Tis' the Season

I always remember as a child that my mom never liked the spring months of April, May and June and now I understand why. Even though we don't have kids, I still feel the pressures of finishing up the school year and planning out the summer that hit right about now. Especially as an expat, this season is tough. It is nearly impossible to keep track of when and where all of your friends will be out of town for the summer. To really make things worse though, this is also the season that expats move home. This week alone I have three going away parties. The hardest part about saying goodbye is that you might never see the person again. One friend is moving to Minnesota, the other to Moscow, but luckily, the third is moving to Atlanta!

As someone pointed out recently, a hard concept to grasp as an expat is that if any of us come back to Brussels in ten years, not one person we knew will still be living here at all. In some ways, it is almost as if we did not exist. At least with high school and college, you could go back and see an old professor, or a plaque that reminded you of your accomplishments. But when you only live somewhere for two to five years, you don't have much time to make an impact on a city. This city is so transient that others don't have time to mourn or put up rememberances to those who have left. This point really hit home the other day at bunco when a few girls were trying to remember the name of a friend of theirs who left five years ago. It took them all at least a few solid minutes to come up with her first name, let alone her last.

The other problem with this season is just how busy it becomes. Last Thursday through Sunday Kyle was at a conference. Even though I was with him, the meetings of the conference included breakfast, lunch and dinner, so we barely saw each other. We got home at 9pm on Sunday evening. Monday night Kyle and I went to trivia with some friends, Tuesday I had my last bunco group for the season, Wednesday I had my last bookclub for the season, tonight Kyle has a work dinner that doesn't even start until 9pm, Friday we have a going away party, Saturday we have a going away dinner, and Sunday we have church in the evening that we are hosting at our house. Kyle and I will have basically gone eleven nights without having dinner together. I am ready to become a hermit and just stay home for awhile!