Impressions from a Homecoming

In which I play the used-to-be game

Whenever I arrive at a new-to-me place, I become a sort of human sponge, taking everything in, gawking out the windows of the bus as it rolls into town from the airport, trying to read the signs on shops even if I don’t know the language, staring at people, drinking it all in.

I do the same, only with more intensity, when I come back to the oldest-to-me …