The Landing Party

I looked out the window making our approach into Lewiston. The hills were the same dry-brown they were last summer before I left. It figured in my heart that it couldn't have been more than a week since I'd left. Over the Clarkston Heights and I could see the Snake River wading through the middle of the city, and then the Horizon Airlines Bombardier double prop stumbled onto the run way.

Walking from the plane to the one-room airport, I couldn't see through the tinted windows. I expected my parents to be waiting for me, but as I walked through the door I was surprised by my niece who jumped me. Then I heard a loud sound like a swarm of bees –– kazoos. The family had come in full force to welcome me with signs, songs, smiles and hugs.

It made me feel like a conquering hero returning from the field, not because I felt like I'd fought anything in Asia, and I definitely hadn't conquered anything, but I felt accomplished just having such a fun and loving group of people in my family. 

Packing

It's 2:00am and I'm feeling packed enough to write this. Alban, a good friend from college, has been visiting this week, so most of our time has been dedicated to scurrying about the greater Hong Kong metropolitan region, not packing. But there's no more delaying things. We wake up in two hours to get Alban on a bus for his flight to Japan. I leave a few hours after him to catch my flight to Korea where I have a ten day layover on my way home. Five days will be spent in Japan, then five days in Korea.

It's been nice having Alban here this week. It's helped me keep moving, pushing back packing until now. Not moving slow enough to look much at the fact that eleven months have passed since I was packing in a similar way. Eleven months of unsure expectations haunted my last packing, and eleven months of memories haunt this one.

Today was graduation. After the program was finished, there was no mingling or messing around. The gym was packed up within thirty minutes –– people out, chairs stacked, banners down, floor swept.  Because Hong Kong's a busy place, and we all had places to be, and goodbyes aren't easy, and there's still more packing to do.