June 4, 2008 - From the other side...

We packed boxes and lugged them to the post office, we dragged even more boxes and bags to Kitty's mom's house, and we gutted the Xia Men St. apartment, carrying bag after bag down to the lot nextdoor for recycling, and sweeping and scrubbing until the apartment more or less resembled the empty, echoey place we moved into more than three years ago. It was a sweaty, dirty ordeal, and at times my arms would ache from all the carrying. A special thanks here to all the taxi drivers who stopped for us even after seeing the piles of boxes we were constantly ferrying to Kitty's mom's and to the post office, where we started to feel like old friends with the staff.

On Friday, May 30, as the sky grew black and heavy with coming storms, we rolled out of Taipei city across through Sanchung, and up over past Linko as the rain exploded down. Dry and finally able to relax at Taoyuan Airport, we checked in for the EVA flight to Seattle. We were fortunate to have three bulkhead seats for two people and a wall-mounted bed for Sabrina. At about 11:30, we lifted off and soon settled in for a long but sleepy flight. Oddly, this would be the first time I'd ever flown non-stop between Taiwan and the USA, having always stopped in Japan or Korea previously.

Seattle, our port of entry into the US, served as a welcome break in the long trip. A shuttle bus took us to a nearby hotel for a proper night's rest. With no restaurant in the hotel, I ventured out in the clear, cool twilight along a quiet street lined with pine trees...and came back with one of the best pizzas I've had for years. Yes, very surreal. I think a lot of us have those kinds of moments when returning to our home countries after long absences--the mundane can be so...odd.

The next day, we were back to the airport with our five checked bags and four carry-ons. This time, however, Northwest Airlines nailed me for one excess bag and one overweight bag. This was cattle-car domestic, after all. But we got to Detroit smoothly enough, where my parents not only helped carry some of the luggage but had a lot of space in the bag of the car to get it home. Again, the long absence from North America sharpened my senses to all that was "new" again--the empty country roads, the long, slow sunset (it DOES take longer in higher latitudes, of course,) and the GREEN everywhere. And it smelled like things growing, like rich soil.

I'm here now where I grew up, in Adrian, Michigan. It's hardly an exciting place, but the weather has been pleasantly cool, there's baseball on TV every night, and Sabrina has been happily stumbling around, simply delighting the grandparents who have been so anxious to spend some quality time with her. Right now, this is where we need to be. Soon enough, we'll be apartment hunting in Bloomington, shopping for trash cans and bookshelves, and searching for Asian supermarkets.

I'm glad you're along for the ride as we make this enormous transition.