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)
If not China, anywhere else u want to stay for a bit?
somewhere in asia or south america…
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