A psychological observation

It's amazing how much the brain does on it's own, without you having to manually do the processing. This has become clear to me as I become more adjusted to being here, and as the phenomenon referred to as "culture shock" begins to fade.

When I first arrived here, I noticed everything. Everything was new to me, and so everything was noticed and had to be manually processed. Now, a month and a half in, I find myself in a state of mind more akin to the way I lived my daily life back home. I go about doing things, and for the most part the background happenings of my surroundings stay as background. I don't have to notice ever sound, ever color, ever sensation. I'm more or less used to them now, and so my brain processes them without my active participation.

I suppose this is, in essence, exactly what culture shock is. Your brain, in totally unfamiliar surroundings, doesn't know where to place all of the various stimuli of the moment. And so, by a quirk of psychology, you are forced to analyze and physically direct the neurological path of every single stimulus. This requires an unimaginably large amount of mental energy, and can be rather exhausting. But, as you do this, your brain learns the path that these various stimuli must take, and begins to do the work on it's own. Over time, things happen without you having to notice them.

I don't think we realize on a day to day basis exactly how much is happening around us. The color of the tiles, the sound of the subway, the people having ma conversation near us, the. Aesthetics of the neighborhood. But when you are completely new to a place you notice every single thing. This is simultaneously wonderful and overwhelming. When you are familiar to a place, you have more time to spend thinking about whatever you want. Your brain isn't forced into contemplating the simple aspect of where you are right now. But when you do notice every single thing, you have an appreciation for your environment that normally is taken for granted.

I'm certainly more comfortable now that the initial culture shock is over, but there was something fun about it too. I'm more in my head, and less in the moment. Of course, I like being in my head, but there was something fun about being completely immersed, completely aware of every single detail of my surroundings.

This is a shorter post, mostly created because I don't want anyone to think I've forgotten about posting. I've been working on a specific post for a little over a week now, but it is taking longer than expected. It requires a lot of research, and I haven't quite finished the investigation that is necessary for it. I will be out of town this weekend, so no Sunday blog post again. Look for the next post sometime next week.

-Mongoose