Should I Stay or Should I Go

1 day = Normal
2 days = Still pretty normal
3 days =Sadly yes, still normal
4 days = Starting to wear on me
5 days= Really?


...After 2 weeks of no sun and constant Unhealthy-Hazardous level air you feel like shit. No way to sugar coat it. You feel physically weak and mentally exhausted. At first you just ask yourself "Why do I live hear by choice again?" and then as you feel out the situation, you begin to ask your spouse. As a couple you are right on the edge of depressed and finding it harder and harder to get out of bed. Singapore is starting to sound really nice and New Zealand doesn't even seem real. On husbands day off this week he worked on his resume and is going to prefect it this weekend. My husband looked at me over dinner and told me he loved me too much not to try to at least look for jobs elsewhere. He says this because I am a weakling and I wear my emotions clearly on my face. After two weeks I felt worn out and mentally beaten down. Looks like our time in China will be more like 1.5 years and less like 3. 


And then you wake up to the sun on your face and all is right in the world. It starts to get warmer outside and you feel a little more able to handle what comes at you. I wouldn't say no if hubs decided we were moving tomorrow but I don't feel quite so desperate. The hard truth of it is that financially we are doing well here. Sending more and more back every month and that is before my substantial raise next month (yay!) so as much as neither one of us loves it here, it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to leave yet. We are constantly going back and forth though...stay or go...stay or go. 


I know there are other expats out there that go through the exact same feeling and it really takes it tole. 


I strategize where it would make the most since to move next and this is what I am face with:


Singapore: I could keep my job BUT the cost of living is ungodly so basically my salary would cover rent


New Zealand: Will and I would both be looking for new jobs BUT the cost of living is better and we could potentially put down roots there...buy a house, buy cars and have babies 


Anyway, add new health issues to that in the form of a massive hormone imbalance and this household needs some sun. Spring...please hurry. 

Next stop

Hi again, after yet another long break...I know. Over the last few week, with the exception of this past weekend, my life has been not so interesting. Monday through Friday I wake up at 7:15am, leave to catch a cab by 7:45am and am back home by 7pm. Then I cook dinner, work on school and watch some TV with hubs...then I go to sleep and repeat. Then comes the weekend when we relax after the long week by hanging out at home, going out to a meal or two and meeting up with friends. Not super interesting.

Will at 798

This weekend on the other hand was great. We made two new sets of friends. One was a girl, Liis from Estonia and her bf Oliver, I met via the Beijing Expat Facebook page and the other was a woman, Linda, who I met on the subway. Friday night, Will and I went out with Liis and her bf and had a great time. We met up at 798, the local art district, for dinner and drinks and then headed back to our apartment for more drinks before we headed out to a club called Juicy. We had the best time (which had a lot to do with the open bar after the $7.5 cover charge for me and $15 cover charge for Will), chatting about all sorts of things including where we might move next. Singapore is what we have been thinking, and it is probably our best and most attainable next stop. Singapore is beautiful and clean and modern and a great place to be in Asia-Pac. But Liis suggested Luxembourg...yes that Luxembourg that has the world's highest GDP per capita of anywhere on earth. Of course the next day I had to Google the hell out of Luxembourg and it looks amazing. Small, clean and beautiful. All that being said, I'm sure we are not the only people who think so and thus I'm sure getting a job there being from outside of the EU is pretty difficult. Nice to dream about though. Have you been to Luxembourg? If so, what did you think?

Singapore

Luxembourg

Luxembourg again...it is so pretty

Then Sunday we went out to lunch with Linda, her daughter Malaya and her husband who just happens to be a 6 foot 11 basketball player who is currently playing for the CBA. They have lived all over the place from the US, where they are both from, to Belgium, Austria, Romania (where their daughter was born), to Tunisia and now Beijing. Two days and now two new great couples to hang out with. I have time to write this on a Monday because I had a high fever last night and decided to take it easy today by staying home. Happy Monday!