Where to even begin…

It’s been almost a year since I’ve written anything….probably because I’ve been grappling with the nightmare that is COVID-19 for about as much time. Having just stepped out of Turkey, which – although a lovely place- was in the grips of economic downturn and political turmoil, we had hoped China would be an era of stability for us. Turns out we were really, really wrong.

Four months in, at the peak of culture shock and just before a much-anticipated Chinese New Year break, the news of a deadly epidemic was spreading like wildfire. Reluctantly, we went on our scheduled vacation to Japan…just days before we were to return, our school and the American embassy sent out a warning not to come back. What was supposed to be two weeks turned into to three months of e-learning, running out one visa and then another (we stayed in Thailand for about a month and a half and in Cambodia for a month). We were dealing with a school that was giving as little information as possible; one day, they would say “don’t come back to China” and the next they would say “buy a ticket and come back now!” When we did eventually go back, we endured a horrific quarantine, replete with anti-foreigner sentiment, being separated from my husband without being informed in advance, and not being fed or given water consistently for the first several days. The whole experience ruined China for me, frankly, which has been hard to deal with after falling in love with being an expat in Turkey.

To add insult to injury, just two weeks after we finally made it back home to Chongqing, my husband and I were laid off for the following school year, along with several other staff members due to declining enrollment.

I didn’t love the school or Chongqing, but it still felt like a punch to the gut. We really only had two choices: take another job in China, or go back to the U.S. to figure things out and be with our families. In the end, we chose the latter. Neither of us could really take much more of China or its schools.

And now here we are in America…which really can’t seem to get its shit together in this pandemic. We had initially toyed with the idea of teaching here, but seeing how political schools have become in all this -using teachers and students as sacrificial lambs for the economy- we just decided to take a year off and live off of our savings. It isn’t ideal, but we are lucky to have that option.

We’ve been back home in Kansas for about four months now, and it’s been pretty boring for the most part. But boring hasn’t been all bad after over a year of frequent turmoil.

All I can hope is that next year will be better.

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2019

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

 

November

December

2019 has been a strange year.  A year of change, transition, ups, and downs.  A year I’m ready to let go, but a year to remember nonetheless.  I am hoping 2020 is a little more settled, a little more cheerful, but no less adventurous.  Happy New Year.

What A Long, Strange Winter It’s Been…

Hello, World.

I feel like I’ve shut you out for a while.

These last few months have been dark, cold, and difficult for a number of reasons and I haven’t been in the right headspace to say much.

I still don’t feel at home in China just yet and culture shock has been a daily reality.  The new job has proven itself to be quite stressful and time-consuming.  The pollution has been worse since the seasons changed.  The sun rarely shines here in winter.  You get the drift.

I’m holding out hope for the best, but I know the only thing that will help this season pass is time and patience.

That’s not to say it’s been all bad.  I am in a very cool Dungeons and Dragons campaign here, I’m sticking with my yoga class, and I got to see Disney on Ice (albeit in Chinese).  I’ve hired a tutor and am taking private lessons, though I can’t say I’ve fallen in love with the language just yet.

This is all just to say I’m still alive and weathering the storm.

Hongyadong

Hongyadong, or Hongya cave, is an architectural oddity and key landmark of Chongqing.  Though it is a modern building, it has been built to resemble traditional Chinese market halls.  Each floor boasts a series of winding, narrow walkways filled with shops, restaurants, and stalls selling everything from carved wooden Buddhas to Dairy Queen Blizzards.

As an aside, there is a rumor that Hongyadong inspired the bathhouse featured in Spirited Away.  I don’t think I buy it, but I do see the resemblance, which only made it feel more magical to walk through.

As you move to the upper floors, you can take in excellent views of the Chongqing Bridge as well as the meeting point of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers.  It was lovely enough by day, but the view becomes even more spectacular at night, when the whole city lights up.

While we enjoyed the luminescent skyline, we decided to try the local specialty – hot pot.  Hot pot is a sort of spicy fondue, except instead of cheese, everything is cooked in hot chili oil.  It was pretty tasty (great with a cold beer!), but definitely not a quick meal, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re hangry.

After dinner, we walked along the bridge to get a view of Hongyadong from the river.  This was easily the highlight of our visit.  I’ll let the photos do the talking here.

