Gone Away
I always feel like when people go a great distance to another country, or another way of life, even for a short while, that they should come back changed. Sometimes they do, sometimes they arrive all aglitter with anecdotes and photos and souvenirs (and sometimes a new Red Stripe habit). This will, in time, fade. They will go back to the same old them. Sometimes the person doesn't feel like a new arrival at all. In fact, its very much like they never left. Its just feels as though you didn't hang out for a month. It seems strange to imagine all that they have experienced and all the amazing things they've seen, people they've met, food they've eaten, places they've slept, and they don't feel the least bit different. I"ll bet they feel different to themselves though. Maybe only in tiny ways, but they are different.