I understand the he used the term foreign as a literary device. But it's a very broad brush to use to paint a very complex concept.

I permanently left the states in my mid-20's. I've now lived in east asia for 30 years. I am an expat, this my home, my friends and family are here, my company is here. I was a gaijin in Japan, a gwailo in Hong Kong, a farlang in Thailand and Laos and now I'm a Barang in Cambodia.

I feel like a foreigner when I occasionally visit the states. Part of that is due to how much the country has changed in the last 30 years. I feel more free when I visit Singapore, which is certainly no bastion of freedom, than I do in the States now.

Foreigners who make their home countries that have a language and culture different from where they grow up are expats. Many expats are immigrants, who to varying degrees adopt the local culture and language and carve out a home for themselves. You can never really completely go native, and that is a good thing, nor should you try. But you can eventually create a life which straddles the two worlds.

There are lots of foreigners who have lived even decades in foreign countries who are not expats. They tend to live in live in foreign ghettos (they are often luxurious ghettos but ghettos none-the-less) where they largely only deal with people from their own country, they don't learn the language or culture, the vast majority of their diet is from their home country, they observe all of the holidays, follow the same fashion trends, hang out in the same coffee shops, fast food restaurants. The American Army takes this to the extreme of providing 110V power outlets on foreign embassies and military bases.

Another type of foreigner is the tourist, tourists are, by definition, spectators of cultures and countries and there is nothing wrong with that. Any exposure to foreign cultures is a healthy thing.

The final type of foreigner is the backpacker, which is a sub-species of the tourist who believes that because they aren't spending much money, they are seeing the "real" country. In fact they are far more insulated than regular tourists. They only stay in backpacker hostels and guest houses, they dress in absurd clothing that no one wears except backpackers. They often dress inappropriately. It's common to see backpackers (and some tourists) wearing vests (tank tops) or bikini tops in conservative countries like thailand, laos and cambodia. I've never understood why they feel that it's appropriate to dress like they are at the beach when visiting inland national capital cities like Vientiane, Bangkok or Phnom Penh. Thankfully it's easy to avoid these creatures because they only visit places listed in the lonely planet guidebooks. It's even better in SE Asia because most backpackers only bring the multi-country regional lonely planet book :) If you see a place that says it sells vegatarian food, it is only catering to foriegners. The whole concept of vegatarian and vegan diets is so alien in much of east asia that if a local restaurant provides no-meat dishes, chances are they will still flavor it with pork or chicken powder:) After all, if Buddha ate meat what could be so bad?

I do not agree that being foreign makes you detached, because you are still bringing all the baggage from your home country with you. You aren't seeing the culture with fresh eyes, just foreign blinders. It takes a long time and a lot effort before you can see what is around you. I believe that you really only BEGIN to see a culture after you've lived for a full calendar year in a place. And in cultures that are boxes within boxes, like Japan and Laos, a year is not even enough to begin to see. Understanding may well take a lifetime, but that's okay, because it's the journey that's important, there are no destinations.

But I do agree about constantly being surprised. After 30 years I still see something at least once a week that completely blows me away. But then, now when I visit the States, the same thing happens -- but the surprise is, more often than not, far less pleasant.