Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Family Internationalization - Part 2

Believe it or not, I started writing this post on February 27, 2007... So many things in my life end up "lost to blogging," but I didn't want this "announcement" to be, particularly because I will probably be writing more about this subject in the future.

Some of you may remember what I wrote about this topic last June, when we our family was getting more and more international. First, my in-laws came to live here in the U.S. for a while, then, my brother went to live in China (he was was visiting us on our way there when I wrote the post). Only my oldest BIL decided not to go to Lebanon in the end.

However, another brother-in-law and his lovely wife, are going to Turkey (Istambul) to teach at an American high school there! I think that's so exciting! You can read all about the various adventurous job prospects (Brasil -- their first choice) and job offers (Aruba! Indonesia! Egypt!) that my siblings-in-law had in this nice post titled "Spinning the Globe." I suspect that they will be teaching at various American Schools all around the world for several years from now on and hopefully we'll get to visit them in some of those locations!


That's precisely what my parents are doing right now, they're in China visiting my brother. They've been to Shanghai (which they loved -- they think it's the most beautiful and modern city they've ever seen), Beijing (the Forbidden City, the Wall, the Summer palace), and now they are Beihai -- the city where my brother lives. They will still visit Guilin (which is in the same state/province as Beihai) and Hong-Kong before returning in two weeks.

I can't wait to see their photos and videos and talk to them about China. We've already talked on the phone and over the internet several times. I don't know if we'll be able to visit my brother in China since he doesn't know much longer he'll live there, but I hope I get to do it!

In spite of the fact that I'm OK with our decision to come to the U.S. and get into graduate school (this never-ending, life sucking enterprise), I sometimes wish that we could still be young and childless to go live in farther away places. I know I'd love to experience many other places, cultures, and languages, but I know that my husband is less adventurous in this respect. But maybe we'll go someday, who knows?

6 comments:

Keiko said...

É Lilian, sua família é campeã de internacionalização (caramba, nem sabia q essa palavra existia...)

Eu tb tinha planos de morar no mundo todo, mas ultimamente ir pra casa dos amigos no fim de semana ja tem sido complicado o suficiente! :-)

Tomara q vc consiga ir pra China, é uma oportunidade imperdível!

PS- Escrevo isso depois, bem depois de ter colocado Princhuquinho na cama, com meu laptop ligado ao lado aberto na base de dados na qual eu supostamente deveria estar pesquisando enquanto fico aqui lendo blogs e prometendo: "só mais esse e volto pra pesquisa",

bjinho,
keiko

Aliki2006 said...

I SO want to throw everything into the sair (not family, of course, but obligations) and take my kids and head off to Europe. I wish we could--I've had the "itchings" to do this for some time, now.

Prisca said...

I would practically give a body part to go back to China for an extended visit. I was there back in the very early 80's for 6 weeks and I can only imagine how much it's changed. I'm sure all your family members ARE loving it!

I, too, long for some days of travel with spouse and sans kids. I did all my international travel before I met him and it makes me sad we haven't had opportunities to go on adventures together. :(

Vera said...

Enjoy yoursef quietly settled ... it's also good somehow ...

Andromeda Jazmon said...

You will have plenty of time to travel when your kids get older - something to look forward to! I would love to hear more about your parent's impressions of China and all their adventures.

TulipGirl said...

It is different when you have kids, but. . . We moved to Ukraine when we had four, ages 1, 3, 4, and 5--and lived there 3 1/2 years. So, it is doable! (Though, now that we are stateside and acquiring more student debt, it does feel like our options for the future are narrowing.)