Not sure when it happened, but Hong Kong has become home to me. Too bad I realized this when I only have 3 weeks left here. El Hombre and I just returned after 2 weeks in the US, and while I loved seeing family and friends in DC and Cali and being back in SF, for the first time since I started my expat journey four and a half years ago, I truly felt like a visitor in SF, and felt that welcome, quiet pleasure of coming "home" when I returned to Hong Kong. This is the city I know now - its streets, alleyways, shortcuts, eateries, secrets. This is the city that claims me as one of its own - a vagabond wanderer finally at home with other vagabond wanderers.
I may complain about Hong Kong often - its air pollution, passive aggressiveness, obscene materialism, obnoxious visitors from mainland, "zero to hero" foreign population, unhygienic restaurants, tiny cramped overpriced flats - but at the end of the day, I fell in love with this amazing city. There is no city quite like Hong Kong, and I will always have a soft spot in my heart for this place.
It was strange to realize during this last visit that America now feels foreign to me. Living abroad in an international expat community, what I often long for is "Americanness," or more specifically, "Northern-Californianess." Yet when immersed in it, it felt alien to me - I've been gone for too long, and SF has evolved and I've evolved, but we haven't evolved together. I suppose that feeling will only grow the longer I stay away.
And just as Hong Kong starts to feel like home, we're moving away to a new city. I wonder when Singapore will start feeling like home. El Hombre and I bought a place in Singapore - this seems to surprise pretty much everyone we know since we bought in a place we've never lived before and we don't even know if we'll end up liking the country. But for us, I think it was about making a Home in our new city - since we've committed to moving to a new country and setting up life there for at least a few years, we thought that owning a part of it (even if just a piece of pie in the sky) would help us feel more at home - more committed, more rooted.
I may complain about Hong Kong often - its air pollution, passive aggressiveness, obscene materialism, obnoxious visitors from mainland, "zero to hero" foreign population, unhygienic restaurants, tiny cramped overpriced flats - but at the end of the day, I fell in love with this amazing city. There is no city quite like Hong Kong, and I will always have a soft spot in my heart for this place.
It was strange to realize during this last visit that America now feels foreign to me. Living abroad in an international expat community, what I often long for is "Americanness," or more specifically, "Northern-Californianess." Yet when immersed in it, it felt alien to me - I've been gone for too long, and SF has evolved and I've evolved, but we haven't evolved together. I suppose that feeling will only grow the longer I stay away.
And just as Hong Kong starts to feel like home, we're moving away to a new city. I wonder when Singapore will start feeling like home. El Hombre and I bought a place in Singapore - this seems to surprise pretty much everyone we know since we bought in a place we've never lived before and we don't even know if we'll end up liking the country. But for us, I think it was about making a Home in our new city - since we've committed to moving to a new country and setting up life there for at least a few years, we thought that owning a part of it (even if just a piece of pie in the sky) would help us feel more at home - more committed, more rooted.
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