Monday, 16 December 2002
Homecoming. It's been 18 months since I last returned to America. This time last year I celebrated my first Christmas in Australia, with my true love and future in-laws; my most recent trip home was for my sister's wedding, in June 2001. When I last set foot in the United States, Gary Condit ruled the headlines, the World Trade Center was still standing, and September 11th was a day like any other.
Next week I'm going home for the holidays.
Before I moved abroad, I was told that expats often find returning home to be a more disorienting experience than going overseas in the first place. When you go to a foreign country, you expect it to be, well, foreign. You're prepared to encounter strange foods and new customs; you signed up for that with the plane ticket. But when you come home to America, you expect to find the nation as you left it: You understand, intellectually, that some things may have changed while you were gone... but it doesn't really hit you until you get home, and things are different, and you feel lost on what was once familiar ground.
When I last lived in America, Bill Clinton was President, the New Economy was booming, foreign policy was mostly about trade, and people were seriously asking if we'd reached the end of history. America's enemies were kooks and holdouts: Communist diehards who hadn't heard the news, and a handful of Islamic crazies who bombed the occasional embassy; they looked more like the Little Rascals than a serious threat worth worrying about.
Things have changed a lot since then.
I've been living abroad for almost three years now, and I've made the trip home maybe half a dozen times. This is, by far, the longest I've gone without returning to the States... and the first time I'm not entirely sure what to expect. (Will I have to take off my shoes before each flight? Are there really U.S. flags on every house now?) I'll be visiting Chicago, southern Illinois (where I grew up), and New York City this trip; I'll try to describe what I see, and how it differs from what I saw last.
- Posted by Scott Forbes at 8:21 pm. comments.
