If you plan to stay for a month or more in a destination area, than will need to interact with local culture and locals. An extended stay could allow you to explore a lot of new things in a country. It’s true that you won’t move permanently, but you will need to interact more with your surroundings.
- Food: Foreign cuisine that matches your daily food may be available in the destination area. But it’s often more expensive and you will spend more money just for food. If you go to Asian countries, the daily staple could be rice or noodle. In some areas, people could habitually eat corn, cassava or sago as the primary source of carbohydrate. For Asians who habitually consume rice each day, switching to bread or mashed potato could cause some problems after a week or so.
- Culture: You shouldn’t expect that culture in a distant land will have plenty of resemblance with your own. Some of the cultural elements that seem like common sense, could be completely different in other countries. Some countries could have almost complete difference in culture. Rather than experiencing severe culture shock, you should learn more about a country before you travel. As an example, in some countries, it is fairly common for friends to kiss cheeks when they meet one another. However, in other countries, this can be seen as weird, because it’s only men who kiss the cheek of women. In some countries, people eat only with right hands, because left hands are considered as dirty, “toilet” hands. It’s also inappropriate in some Asian countries to enter someone’s home with your shoes on.
- Language: If you plan to stay for nearly a month, language can be a significant barrier, if you are not particularly proficient and familiar with local language. Often, people in touristy areas understand English reasonably well, but you won’t be able to talk with everyone. Before going to a country, you should learn dozens of phrases, which will be useful for the conversation. If you plan to extend your stay in Japan, France or Italy, you should at least be able to have decent conversations with locals. Even in developed countries like France and Japan, people still have comparatively low understanding on English. Although some languages can be quite difficult to master, you should try. People will appreciate your effort and will be more patient staying in conversation with you.
It is acceptable if you feel somewhat difficult to adapt to new surroundings. When you move a new country, there are many things that you are not familiar with. Nevertheless, you should adapt to various aspects in your life. If you are persistent, it would only a matter time for you to start adapting. As mentioned above, you need to check everything about the place that you want to move in. Be prepared to change daily habits, such as daily customs and local food selections. One month or so is fairly a long time, so you need to be prepared and start adapting from the day one.