Countdown to the Unknown...

April 2006

Ti'an An Men Square, Beijing

Foreground: Mr Johnson & the Johnson girlies
(then aged 6, 4 and 11 mo.)

Background : Beijing Countdown Clock

When we moved here in 2006, every major plaza in China had a countdown clock marking the days, hours, minutes to the start of the Beijing Games on the auspicious date of 08.08.08 (@8:08). At that time we believed we would spend a little over two years in China, and those countdown clocks coincided almost exactly with our original departure date. An exit in 2008 was postponed to 2009 and then moved out again with the economic crisis to 2010. When we were in the "Doldrums Days" of early 2010, waiting and wondering which way the wind would blow, we eventually accepted an offer to extend again... for two years... an offer, which you all now know, was recently rescinded.

Ours is a relatively common expat story. In theory, our state of limbo should be excellent fodder for an expat blog. Almost every international service employee finds themselves in our shoes at some point. That it's such a normal part of the international experience should make it easy to blog about.

But its not. It involves uncertainty. (And nobody really likes to admit that they are scheduled to leave in a little over two months, but they STILL don't have a solid idea of where they are going or what the assignment will be.)

Our day-to-day routine seems to have changed little. There has been more motivation on my part to purge... things we've long since outgrown and no longer need (that never-the-less tend to linger in the bottom of dresser drawers and the corners of the garage). I have boxed these things up and shipped them off... to the used book bin, to be marked for the expat charity bazaar, passed on to friends who's child is a size smaller. Mr Johnson is finding his days exponentially longer when there is less to keep him busy. The girls still have their homework, and playdates, and footie and swimming. But my mind is racing of everthing we'll have to do once we we finally KNOW.

The Olympic countdown clocks have long ago been removed from the public squares in China. In cities like ours their will always be a reminder of the 2008 Summer Olympics, with logos and monuments to the Sailing Regatta held here that summer.

But, there is a new clock, silently ticking away, reminding us that time is slowly, steadily, running out.

We're at mid-term in the first semester @ school.

We're six weeks past Mr Johnson's program being cut.

We're ten weeks away from being out of here.

We're STILL not sure where we are headed, only that it's out of here.

(Which doesn't sound so significant, but its one decision we know for sure.)

We're in the fiscal fourth quarter.

It's been one week since my last blog post.

(This is beginning to sound a bit like a confession.)