Time to leave this place

So I'm in the middle of my exams now and while I'm supposed to be studying really hard for a very heavy paper tommorrow, I can only think of the days that I will spend away from home.

I've been waiting for an opportunity to leave for a long time. Don't get me wrong, I love it here. The people I love the most are here and that's more important than anything else. But at some point, I just have to move out of what I'm comfortable with and move on to something that I'm not. My last trip to Japan lasted 16 days and at the end of those 2 weeks I was literally jumping in front of the Imperial Palace because I missed home so much. I called my mum after I got myself firm on the ground and her voice sounded much sweeter than the sound of birds chirping in Chuo-ku and trust me, I'm not someone who usually says that my mum's voice is sweet. The kicker was that it was Easter Sunday that day and I didn't even know....

This year I will spend my birthday away from home. It will be the very first time that I will very likely have to buy my own mini-cake, light my own mini-candles and sing myself a very mini-birthday song in Japanese. But there's always a brighter side to sad, lonely things; a person's 20th birthday is a very important event in Japanese culture so why shouldn't I be happy about celebrating it in Japan? For all you know, my 20th may not turn out that lonely after all.

But that's just one small aspect of being away. Being away also means that I won't get to disturb little Nicolette and roar at her on the weekends; it means that I won't come back home every evening to the sound of mimi running back home from wherever she is to greet me with an adorable purr; it means that I won't be able to walk into my front door at the end of a long day and tease mummy about watching Korean dramas all day and not doing any housework (that's totally not true of course);it means I can't call papa and ask him if he could pick me up; it means that I can't sms Stefie to come out for a meal at any time of the day nor watch Gilmore with her; it means that I won't be able to go for open mics at SAC on Friday evenings; it means that I won't be able to call Radah and ask her if she wants to have a night out promising each other we won't leave any club without at least getting a couple of numbers; it means I can't lead Mato into weird situations that would get him into trouble with my mum; it means that I won't be able to get annoyed with little Damien for taking thosuands of photos of the fan with my phone and yet still find him so adorable; most shockingly, it means that I will be a 7 hour plane ride away from the little island that I grew up in and have also grown to love so much despite all her idiosyncracies.

It means that I need to come back here. Someday. Someday soon. But for now, I want nothing more than to leave.