I'm slowly, but surely, coming to the realization that endless fun travel is not in the cards for us this first year or so abroad. It's tough not to keep up with all of my colleagues travels abroad. True, many of them are young and single and pretty much debt free, but even the older cohort (which I may be part of?) is still getting out and about. When you hear of people running off to Malaysia (truly Asia?), Burma, Cambodia, or London (ah, London) it's tough not to feel a bit jealous and/or the need to keep up. Of course, I say this having just a few months ago run off for a last-minute beach week in Thailand. So feel free to have no pity on me/us.
It does sting a bit to see pictures of friends/colleagues celebrating Thanksgiving weekend together, especially ones whom we might have joined but were either encouraged not to (not enough room in the inn) or simply chose not to. Life is different now with a family I guess - although not as much as you might think. There is a general need amongst FSO's to spend Turkey day together, relaxing and having fun. Or maybe it's an excuse to visit each other. Either way, I'm calling it the FSO Turkey Day Shuffle and I'm more than a bit jealous seeing Facebook pics of friends celebrating together around the world.
Work of late is starting to kick me in the arse, and I'm not sure I'm keeping up as much as I had previously. I'm still enjoying the job and working my tail off, but the list of things I need to do just seems to get longer and longer. Tonight I brought home a speech to write for one of my bosses. I'm also drafting my first cable. In a few years time I may not blink at such exercises, but as a newbie I want to do a good job. So between extensive programming, greater workloads, new tasks - work is giving me all I can handle right now. Of course, I'm choosing to write a blog post instead of draft either of my "homework assignments" so those of you who've known me since college will note that nothing about me has changed in this respect. Maybe that's part of my problem? In my defense, I've already reviewed my homework and spent 45 minutes studying Bulgarian.
On the flip side, I think RR is getting better and better at her job - even if she still feels a bit overwhelmed. I'm quite proud of her and the job she's doing. She's not one to toot her own horn or rush out to try and make someone take notice of her, but she a true professional in that she does her best at everything she tries and rarely makes the same mistake twice. I get the feeling by the end of our two years here, she'll be the go to person in her department and efficiently juggling a number of roles outside her normal purview.
NJ continues to amaze - which surprises no one. Cute story #1: yesterday he grabbed a hand towel and started cleaning/wiping the floor. Very methodically, I might add. He even did it long enough for us to get a video or two. Cute story #2: He was quite hungry the other day and asked us for food by leading us by the hand to the kitchen, as is his habit of late. RR was preparing a bottle of milk for him, but left the fridge open whilst she did. When the fridge started making it's normal music to let us know it was open, NJ left RR's side (and the food), walked over to the fridge and closed the door before returning to her and the food - all without RR saying a word. Yup, my 14-month old son continues to amaze me in the smallest and most wonderful ways.
All our stuff is finally here in Guangzhou. We even have the majority of it unpacked. Whilst it's good to have all our stuff, we have all our stuff. We'd gotten used to having less things around over the past three months and now life feels a bit cluttered again. So we've begun throwing away some things. Yes, that means we've shipped a bunch of stuff from America to China in order to throw it away. I'm not sure that was the most efficient use of everyone's tax dollars. But on the plus side, we're catching this early and won't be shipping it on the next 10+ moves we'll make.
That it. No great moral to the story. Just a bit of what's going on this side of the Pearl River.
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