"Post-Study Abroad Semester: Dealing with the Woes of Return and Reverse Culture Shock" by Nadia Rassech
We’re closing in on the last third of our semester. A limited number of remaining weeks means people are planning their final trips, bucket list items, and reflecting on how they want to spend this time. A common, and oft-distressing, point of conversation is our departure date. How much can we all accomplish before it's finally here? When exactly is everyone leaving and from what airport? When will we all see each other next? What are we excited to return to, and what will we miss once we’re gone?
This is my second study abroad semester in Morocco. I spent the Fall 2024 semester studying Arabic in Fes. Thus, I wanted to share a little bit about my experience with reverse culture shock, and returning home from a place you felt you left too soon!
Upon my return to the US, I found myself missing a number of aspects of life in Fes, but key amongst them was the people and nature of interaction amongst friends and strangers in the city. Living in Fes, my day was filled with constant interaction. Living in the densely populated medina, I became accustomed to walking home and seeing familiar faces in the hanouts, cafes, restaurants and shops. Going on grocery runs meant visiting my regular fruit stand, mint or spice seller, bread baker, and hanout owner. Every item on my list required me stopping at a different stand, repeating the same few questions before every purchase-
Salam! Kiy dayer? Labas? Bkayr? Kl shi mzyen?
Learning random little details of these strangers' lives and days is an experience that stands in such contrast to the silent and private grocery store run back home. Driving my car, listening to music, suddenly felt so quiet compared to the at-times strange and chaotically interrupted rambles of a taxi driver. I found myself missing the small daily interactions with strangers and nearly-strangers that had been regularly occurring in Morocco. This includes those which I had been a part of, as well as witnessing strangers quickly erupt in energetic conversation, whether on the train or in the market. There was an openness, a regularity to this occurrence, which did not exist at the same level back home.
In the same vein, when you study abroad, you enter a new environment. For a semester, every day contains its own little adventure. You become accustomed to this pattern, your body used to constantly interpreting new stimuli, and, upon returning home, it can make old ways feel mundane. Rather than resting and recuperating, I attempted to busy myself, filling each day to try to mimic the constant eventfulness of Morocco.
Of course, there were numerous other aspects of Morocco which I found myself missing. From the friends made, to the food, to evening strolls in the medina (and the general walkability of Fes, compared to my own hometown), to the general flexibility of time. Even the quiet of my neighborhood felt strange — unnatural in comparison to the constant echoes and muffled sounds of the medina’s close quarters.
The directness of conversation almost felt rude to return to, as I’d grown accustomed to the longer greetings mandated by every interaction in Darija. Hearing Darija, or any dialect of Arabic really, brought immediate comfort. I missed not only using the language, but its intonations, and the expressions which one could not quite directly translate to the American English vernacular.
Thus, in coping with reverse culture shock and missing my host community, I found comfort in practicing the language, consistently exposing myself to it, and keeping in touch with friends. Equally effective was taking advantage of the souvenirs I’d brought back with me — spices, saboon beldi, tea, and other goods which I could share with and enjoy alongside family and friends. Learning to cook chicken pastilla for my relatives, inviting friends over for cups of mint tea, gifting spices for Christmas, and finding other ways to integrate bits of Morocco into my life back home, all proved helpful coping mechanisms after the conclusion of a semester abroad!
Though, clearly, these were not enough (hence my writing from Rabat at present…).
Nadia Rassech is a student studying abroad in the Fall 2025 on Amideast’s Area & Arabic Language Studies program in Rabat, Morocco.
