Unpacking/Homesick

It's been four days since we moved from Brooklyn to Albany. Our apartment is still littered with partially unpacked moving boxes and takeout containers piled high everywhere. Already, we've shopped at Walmart half a dozen times (welcome to suburbia!). Our kitchen is still not functional, and every meal brings up a dilemma of take out choices.

More than a decade ago, I left Korea and came to Grand Rapids, Michigan to attend Calvin College. I had been enrolled in college in Korea for three semesters when I left. My Korean college time was spent mostly in pool halls, bars and other joints frequented by college underclassmen. Not that I deprived myself of pleasure during my high school years to study for my college entrance exams, but I undertook the whole crazy Korean college experience with gusto, rarely coming home sober. Coming from this and a city of 10 plus million (Seoul) to sleepy Grand Rapids (population: 200,000, or 2% of Seoul) was a huge shock to my system. I was sick with homesickness (redundant?). I frequently looked at my watch and silently converted the time to Korean time, and wondered what my friends must be doing at the time. I would occasionally find old Korean coins in my pockets or receipts from my favorite haunts in Korea and feel the unmistakable twinge of sadness in the pit of my stomach.

Needless to say, my move to Albany after 9 years in Brooklyn are strongly reminiscent of my arrival in Grand Rapids. Sure, I had moved previously in the US, but the change in scenery was not nearly as drastic. Or perhaps I should more honestly state that my previous moves in the US had been all for the better each time. After four years in Grand Rapids, Michigan I moved to Ann Arbor to attend graduate school. Ann Arbor, albeit a smaller town than Grand Rapids was far more urbane in feel and offered culture. After three years in Ann Arbor, I moved to New York City. Both of these moves were exciting. I can't even remember if I even experienced any homesickness at all.

Of course, after New York it's hard to imagine a comparably more exciting city to move to. The curse of becoming a New Yorker is that all moves are inevitably a step down in culture, excitement, everything. The strange thing is that my family is all here, so I hesitate to use the word "homesick" since I am literally home. This move is much more palatable than my move from Seoul to Grand Rapids. I have my family. But it is still in the back of my mind that I have left New York, the city that I have loved and lived in for close to a decade.