Coming soon
As the days until our departure draw nearer feelings like those before we left begin to stir inside.
Out side the window I can see a dozen bikers a minute commuting to… somewhere. The Japanese garbage trucks are making the rounds, with music playing that sounds like the ice cream man. Men in suits, kids in uniform, all unaware completely of a world that is happening right now in a place called Nebraska. Thinking about arriving in Nebraska, drinking my ice cold Itoen Ocha, this world I’ve been in love with for 6 months begins to slip from my grasp. There seems to be a sort of a haze over everything, a bit like a good photo filter. I’m still here, but not.
It seems like time has flown by, yet I can’t fully remember what it was like to be in Nebraska. Sure I can recall our great apartment on Q street, and working in Sunken Gardens on hot summer days, going out to my grandparents lake with family, and meeting friends downtown, but somehow it all feels a like a lifetime ago.
Attempting to recall life in the US my realities, past and present, begin to mesh into a dreamlike sate, I guess this is what they call “culture shock”.
I can’t sleep at night. And then I roll over and see she can’t either. With the sun threatening to rise we whisper to each other for hours and hours. Smiles grow while recalling moments of our trip that we may have almost forgot. Something that didn’t make this bog, or didn’t get photographed, now only alive in our memories. And then we wonder how many more of these memories we might have.
Being here has been like a breath of fresh air for my entire existence, for OUR entire existence. Life somehow feels different and more valuable. Melissa and I never thought we’d feel this great.
With any luck we may be starting school again in January. When we left six months ago that was the last thing I expected to come “home” for, but it feels like the right thing to do.
Somehow nothing seems that hard now. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I guess it’s the perspective that makes all the difference.
When we got here everything was a “first”, and there were a ton of them. Now I find myself coming across some “lasts”. But it’s not good-bye for good. We will be back. It’s not really that hard.
Tags: culture shock, going home, Japan, Travel
Zach
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