It is a nice change of pace to be living in a city with so much to do and see.  I’m looking forward to more local adventures.

Nihao, Chongqing.

We’ve officially been in China for two weeks and my head is definitely still spinning.

In a nutshell…the city is huge, the food is spicy, the weather is very hot, I am still processing a lot of information from our orientation, I start teaching next week, I also start my own classes next week, I optimistically joined a gym…and…that’s it so far.

Though we have been spending most of our time working, settling in, and trying to prepare for classes, we have tried to get out and explore this gigantic city a bit.  We walked through the Expo Gardens (didn’t even scratch the surface on that place) for a bit of exercise one afternoon and we recently took a taxi into the city center to get a feel for some of the main squares.

I am very happy to report that I LOVE our new apartment and there is plenty to do in our neighborhood, including a fabulous gym and a great local cafe that sells good coffee and craft beers.  It’s only a five minute walk to grab groceries, which is LIFE-CHANGING after living in the middle of nowhere in Turkey.

It is still taking some time to get used to everything being unfamiliar again.  The language, culture, and landscape are all still alien to me, so I am looking forward to getting to know it all better.

Here’s to a new adventure.

 

Another American Summer

Kansas sunsets really are the prettiest.

Greetings from China!

Yes, we are here and settling in, but before I talk about that, I feel compelled to talk about our hectic, brief summer in the U.S.

We knew this summer would be unpredictable.  International moves always are.  I’ve learned by now that the visa process is usually one big question mark until it isn’t.  It makes it difficult to plan much because everything has to revolve around the visa timeline and (of course!) you can’t make appointments.

Amidst the chaos of moving from Turkey to the U.S. and then packing again for China, 5 weeks of rapid couchsurfing around Kansas, and going to Chicago for our visas, we did manage to enjoy ourselves a bit.

Indulge me as I go through the highlight reel:

Hanging out with my grandma’s adorable cats!

Eating my grandma’s peanut butter pie!

Enjoying a beautiful Chicago summer with my partner in crime while we waited for our visas to be processed

Trying aerial yoga for the first time (loved it!)

 

Childhood treats

Reminiscing

Drinking wine in the Flint Hills

Drinking more wine…this time from the wine box we sealed at our wedding.  As it was our 5th wedding anniversary, we got to open this bottle and replace it with another (to be opened on our 10th.)

Saying goodbye (for now) to the U.S. and hello (or nihao, rather) to a new adventure.

 

So there you have it.  A very brief recap of an all-too-brief summer.  More to come on China soon!

Görüşürüz, Türkiye.

As I type this, I am sitting in my grandmother’s air conditioned house on a hot Kansas afternoon, trying to find the right words.  To be honest, I still haven’t processed it all yet.  Leaving Turkey felt like stepping through a portal from one universe to another.  There is a piece of me that still thinks it will all be there waiting for me exactly as I left it, even though my head knows I won’t be going back for quite some time.

I didn’t sleep the night before I left.  The day was filled with tearful goodbyes to students, colleagues, and dear friends, followed by an epic Turkish party at night.  We were packing until the very last second.  I wouldn’t have left any other way.

I am so tremendously thankful for the memories, the people, and the life-changing experiences.

Her şey için teşekkürler, Türkiye.  Sizi özleyeceğim.

Where We’ve Been

As we near the end of this first expat journey, I want to recap all the places we have been so far so we can look back on this moment for years to come.  When we started down this path over four years ago, we did so with the goal of visiting 30 countries before we turned 30 – a goal that we exceeded with 3 years to spare.  Some of these places we have visited more than once, but I will only list the year of the first visit.  Here is where we’ve been so far:

1. USA – 1991
2. France – 2009
3. Spain – 2009
4. Paraguay – 2013 (Sadly, no photos)
5. Iceland – 2014
6. Turkey – 2015
7. The Netherlands – 2015
8. Hungary – 2016
9. Slovakia – 2016
10. Czechia – 2016
11. Austria  – 2016 (Bad experience. Didn’t keep the photos)
12. Greece – 2016
13. Sweden – 2016
14. Bosnia & Herzegovina – 2016
15. Italy – 2016
16. Norway – 2016
17. Scotland – 2016
18. Georgia – 2016
19. The Maldives – 2017
20. Sri Lanka – 2017
21. Switzerland – 2017
22. Slovenia – 2017
23. Albania – 2017
24. Belgium – 2017
25. Israel – 2018
26. Jordan – 2018
27. N. Cyprus – 2018
28. Germany – 2018
29. Kosovo – 2018
30. England – 2018
31. Ukraine – 2018
32. Egypt – 2018

33. Denmark – 2019

I’m anxious to see where life takes us on our next adventure.

