The Harshest Return
When I returned to England, I knew that Antarctica had distorted my personality. The rolling green hills of Derbyshire, near where I grew up, looked different than I recalled. At a reunion, I found it difficult to connect to my friends and relatives. I had trouble choosing between double skinny latte coffee or caramel mint mocha. My mood fluctuated between anxious and underwhelmed.
The feeling of home is ingrained deeply into most of us. It may, sometimes, even feel indelible. When we are submerged into an alien environment, some place very different from the home we’re used to, we may feel helpless, irritable, or ignored. Our normal reinforcements no longer exist, and our locale is at odds with our identity. We are in culture shock. But we humans are
