Discovering where home is
Thursday, July 17th 2008
By Katrina Beikoff*
We’ve been away from
It is the first time we have ever referred to
It’s something I wasn’t entirely sure would ever happen.
It wasn’t that we desperately missed
But when it was time for the holiday to end, we all were quite happy to board the plane back to
It is a grand adjustment.
Instead of mentally comparing holiday beaches to Australian beaches, foreign wildlife to Australian wildlife and holiday prices to Australian prices, all of a sudden we found ourselves inadvertently thinking in Chinese comparisons.
I caught myself comparing fresh spring rolls with the ones my Ayi taught me to make.
Matching fabrics and tailoring prices with what I could get at Lu Jiabang Lu.
And, while I heard other tourists complaining about odd smells wafting from street alleys and drains, I found myself smiling as my nostrils transported me back to the streets of Jing’an.
I am probably most amazed that it has only taken six months to be able to call
It is a feeling that has snuck up on us all. Even my three-year-old daughter who has spent six months expressing her homesickness in strident, though amusing, ways such as refusing to eat anything but Australian food, ‘‘like spaghetti,’’ and trying to each the Ayi to speak Australian, said she was happy to be home.
It’s been an upheaval for us all. But now we are home. And after a short break, it feels surprisingly right.
*Katrina Beikoff is a Shanghai-based writer and mum-of-two. She writes fortnightly for shanghai mamas and monthly for the Shanghai Daily newspaper. Her latest column, “Drug net closes as China readies for Olympic Games” can be read at shanghaidaily.com. Go to Opinion and Foreign Perspectives.
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