Breaking up and coming home
During what I could ostensibly label as work, I stumbled across a student who wrote this about her study abroad experience.
Living in a foreign country is falling in love and breaking-up twelve times a week. Sometimes you fall in love twice in one day or perhaps a week is filled with break-ups. Whatever the combination, life is lived in extremes.
Though I would argue that this applies to both living or spending a solid amount of time in a country, that’s really one of the best ways I’ve ever heard it described. And then you come back to the States and the reverse culture shock hits you upside the head. Though it’s a relatively unexplored concept, from what I’ve gathered from many travelers, that’s the part that hurts the most. You hate America, you can find something to criticize at every turn- the lack of public transportation, the politics, the people, the American culture that you grew up knowing- I was even thrown off by the sheer amount of choices in the cereal aisle.
Interacting with family and friends can be the worst kind of awkward- they want to see pictures, but you want to try to convey the magnitude of your experience to them. Most of the time, they end up bored and you end up feeling isolated. For a variety of reasons, a lot of my friendships became really strained after I got back from Russia the first time and I spent a lot of time being alone, not really sure what was going on or how to fix it.
So what’s the best way to cope? I feel like being aware of the fact that this *is* going to happen might help a lot. Trying to keep up with the country you were in after your return can help- email with friends, keep up with the language (if you studied), read related news and books, and go back again sometime 
The more I travel, the easier adapting comes, but it’s always a bit of a jolt to move between places. The trick is just knowing how to take advantage of the situation you’re in and to keep your wits, along with a healthy sense of humor about it.