Reading Week

In the past two weeks, I've met at least 5 other exchange students, all of whom are very nice, and all of whom I will likely never see again. This seems to be the way such things go -- it takes roughly a semester to get the feel of things, and there's all that traveling in the middle, and just when the city is feeling like yours, and you have the time and energy to make friends beyond the small circle you met in the heady rush of orientation, it's time to go.

I remember in Spain, I lived in an apartment with a French med student, a German law student, and a Spanish DJ. The French guy was dating an Indian woman, the Spanish guy was dating an American, and my British friend Vic was crashing on our couch. We were a regular little L'auberge Espagnole (did anyone else ever see that movie about a bunch of exchange students living together in an apartment in Barcelona...?) and would have dinner parties in which we went around the table saying the word "penis" in all of our native languages, to many giggles [note: the words is recognizable in basically all languages of these languages :-)]. I felt so worldly, and we all vowed to stay in touch -- that lasted maybe 3 months. Since that was also pre-Facebook and pre-ubiquitous-Gmail addresses, I have a small list of old contacts "@hotmail.com" or "@netscape.com" that no longer work.

Now, of course, the HK students and I are internet-savvy, and I have a host of new Facebook friends. But it really is too bad to have to leave just at this turning point when my comfort with the city has begun extending past Tom's and my routines to encompass somewhat of a social circle. My friend from college, Ellen, extended her junior semester abroad to encompass the spring as well as the fall, and although at the time I couldn't fathom missing out on springtime in Providence with my college buddies, I think time spent in a place beyond the 5- or 6-month mark is different than time spent in a place before that.

That being said, I won't miss our closet of an apartment. Tom and I had to find somewhere for him to live in Portland (and for me to live in Portland the 4 or 5 days a week I'll get to be there!) and we gleefully perused the pages of craigslist to see how much more bang for our buck we could get for housing back in Maine. Suffice to say that we're getting a fully furnished, 2-bed/2-bath apartment for a short-term lease with parking and all utilities included for less than we're paying to live in ~180 square feet right now. I'm daydreaming about the cooking projects I can take on with access to an oven and a dishwasher, while I know that Tom is excited about the studying he can do on the formal dining room table (as opposed to hunching over the foot of the bed, which serves as his current desk). Put that apartment in HK though, and I just might consider staying :-).

My next post(s) will be all Thailand-centered -- we leave on Saturday. Five days up north in Chiang Mai (three of those hiking in the hills), six days in Koh Tao on the beach, and four days in Bangkok (including NYE)...