Making a Move Back To China in 2020
Planning 2020 and upon arrival to Chiang Mai after the trip to Taipei and Bangkok, the wife and kids pick me up at the airport. Load up my luggage in the trunk and hop in the passenger side. Wife leans in and kisses me, says she loves me, and gets teary eyed.
She mentions her mom was in the hospital for 5 days (overnight) and no one told her until after she was released from the hospital.
Jeez, her dad just got out of the hospital for heart surgery, and her grandmother just passed away last month.
I stay mostly silent, saying seems everyone’s getting sick (also some health issues mentioned from her aunts and uncles) and trying to understand what is the next.
As we are driving, she says she plans to go back to China with the kids after this fall semester so she can look after her mom and dad. The kids can also learn more Chinese as they are not familiar with reading and writing (takes a lot more than spoken Chinese).
She thinks it is good for me, for us. That the house lease has been on month to month since the summer, and we can transfer schools after the summer in August 2020. I can go with them to China, or I can work somewhere else.
I mention how the internet simply doesn’t work in her hometown of Shenyang (Northeast China, aka Dong Bei) and it will be a freezing cold winter.
More silence, thinking.
Entering the immigration building (24 hour rule to bring your passport to Thai immigration center on the type of visa I’m on). Get the rubber stamp and go back to the car. How fast things can change from landing in Chiang Mai to this.
So yea, that is it. After the kid’s school Christmas party Dec 18 we are flying to Shenyang, China. Spending Christmas in the ice cold north China with the family there. Will get the kids into a kindergarten for the Spring, and plan to come back to Chiang Mai in the summer.
Life is so unpredictable.
My plan, I cannot live in north China for a half year full time. I am still assessing everything, but probably will take a break from Chiang Mai anyway as the 9999 burning season is coming soon as well.
For now, my wife is listing all our items on Facebook buy/sell groups and people are already coming to pickup sofas, chairs, kitchen appliances. It is insane.