An amazing phenomenon happens around the 1.5-year mark...
...Suddenly, life is normal. Mundane, even. You walk through the same neighborhood to work every morning. Days pass and you forget your other world exists. You forget to call your family; anyone you’re not confronted with in your routine is pushed deep in the recesses of your mind. Even things that were very abrasive to you when you arrived as an outsider have gradually been worked into this new normal. Struggling to communicate still happens, but subsides, becomes less frequent, and no longer feels difficult. You’re accustomed to converting Celsius to Fahrenheit, pesos to dollars, kilometers to miles; more often than not, you don’t need to convert at all to get the gist. Even among other foreigners you stop using words that are strictly American, like grocery store and college and automatically use supermarket and university instead. The things that were initially special have become commonplace. You get used to taking the bus to the beach every weekend to see your boyfriend...