One of Those Days

     Today was one of those days when there seemed to be an accumulation of irritations that were all related to not being at home.  There are the gray days in Hong Kong, one after another.  I've been here nearly 5 weeks and there has been less than a week's worth of sunny days since I arrived.  Even if the sun came out, there's never a bright blue sky like there is in Minnesota.  It's always hazy to some degree.  It would have been nice to have even a short casual conversation today with, say, one person besides Terry--family, friend, neighbor, the teller at the bank or the guy at the gas station.  This past week I've been a little stir crazy from not getting out and about enough, due to a sore knee, related to bad arches, I think,  and doing a lot more walking and hills and stairs than I was used to.  If I was at home I know where I would go to get a new set of good inserts for my shoes and maybe an excellent massage.
     I get weary of thinking about water and food safety, given that most of what we drink and eat comes from China.  It's good to have to think about this because, really, we're all in this together.  But today was one of those days when I really would have liked to have had the option of going to the co-op.  Today it would have been nice to be able to send a quick text to the girls to get maybe get a sentence or so back, telling about their week.  There are the computer issues:  slow internet much of the time here at our apartment, problems with my email since I arrived, and the rat's nest of power strips and adapters precariously arranged here for electronics and phones in our minimalist living room, where we spend most of our time when we're not out and about.  My computer inadvertently got unplugged from the rat's nest late this afternoon and I  thought I'd lost most of what I'd been working on.  At that point I left to go for a long walk, crummy knee and all.  I realized while out and about that I'm feeling the lack of personal space here--there are ALWAYS people around when I go out, lots of them.  Coming from northern European stock with some silent, hermiting tendencies, I'm feeling a little too hemmed in by humans at times.  I think the reason today became one of those days is because I'm short on sleep, and that's because I was thinking about our elderly former neighbor who's been quite sick, and I was wishing I could have visited her.
      None of these is a huge problem.  I recognize that I have a wonderful opportunity here and that it probably seems ludicrous to voice anything that seems remotely like a complaint.  But there are days when nothing seems better than the familiarities and conveniences of home.
     Tomorrow will be much better.  And...without prompting, just now Terry has suggested that we track down one of those familiarities of home, a Scrabble game.  We're supposed to be able to get one at the Toys 'R' Us in Central.  Woo hoo!