I am leaving for China this Wednesday to be with Jeff then fly to France (and then, Germany) on Saturday for our long-overdue honeymoon.
After this trip, we will be moving to China to join Jeff, who for more than a year has been waiting for this great move. (We will move most probably March as we are still waiting for the twins’ US passports.)
Since last year, I have been going through my things – clothes, DVDs, books, accessories – wondering how on earth could I fit the ones I truly treasure in three suitcases.
The accessories department – earrings, necklaces, bracelets, belts, etc. – was the easiest one. Four months ago, I bought several pairs of earrings, which I then transported to our home in Guangzhou, China in one of my trips.
What was (and still is) very hard to sort out is the content of my mini-library. I am talking books. Yes, books.
Truth be told, I do not have issues about clothes. But books? Gee, I have several concerns.
I know, I know. My problem is not HUGE compared to the woman in the streets who is trying to find ways for her children to eat. But give me a break! I’m leaving my city and my country to live in another city and country. I will be visiting of course but God knows, when I will be back in this Pearl of the Orient Seas…for good.
So back to my books.
I do not have a lot.
Perhaps I have between 500 to 600 here in my apartment. The others are in my parents’ house in Leyte. The others somewhere in Manila. I have a wide collection – the classics, the modern titles, the Filipino storybooks, the foreign storybooks, the books in Chinese language, the books on French and Spanish, fiction and non-fiction books about China, travel books, how-to guidebooks, read-along books, self-help books, etc., etc., etc…
Eight hours ago, I packed some books and it filled two out of three suitcases. That can’t happen, I still need to pack my winter clothes. I know it was time to reevualuate so I made a list…
(1) I should only bring books, which I am sure I will never find in China. Uhm, fat chance. 85% of the books MAY NOT be found in Guangzhou. But then again, Hong Kong is only two hours away. But am I willing to spend HK dollars?! If I bring most of them, I will pay sooo much in excess luggage.
(2) If I leave most of the books here in Cebu, I can move them to my little house in Liloan town. I am sorry. I cannot donate these to the library. I am selfish with my books. I rather see them in my shelves. So no, no library donation. I am thinking of handing over my storybooks to my beloved Basadours to grow the group’s library of storybooks. But then, I can also leave them with my brother Hendrix, also a Basadour. Hendrix can also serve as the steward of my books. Or he can be co-steward with my Mom. Hmmm…
(3) What to do with the picture books?! I have a loooot! And it occupies three shelves. I already packed five of them inside one suitcase. Quite heavy but those are the five I cannot live without. I will give these picture books to my nephew, Timothy. He is three years old and I am pretty sure he will enjoy them.
(4) For this trip, I did not pack any books on the classics. Well, I am bringing copies of my forever favorite, To Kill A Mockingbird and my favorite author Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement. That’s about it. For now, I left Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye along with titles from F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Shakespears, Louisa May Alcott, George Orwell, William Golding and Mark Twain. I don’t know if I will be able to bring them in March. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the main cause of my agony. China isn’t exactly the best place to find these books. Ask me later why I said so.
(5) What if I have them shipped to China? Answer is… NO! It’s not that I don’t trust freight companies. I have tried them in 2010 when I lived and studied in Shanghai but… I won’t be living in China forever. I am emotional and I will miss not seeing shelves full of books (Jeff has comic books and some magazines in the family study in the Guangzhou house) but I also need to protect my priceless possessions. Protecting them means having them away from me.
I am just about done with packing and I am quite pleased with the result. My mini-library looks like Typhoon Haiyan caused a storm surge in this part of the house. No, I am not posting any pictures because they are too embarrassing.
If you have any suggestions on how I can better protect my books, please feel free to drop me a message.
