Van for Mom, Car for Me

Alright, I was talking to my husband a while back about how I am having difficulty coping with the pressures presented to me now that we are about to settle down in Austria. I was just expressing myself and how I feel but maybe it came to him as complaints. I am not sure but he said I look cute when I complain. Ha!

Anyway, he told me that I should not worry about it too much and that I can be sure that I will still have some more months from the time we arrive there to adjust. He also said that I am not pressured to find a job immediately and that I can continue to study if I want. By study he meant going further with my degree and not just attending compulsory German classes. He just stressed the need for me to know how to speak, read and understand German. He even tried to motivate me by saying that if I will be able to speak in clear German by May, I will not just be allowed to drive his Audi but I will own it. He would give it to me constraints-free! No tax, no mortgage, and no car insurance to think about. Ja, ja this is just so he can get himself a new vehicle.

Speaking of vehicle, my mom finally decided to get a family van. They are acquiring it through mortgage. I told her to make sure she also gets van insurance for it because…well, it’s a law. She said that the agent already took care of that. I didn’t go into details anymore because the purchase has been done. I just hope that she was able to get insurance quotations and compared them before she decided on which insurance she’ll use. I hope she got something like what is offered AutoNetInsurance.co.uk—cheap insurance but high quality insurance cover.

Pressure, Pressure, Pressure!

Tomorrow morning will be spent on doing those lengthy assignments given to me by my teacher in German and the afternoon would be of course our German class.

Although my classes are scheduled only three times a week, my teacher knows how to beat me for the rest of the weeks with her lessons. She makes me work so hard and I am paying her to do this to me! The world is really upside down!

I think that the progress of my German is slow because no matter how hard I try, I just can’t fit all that information in my head in such a short period of time. I’ve got until May! I should be able to converse in German by then. I should be able to read German newspapers and understand them. I should be able to learn and understand all sorts of street signs. I should be able to speak good German to get a good job. That’s a lot pressure considering that I should learn how to drive too (but first I have to learn German otherwise I wont be able to understand my driving instructor).

Sigh*

I hope we can stay a little bit longer here.

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Euro-phobic

It’s March!

Marcus’ contract will end soon and if he doesn’t get a new contract to work here in China, we will leave this country for good and stay for a few months in Austria until another opportunity to work abroad comes along.

This is one of the reasons why I can’t get a full time teaching job. We move around a lot and we plan to do this for two more years until we will finally settle down in one place. The good thing about being able to work and live in different countries is that you can travel a lot. You can visit nearby cities and countries you wouldn’t normally even consider visiting (because it’s expensive) when you are coming from your home country. Say for example, visiting Tokio is way cheaper now that we are living in China than if we are in Austria. Also, you get to meet different people and you learn about different cultures.

On the other hand, there are also some set backs about living and working abroad. Other than the most common “homesickness” there are some more things you normally forget or disregard but are important. Like International tax planning for instance. I don’t know anything about it but Marcus mentioned it last time. I guess he was given two options. He can either pay the whole of his taxes in his country or pay some taxes here in China in order for him to pay lesser tax in Austria. I am not exactly sure how it goes but this a big issue to foreign experts here in Changchun.

I hope we can stay a little bit longer here in China. Maybe not in Changchun but in Shanghai or Beijing. Settling down in Europe scares me a little bit because it is very expensive to live there. I may not be able to shop that often and that much! (Hehe)

Hard Sleeper

I went to the train ticket office yesterday to buy some tickets for our upcoming Beijing trip. I was meant to buy four roundtrip soft sleeper train tickets. The idea was Marcus, Daniel, Anne and I will be travelling together in one cabin. That would be fun.

Unfortunately, soft sleeper tickets are sold out so I don’t have any choice but to take the best from what was left and that would be top bunk hard sleeper tickets. I told the awful news to my travelling companions but they said that though they are not eager to sleep on 3-storey bunk beds in an open cabin with strangers, they think they can do it. So we’ll proceed with our tickets. Rescheduling or upgrading to plane tickets is not an option.

The European men assured us that it would be ok and that they are ok with it but I can bet my sexy ass that they will frown and complain more than Anne and I. When I learned that there are no more soft sleeper tickets available, I called them first to confirm if they want to go with hard sleeper tickets because I know that they won’t be comfortable sleeping in the same room with strangers. (I would like to add a lot of adjectives before the word stranger but I might be offending the most populous race so I won’t)

Well, good luck to us. When I am out of this country, I’ll probably say more but right now, I’ll stay quiet.

Why Not?

We were about to go out for lunch last Saturday and since the weather wasn’t too cold, I thought of wearing a pair of my summer jeans. You see, I have jeans for winter and they are loose to allow me to wear thick long undies underneath them. And there are my summer jeans which are normally tight and sexy on me but last Saturday, I found out that none of them are fitting me anymore.

I never thought I’d consider going through a cosmetic surgery because I can honestly say that I am quiet happy with my body. Well, that was when I was 50 kilos but since Saturday when one of my favourite pair of jeans exploded while I am trying to zip it, I changed my mind. Now, I think a little tummy tuck would do me good. I remember a few months ago, I have written about Make Yourself Amazing Cosmetic Surgery. It was just a simple post saying that I stumbled upon their site. Today, I went to check it again and I’ve read different stories from patients who have gone through their procedures. I also saw before-and-after photos showing great results. The particular story that caught my attention is a confession of a woman who went through a liposuction and how it positively changed her view of herself. I think cosmetic surgery not only improves someone’s physical looks but also improves how someone sees himself or herself. Self confidence is important and if a person have it, it is more likely that that person will have a positive outlook about things.