Culture Shock or Foreign Service Shock

I'm living week three right now and I'm having a tough time deciding if my frustration and mood swings are from culture shock or from Foreign Service shock? See I know that culture shock comes from being in an environment where people don't understand you, and you often miss things from home. From what I've been told it can lead to some pretty rough emotional and physical problems. The thing is I think I might be suffering from something else.

My problems right now are more about dealing with issues that the average ex-pat would not have to deal with. Things like not doing any real shopping until my tax exemption card comes through, dealing with a spouse with a very hectic schedule that I'm often involved with, and waiting for long periods to get answers about things that I would normally handle myself. Worst of all, I've met a few other ex-pats from all over the world (including Canada) and they can't relate to my problems at all. They're all going through the normal culture shock issues and that makes me feel even more alienated. Many of my new ex-pat friends feel that my life is rather easy since I'm getting help from the embassy.

I know I said I wouldn't complain on this blog, and I'm not really. I'm just warning you that living abroad with the government appears to have very different problems then going abroad in the private sector.

The Pack Up Kit

One of the great mysteries about moving overseas is "the pack up kit". This is a selection of items that you can borrow before your sea shipment comes with your real stuff. Little is described about the pack up kit before you show up except the rumors you here. Most people describe the kit as a selection of dull knives and mismatched plates.

The pack up kit we received had a few mismatched plates and the knives weren't stellar (but I'm a bit of a knife snob). For the most part our kit was perfectly fine and it'll suit our needs until our stuff gets here. My concern is that I'm a little confused at this point as to what portion of our apartment is pack up kit, and what part is the furnishings (SQ's are generally furnished). So when our stuff gets here I'm sure there'll be a few shockers as to things that are staying and going.

My other concern deals with when we leave back to Canada. Are there pack up kits in Canada? What about furniture? I mean we leave and it takes us about 2 days to get back, our stuff takes about 3 to 4 weeks.

Identification

This is something we all think about but I for one didn't really understand. First of all there's the diplomatic passport. In the identification world it's got to be one of the coolest things one can have. I can't be modest about it at all, it's pretty neat. I am aware of the implications and responsibilities that go with it, but as an object it's just so cool. There are however many more things that require photos of me, since when I took my passport photo I needed 12 copies.

I understand that I'm also going to be getting some kind of Greek ID card that apparently offers free entrance into some museums and my tax free status. It kind of reminds me of an all day pass at a theme park. I'll be honest as far as ID goes all day passes at theme parks where pretty much the highest honor I'd been bestowed to this point. The other 10 photos I took for the passport folks are pretty much a mystery to me at this point. I'm sure records somewhere use them for some reason to keep track of me, but I'll never know for sure.