It's be fun for me as the prof to read about some of your first week experiences, and especially interesting to hear how many of you feel like college so far isn't as demanding as you thought.  (That may change, by the way).  I'm also noticing how many of you are writing about the difficulty of the transition from small school to large, from rural area to urban one, from home to Boise.  In some ways, what several of you are describing are the classic symptoms of culture shock.  Here's a definition from the scholarship on culture shock.

 In a comprehensive review of these different mean-

ings, Taft (1977) has identified six distinct aspects of

culture shock:

1. Strain due to the effort required to make necessary

psychological adaptations

2. A sense of loss and feelings of deprivation in regard

to friends, status, profession and possessions

3. Being rejected by and/or rejecting members of the

new culture

4. Confusion in role, role expectations, values, feelings

and self-identity

5. Surprise, anxiety, even disgust and indignation after

becoming aware of cultural differences

6. Feelings of impotence due to not being able to cope

with the new environment.

Do any of these hit home?