Culture & reentry shock

A friend of mine went to Chile as an exchange student and he talked to me about this before I knew what these processes were called. He only went there for six months, so things happened really fast. He explained to me how weird it was when he first got there. How he felt homesick and missed his friends, and how he struggled to understand Chilean ways and how he sometimes felt lonely, although he began enjoying it and feeling at home sooner than he thought at first. It took him a short while but he finally began enjoying and feeling comfortable there. He made lots of friends, learned many new things and visited beautiful places. This is when he wished it would last forever, but time was running out. He told me that he was having the best time when it was time to return home, and that that made him anxious all over again, that right when he was feeling the most comfortable, it was time to leave. Then, when he got back to Guadalajara, he really missed Chile and his new friends, and felt miserable at home, even though everyone was happy to see him again. It did not last long either, since going back home might be hard sometimes but that feeling never lasts too long. Although thinking about those six months he spent, and then the couple of months that he spent trying to get back to normal seem emotionally exhausting. But I guess the intensity is worth it. After all, it helps people learn lots of things about their culture and about themselves that they probably would not have learned otherwise.