In two days I will be leaving for Hong Kong. I will be there for a 4-month exchange term with Hong Kong University. I will be travelling and living with The Missus (my wife, and a very private person) and Katharina Spötzl (a friend from law school who will also be on exchange).

That’s what I will be doing. What I am doing is packing. Packing for days. Moving boxes at strange hours before and after work. Loading up all of my possessions and living out of a suitcase in the empty shell of my soon-to-be-former home. Opening bank accounts and arranging mail forwarding and doing all of the administrivia involved with going anywhere for any length of time.

I hate moving.

I’m doing other stuff too. Seeing friends and family for good-bye-for-four-to-eight-months dinners.  Having prematurely nostalgic evenings with my wife in the city we haven’t yet left. Leafing through travel guides showcasing the exotic locales that we’ll be passing through.

There are parts of leaving that aren’t so terrible.

I just wish there wasn’t so much packing.