Brian Cheung



The Way Way Back

I'm currently sitting at Helsinki nursing a really overpriced beer with a few hours until my HK-bound flight takes off. I don't want to make this post some sort of misty-eyed summation of the last 8 months - partially because it seems reductive and perfunctory, and also because I don't think there's any real way to reduce the entire trip into a few vague sentences. All I can say is that it was an experience - equal parts wonderful and terrible (well let's be honest it was way better than it was horrible), and I'm a different person now to when I left home last July. 

I left Korpo on yet another gorgeously clear yet frigid day this morning. I bid farewell to a clean empty apartment and I'm 1000% sure I didn't accidentally leave anything behind. The buses back to Turku and Helsinki were smooth and uneventful. After lunch I caught up with Outi and Miika once again, and with the temperature outside still stubbornly in the negative-teens, our only option was to eat more food and wander around the malls. 

It was sad to say goodbye one last time, and as optimistic as I am, I honestly can't say when I'll see them next. I purposefully gave myself an overly generous amount of time to wait around at the airport. There's nothing worse than being late for a big international flight to the point where you're screaming at traffic despite knowing that that will have absolutely zero chance of getting you on board sooner. So here I am in airport purgatory, killing time with beer and internet. In 11 hours I'll be landing in the pseudo-motherland for the first time in about 5-6 years. Mum and Dad will arrive a few hours after me and together we'll attempt to eat our way through the city until my next and final flight on Sunday evening. 

It's time to go.

finlandBrian Cheung