Whether you’ve lived in Hong Kong for ten years or you’re still a wide-eyed newcomer, returning “home” for the holidays can be a strange experience of mixed emotions for many expats. Of course, there’s the honeymoon phase of returning to the place where you grew up, where you made some of your fondest memories, however, you may also be quickly reminded of why you left in the first place. As Tim Pile, Travel Writer at South China Morning Post, humorously describes, returning home may require some sort of recalibrating as you re-enter the comparably slower pace of your hometown, or rather, getting used to the “tortoise tempo”. From the quirky and sometimes questionable first names of some of your colleagues to the outrageous prices of some staple grocery items in Hong Kong, Tim Pile gives an amusing summary of all the emotions returning home incites. Whether you consider yourself a seasoned expat or you’ve just barely arrived, you will be sure to relate to this article.