Another Monday, another week, but..

It's a strange feeling... as we were coming back from seeing Kitty Abby at the campus "Cats" Cafe, we got the familiar feeling of starting another week, with kids at school, and us doing our work and chores, but we realized that this time we won't finish the week with a weekend here in Taiwan. It really hit all of us that we are saying goodbye to Tsinghua, and to our friends here. The familiarity of the humid air, the huge trees, the bugs and birds... "these are a few of our favorite things."

The movers are coming this morning to pick up the boxes. In the immediate future we'll bombard my parents' house with noisy kids and tons and tons of luggage. For me, returning to the US means a total switch of mind set, and I am nervous about whether I am ready. Actually, I've been having scary dreams: Last night in my dream, I was taking both kids and all the luggage on my own to the EVA flight. We couldn't tell which plane to get on, and walked passed a 747, which Noah insisted was a 777, and I was all confused as to which plane was ours.... I woke up and couldn't fall back to sleep. These are common emotions before a big change, and I tried to observe them and let them go.

Now, comments from Paul:
I keep thinking about how fast this year went by. It's that way with many aspects of life, of course, like kids growing up. But because this year was so clearly separated from the rest of life, by distance, lifestyle, friends, and work, it's easy to see how quickly ten months pass. It's frightening to think that every ten months goes by that quickly.

Living in the University Guesthouse has made some things clear. We have a small apartment, and though I'd like a larger space, I wouldn't trade the pleasure of living on campus for more space. We have such fun walking places, and the convenience of living near work, Kindergarten, and the ponds and hills on campus can't be beat. We already have that attitude in the States relative to most other people, living in our smallish Arlington house so we can get to Georgetown, downtown DC, and "downtown Arlington" quickly and easily, but in Taiwan it has been more extreme. And worthwhile. We are now certain that we should focus on making our small house -- which seems much bigger now -- nicer, rather than looking for a bigger but less convenient place.