No Need for a ‘Go and Come Back’

When people live overseas, whether it’s as a PCV, expat or whatever, their conversations often focus on what happens when they finally get back to the States, and what will change.

As a PCV, this leads to a lot of speculation, most of it leading to conversations that would gross most people out. After all, PCVs can have long, involved discussions of bodily functions. They’re always entertaining.

Eating is another big topic, at least where I’ve been. In Morocco, it’s common – even polite – to belch at the table, eat with your hands, toss the chicken bones on the table, wipe you hands on the bread and loaf around as a sweet overworked lady pours tea and fruit down your gut, then wipes off the table as you curl up for a nap.

In Indonesia, I haven’t dined with locals in their homes, so I haven’t really been subjected to that. But I don’t even look twice when I’m going through carrots at the store and a roach crawls out, or when I pour out the rice and little things come out at me. And rats circling the food stalls? Ah well, live and let live.

You alter your vocabulary, too. In most cases in public, folks living abroad learn quickly that some words in English mean similar, but related, things where they are. They also learn how to use the most simple words to convey ideas. Forget flowery speech – just get the basics of communication down. That’s appreciated.

You forget what’s, for example, Darija, and what’s English, which complicates things like Bananagrams. “Wait, is ‘chufk’ a word in English?” – not an uncommon question. You also forget words or sub out the local translation, machki m3k. (No problem.)

Sometimes, the words we use in English are changed slightly or just flat-out altered for the local language. I remember mailing a package from Thailand and sent it “ek-a-NOM-i.” Locally, it was spelled “economy” with a “k” and an “i,” but its root was our “economy,” and it meant sending it the cheap way. It’s not misspelled; that’s the local word that came into the language from English.

The next time I go to Five Guys (Please, God, let this be my first fast-food stop in the US!), I will have to remember NOT to order it “to take.” That’s what it is here. Well, not “here,” because that’s the other option. “Here or to take?” Not “to go.” I need to remember that.

What we know as a “round trip” ticket is, at least in the SE Asian countries in which I’ve traveled or lived, a “go and come back.” I have no idea how this is easier to learn than “round trip,” but you gotta admit, it is exactly what you’re looking for.

But not me. I only need a one-way. I guess that’d be a “go.”

As it turns out, when my contract expires in mid-April, I am out of here. In another effort to cut the copy editors to bare bones, my job’s been eliminated. This isn’t welcome news to anyone except the skinflint HR department, but what can you do?

I found out last Friday and have been busy sending out applications and stuff like that. Joy. I’ve told most people here, and they’re all completely floored because we’re SO short-staffed and it’s just going to get worse.

Honestly, I feel sorrier for them than me. I’m looking forward to it, though every time I think about it, I think I’ll be seeing Kocur and then remember I won’t.

The place here is going to be a nightmare, but there’s nothing I can do about it.

I’d previously scheduled my vacation starting March 31, so even though my contract isn’t up til the 11^th or something like that, my last day of work is March 30. I’m on a quest right now to get things settled, doctors visited, souvenirs bought, stuff like that.

Haven’t told the landlord. I’m paid through the 20^th but they have a deposit I need to figure out how to get back. I’m not all that hopeful on that one, though.

No idea what lies in store, but I’m up for the ride.

Do need to remember it’ll be back on the right side of the road, though.