so it is before the walls of minas tirith, the doom of our time will be decided.

[intertribal]

The letter says I'm to be posted in Jakarta.  All subject to security clearance approval, of course.  It's a good thing we cleaned out at least some of those old boxes in the garage this winter: my mother has to dig through all her old address books.  She sounded strange on the phone telling me this but I think I can guess why.  I've never spent a whole summer away from her (only half of one at most); this is a country whose chapter she has personally closed on a bitter-sour note, the country where people die too often, where she buried my father.  I don't think she thinks this is really happening.  I know that she will never go back.  But I also know, and have known since Melbourne, that I will.

I'm going to start reading Kompas (floods, as always, crippling the city). 

Thinking about going back makes me all sorts of queasy and this is an embassy they have to close from time to time because of threats and forty hours a week might kill me but God, oh my God.  I am so ready for this. 

Comments

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

strangely, that was the one trip i had to pay for myself, i think...from savings bonds and stuff that had been building up in my account since I was born. but anyway, i don't think i came back permanently warped, but i also think i learned a lot and in that sense i was 'changed.' it was really weird to get woken up every morning by my homestay sister yelling in Spanish that we were late. had to deal with a lot of my insecurities, i s'pose, too, sort of change myself to fit in with these popular spanish girls... it was like everything i was used to--my social position, what things meant, communication, style, daily activities--were gone. but in the end, none of us were ready to leave. Everyone had stories about the language barrier ("I have erotic dreams with him!" "Your toilet is the pink one," etc.)... I think it would have been a lot different if I'd stayed longer. We'd probably stop being the extra special guests, I'd meet more/different people, I'd get used to everyday life there, etc. There was a lot of stuff going on over my head. I remember my 'mother' telling me about how she was in the process of divorcing her husband, people randomly crying when I didn't know why. Had to get used to lots of hand-holding and kissing on the cheek, which was fine...wanted immdiately to get rid of all my American clothes that seemed too baggy and dumb-looking. Spain is a weird European country because it's not as wealthy and it's a confederation of states with their own official languages and stuff...it's a little more 'backward.' anyway, i remember it all pretty vividly, despite never getting over jet lag. definitely made an impression, changed how i viewed my culture or others, maybe, but i think i'd have to somehow try to integrate myself into another culture before it could really warp me. that was logn and rambling, sorry.

me too.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

"changed how i viewed my culture or others"

I'd buy that. I think that probably did happen for you.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

Americans have a nasty habit of not realizing that they have cultural norms (even if they aren't national ones). I think getting outside them helps to recognize them in a more than imaginary way...

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think America likes to think of itself as status quo.

If only that recognition occurred for (all) students on study abroad...

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

is that directed at someone or some people in particular?

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Meh. Some of the people I was on study abroad with who never left the American circle of people, and so I doubt learned anything about cultural differences.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

ah, yeah, a homestay kinda forces you not to do that, and quickly