There is a loss of familiarity in the objects and people that make up one's everyday environment, and there is a loss of confidence in one's thoughts and feelings. The excitement that characterised the honeymoon period gives way to hesitancy and uncertainty. During the period when you are experiencing culture shock you are likely to feel an unusual amount of stress, even in situations which you otherwise handled so easily. You might have a feeling of emptiness and even of estrangement. Different people react in different ways.
Some people reject much of the new culture, criticising it for a whole host of reasons.
Others tend to reject the culture they left behind, becoming very critical of their own background on the basis of what they find in the new culture. However you react, the real encounter taking place, the real object of appraisal and evaluation is your self. In culture shock you come face to face with your own values and beliefs as you interface between two cultures. The self seems to get caught out in the middle, at times apparently disappearing. At these times it is important that you seek advice from the many services in Leuven that have been established to assist foreign students.