Dept. of Departures: Another D-Day

I OFFERED A countdown as I prepared to depart for Budapest in August of last year. Some seven months later, I find myself nearing another date of departure: that when I am scheduled to lug my baggage to Ferihegy, and board a BA flight bound for Heathrow, where, provided that my bags aren't lost in Terminal 5, I will change carriers and fly to Boston via American. I almost wrote that I would be going home via Heathrow, but using the word "home" doesn't sit that well with me at this moment. Budapest has been home for the past seven months and it is not without a sense of melancholy that I leave this home for another. Of course, I'm looking forward to seeing my family for the first time in what has been the longest stretch I have spent without their company. But I'm deeply saddened by having to leave here so many friends, so many to whom I've grown close over the past months, and so many others to whom I wish I could have grown closer.

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