A member of my program (T') had a some sort of nervous-breakdown, mental psychosis, it is hard to say exactly. He started saying crazy, nonsensical things, and having erratic behavior/ disappearing. He has been removed and sent back to his home in The States. Living in a high-pressure environment, in a foreign country, isn't easy. Who knows if this summer abroad played a part in this break in his mind. Who knows if he would have been fine, forever, if he had just stayed home. V' works with him back in The States and she was talking about how/when he began to exhibit strange behavior here.
This same man was already the topic of a scandal during orientation: when he asked the foremost expert in a Japanese folk instrument, he referred to it as "basically just a banjo." The gasps from the audience were audible. I hope the hard time he was given for his culturally-insensitive comment did not have too large a part in his mental breakdown.
He had this "poem" about starting out in Japan without a map, having someone give him one, feeling like a wrong turn would leave him with nothing, he found his stride, and then that the shoes were too big to fill.
Thinking of him.
Hoping he is okay.
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