changes that have been happening have been gradual.  The difference is that the people back home have witnessed on a daily basis these gradual changes. Just like the new friends you have made abroad have gradually witnessed your transformation.  The problem is you have not been in constant contact with the people back home, nor they with you.  And so everyone's life is running quite smoothly, and then you crash into this orderly existence where no one has witnessed your changes gradually and everyone around you seems relatively unchanged.  So it throws you for a loop for a few weeks, that is for sure.

Additionally, you are so excited to see people and do things that you have not been able to see or do since leaving, and in my case, I was gone a pretty long time.  So I had built up quite a few high expectations (always a mistake) that America now had to live up to.

CHEEEEEEEESE! The best and oft-missed part of America. 

Of course, to combat reverse culture shock, you really should prepare before you come home, although, I had very good information on it from two very reliable sources (thank you Liv and Dave) and I still had some trouble.  You should also hold onto the things about the visiting country that you really couldn't stand.  Because after a few weeks home, just like you did with your home country, you start to idealize the country and culture you left.  So make a list of the things that are frustrating about your visiting country and revisit them when you are feeling particularly Not-Homesick.  Also make a list of all the things you really missed about your home country, and again, revisit that list when your home country is starting to make you crazy.  And when you get home, stay busy.  Visit people, start planning what's next, and keep in touch with people either still in that visiting country or who have also recently returned.  Because it is really good to be home...at least for a little while, before you jet off to somewhere else.

And of course there is family...

And my car.