The Big Mouse Shock

According to psychologists, there are 4 stages of culture shock, when you move to a different country;

1. EXCITEMENT Period; The individual experiences a holiday or 'honeymoon' period with their new surroundings.They feel very positive about the culture. They are overwhelmed with impressions. They find the new culture exotic and are fascinated. They are passive, meaning they have little experience of the culture. 
2. REJECTION Period; The individual now has some more face to face experience of the culture and starts to find things different, strange and frustrating. They find the behaviour of the people unusual and unpredictable. They begin to dislike the culture and react negatively to the behaviour. They feel anxious. They start to withdraw. They begin to criticise, mock or show animosity to the people.
3. ADJUSTMENT period; The individual now has a routine, feels more settled and is more confident in dealing with the new culture. They understand and accept the behaviour of the people. They feel less isolated. They regains their sense of humour.
4. ACCEPTANCE period; The individual now feels 'at home'. They enjoy being in the culture. Functions well in the culture. They prefer certain cultural traits of the new culture rather than their own. They adopt certain behaviours from the new culture.

I think I am in the mixture stage of 2 and 3. They gradually came all at once rather than step by step. Definitely I've tried to adjust everything. That means my emotion is busy, ups and downs. My feeling is like liquid, that try to adjust myself the shape of bottles. My feeling is like a kid who is searching a empty chair in the game of musical chairs. My feeling is restless and unstable, but just trying to adjust the environment and culture without knowing. I feel my life here became more normal but sometimes I have negative feelings, especially about my English, because I have high ambition about it. I sometimes feel a bit frustrated about my slow progress.

One of the huge shocks was not English culture, but a person, the big mouse. I sometimes ask him 'are you really English??', because he is contrary to the stereotype of 'English'. He doesn't go to a pub so often, doesn't drink 'beer' very much, doesn't do DIY nor gardening, and doesn't watch a football match. I call his great mysteries 'the big mouse shock' using an analogy from culture shock. As for the big mouse shock, I am in the adjustment and the acceptance period, I think:)