Thinking about heading back to China

[SimonM]

So I'm thinking of going back to China already. Still love Toronto, but I miss the good old PRC.

Anybody over there right now, especially in the Beijing area?

[Scott R. Brown]

So I'm thinking of going back to China already. Still love Toronto, but I miss the good old PRC.

Anybody over there right now, especially in the Beijing area?

Does your wife miss home?

I know my wife goes through periods where she insists she is moving back home to the Philippines.

[SimonM]

Actually she says she's cool wherever we are as long as we can develop the financial flexibility to travel.

She isn't opposing a move back to China but she's not driving it either. This is just my predisposition to a nomadic lifestyle rearing its ugly head once more. It usually starts about 2 years after I arrive somewhere and ramps up for a year or so before I jump on a bus / plane and GO.

[sanjuro_ronin]

I haven't been back to Portugal since 2001.
:(
There are days that I really miss it.

[SimonM]

Yeah, the "I miss China" itch is biting down really hard right now.

[Jimbo]

I lived in Taiwan from early/mid-'80s until '93. I had some good times there (and some tough ones, too), but I haven't been back out of this country since. It's weird, but I often have dreams that I'm somehow back there. I miss some of those times, but also know that things have changed there in the past 20 years, and it wouldn't be the same. There's an old saying to the effect of, "You can't go back home."

[sanjuro_ronin]

I lived in Taiwan from early/mid-'80s until '93. I had some good times there (and some tough ones, too), but I haven't been back out of this country since. It's weird, but I often have dreams that I'm somehow back there. I miss some of those times, but also know that things have changed there in the past 20 years, and it wouldn't be the same. There's an old saying to the effect of, "You can't go back home."

I great point.
My wife always asks me if I would go back and I tell her that I miss what WAS, not what IS.
I know that my time in Portugal ( or anywhere else I spent) is what I miss, THAT time.
That said, I do miss going on vacation to the home country and I am hoping that 2013 will allow me to take my kids to meet their great-grandparents.

[SimonM]

, "You can't go back home."

That's part of it.

I love Toronto, don't get me wrong.
I love the culture and it's great being close to my friends and family. But Canada's just never been the same since I got back compared to how it was. And there's the economy thing. I've got a skill set that makes me employable in both countries. I've got a job, and it's fulfilling, but the pay isn't great. And I look at my classmates from my most recent trip back to school and all of them have a degree and a post-graduate certification and I'm one of the lucky few with my fulfilling but low-paying job.

I can't help but think - when I was in China I was flush with cash and, yeah, maybe it was RMB, but I'd rather have a pocket full of RMB than a pocket empty of CAD.

[Scott R. Brown]

Not to mention it is just plain cool to live in another culture.

BTW: Any plans for kids? :)

My wife just got pregnant with our second child (6 weeks). Its my fourth though. I have two boys, 21 & 16 from my first wife. It is kind of weird for me because I know it is most likely my last child. I am 53 and my wife will be 40 when this one is born.

I look forward to hearing when you two finally have some children. Unless you already have and I missed the announcement!

Also if/when you go back I will be looking forward to hearing more of your adventures.

I actually refer to travel as adventuring. I miss those days!:(

[SimonM]

We do want kids, but that's proving challenging. Part of that is because we both have to work right now.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Kids change everything dude and rightly so.
They do NOT ask to come into this world, we bring them in kicking and screaming, literally.
The least we can do is prioritize them above ourselves.
Whatever "itch" you have, get rid of it before you have kids.

[David Jamieson]

Canada is my home.
I understand the wanderlust though.
Home is where your heart is. If you are where your heart isn't, you are in the wrong place.

[SimonM]

Any children we have will, by necessity, be carefully planned. So, yeah, we're keeping that in mind.

And my heart is a bit nomadic. It wanders around looking at new and exciting vistas and says "neat". So home is a fluid concept for me.

[Scott R. Brown]

Whatever "itch" you have, get rid of it before you have kids.

"The itch" is what causes children to occur? :eek:

[sanjuro_ronin]

Canada is my home.
I understand the wanderlust though.
Home is where your heart is. If you are where your heart isn't, you are in the wrong place.

Yep.
I wasn't born here and I miss the homeland a lot BUT I CHOSE Canada and chose to BE Canadian.
I don't know if people that are born in a country understand the huge significance of that...
I love Canada and I have been around the world and while Portugal will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart, I AM CANADIAN :D

[Scott R. Brown]

Yep.
I wasn't born here and I miss the homeland a lot BUT I CHOSE Canada and chose to BE Canadian.
I don't know if people that are born in a country understand the huge significance of that...
I love Canada and I have been around the world and while Portugal will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart, I AM CANADIAN :D

No, no, no! You got it all wrong......you are Portuguese-Canadian!

[David Jamieson]

The new way we say it up here is:

I'm a Canadian. Of Scots/Welsh heritage.

"Canadian" comes first.

I had an interesting encounter the other day. I'm at the Tim's drive through and teh girl who gives me my coffee has a name tag that says "jingle"

I say "hey! Jingle, that's a cool name!".

She says: "Yes, back home many people have this name"

I said "You're not Canadian then?"

She said: "Yes, of course I am!"

I laughed, but it will change as time passes. People forget what decisions they have made and what those decisions will change and what that means.

Newcomer refugees, I feel for. they aren't home and have to sit far away and watch crap go down in their homelands. But people who chose to come and live and make money who refuse to call it or make it home?

I find that weird.

[sanjuro_ronin]

No, no, no! You got it all wrong......you are Portuguese-Canadian!

If I choose to put my ethnic background before my CHOSEN citizenship, perhaps.
But I don't choose to do so.
Fact is that I am more Canadian than Portuguese now, I cam over here when I was 18 and I am now 43.
I will always be Lusitanian in blood, yes, but I am Canuck in everything other than my dislike for hockey and the snow.
:mad:

[Lucas]

I will always be Lusitanian in blood, yes, but I am Canuck in everything other than my dislike for hockey and the snow.
:mad:

Careful, I hear you get deported if the authorities here of that kind of behavior.

[TAO YIN]

We took our little one over to China last year to see his grandparents for three months. It was great. I didn't know until going back how much I missed it. Didn't feel as welcome as pre Olympics, but still had a great time.

Being a gypsy is great anyways, and most kids have fun no matter the place.

[SimonM]

One month later and the itch is still there. I've had "we gotta get out of this place" running through my head all week - which is always a bad sign. (It's never good when you find yourself humming the Animals.)

I'm not sure how easy it's going to be to get a marketing job while in Canada though. A lot of the guys on the linkedin boards I've been haunting are already China-side and my "can move as soon s I get a visa" status might be a barrier.

Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?