Getting ready to leave China after eight years hasn't been an easy decision to make, although at times it's been a bit of a love/hate relationship, looking back I have only fond memories... As friends who have left before had warned me, the last few weeks I surprised myself nostalgically snapping photos of scenes of everyday life around my neighborhood, scenes that I'd walked by thousands of times without noticing anymore, strangely reminding myself of when I first came as a tourist a decade earlier and fittingly closing the loop.