Bookended by mooncakes

As Stellou recently reminded me, when I arrived in London last year I brought her mooncakes. This year she gave me some, courtesy of the mooncake bounty her father had bestowed upon her.

So it's been a year, and I've spent the last week (since submitting my dissertation last Tuesday) sorting, packing and dismantling my life here in preparation for returning home. It's been a very different feeling from the little I remember of packing up my undergraduate life. For one thing, I have an adult life to return to. For another, there is a timeless sheen to London (misleading though it may be) that makes me feel like it's a place one can always come back to, for different reasons.

When people ask me what I'll miss about London, my glib answer is lemon curd. Something about that tartness and sweetness and Britishness all rolled up into one.

It's been a very, very good year, and now it's time to go home.