Home.
Christchurch, Wellington, Hong Kong and Tokyo. All the cities I have lived in up till now. I still remember Rachael asking me before I left Christchurch for Uni, “How long are you going away for?” I replied, “Well, my degrees will take 5 years, so when you are 12 I will come home to Christchurch again.” In November of 2001 I remember looking through my old bank statements and working out I had been back about once every six weeks. No wonder I have such a huge student loan!
I had even thought of “going home” and transferring to Canterbury Uni in June ’01 but I’m really glad I didn’t. Second Semester was when I made my really close friends at Vic House and at Uni, friends I will love for life. I suppose it was about halfway through 2002 when I realised I was referring to Wellington as “home.” I was in Christchurch for a weekend and realised I just really missed “home” – Wellington. Perhaps it had something to do with Mike being there? So for the next three years, Wellington really was home. I still went to Christchurch for Christmas (actually, two of them were in Nelson) and I still think of Christchurch as home too – can you have two homes? I think the answer is yes! Because now I have three.
My favourite year in Wellington was probably 2004. That will probably offend Mike a little bit since it was the year he was away, but it actually has more to do with living back at Vic House and not having two (or three) jobs on the go at the same time as Uni. I loved having more time to get involved at university and going out with my friends a few nights a week. I discovered Red Tomatoes in Kelburn and made a habit of going on Monday nights for student specials. I still really miss BYO restaurants!
Of course, in November 2004 Mike returned to Wellington and it was pretty good to see him! We moved in together at the beginning of ’05 and those 6 months were a lot of fun too. Pity my most vivid memories of living in Berhampore are the rain and the cold since we left in the middle of winter! We had quite a few warm summer months there too earlier in the year. During the course of those 6 months, we were somehow convinced to add a detour to Hong Kong to our OE itinerary. We still booked our flights all the way through to London and promised we’d be there for Christmas.
And then on June 24, 2005 Mike and I finally left NZ and I FINALLY went on my first overseas trip without my parents! All the way to Hong Kong (it’s 12 hours from Auckland, in case you were wondering). The first few weeks were spent hunting for an apartment and finding a job but we settled in pretty quickly and within a few months I think we knew we wouldn’t be making it to the UK by Christmas.
If Mike and I hadn’t moved to our Tai Kok Tsui apartment (which we’re still renting!), I don’t think Hong Kong would’ve been quite so much like home. We loved having a pool and tennis courts right outside, not to mention having a kitchen bigger than a cupboard and a second bedroom to put all our extra crap in! Funny how we accumulated so much STUFF despite only arriving in Hong Kong with a pack each!
But even though we loved our life we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to experience Tokyo by living and working here. Sure, we could’ve come over for a weekend but a walking tour of Shinjuku, seeing Harajuku and getting up early to visit Tsukiji are only the tip of the iceberg of Life here. Plus, this way I can (try to) learn Japanese!
Who knows whether I’ll ever call Tokyo Home. I could definitely call Hong Kong home again, and when people ask where we’re from I find it really hard to just say “New Zealand” and leave it at that. I won’t be a real Hong Konger till I lose about 20kgs, eat cake for breakfast and use whitening products by choice ... and even then I doubt whether Kiki would consider me a true “Hong Kong People.” But that doesn’t stop me from calling Hong Kong my third Home.
I had even thought of “going home” and transferring to Canterbury Uni in June ’01 but I’m really glad I didn’t. Second Semester was when I made my really close friends at Vic House and at Uni, friends I will love for life. I suppose it was about halfway through 2002 when I realised I was referring to Wellington as “home.” I was in Christchurch for a weekend and realised I just really missed “home” – Wellington. Perhaps it had something to do with Mike being there? So for the next three years, Wellington really was home. I still went to Christchurch for Christmas (actually, two of them were in Nelson) and I still think of Christchurch as home too – can you have two homes? I think the answer is yes! Because now I have three.
My favourite year in Wellington was probably 2004. That will probably offend Mike a little bit since it was the year he was away, but it actually has more to do with living back at Vic House and not having two (or three) jobs on the go at the same time as Uni. I loved having more time to get involved at university and going out with my friends a few nights a week. I discovered Red Tomatoes in Kelburn and made a habit of going on Monday nights for student specials. I still really miss BYO restaurants!
Of course, in November 2004 Mike returned to Wellington and it was pretty good to see him! We moved in together at the beginning of ’05 and those 6 months were a lot of fun too. Pity my most vivid memories of living in Berhampore are the rain and the cold since we left in the middle of winter! We had quite a few warm summer months there too earlier in the year. During the course of those 6 months, we were somehow convinced to add a detour to Hong Kong to our OE itinerary. We still booked our flights all the way through to London and promised we’d be there for Christmas.
And then on June 24, 2005 Mike and I finally left NZ and I FINALLY went on my first overseas trip without my parents! All the way to Hong Kong (it’s 12 hours from Auckland, in case you were wondering). The first few weeks were spent hunting for an apartment and finding a job but we settled in pretty quickly and within a few months I think we knew we wouldn’t be making it to the UK by Christmas.
If Mike and I hadn’t moved to our Tai Kok Tsui apartment (which we’re still renting!), I don’t think Hong Kong would’ve been quite so much like home. We loved having a pool and tennis courts right outside, not to mention having a kitchen bigger than a cupboard and a second bedroom to put all our extra crap in! Funny how we accumulated so much STUFF despite only arriving in Hong Kong with a pack each!
But even though we loved our life we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to experience Tokyo by living and working here. Sure, we could’ve come over for a weekend but a walking tour of Shinjuku, seeing Harajuku and getting up early to visit Tsukiji are only the tip of the iceberg of Life here. Plus, this way I can (try to) learn Japanese!
Who knows whether I’ll ever call Tokyo Home. I could definitely call Hong Kong home again, and when people ask where we’re from I find it really hard to just say “New Zealand” and leave it at that. I won’t be a real Hong Konger till I lose about 20kgs, eat cake for breakfast and use whitening products by choice ... and even then I doubt whether Kiki would consider me a true “Hong Kong People.” But that doesn’t stop me from calling Hong Kong my third Home.
posted by Sarah and Mike at 8:16 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home