Last year on thanksgiving we signed up to have servicemen from a US ship join us for our Thanksgiving Day meal. But China wouldn’t let the USS Kitty Hawk enter Hong Kong waters, so our plans were all for naught. This year we were luckier, as were the servicemen. Chris and Shawn, sailors on the USS Blue Ridge, joined us, as did Beth and Pat Hall, their son Jim, AND their grandson, the adorable Brian!
It was a great thanksgiving. The servicemen were happy to be with us for a home-cooked meal. They even asked if they could request us for next year! And we had so much fun entertaining a 4-year-old. It’s been a long time since I’ve spent very much time with a child that age. Brian brought a little backpack with him that contained his favorite electronic toys, but he much preferred building towers with the Jinga blocks I retrieved from our games closet. He managed to get every one of our guests to build a tower with him, and I took pictures to prove it!
Cooler weather has returned to Hong Kong, and this makes me laugh, since cool right now means lows of around 60 F. But like any long-term Hong Kong resident this has caused me to get out my sweaters and jackets. I’ve even purchased a fur-trimmed sweater recently and wore it out to dinner the other night. I’ve actually looked at the temperatures in Austin, where it sometimes goes down in the 30’s and 40’s and thought “wow, its COLD there!” What will I do if we really end up in St. Paul? I will be hauling out my long underwear I’m sure!
We had planned (and booked) a trip to Thailand for the 10th of December; then this week protesters took over the Bangkok International Airport and shut it down. Even though their siege ended today, we’ve still decided to cancel our trip. For one thing there is no guarantee that the airport will open back up in time for us to go. For another, it doesn’t sound like much fun there right now. We’re thinking about trying to go to Beijing or somewhere else this winter. The problem with going to Beijing now is that it’s really cold there in the winter-time. But I guess the rates would probably be really good, and I could get out the above-mentioned underwear and my ski coat, and I’d be fine.
One of the reasons we’re considering Beijing is that it looks like we will be returning to the US in March. It would be kind of shameful to have lived in Asia for 3 years and never made it to the Forbidden City! Lee has spent so much time in China for work that the thought of going there for a vacation just never really appeals to him. But maybe now is the time.
I’ve been kind of blue, thinking about leaving Hong Kong. I’m not sad to be returning to the US, although I wish our situation wasn’t so uncertain. Its unsettling in this economic downturn to not be sure what Lee’s next job with 3M will be, or where we will live. We’ve gone through all the “what’s the worst thing that could happen” scenarios though, and no matter what that might be, we will be okay. It’s just like Tom Petty says though, “the waiting is the hardest part”.
Even though I’ve known all along that this day would come, and even though it comes at what seems to be the typical length of an expat stay, I’m still sad. I will miss the people that I’ve met. I will miss living in a big city. I will miss having so many different activities to choose from, every day. I will miss the pride I feel in having learned to live comfortably in a foreign country and make it my own. Part of me will always carry a bit of Hong Kong with me, where-ever I go.
I’m sure I’m going to have more to write on this subject as time goes on. It will take awhile to process it, not to mention that it won’t seem real until we have the official paperwork in hand and some definite dates! In the mean time, life in Hong Kong will go on as normal on one level, while on another I will be silently saying my goodbyes.
I don’t want to do what a lot of people here do, however, and kind of drop out of things before they go. I know why they do it, because the thought of going that way is tempting to me as well. It’s painful to say goodbye. But I’d rather hold my head up proudly, and hug my friends, and not be afraid of my feelings. I’m going to try anyway.
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