Today, my boss Will offered me really good terms to work in Yantai next year. (I’d get a lot of nice things, and none of that pesky responsibility junk) I really like my job, I like my students, and I make a decent salary. The solitude and the crazy adventures of expat life make a really good combination for a writer.
But I’m really sick of being treated like a celebrity with communicable leprosy. I’m constantly frustrated by my attempts at Mandarin. And, you might not have noticed, but I really hate the food here.
And, if I go home, I can be with Stick. I miss being a girlfriend even more than I miss cheese. More than movie theaters, rye bread, the quizzes in Cosmo, personal space and everything else on my list of things to fully appreciate when I go back home. But I don’t have a job, and when I go back to Western Mass, I won’t be an awesome China expat, just another new grad with little-to-no marketable skills.
I have to look at this like I’ve got a great boyfriend and a great job, and not as a choice between being lonely and being unsuccessful.
And you have friends that miss you… even if some of them did move away while you were gone.
The fact that youve been teaching english in China for close to a year is truely a marketable skill. It says youre willing to take risks, you think outside the box, and can be dedicated to a job.
yeah, but then what about the blog? You should stay for that reason alone.
You might be able to find some kind of teaching gig, given your year in China.
It’s 2010 and I’m still torn between where I want to be personally and professionally.