The Here and Now

I am now looking at under 5 months left here in Korea. 5 months left outside the western world. 5 months left before I come home.

I had a thought yesterday.

It was a weird flash of thought that took a few too many seconds to realize that my thought was wrong. Then, I had to think about it being wrong.

A girl just recently made the move to Korea. She is from the States and arrived here only 2 weeks ago. She was talking about shopping. It was an unimportant antidote about shopping for bras and getting into an argument with someone that worked there.
The story went on about the argument and the silly little things that can be expressed in those situations.

In my mind I had a thought.
The thought went something like this.

It’s been a long time since I have been bra shopping. I can’t imagine attempting to have that argument with a shop-keeper.
I mean, my Korean is not that strong. How do you have that argument with hand signals and a rudimentary mix of languages.

I was about to ask her about hand signals and language barriers when I realized something.

Nearly everyone speaks English in the States.
She had this altercation in English.

In 5 months I won’t have to resort to hand motions and simple words.
In 5 months most people will understand me. (Well, maybe not understand “me,” but they will know the words I am saying.)

It’s hard to explain the reaction I had. It was this moment of concern, followed by a moment of relief, followed by a long pause of “Holy shit, I have been out of the world for far too long.”
Or maybe I have been in the world for too long.

Either way. In 5 months I will be around people who speak the same language I do.
In 5 months I will be able to listen in to other people’s conversations.
In 5 months I will be able to order food without guessing or just crossing my fingers and hoping I did it right.
In 5 months I will be able to fight.

I really don’t know if it is a good thing I am going back.