All packed up but no-where to go

I leave tomorrow for a trip - not a holiday as such, but because I have to get out of my house while they do some work on it. I have been packing everything up for a month, and wish that all the time and effort was contributing to a trip overseas or something. But, alas, I am going to a backward little town in NSW instead.
Well...it's not really that little I suppose. Quite a few thousand people live in the area. But the attitude of many of the people there make it seem 'small'. It has many racial issues between whites and Aborigines, very little cultural diversity - or any other kind of diversity for that matter!
'
Diversity' there is represented by few Chinese restaurants with the typical 'Honey King Prawn' or 'Beef in Black Bean sauce' type of dishes. Yum Cha? Chicken's feet? Hell no! I dont know of an Indian restaurant within 50 kms, but there is 'the' Lebanese family who own the deli and a couple of other shops that have been in the family for decades. Multiculturalism at its best. Oh, there IS a Vietnamese woman working at one of the restaurants, but of course she is known as "Chinese", because apparently that is what 'Asian' people are.

As for the racial tension between the indigenous folk and the white folk, that is through the roof. It's kind of like something bubbling under the surface, ready to explode at the right moment. Very sad that it's come to that - for everyone.

To be honest, I hate the place. I get mixed feelings as I am driving into it - firstly a deflated feeling - like the disappointment of arriving at your final destination to find it's not what you had hoped for - a feeling I never fail to experience, but still seem to be surprised by it.
Secondly, a feeling of coming home to people I love, because that is why I go there. You see, I grew up there and those who are dear to me still live there. It's a very strange combination of feelings, and I experience them all in the split second it takes to drive past the "Welcome to..." sign.

A sign of love and hate.