San Francisco

In the past, after returning from other trips abroad, San Francisco would seem newly exotic to me, like I was seeing it in a different context as a foreigner or outsider.

The experience now seems to be happening in reverse. We've lived in the city almost all our adult lives, and we feel pretty rooted here. Jacqueline and I half-joke about feeling homesick before we even leave, but there's some vague truth to that. When you know you're leaving for a long time, everything starts to feel a little different. I find myself looking differently at things, noticing details a little more, trying to take it all in... the quality of light and shadow on buildings and on the water; the salt air; the hills; the sights, smells and sounds; the places we like to eat; the neighborhoods we walk through; the conversations we overhear (in Cantonese or Russian as often as English sometimes).

And of course since it's August it seems that half of Italy is here on their vacation; I enjoy watching them wander around with their maps, completely lost but still quite happy about it.

I don't think I'm wistful about leaving so much as anxious about everything we need to do...we've been running around trying to get everything organized.... mail, bills, insurance, laundry, visas, tickets.... *ack* we're trying not to freak out too much.

'bye SF, see y'all in February.