Kuwait: Shocking Culture?

I understand that Culture Shock ( CS)  is a normal process even if you have worked abroad or have traveled extensively. 
It's perfectly normal for one to feel alienated, displaced and physical and emotional discomfort. The length and breadth of CS though, depends on one's emotional, mental and physical health. 
Like many emotional things, CS symptoms do not occur on a direct linear continuum; the more common experiences occur in more of a spiral, with emotions and symptoms ebbing and waning as time passes. More often then not, the symptoms might be leap-frogging over each other, one might skip a few stages, and then go back to the beginning...and for me, it could be all in an afternoon!

The first stage is the Honeymoon stage: 
This stage probably starts even before you get on the plane to fly off into the unknown. Everything is great, you are excited about your new adventure. People are in awe of your courage, you feel confident, proud and scared. You arrive...you are thrilled at all the new sights, sounds, food, experiences. You meet new people! Your just so darn proud of yourself! Your emails home are all about how great of an adventure you are having!! Its amazing here! You are meeting people and seeing new things!! Its great, Mom, really!!! 

This stage for me, hits me at different times, still. I might be walking along the ocean, looking out over the ocean and imagining a globe in my head, and me, a teeny tiny pin prick on that globe--somewhere in Kuwait. My loved ones in Canada, Italy, England, South Africa are other teeny tiny pin pricks evident only if you spin the globe around...I think " wow, look at me, this is incredible". 
I feel proud and happy about my confidence to get out of my North American rut and pursue this adventure. I am grateful for the opportunities I have in this amazing life.

The next stage is Shock:
This is where you are irritated by daily experiences such as driving conditions, You are fed up with the pushy, demanding, ridiculous foreign procedures that you have to deal with. You are lonely, moody, angry and resentful. You miss your culture, where you know the rules.  

I am experiencing this stage a lot now and only  when I am driving. The sheer arrogance, dangerous and preposterous!!!! driving practices of these people, makes me wonder about the state of humanity. 
Knowing that there are people on the planet that have total disregard for someone in the next vehicle over, is shocking to me and quite frankly--I feel despair. I do not understand the psyche that would cause someone to drive as impatiently and dangerously as they do here. I am considering getting a driver, but would not enjoy the lack of control that I would experience, trusting my life into someone else's hands, who is an expert maniacal driver. 

The third stage is Negotiation: 
You gain some understanding of the culture. You find pleasure in daily life and your humour returns. You might feel angry at times, but more frequently you feel confident. 

I experience this stage at all times as well. I truly enjoy my life here in Kuwait, there is much good about it. I miss aspects of my life in Canada, I miss the familiar, and I miss my loved ones, but I enjoy my new experiences and being immersed in the culture here. 
I feel blessed and grateful for the opportunities and I love my job. 

The "final" stage is Acceptance/Independence: 
This stage is experienced by people who see both the good and bad aspects of the new culture, and they are beginning to assimilate into their new life.

There are 4 different styles that people adopt at this stage:
Integration: maintaining old cultural identity but participating in the new culture
Separation: maintaining old cultural identity but avoiding contact with the new culture
Assimilation: adopting the new culture as your own and having contact with its members
Marginalization: rejecting your old culture but suffering rejection by members of the new culture.

I am happily entrenched in the 'Integration' stage, except on the days when I am tired and fed up and then I flip over to 'Separation".  I go regularly from " I really enjoy it here, quality of life is good and all is well" to " Oh my god if I get run off the road one more time I am going to go insane and I cant wait to go home and how can these people be so RUDE!!!!"...and that is just fine. 
It's normal and expected. 
The important thing is to be aware and not to panic...the new phase will come round. 

So much of the success of a 'new life in a new country' depends on how one looks after one's mental and emotional health. It is also affected by one's previous identity and successful socialization in their 'old life'. 

( There are a lot of ex-pat whackadoodles here...just sayin'.)

All in all, it's all good. 
I continue to monitor how I feel, and on the many days that are good, I enjoy life here to the fullest. 
On the odd days that are bad, I hole up in my home and binge on familiar American TV shows like "Gilmore Girls."...and I stay off the road.