Who’s left to meet?

This early morning I woke up overhearing what I believed to be a very bad news. It appears to be something about a relative. Then I hear the footsteps of my parents quickly leaving home. Which is unusual. I didn’t dare to face reality by asking & instead buried my head under a pillow like an ostrich. Pretending to be still asleep.

My parents have a habit of leaving bad news to the evenings & nights. It’s night time and I heard nothing from them yet. Hopefully that means I heard things wrongly.

Today is a rare day where it’s pretty much me alone in the new office again. Giving me the opportunity to do what I prefer. Which I guess is why I’m writing about the past 2 weeks now.

1st, I finally got to meet that ex colleague in another department last week. Treated him to a bowl of ramen for his farewell meal. It started off with pretty standard stuffs: hearing about his experience here & in this country for almost a year, why he resigned & how is his new job now. Interestingly, I learnt that he has an identical twin brother who works in this country too & that his pay at the new job is about 3 times more than what he got here. Took a photo together & went back to work.

2nd would be today, got to zoom with the US couple from my Australia exchange & talked to R. He really still remembers me. I was a little worried at 1st because I thought I would have been forgotten via childhood amnesia. He is 7 now. I guess all those times babysitting & playing with him at his home during my exchange has paid off. His sister E is no longer a baby as well but I can’t expect her to remember me. Chatted with them briefly before I chat with their parents again.

The chat with their parents went pretty well as I learn about how they are coping with the bushfires and pandemic over at Australia, the challenges of keeping their kids entertained at home & their family situation in the US. As expected, their families in the US wasn’t spared, but on the bright side it sounds like everyone is still alive & they are very aware of the dangers of covid as some of their family members worked in nursing homes or healthcare.

Sensing that I might be trusted enough, I took a risk & asked about their views on the US elections & the upcoming inauguration. Recalling they were republicans last time.

Although they made no mention of Trump & didn’t reveal their current political leanings, their replies were much more balanced than I thought. They agreed with me that this was a very touchy topic in the US as patriotism is a huge thing there & hence they have to be very careful whenever they talk about politics with the people back home.

They also reflected on themselves & admitted that their time in Australia has made them more Australians like as well. Criticizing the churches that remained open & maskless in the US.

All in all, they were looking forward to the inauguration & a new beginning for the US.

I think that’s it for today. Met more people than I expected in this sudden spree of mine. I think I just have 1 more person to meet, an online friend from years back whom I once promised I will meet at least once. Recently reached out and that person is still open.

Other than that I don’t think there is anybody else who wanted to meet me. I hope to be wrong.

Then it’s probably enough. Whatever happens to the world or me.