How does one process the minuscule habits that ultimately must change when our environment shifts?
You may be aware of what they say;
Stay safe, respect the customs, and respect the people.
Excitement was a lingering pinch on my heart; Excitement was internal hypocrisy.
This is due to the farewell that plagued me from shifting out of the environment I was comfortable and conformed to, to one that left me so far behind I felt as if I must rewrite the ways in which I spoke, thought, and presented myself.
The preparation for my move lacked much and not too much, although I will share with you what lacked the most in my departure was an American brunch.
Specifically, the southern cuisine that I’d never acknowledged.
Hot, baked biscuits smothered in the correct amount of gravy, bacon in long, thick strips, with a sweet bowl of strawberries dressed in the smallest amount of sugar. Accompanying the meal is a mug filled with a black coffee, so hot it may burn the skin on the roof of your mouth, but your hands cup the mug anyhow.
No preparation can acknowledge the disconnect between their and your own days until you’re shutting the blinds due to the coldness in the window from the night, and your lover is taking their first willful steps into the day.
I will warn you to pack your medicine cabinet, and I mean all of it.
A cough has plagued me for months now,
Sickness has never breached my lungs,
I am now aware of the feeling of being a punching bag for diseases.
Lack of immunity is surely not the individual’s fault; it comes with the cost of being a tourist. I am in your air, so I am subject to what the air brings me.
Speaking of the air, my discomfort is exemplified in the bitter winter of Lille, France.
It’s January, and the clouds hang in the sky as if they were told to, pushing with winds that bite at any open skin, specifically the nose and ears, the fingers included if you’re unlucky and underdressed.
Underdressed was my own personal mission statement.
Who in their right mind packs pairs of shorts to live in the north of France during January?
Upon arrival, my lack of mental preparation faltered, and I felt nothing more than exhaustion and disappointment.
This is only natural, they told me. You’ve been here for four days.
They were correct, and eventually the pinch disappeared into a push.