The final week
I am in my final week in Hong Kong. I've been counting the days until I can finally go home, eager and excited to get back to my own life.
Tonight, however, I'm a little sad, and a little scared.
Hong Kong has been good to me. My work has made a real difference, and I have garnered much public appreciation. I've heard 'secret' talk about a planned appreciation and farewell dinner in which there will be performances (the manager apparently has a different definition of 'secret' than the rest of us), and I've received an invitation to return in December for the Christmas party. I've even felt the not-so-subtle hints that I would be welcome to stay permanently.
I've enjoyed my explorations through the city, to be sure... but explorations are only interesting when shared with others; unfortunately, I have had no one to share with. I miss my Fuzzy desperately - I have even degenerated into a pathetic farce of calling him nightly, sometimes two or even three times a day.
I miss my friends, such as they are. I may not be as close a friend to each of them as I perceive them to be for me, but they are the bricks and mortar that make up my life, and I am lacking without them.
I am becoming more and more aware, however, and nervous of the impending culture shock I do not doubt I will experience upon my return. I've spent a quarter of a year away, and things have changed and moved and grown in my absence. How will I fit back into a hole that has been distorted by this much time away? I have been eager to go home, thinking about how much I miss my life, but I know that when I get there, the life that I have been missing will be irrevocably gone - changed into something new that I must work to fit myself back into.
Tonight, however, I'm a little sad, and a little scared.
Hong Kong has been good to me. My work has made a real difference, and I have garnered much public appreciation. I've heard 'secret' talk about a planned appreciation and farewell dinner in which there will be performances (the manager apparently has a different definition of 'secret' than the rest of us), and I've received an invitation to return in December for the Christmas party. I've even felt the not-so-subtle hints that I would be welcome to stay permanently.
I've enjoyed my explorations through the city, to be sure... but explorations are only interesting when shared with others; unfortunately, I have had no one to share with. I miss my Fuzzy desperately - I have even degenerated into a pathetic farce of calling him nightly, sometimes two or even three times a day.
I miss my friends, such as they are. I may not be as close a friend to each of them as I perceive them to be for me, but they are the bricks and mortar that make up my life, and I am lacking without them.
I am becoming more and more aware, however, and nervous of the impending culture shock I do not doubt I will experience upon my return. I've spent a quarter of a year away, and things have changed and moved and grown in my absence. How will I fit back into a hole that has been distorted by this much time away? I have been eager to go home, thinking about how much I miss my life, but I know that when I get there, the life that I have been missing will be irrevocably gone - changed into something new that I must work to fit myself back into.