• this world is not my home

You know what it is like. You are in your country of origin, sitting in the home of someone you love and who loves you, and you start to tell a story from your life in another culture. You talk about the differences, the details, the waves of emotion and impressions. In your excitement, you remember more details that you interject into the conversation. As you are sharing all of this, you find yourself realizing that you used to think differently about life, politics, or time. You start to share your new-found perspective.

Then you notice it. Your brother, your sister, your parents/children, your best friend, these people who know you and love you dearly just can't relate, because they don't have a common experience. There is no common foundation upon which to build. They just can't relate and don't understand what you are saying.

In the middle of your passionate speech about the plight of the poor in rural Middle Earth, just outside of Numenor (or at least it may as well be, because that is the equivalent of what people are hearing), your audience's eyes glaze over. They get a far off look, like their mind just slipped out the back door and went for coffee, not wanting to disturb you in your passion. You know they love you. They are trying to be polite. But they just don't get it, they don't understand what you are saying, and they probably never will.

How do you answer the question, "What is it like over there?" without either becoming pedantic, giving too much detail and causing boredom, or falling into the typical, "Oh, it is so weird and exotic. You know, they have orcs in the mountains, so you have to be careful and never travel at night" sort of silliness that seems to be expected?

I don't know.

I have found a couple of things helpful for me, personally. Hopefully others will share some thoughts to help us all relate to the rest of the world that has only seen events, perhaps life in general, from one perspective...  Oh, and saying things like I just said in this paragraph...not a good idea in general. It makes us come across as arrogant, even though we are only trying to say that we understand more than one perspective, not that we believe we are better than anyone.

First, I try to gauge actual interest. Is the person I am talking to being polite? Are they only interested because the like or love me and want to try to share that they value me as a person by asking about my experiences? If so, I take it as a complement and try to give a simple, and understandable response. "Things are great. People there are warm, friendly, and welcoming. Of course, the language and the food and the style of greeting is very different, so that took some time for adaptation." Then I quit talking. If there is further interest, they will ask. If there isn't, I don't want to bore or burden people with unwanted information.

Second, I try to ascertain the level of understanding present. If they are asking me a specific question about the politics of Rivendell, what with the impending exodus and all, they probably have a little bit better grasp of issues than someone who merely says, "Where is that? Europe?" I'll go into slightly more detail with them. At the same time, I assume very little, and keep my answers short and to the point, unless someone is really interested. When you meet one of the rare and deeply interested people, who are also able to relate and understand what you are sharing, they will prod you to speak with good, insightful questions.

Finally, keep a good sense of humor, and perhaps a short repertoire of stories about language learning mistakes, or the time you totally missed a cultural cue and created an awkward situation. Everyone likes to laugh...don't make it too detailed or difficult to understand, though...save the really deep and extreme ones for people who "get it." You will save yourself a lot of hurt and others a lot of frustration.

This is really good information.  It's especially helpful to me because I can almost guarantee that this will happen more than once.  I'm not as good as most at reading emotions/interest...so it will be interesting!

I find keeping a sense of humor a big help.  If others laugh, then they are more likely to pay attention to what I say.

That is great advice. 
Some times I like to use phrases like, "It's great"; " I love it"; or "It's horrible, I hate it, naaaa- I'm just messing with you."  If people are really interested, they'll ask a more specific question.

I have been known to ask people what they think of the people around them in their culture. When they respond, I generally say that the other culture has a lot of people like that.

If they respond that they meet a lot of mean people, nice people, or whatever, it is generally true that they will tend to think the same of people anywhere in the world where they go.