2. Expectations
O Tranquil life
O Nature
O Clean air
O ABILITY TO DRINK TAP WATER
O Getting to know the culture in general, new people
O Excitement about independent life
O Moving to a “better” country
3. Honeymoon phase
O Excessive happiness about leaving Russia and
coming to Finland
O Noticing the obvious differences (people’s
appearance, architecture, roads, etc.)
O Making acquaintances
4. Culture shock
O Absence of actual culture shock
O Distinguishing even more differences (people’s
values, behavior, relations between students and
teachers)
O No mood swings, no disappointment and stuff –
only keeping falling in love with Finland
O Some bad experiences do not affect the attitude
anyhow
5. Adjustment
O Getting rid of the habit to constantly compare
Russia and Finland
O Nothing seems unusual even if experienced for the
first time
O Adapting to the pace of life
O No homesickness (even sort of forgetting that I’ve
lived somewhere else)
6. Adaptation
O Feeling at home
O Getting used to the things that seemed weird and
unconventional at the beginning
O Trying to learn Finnish (laziness prevents it quite
successfully)
O Celebrating Finnish holidays
7. Re-entry shock
O Now the culture shock takes place
O Hometown seems worse than it did before
O Getting accustomed to the things which were
typical before
O Noticing the differences between countries again
(now they’re more obvious and less pleasurable)
