Trials and Joys of Living in a Foreign Land

I absolutely love living in China. Honestly back in 2007 when I was first deciding whether or not to return after a 6 year absence, I was pretty set on staying in New York. All my friends seemed to be sure I was definitely coming back. After fighting wanting to stay in my comfort zone, hip-happening NY life, I resigned to listening to Abba and packed my bags thinking I'd be in China for 1 year to help set up the program and then back to NY. Now it is nearly 3 years later, and I am still here in "Green Island" on the Yellow Sea with one more year on my contract, and looking to extend it to 2012. People back "home" in the States are wondering if I'll ever come back.

Now while I say I love it...there are certain events and issues that keep me from being perfectly happy to settle down.

Top of my list this week is finances, closely related to long-distance communication. The two go hand-in-hand. Just recently, I discovered my loan status had changed, but because I am in China I never received the notification, having been locked out of the online system, resulting in overdue fees and a threat to be turned over to a collection agency not to mention my credit being shot. Of course if I were rich, I wouldn't have to worry about any of this and life would be a dream. Someday my ship will come in.

Next comes the communication issue. Naturally every day I live and breathe cross-cultural communication. While this can be exciting, stimulating and a great challenging puzzle to solve, at times I want to just hear my own native language and hang out with people who get me and there is no misunderstanding. I will say the role I have has given me excellent fodder for my thesis and various papers. Everyday I learn something new about the culture I have been graced to live in.

As summer is approaching and the weather is warming up - I will have to add the disgusting smells of garbage and mysterious odors that waft up through the sewers.

Ok, enough negativity. Now for 10 random cool things that make me love living here.

1) A sweet staff of foreign and nationals.


2) Awesome international fellowship on Sundays and ladies study Thursday nights

3) Community dinners on Wednesday

4) Ocean views out my 5th floor apartment

5) Free Chinese food - 3 meals a day if I do desire

6) "Mountain" out my back door to climb

7) Cherry Blossom Festival

8) Students that make me laugh and are a blessing with zero behavior issues.


9)Bubble Tea and BBQ meat

10)learning the language