6 Weeks To Go

I will only be in Viet Nam for 6 more weeks. Thats it. Weird, yeah? In the last month alone I have gone from dreaming of a Vietnamese apartment to call my own and studying the language enough to be invited to star on Vietnamese television (a more realistic dream than one might imagine) to visualizing what it means to move home and bask in the glorious city of Portland that is currently experiencing a 20-something day rain streak in June (or Seattle, depending on which direction the employment wind is blowing). This switch in expectations is just short of shocking. It's amazing how much it changes, even in simply the way in which I understand the day-to-day.

6 weeks left and I am still surprised by things. For example, the waiter at the cafe I'm at is wearing roller skates.

really?

Or like yesterday, when I was driving and saw three men peeing on the side of the road side by side, without even the pretense of a bush or a river. Things like that shouldn't surprise me. But for some reason the communal nature of it caught me off guard.

The other day I found myself looking through old folders in my SPU email, reading emails I sent to my floor when I was an SMC and PA. I barely recognized myself, even though it was things I had written and was enthusiastic about. And that was just two years ago. I'd say two short years because it doesn't feel like that long ago, but I don't think they've been very short. Two well packed, decision filled years ago.

6 weeks to go.

And now here I am again, at the precipice of change and transition. In a year will I recognize the things I am writing and thinking now? Will the palm tree framed, xe may filled view of the giant apartment building that I am gazing at out of this cafe window with my too sweet cafe nau da feel like someone else's life? Am I way too melodramatic for my own good?

6 weeks to go.

I spend a lot of time these days thinking about the future. I dream of having a career, something I'm trained for, good at and really passionate about. I have some ideas. But I also have new ideas of what countries I want to live in and how I can go about getting there. What languages I should know. What issues I should start to invest in. What foods I should learn to cook when I'm making dinner for my parents to thank them for my free rent. What my speech at my best friend's wedding should be like.

6 weeks to go.

And then, just when I've thought myself into an emotional frenzy about all that the future will or will not entail, I remember: 6 weeks to go. For now I am here. I am learning. I am working. I am drinking a lot of coffee and riding my bike and being the cruise director for small children (they don't know it yet, but card houses are next on the activity list). And I'm enjoying it.

6 weeks to go.