THE WEBINAR

So, I attended the Pre-Departure Webinar yesterday along with six- hundred other excited teachers online.  Our recruiter spoke about many things before our departure, like social customs, expectations, amongst other topics in the UAE, but most importantly he spoke about CULTURAL SHOCK.  We were reminded of the 5 stages of culture shock that we as typical expats will experience once we arrive.  They are:

1. The Honeymoon Phase - when you love everything about the UAE (1st month)
   
2. The Rejection Phase - when you realize that everything actually sucks, they don't do it like they do back home, and therefore are stupid and horrible usually ends with a crisis moment (the 2nd to the 5th month)
   
3. The Adjustment Phase- when you start, well, adjusting (the 6th month)
   
4. The Acceptance Phase - when your new life and lifestyle in the UAE becomes normal (usually begins the 8th month)
   
5. The Reverse Culture Shock Phase - when you go home over the summer and are shocked, absolutely shocked, at how flagrantly the women expose themselves to the general public!
   

* This timeline is quite fluid, but it usually takes about a year to fully process the experience (and another year to process once it ends).

There was a lot of information covered in this webinar, so much that I have already signed up for the next one coming up this Monday.  Even though I have much of this information already, I would like to revisit such  topics again to make sure that I didn't miss a thang!