I'm Still Here :)

A map of China, with the city of Shanghai labelled. Image source.

Back when I first started blogging, one of the first rules I heard was "don't write an 'I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a long time' post." For one thing, nobody cares about your blog as much as you do, so even though you feel like it's been such a long time since you posted and that means you're not doing a good enough job, most of your readers probably haven't even noticed. They have their own lives to worry about. And the "sorry I haven't posted lately" blog post introduces that negativity but doesn't actually add any content that your readers want to read. Also, future readers looking through your old posts are not checking the dates, so they won't even notice the big gap, unless, of course, your "I'm sorry I haven't posted" post draws attention to it.

So, this is not that, I guess.

I have a lot going on- a full-time job and also a toddler. I also have a ton of partially-written stuff in my drafts; I am totally going to turn them into blog posts some day. So please keep coming back and reading my blog! I have a lot to say! ... Just very little time to actually sit down with my laptop and the VPN on so I can write it down.

A few other updates:

My mother-in-law went back to her hometown OH THANK GOD FINALLY. I haven't really blogged that much about that whole situation, but it was bad. It was bad. She lived with us for 2 years. She acts like she's Square Root's mom [fact-check: I am Square Root's mom], and I do everything wrong and therefore I don't have the right to make decisions about how to raise my own child. (Which she actually explicitly said to me one time.) Getting her to leave was a whole process, my god you guys, you have no idea. You have no idea how bad it was. Maybe I'll blog about part of it someday. Anyway, she's gone, WOO YEAH PARTY, so now Hendrix and I actually get to be in charge of our own lives and taking care of our child.

Also, hey remember how in 2019 I wrote the 6 Years Later blog series, about how living in China has changed my perspectives on culture and all that, and about the reasons I moved to China, and about how I'm ready to be done and come back to the US now? And then I went to the US for maternity leave and then came back to Shanghai and then there was a pandemic and I HAVE BEEN ACTUALLY STUCK IN CHINA FOR A YEAR AND A HALF NOW? 

Yeah, so, like now I've been living in China for 8 years. I miss my home and my family, but people don't leave China for vacations nowadays. No, you don't do that, because you run the risk that your return flight gets cancelled, or the airlines change the rules, or the Chinese government changes the rules, and you'll be stuck outside of China for who knows how long. There are people who have been trying to get back into China for over a year. Used to be I can enter and leave the country whenever I want because I have a residence permit, but now that's not enough. You need additional documents. And once you get into China, you have to do the 2-week quarantine. Which, as I've said before, is a real quarantine, a "you do not open the door" quarantine, not a "well, try not to go out, if you can" like they apparently did in the US.

I know people who have entered China or left China. The vast majority were because they were moving, long-term, though I do know one person who just came for a business trip. Which I find odd, doing a whole 2-week hotel quarantine and then a 1-week business trip, but I guess their employer thought it was worth it, so whatever. Anyway, my point is, people don't leave China to jaunt around on a little vacation.

Basically, it's looking like I'm not leaving China until I'm REALLY leaving China and moving to the US long-term.

And on that note, we have started working on the US green card application for my husband. Wish us luck~ 

So, that's what's going on here. Thank you for continuing to read the blog, everyone! ^_^ There will be blog posts coming, though not as fast as I would like.

Thanks everyone~