A little thing called...

(posted by: Stacy)

...transition. The in between.

This seldom talked about phase of moving abroad is often the most important. This is the point in which you are selling, storing, and giving away your things, saying goodbyes over coffee and dinners, and trying to convince yourself that leaving really is worth it. It's the time when the traditional American dream starts to creep its way into your everyday thoughts: comfort, stability, home ownership. It's also the time when you have to remind yourself, day after day, second after second, that it really is worth it. That it's the adventure that matters. That all of those wonderful people and things will be there when you return.

Why is this adventure so important? Why do we seek to discover the world, to crawl across the continents, to eat weird food and drink local beer and stay in two-dollar-a-night hotels? Why are we ever-seeking the otherness of worlds outside our own?

I think that it's the same reason that many people lose (or find) religion later in life. It's as though we need to see what we're not in order to validate what we are. Maybe this isn't true for everyone, but I think that, in a lot of ways, this holds a little truth for everyone. Travel allows us to hold views that are "justified," to really "know" how the world is. It allows us to have a varied world view and, most importantly, a wide range of experiences to draw upon.

And, I will say, travel is quite cathartic in many ways. There is a certain freedom in being far away from everything that is normal and comfortable, everything that has so long caused you to stay the way you are. I have evolved in the past year from a person who was too cautious to cross the road without the bright white walk signal to a girl who jumped and slid down 27 waterfalls in the the Dominican Republic. The euphoria I feel in being a little wreckless (I did wear a helmet and life vest, so I'm not that wild) has leveled out my person and allowed me to really enjoy life in a way that I might not have been able to.

And, so, on Friday we will arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to start the next phase in our lives and travels. I'm the first to admit my apprehension, partially because I know just how difficult the first few months can be. Culture shock really has a way of creeping in on you slowly; sometimes you think that you're well-adjusted and enjoying yourself, then bam! it hits you, all of the sudden, like someone just cut the hot water in your wonderfully warm shower.

This time will be very different from the last. Our jobs are such that we should have the time and freedom to really enjoy ourselves in this new and interesting place. Travel should be easier, less expensive, more accessible, and more enjoyable now that I don't have piles of grading waiting for me the second I get home. This experience should, in many ways, be the experience we were hoping for in our last location. Pero, a ver...