When you arrive in the US you will experience cultural differences. You can't avoid all of the frustration, misunderstanding, confusion, embarrassment, and similar emotions that causes. However, your approach has a big impact on how those experiences turn out. In the diagram above, if you follow the top approach with the green arrows, you'll get better results. Being open and adaptable to change, you can ask questions and learn from faux pas, mistakes, or frustrations. That leads to greater understanding and a better ability to relate to others and develop deeper friendships. If you follow the lower path with the red arrows, being afraid to try new things or mocking American ways as inferior to your country's, it will lead to isolation, alienation from others, and broken relationships. 

It can be fun to experience and explore a new culture! Those positive feelings may continue through a holiday vacation that lasts days or weeks. However, if you move to a new country like the US, frustrations can add up, you'll miss home, and you'll experience culture shock. You may notice you want to avoid Americans (or everyone), stay at home, and speak less English for a while. You may get angry at the way things work (or don't work) with your classes, food, housing, transportation, and cultural norms. THIS IS COMPLETELY NORMAL, but it helps to know you'll be less satisfied with your life in America for a while (so you don't think you're crazy). How long that lasts is different for each person. You may have only a short time of culture shock as you quickly adjust to classes, but it may takes months longer to adjust to social life and find friends. After a while you adapt and your satisfaction with your life in America as an international student gets better. So, you can look forward to that!

Note that the diagram above shows you should also expect a big drop in satisfaction for a while after you return home. That reverse culture shock can be worse than your experiences in the US. Why? You expect life to be different in America, but you may expect things to be just as you left them back home. But they're not. People at home changed while you were gone. Your country changed. And you changed (probably a lot, especially if your time in the US was your first time living outside your country). If you met new friends, you'll miss them. There will be some parts of your life in America that you wish you could bring home, or changes you'd like to see in your country. If you lived in the US for years you've probably become what's called a Third Culture Kid (TCK). You're not perfectly at home in your own country (they may see you as Americanized) but not completely home in America, either. You are between cultures. That can make you a great ambassador or bridge between the peoples/cultures, but there's also no "undo" button. You can't fully go back to who you were before you left to study in the US. Again, that is normal, but it helps to know what to expect.