I am having a moment of incredulity today. This week has been filled with many pre-move preparatory activities, many of which were initiated because we received our travel orders (i.e., the State Department has allocated funds for us to move). Thus, while I have been studying Vietnamese for seven months (yes, 7. How crazy is that in and of itself?), this week is when things started to get real. Very real.
Which, honestly, is normal, considering we're about three months from departure. Back in September, I knew the last three months would be the crazy time. Except now those precise three months are starting. And the crazy is starting.
I've been trying to identify all day why I have this feeling of incredulity. After all, we've moved to two other countries as a family before. Why is this time any different? I think it boils down to the fact that neither of us have never been to Vietnam.
We had visited Mumbai in 2004. While Mumbai is very different from Hyderabad, at least I had somewhat of a concept of "India." At least, I thought I did. (After I lived there, I knew how mistaken I was, because the country is so diverse. But, to my 2007-era brain, I had already been to "India," so it was a familiar concept.)
Our move to Manila was so quick (no language training, just 2.5 months back in the U.S. in between), I didn't have time to stress over that.
VIETNAM has been lurking about since we received our assignment in November 2014. And I have no idea what our life will be like there, except from what people have told me and images I've seen online. And yet, we still go. And we'll keep on going every three years or so.* How crazy is that? Pretty crazy. For generally rational people, we've chosen a crazy profession. Perhaps we're not actually so rational after all?
Luckily, everyone says we will love it. Luckily also, logically I know everything will be ok. Just have to get over this moment of incredulity first.
(*yes, coming back to America is always an option, too.)
