Day 135, 21 May: Another Goodbye--Or Two

Norfolk Terrace, Day 135. Another Goodbye—Or Two

Winnie, Rebecca (With her definitely Rebecca 'I <3 Roma' jumper) and Me

I wish I’d had more time—well, we all do, but I wish I had had more time with the people here. My two main activities have been studying and traveling (would blogging count?), which are exactly why I’m here, but there’s something about good-byes that sting. In Berkeley, you can say ‘I’ll see you next year’ and ‘Have a good summer! Tell me all about when we get back!’ That softens the blow. But the four words: When we get back. Even those words are a safety net that doesn’t exist when one studies abroad. The ‘going back’ for internationals is the return to our lives back home, back at the home uni.

       Today I got to say goodbye to Rebecca and to one I’ve just recently met but who is great, Winnie. Marika and I walked over from Norfolk Terrace to the bar to see them. We were at a booth one over from where I said goodbye last night to Mo, which added to the whole impression of one goodbye after another. Rebecca’s mom was there; she flew in today and after so many long hours traveling, Rebecca asked her when she arrived if she’d like to take a walk around the lake. Her mom told me this and I found it funny but great. She did take that walk. As I was on the other side of the booth, I was next to Winnie, and we got into a great conversation about Hong Kong—the tallest building is 110 floors! But there’s something even more impressive about Hong Kong, as Winnie insisted: it’s really small. But that’s deceiving. It’s one of the most densely populated areas in the world! And the 110 floors of one building easily tell that it’s a city that has grown upwards. It was great to hear from her insider’s perspective of the place.

Marika trying out an inhaler

      Earlier today Rebecca invited me over to Zest and I had my last Zest gathering with her and Marika. I’ve had several with them through the course of this semester and it’s mostly been happenstance, seeing them and waving and sitting down to talk. Today was on these topics: the news of Marika’s mild asthma, dreams (strangely Rebecca broke her glasses at the bridge recently and this reminded me that last night I had had a dream where my glasses had broken…at the bridge too), and the meaning of life, of course. Deep stuff. It was fun and I remembered to eat while I was there.

      Otherwise, the day was spent finally catching up on blogging, starting up again at the bookmark I have in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers, taking a walk-run with Dan before the goodbye at the bar, bonding with Marika at the flat above mine (meeting Star and Annie too), and hanging around the flat.

      And so today marks another goodbye and another. And sadly, there’s more to come.