In our city in East Asia, there are very, very, very few wide open spaces. There are very few open spaces. There are very few spaces. Just when you think the elevator could not possibly, under any circumstances, hold one more person, the doors open and 8 more people will cram their way on. There are just so many people there. People, people everywhere.
Here in America, we feel cramped if we can hear our neighbor's telephone ring inside their house. In East Asia, you don't have a house, and you can practically hear your neighbors taking a pee.
We are headed back tomorrow morning. We are packing. Tensions are running high. Kids are regressing (as in wetting themselves all over the couch). Kids are lashing out with aggression. Husbands are forgetting to be polite. Wives are finding themselves retreating to the computer to blog while kids watch cartoons with great grandmothers.
Everything is changing...for everyone...again.
Besides comforting processed American food, and besides the feeling of belonging in the culture into which I was born, and besides my Mom and Dad and brothers and nephew and niece and inlaws and friends - I will certainly miss, daily no doubt, the wide open spaces.