Reflections

Super duper jet-lagged baby expats!

Here I am, down to less than a month in this place that has been my home for four years.  Four years goes by fast.

4 years later, learning to blend in

I have already started packing and downsizing.  My upstairs neighbors (a.k.a the dorm girls) gleefully took several bags of clothes off of my hands.  I am done planning lessons for the year.  My exams are printed and ready.  Not much is left to do here but prepare to say goodbye.

I know I haven’t written much this year.  I haven’t felt very inspired. The last year and a half or so in Turkey has been a little rough – ever since the economic downturn and resultant chaos at our school took its toll.  We are leaving a little burnt out, but I don’t want what has happened at the end to tarnish four years of amazing memories.

I’ve been taking all the photos off of our computers and hard drives and organizing them to prepare for the next big move.  Looking through them, I can see how much we have grown.  We haven’t aged much (we both look young for our age), but there is a difference in our eyes.  I came here as a fresh new teacher, naive and ready for adventure; I am leaving this place a wiser, savvier, stronger, braver, more worldly and more confident person than I ever believed I could be when I first stepped off of that plane.

When I really reflect, all I can feel is gratitude.  I am ten times the teacher I was when I first came thanks to the experiences I had here.  I know I can step into my next position with confidence.  I got to work with incredible students that I love dearly and will keep in touch with for years to come.  I made amazing friends – who are really more like family at this point- without whom I never would have survived as an expat.   I learned how to operate with a new set of rules in a new culture and learned a new language to boot.  I traveled to over 30 countries on three different continents with the love of my life.

Yes, I am happy to be leaving.  I am ready to move on.  But I will always be grateful we said yes to Turkey, even when many people thought we were crazy.  I could not have asked for a more beautiful country, full of countless treasures and wonders, with amazing food, and more importantly, amazing people to begin this journey I have always dreamed of.

These last few weeks are going to be emotional, if you couldn’t tell.

 

I Will Miss You

As of today, I have approximately 55 days left in Turkey.  Holy crap.

The countdown is starting to feel real.  Like, really real.  As excited as I am to start a new life in China, leaving Turkey is going to leave a bit of a simit-shaped hole in my heart.  I have made so many wonderful friends here who have really become like my family and have been by my side through everything from economic crisis and culture shock to Turkish miracles and breathtaking travel moments.  Saying goodbye won’t be easy.

I have been a bit of a hermit this year.  Our trips have been a little lackluster compared to previous years and more than that, I think we have just gotten a little tired.  Living on a little rock by the sea in the middle of nowhere can make you feel a little burnt out and lethargic after four years, I suppose.  I’ve been venturing into Istanbul less and less, but one of my dearest friends managed to pull me out of my cave this weekend.

I couldn’t restrain myself from taking a bite before taking a picture.

First up was a delicious Mexican dinner, which is a big deal in Turkey because it is hard to find Mexican food here – especially good Mexican food.  These enchiladas were the real deal.

This was her first time trying margaritas.  She approved.

The next day, we ventured all the way out to Beykoz to go to a super hipster BYOB old shoe factory-turned-movie-theatre that plays cool old films and cult classics.  To get there, you have to take a special golf cart with security because the road is lined with active movie sets for Turkish series and films.

Here is the oh-so-comfy movie theatre.  Not pictured: mulled wine in a coffee cup.  We watched Tokyo Godfathers, which was amazing.

After our movie and some lunch, we headed over to Beşiktaş to see Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon exhibit, as well as a few other pieces at the Ferriye museum.

I really liked this CGI interpretation of the Last Supper

The sunset over Ortaköy was otherworldly.

The next morning, after brunch, my friend convinced me that it would be awesome if we both got our ears pierced on a whim.  So that happened.

As I hopped on the bus to head back to my rock by the sea, the thought that kept running through my head was I’ll miss you.  Istanbul, my friends, the seaside, my village home, all of it.