[jay223]

I'm a U.S. student on exchange and I want to go home. I am going home in less than a week but the closer it gets, the more depressed I get. I started experiencing culture shock after the initial " Canada is so beautiful!" phase. That slowly died with having no social support (because I'm here alone and tried to make new friends but I'm slightly older and don't like to party much), no financial support ( as I'm not allowed to work because I'm not a citizen), and no transportation, except for the expensive buses and taxis.

The economic system here is an oppressive one if you don't money then your standard of living is not very healthy. The electric bill can get up to 300.00 if you run the heat in the winter time (which gets very cold). The prices in the marker at ridiculously high (unless you catch a sale). A slim carton of milk here is the same price as a half gallon of milk where I'm from. A loaf of bread costs almost $4. at home there are $1 loafs. they also make you pay for plastic bags... $0.05. Walmart is a 10 minutes bus ride away but everything is in french and I don't read french well. I can speak it a very little but not much.

I thought I would meet some nice, helpful people but not really as I was alone on Thanksgiving..away from my family and no one invited me for a supper for the sake of being compassionate so I wouldn't feel lonely. I'm in a small town where not may people who look like me live here so I get stared at while I walk down the street (very uncomfortable).

and don't get me started on the politics. there's a battle between the francophones and the anglophones that is utterly ridiculous (in my opinion). So it's either butcher the french language and get looked at weirdly or speak in my native tongue and get looked at condescendingly.

I miss my home town.

[Knitnut]

I understand culture shock. I have lived overseas twice, one a third world country.

Maybe get a calendar and mark off the days til home. Put smiley faces and encouraging words with the face.

I hope you will talk to your family about all if this. Can you transfer to an American school?

Carolyn.

[Rohag]

Originally Posted by jay223

I am going home in less than a week...

Can you hold on for this week?
After you've been home for a while you can reassess your mood.

[A Red Panda]

Are you studying French? I can't imagine why someone would end up in a francophone community if they aren't learning French! I'm Canadian and could never have a conversation in French. But only in Quebec would you find just French words - everywhere else is bilingual as far as I know.

Small towns anywhere are really hard to get accepted in - people tend to have grown up with the same people their whole lives and don't really think about what it's like to be alone because they never have been.

When you were talking about Thanksgiving, were you talking about Canadian Thanksgiving or American Thanksgiving? They are in different months - Canadian Thanksgiving is early in October and not in November at all.

The USA is sort of notorious for having huge and cheap prices for things like food though. I'm sorry that it's been such a culture shock! We have costs for plastic bags for environmental reasons - it's to encourage people to not be wasteful. Do you turn the heat down for when you leave the house for a day? That helps save on the cost of heating, just like keeping the heat at your minimal tolerable level.

Wasn't there a way to stay in student housing and have a meal plan? Or any clubs that you could have joined? Usually there's groups for international students so that they can get to know each other and have people to help them adjust to a new culture.

I'm sorry that your experience here has been so negative!