It saddens me to say that my family and I are leaving Canada again. We are heading back to Beijing, and though it saddens me to admit this, I am not as surprised as I should be. Canada has been a very good experience for all of us over the last year, and being here has accomplished most of the reasons we wanted to repatriate in the first place. Even though it will be difficult, we believe that leaving is the right thing for us to do at this point.

Since coming back to Canada, I have had the opportunity to meet and see some of my old friends again. Some I met for the first time in 12 years, some I haven’t spoken to in about the same amount of time. I do wish that I could see them again before I leave, but this is probably not possible. We also had the chance to introduce the children to 3 of their 4 grandparents on my side, all their Uncles, and one of their cousins. My wife, Irish, was able to make a few friends here, and we will try to keep in better contact with everyone this time around. Overall, the benefits to the family have been good.

On the flip side of that coin, we have been having non-stop financial difficulty since coming to Canada. Work as I may, we quickly went into debt, more than I ever thought was possible in 1 year. I became a financial burden on my family, which I never meant to be, and I am truly sorry for this. There have been days that I have lost sleep over this, and if you know me that means a lot. Now this has a 2^nd negative effect, because, I believe, my credit is checked when I apply to sponsor my wife for her Permanent Residence (P.R.). Also if I accept any form of welfare from the government, I am immediately unable to sponsor her. One of our goals upon moving to Canada, was to process her P.R. from inside the country, and this has become nearly an impossibility.

One of the reasons we decided to return to China was, upon talking to my old boss in Beijing I was offered my old job back. I loved working at Zhongde School. I was a real teacher, the students were great, and I was working regular hours and was on a monthly salary, not an hourly wage. We will have to set ourselves up again, but we have confidence in that, as we know what we’re getting into there. Irish has friends in Beijing that she made the year before we left. We will be able to send money back to Canada to pay off our debts. I will be able to spend time with my children again. We can process Irish’s P.R. from Beijing, and things will return to “normal” for us.

Yes China has its difficulties, and we are worried about a possible war with the Philippines happening in the near future, which will explode into a multi-national war if started. We are not happy with the “Great Fire-wall of China” either, because that means that our tablets and phones will not have access to western social media, (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google +, to name a few). On a computer, which we no longer own, it will be possible with a VPN (Virtual Private Network), but we will have to buy a new computer first. We have lived with these for 8 years prior to our move to Canada, and should be ok this time.

I have been spending the last week working out our budgeting for the next year, to make sure we are going to be ok with repaying our debts, both personal and professional. This and Visa work for China has left little time to relax. I am still working at my company in White-Rock, and they know that I am leaving. I have been working on getting used to having time to call family and friends more often to keep them informed of what is happening, and let them know we are ok, and that we miss them.

We do not know for sure when we will return. I want to bring the family back to Canada for the summer Holidays in 2017 at the least. However, for us to return on a more permanent basis will require a lot of criteria to be met: first and foremost, we have to have paid off our debts. I have to have my teaching licence for at least 1 province (I was hoping to apply for BC & Alberta). We have to have savings, enough to survive for 6 months or more without work. I need to have a career set up for when we arrive, no part time jobs, but something that can allow me to take care of my family properly.

A student and I had this conversation the other day and it has been rolling around in my head since. The conversation started with a comment of his that someone he knew had plans to move to a new country every year for the next few years. This year had been his first of the series, Vancouver being in Canada, and this fellow felt that since Vancouver was so easy to acclimate to for him (Coming from China) it would be easy for the rest of the world.

From my experience and my observations of traveling around like I do Traveling to live anywhere, Whether is be a new city or new country, follows 3 normal stages. each of the stages lasts about a year, for most people, but like anything people related it changes for person to person. Keep in mind that these stages generally only apply if you had a choice in the matter of moving, if you didn’t that stage 1 is skipped

Stage 1 is the Tourist, WOW factor stage. While in this stage everything about your new place is cool. You love going around and seeing the new things, or if your an indoorsy person, you just feel like this place is nice and so cool compared to your hometown / where you just left. The new town / country offers so much more than you had hoped. There is a lot to do and experience. You focus on the positives, and the benefits of living in this new location. Just like a tourist you find the place fascinating.

Stage 2 is the “Man this sucks” stage. The tourist, wow factor has worn off, you miss where you came from. You start to fantasize how much better the last place was. You get moody, and worried about things, because you can’t find what you like or need in the new area. Thing just haven’t stacked up to what you had dreamed, you feel homesick or isolated. At this stage you focus a lot on the negatives, the problems you are facing, and the positives tend to fade from you mind.

Stage 3 is the “Get over it” stage. you no longer believe the previous place was better, maybe you remembered why you left it in the first place, maybe something happened to help you feel more welcomed in the new place. Maybe you met good friends, or found the things you were missing. for whatever reason the new location starts to feel like home. This final stage is acceptance, this is the place you when you no longer want to move away from this place, or will find it difficult to. This is when you accept the place for what it truly is, problems and all.

Now this globe trotting friend of my student has a good idea of seeing the world, but 2 factors come into play I fear. First:  Vancouver is the most Asian city outside Asia and so acclimating here is not difficult for him.  Second: He’ll never pass the wow factor and truly understand the places he’s moving to.

Having just moved back from China myself, less than a year ago I feel I am on stage 3. My wife however is starting stage 2, and the kids are still in stage 1.

Maybe it’s just this area of BC, but Vancouver is more alien to me than any place I have been. Maybe I have just been gone too long. but How did we go from this sign:

(Remember these, short, made sense, didn’t want the driver to be distracted and crash…. ahh good times.)

to This sign: (please don’t beat on the driver)

Have we really gotten that more violent since I left Canada?

I always took the second sign as a precautionary measure. All the bus drivers have been pretty cool, who would want to hurt these guys and gals that take us places we can’t go otherwise? But last night changed that for me…

I was taking the last direct bus home last night when half way through the trip someone came on, and stood at the front of the bus. The bus driver politely asked him to sit down. But the man’s Pass-card didn’t work on the new system. So he yelled at the driver. The bus driver gave him the ok to sit down anyways. the man refused. The bus driver stopped the bus at the next stop and asked the man to sit down, as it is dangerous to be standing at the front door of a moving bus. When the man continued to yell, the bus driver opened the door and asked him to leave.

The man threw his fist up in a boxing stance and refused.so we sat thee 1/2 way home as the man threatened to hit the driver and the driver calmly called transit police to come get the man. A passenger tried to reason with the man, but he didn’t want anything but to fight the driver, and wouldn’t “sitting like a chicken-$#!t”

I shake my head in shame.

I used to be very proud of my country, but living in this part of Canada makes me ashamed. The violence, the attitude, the lack of respect for each other.

3 times in the last month we have been awoken by a fire alarm close to midnight. Now the Rumor was that someone had been stuck in the elevator each time and that was their cry for help. Well we’ve had the repair man by several times, no victims of elevator-human relations….

Turns out there is a couple upstairs that whenever they get into a fight, it’s not enough for the husband / boyfriend to storm out and cool off, no he’s got to pull the fire alarm. Management has asked them to leave.

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