They say the longer you spend overseas, the harder it is to go home. Imperceptibly, you begin to forget, lose, or discard all of the cultural minutiae that flesh the bones of daily existence wherever it is that you came from. And incrementally, the gulf between present-you and remembered-you widens. The fixtures peopling your past reproduce, start drinking responsibly, go to bed early, take up golf, become Republicans, find religion, and start talking about health issues, property values, and investments as if they were riveting conversation. Concurrently, the mundane shifts. Excessive quantities of mayonnaise, four-fingered vodka tonics, not putting the tp in the toilet etc. become the norm. At times, you sense the drift, other times not. Very recently, I realized I was exhibiting some distinctly un-American behavior: interest in the World Cup. As anyone reading
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