A couple of friends of ours are leaving Abu Dhabi in 10 days. They are not coming back.

We sometimes use Vietnam-era terminology to describe the concept of being expats in a place far from home. “The World” being the U.S., then as now.

Being “short” means the days before you can leave are few. During Vietnam, soldiers did one-year tours, and they counted down the days, and when they were near the end they would be described as “so short he could play racketball against a curb.” Et cetera.

So, how are they approaching their imminent departure?

Weighing the pros and cons.

Pro: They will be happy to be “home” — a place where they don’t have to strain to understand the speech and the people and the culture and the mores around them. (It is like setting down an invisible but real mental burden.)

Con: They are taking a huge cut in income and returning to Tax Land.

Pro: They and their young children will be closer to most of their friends and relatives.

Con: They will not be able to afford domestic help. At present, they have a babysitter who spends quite a bit of time in the home.

Pro: The weather, nine months of the year, in Washington D.C.

Con: The weather in Abu Dhabi, four months of the year.

Pro: Giving up a career (teaching at a university) that turned out to be less fulfilling than anticipated.

Con: Entering the U.S. private sector, which these days looks like decades of short-term jobs.

And like that.

They have thought this through, of course. When they finished the pros and cons, the pros of going home won easily, which means they are doing the right thing. Selling furniture, wrapping up financials, saying goodbye … it’s easy to do all that, almost exhilarating, really, when you’re ready to go.

Others of us still want/need to stay in jobs we could not find at home. Or enjoy being in an exotic part of the world. Or wince at the idea of going back, just now, to a U.S. where the economy is bad and where everyone seems to be arguing with everybody else in particularly shrill fashion.

Our departing friends may have some of people over one more time, next weekend, before they go to the airport (a trip most expats have fantasized about making, a time or 50).

I asked the man of the house to convey his last message for the Yanks left behind here in the UAE.

After a moment of thought he smiled and said:

“So long … suckers!”

Spoken like a “short” man ready to go back to The World.