que pasa

For work purposes, I will be relocating to Beijing in August. Maybe I will have a chance to be there for the Olympics after all. This relocation is in effect the result of June’s upheaval and turmoil. Well, actually I thought about it and decided almost 3 weeks ago, but it's just now that I'm sharing about it.

Essentially I need to be closer to potential investors. And they're not here in Chengdu, they're in Beijing and Shanghai. It so happens that my apartment lease expires this Thursday so I've been slowly packing up for the past three weeks, preparing for the day.

The past three weeks have also been rather stressful because of work problems, and they are still being worked out. Being in a startup is like taking a course in hardship. We're not talking beginner level here; it's more like Hardship 640 or something. Seriously, do not be an entrepreneur if you're not ready to rough it out. And I mean, REALLY rough it out.

Anyway, this is my last weekend living in Chengdu. Future trips back here will be exactly that, trips. I'll be staying in a hotel, and maybe for a week or two only. As I walked around these past few weekends, it confirmed one thing: I am glad to be leaving, or rather, I am glad that I will no longer be living in Chengdu.

As I have expressed in earlier posts, this place is not my home. I feel no sense of attachment, and I have nothing tying me down here. Despite a fair part of my possessions being here, the fact that I have spent almost three years here, and that my project companies which I am very committed to are located here, I am truly relieved to be going away.

I am looking forward to be living in community (a Singaporean family in fact), being in a place where I have much more eating options (rather than Sichuan cuisine which I don't enjoy very much), possibly be involved in church and have regular bible studies. There will also be many more single working expats that I can relate too. I feel that I have lost a huge chunk of life (as I knew it) here and can't wait to have part of it restored.

So I'll be back in Singapore this Friday, be in Japan for 2 weeks, and then preparing for Beijing.