Now that we have the little matter of a home birth safely behind us, the next logical step is clearly moving across the globe (again). In this case, it’s more a matter of moving back across the globe, but regardless, it involves taking a 4-month-old on a 15 hour intercontinental flight.
At the moment, I’m already back in the Far East making preparations. I spent last week in Hong Kong taking care of our apartment and personal items on Lamma Island. This week my time is split between Guangzhou, China and Hong Kong as I search for schools, apartments and storage space.
We’ve loved living on Lamma Island and the thought of leaving has been difficult to face. Yet we’re committed to helping Maeli learn Mandarin Chinese and that’s a challenge given the schools in all of Hong Kong, let alone the small primary school on Lamma. Remaining in our old apartment would require Maeli to make lengthy commutes each way to a school on Hong Kong Island. Expenses aside, we didn’t want to introduce that sort of strain on a five year old. Once we decided that for the sake of Maeli’s education we’d have to leave Lamma Island, a number of opportunities opened up.
One of those opportunities is the chance to return to the China Mainland and live in Guangzhou, where I spent much of last summer and fall. We have friends and collegues in Guangzhou and the city is still close enough to Hong Kong to allow regular visits to friends and business contacts there. More importantly, Guangzhou offers a better Mandarin environment for Maeli and a cheaper cost of living.
Of course, no plan of ours could be that simple. At the moment, I’m still researching and visiting schools in Guangzhou, trying to find something that matches our particular requirements and budget. I also hope to have enough time to look at a few apartments, but only to get a feel for the market and process. I hope to write up some reports on my findings by the end of the week.
In the meantime, a dozen boxes or so of our personal belongings will be stored in Hong Kong and the remainder of our furniture and belongings will go up for sale. The lease on our apartment in Lamma will be ending next month, so if you’re looking for either a flat or the furniture to furnish one, let us know.
All this means that Plan A for now has us flying back to Hong Kong in early June after Maeli finishes school in the US. From there we’ll make our way to Guangzhou and begin a proper search for an apartment. Assuming all that falls into place, we’ll be settling in Guangzhou just in time for the hot humid summer. If not, we might retreat to Hong Kong or maybe we’ll just end up in a beach hut in Thailand. Come to think of it, that’s not a bad idea…
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