Friday, January 11, 2008 ;
6:25 AM
This post is a deviation from the norm.
Feeling very sian right now.
Ok, dh is going to graduate soon, and he had 3 job offers.
1. Work in New York, with the Violin Society of America. But it is admin in nature.
2. Work in California or Maryland, with Eastman Strings. Slightly more related to what he loves.
3. Work in Tianjin, China, with a bowmaking company, trying to set up and run a factory there.
Well, guess which one he chose?
Ok, so we're to move to China. It's another big move. Totally different from Spore too, and totally different from USA.
Pros:
1. Provided by company: relocation fees, airfares, apartment rental, kids' international school fees, incentive programme, health and medical costs, car, cell phone.
2. Tianjin is much nearer to Spore, easier to return for visits.
3. Food, I don't know. Heard it is not the same as Spore, so maybe I'll still miss Spore food. But ok, at least it is much cheaper. Things are much cheaper.
4. The kids, and myself included, will improve our grasp of the CHinese language much better.
5. Dh feels this is good for his career plans.
Cons:
1. No Sunday school for kids. I will have to teach them myself. No structured church prog although we found some Christians there to worship together with already, in own homes.
2. Traffic problems, heard it is difficult for me to drive around with kids, by ourselves.
3. Pollution. Tianjin is an industrial city, and the skies are mostly grey all year-round.
4. Will lose the ties and bonds built up the past year, again. Don't like moving around all the time. Will again feel the loneliness and unfamiliarity for couple of months, all over again.
5. Kids like it here very much. But perhaps they will adapt very quickly to new environment over there.
Ok it looks equal right?
That was what we did during our discussion when dh was proposing that he accept this job offer. I was kind of reluctant. I like California and Maryland. And even if we don't take up any of the 3 offers, I'd like to go home. But later on, as this grew on me, I got excited too, and looked forward to the move.
Why? The lure of the Olympics 2008, the apartments we viewed online (all very nice, and much bigger than the one we live in right now), the schools, the prospect of returning home for visits and for family and friends to visit us... And the prospect of being able to travel to Taiwan, HK, Korea and Japan during hols, since they're quite near.
So why am I so sian now?
It has been almost a week already (6 days) that dh is in China. He was supposed to be looking at apartments, schools and the factory. He did (and he said there is one apartment that is really very nice), but turned out it is not that easy doing business there.
They've been having meeting after meeting with factory and business owner there. Haven't yet come to an agreement.
Dh is supposed to return tmr, and the kids and I had been counting down to that. Now he calls and says the trip is extended, cos the meetings have not produced any results yet. More things have to be settled... and so on.
Arrrggh... Besides being starved of adult conversation and company at night, these few days have been tough because of the heavy snowfall. On Wed, it snowed the whole day till Bible class at night was cancelled.
I shovelled snow outside the house till my arms are going to break. I don't have a machine, just a metal snow shovel. The almost knee-deep blanket of snow coupled with the ineffective shovel made my progress slow. It was back breaking, and it took so long just to clear the driveway for the car to get out. Never realised the driveway is soooo long till now. I actually gave up halfway, went in to cook lunch for kids then had to continue shovelling in the afternoon. And I only did 2 tracks for the tires of the car, not even shovel the whole car width of snow. If you know what I mean.
Anyway, all the normal chores that dh did, I had to take over. The garbage bin is soo huge and heavy too, and dragging it over the snow was so tedious. I didn't bother with a lot of other stuff already.
Very thankful for many people who rallied around to help. The Hoovers shovelled snow for me on Sat. The Daniels shovelled for me on Sun. They also offered their help whenever I needed something. The Hoods left their cell phone numbers so I could call them if there was an emergency. The Kaisers went grocery shopping and remembered to call me to ask if I needed anything, so I asked for bananas, cos the kids pine for bananas (like Curious George). They didn't want me to pay them too. Ron White shovelled my WHOLE driveway, and walkway to the door today.
So it was only on Wed that it was most difficult, since I had to rush out to post office to get something mailed to Dh urgently. And everyone else was snowed in, so I had to do all the shovelling myself.
I thought the worst is over, but then now dh is going to be away even longer... Sigh.
On Tues I brought ds1 for school and drums, so I had some conversation with some adults. But that was it. Since Bible class on Wed was cancelled, I had enough of these long dreary days.
Well, of course I am not going to sit around and moan... So I skyped people, and good thing Mary was free to chat for sometime, my mom, and then tmr I scheduled Bible study with Karen next door. Sat is still blank though. Sun would be busy the whole day at church, so it's fine too.
Now I just have to hope and pray that the talks and discussions in China will quickly reach some confirmed status, then dh can quickly come back (earliest he said was Sun afternoon), and we'll also know for sure when we are moving. If not, the date is hanging in the air all the time, March or April?? Can't make any plans when the date is not fixed...
Vented enough I guess... Feeling much better already. :-)
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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