One year in

We have been living in the US for just over a year now.
I am thinking about posting some impressions and misconceptions that I have discovered by living in the US. For me, the US is the 5th country that I have lived in. 'Lived in' by my definition refers to any time span more than a year. In some sense, my time frame is arbitrary, but I am convinced that anything less is more of a short term stay. It really does take at east a year for some of the intricacies and frustrations of functioning in a foreign culture to work themselves out in character. It always made me laugh when some of the short term missionaries we had come and stay with us would question our summary of what it was like to live as an evangelical in Austria for example.

They had little experience of the meta-narrative with which to compare. This is one of those areas where post-modern analysis of how little entitlement we possess to stand on our opinion as binding that makes complete sense to me.
There is no such thing as a homogeneous experience of foreign culture.
The relativistic principle that everyone's experience is valid to themselves holds weight here.

That said, so much of what we experience as foreigners has direct correlation to what we react to as individuals. ie. When someone says that this culture makes them feel lonely, maybe what they are really articulating is that the way they react to the culture makes them feel lonely. In this respect, cultural reaction can tell us far more about ourselves than we can ascertain about the culture itself. As is so often said, living in a foreign culture is a great leveler. It exposes within us some of our greatest strengths and our most glaring weaknesses, regardless of intellect or social standing.

So when I find myself complaining about some aspect of the foreign culture I find myself in, am I really able to lift myself to a place of objectivism whereby I can 'grade' the culture or is it more of a 'reaction' spotlighting some internal deficit on my part?

Part 2: The Welcome Question?