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August 28, 2008
A deep breath before the plunge...
I'm looking down at my last 24 hours or so of my time in America, and generally I think I've had a wonderfully American summer, which included rock concerts, avant garde performance art, door-to-door political canvassing, a river trip through the grand canyon, and a number of lunches and dinners with some very interesting people. As a grand finale, I'm going to watch one of the first college football games of the year (A Pac-10 opener between Oregon State and Stanford) mere hours before leaving the country. College football is a bizarre, splendid American tradition, one I hope to spend many exasperated hours trying to explain to my students. I couldn't think of a better way to leave.
At the same time, the prospect of what I'm leaving for is suddenly becoming very real. I am throwing myself into a wholly foreign culture for a year with little more than a smile and a carefully-arranged bag of assorted medical supplies. There's the feeling as I met up with relatives and friends that this might be for one reason or another the last time I see them.
What's more, it might happen from some misfortune on my end, not theirs. Cambodia is a lot safer than it was even five years ago, but I'd rather not see for myself if there is a difference between 'safer' and 'safe.' I have an obligation not only to myself but also to my loved ones that I don't do anything unnecessarily stupid. (The category of the stupid but necessary, however, is one accepted and treasured by all working men and women.) So while I want to meet lots of people and have plenty of fun, out-there experiences, I'm going to try not to do anything that could get me stabbed.
Which, as I think of it, has generally been my operating principle all along. Maybe this will be easier than I thought...
Also, my mom is awesome. That is all.
Posted by flynn at 2:33 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack