All the Old, Unfamiliar Places

America Is Home-But Why Doesn’t It Feel That Way?

America is a foreign place. This shouldn’t be so. I’m American. I was born here. I’ve lived most of my life here. But five years ago I left and moved to Belgium. Five eventful years of economic recession and political dysfunction and environmental catastrophe. Now I’m back in the same city, same neighborhood, even same street where I last lived. But nothing is quite the same.

When my husband got a transfer to Brussels and we packed up the family, I was scared but also excited. I found a job involving …