June 24, 2010 - Boston, MA

This afternoon I took the bus up to Boston to surprise my folks who were coming into town to stay with my sister for a night before continuing on down to Newport on Friday for our welcome home party this weekend. Some of Sten's family had come out to visit us in the Indian, but I hadn't seen any of my peeps since we flew home from Singapore for the holidays a year and a half ago. So I was anxious to see them and to make the most of their time out here on the East Coast.

The regional bus station in Boston is at South Station, right across the street from the law firm where I worked for four years out law school. Two blocks away is the firm I was working at when we left for our circumnavigation. Exiting the bus station and entering the Financial District brought back a whole rush of memories, not all of which were entirely pleasant.

It was an unbelievably weird sensation to be walking down the streets of the Financial District on a Thursday wearing decidedly casual clothing and flip flops. I had an hour before I was scheduled to meet Alena at her office in Back Bay, so I decided to walk through Chinatown. As soon as I passed through the Chinatown gate I felt less displaced. Pressed ducks hanging from shop windows and signs advertising Banh Mi and big bowls of Pho . . . all of this was comfortable and familiar. Every city seems to have an Chinatown. They are all exotic and at the same time familiar.

After rendezvousing with Alena, we headed home to her new house in Somerville. There, waiting for me in one of her closets, was my entire professional and formal wardrobe, clothing which I haven't had any use for these past three and half years. Standing there, looking at a wall of black and charcoal grey, I wondered if it would ever suit me again.

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