LOVE IT OR HATE IT culture shock and cultural adjustment go hand in hand in the life of any Girl Gone International .
Brit Alice Lucas and Russian-Canadian Kristina Medow share their advice with us .
ALICE
Desensitised to culture shock from years of country hopping , travel junkie Alice moved to Novosibirsk , Russia to catch an intrepid high .
I KNEW very little about Russia before I set foot in Novosibirsk . A self imposed ban from googling it meant I touched down full of trepidation and was , if I am to be honest , a little bit clueless . But that was the plan , to have no plan .
Having learned Spanish in Barcelona , salsa danced in Cuba , travelled in Costa Rica , volunteered in Nicaragua , chalet hosted in Austria and studied German in Germany all in a very short space of time , I was starting to worry I was becoming numb to culture shock . It was getting harder and harder to satisfy my desire for mind blowing experiences . I craved the feeling of novelty and wonder once more . So in this world of information at our fingertips , I chose to go to Russia ‘ blind ’.