mobil ave (matrix revolution reference here)

Ever get the feeling that Hong Kong isn't so much a home, but like a stopover?

For example: Last night I was at Bulldog's quiznight with a few coworkers and interns. The beats intern is from USC and he's here on a 12 week journalism program. Other people from the same program--all interning at different media outlets--joined as well.

Most of us were meeting each other for the first time, and everyone got along. Other cats showed up, and it was one big outing over beers and burgers.

I dunno how, but I've always had the best luck with coworkers--they're all good people that I can call my friends. There was this one intern I only worked with for two weeks in 2007 but we've since kept in touch on facebook and every summer when he's back from Canada we go ball. His girlfriend interned the next summer and again, we've kept in touch and now she regularly gives me advice and leaves comments on my fb even though we really only knew each other for 6 weeks. Then there are these two British cats who are so rock and roll they've enlightened me in music and life. One's gone already and the other isn't going to be here forever. Like I said, I should just be thankful I keep meeting good people.

But the thing is, sooner or later, all of us English-speaking cats, so called "expats", aka idiots-who-overpay-for-food-in-SoHo-when-the-same-meal-cost-half-the-price-in-Wanchai, will return to wherever we came from. Or at least some of us will. Not many of us consider Hong Kong a permanent residence.

So when we bond in Hong Kong, it's almost bittersweet. These cats I'm meeting this summer, people I like so much, they'll be gone in 12 weeks. Yeah we'll keep in touch and all that but really, our days of hanging and doing this are limited. Luckily for me, I have ties to USC (no I didn't go there, I used to get balled up by black people there though), I'll see them when I'm back in LA. But for another coworker, nope. So it's like you're sitting there bonding, exchanging stories, teaching and learning from each other, and deep down you know in a few months you guys will be half the world away and you may never see each other again.

There was a moment yesterday when I got my second consecutive music answer correct, I did a Jordan fistpump and three of them immediately picked it up and followed suit (biters). They knew what I was doing--mimicing 23. One of them said "dude we gotta do this every week, this is too fun". I was thinking "we don't have many of these left".

I'm gonna use an NBA example (surprise surprise): it's like you're a non star on an NBA team. Say you're Rucker Park Streetball Legend Rafer Alston. You bond with your teammates, you guys go to war together, you go through the highs and the lows, and then one day--bam--you're gone. Traded. You pack up your bags and you move to another city. No more dinner with the guys, no more cracking jokes in the locker room. Rafer Alston has gone through that several times over. He's been traded so many times he said he's learned to accept it.

"It's just business, yo"

I'm writing this because I'm starting to realize how out of place I am in HK. I'm not really local and I'm not really that completely white-washed ABC. It's like I'm kinda here but at the same time all my family and childhood friends are in LA. But then I felt out of place in LA... I'm just meant to be an outsider, a lone wolf and cub.

Last week, I thought about going back to LA for the first time since I've been here. For a while, the thought got me sad because I've met so many good people here. But at the same time, chances are in five years time all of us will be at a different place anyways--even if I stay put here. Now I know there are people who've moved around alot and probably wouldn't think much of this--but not me. I've had the luxury of staying in the same city for elementary, high school and college, and that's when all the strongest bonds are formed (especially in high school). All my friends then were like, there, all the time, and they weren't going nowhere. I still see the same faces when I'm back and I still play ball with the same guys. I'm new to this "meet people from all around the world who come and go" kinda thing.

And for a sap like me, it's a "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" waiting to happen. But you know what, you learn to accept it because it's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.

Or in Rafer "Skip 2 My Lou" Alston's words,

"It's just business, yo"