And so, after five and a half years, my adventure in China comes to an end. As noted in a previous entry, I was not getting any interviews. I continued not to have any interviews until there was no time left to extend my Z-class visa even if I had been accepted at a new school.

And so, with a heavy heart, I am returning to the United States. While this was always going to have been a “working vacation,” now, it will be no vacation at all. I still have all the tasks ahead of me that I had before, but now I also have the task of finding work and a place to live. This will not be a pleasant transition.

A friend of mine has been telling me of the opportunities to be had up in New England, as they are still trying to recover from labor shortages that began in the days of Co-VID (which I understand is still going on back home). Her father knows the real estate market up there, and so has been giving me advice on what to expect if I move up to Vermont.

Honestly, it has been so long since I’ve had to look for work in the United States, I am not sure how to go about it effectively. Especially while technically homeless. I shall have to see my ophthalmologist and cardiologist without insurance, I have graves to visit, respects to pay, family and friends to visit, and one friend who is slowly dying of dementia- I really should have gone to visit home earlier; I hope they will still be able to recognize me when I get back. I even have a storage locker to empty out, but if I need to find a home up in New England, I may have to keep some of the household goods; I won’t be able to just be rid of everything. Not yet, anyway.

I am packed. A shipping company will take my excess bags and send them home to me when I am settled in (gods know where). My flight leaves Beijing on 14 July. And from what news I can get here, I am returning to a country that may very soon become a fascist dictatorship.

Interesting times, indeed.