I know I’ve reached a new low when someone says to me, “Hi, I’ve met your mom [IRL] but I’ve never met you.” But then I feel slightly better when someone else exclaims, “I think I’m following you on Twitter!” (Pause, awkward turtle flails arms wildly, takes another swig, then processes thought.) I’m not sure what to make of post-2.0 social interaction anymore.
In Japan, people talk business amongst rounds of sake, but here, “Let’s meet up!” entails coffee and…more coffee. Yesterday, I think I went to four different cafes, talked to three J’s consecutively, ate two real meals (brunch and supper), and ended up at one awesome Uber10 gadget event to wrap up the day. Total jammed packed hours spent in the city: 14. Total hours spent alone: nearly none. The introvert in me is crossing borders!
And speaking of borders, the job search is slowly becoming less of an impediment as pieces are finally falling into place. I started the long day with an early morning interview at a desirable company, then brainstormed with someone about a design competition we’re entering in together, and then met up with another to talk about a part-time gig for a tech conference set for the end of next year. If everything works out, I’ll be working at least one design job in tech, in the city—surrounded by friends I’ve got to known this past year or two. And if I don’t get the job I interviewed for, my friend says I can interview at his company for a similar design position (or I could reconsider the others I’ve politely turned down). I will then stop dreaming up ideals yet panicking at the sight of unemployment charts and graphs and start agonizing over the apartment hunt instead.
Yet there’s one last border I’d like to cross (and hopefully come back), before I make any critical decisions and promises to anyone. This one requires a visa—a Chinese visa. Yes, China is still at the back of my mind, and when I met up with Megan yesterday, the original partner-in-crime, we started looking up plane tickets and decided that a short visit would clarify any hesitations we have left. For her, she hopes the trip will calm her nerves and she’ll be able to work at JMAC comfortably, whereas I…still don’t know if I’m going to drop the bomb on everything else that suddenly fell into place all at once. I either fall in love with Hangzhou or I don’t. As my mom says, “If you get job offer here, of course you work here! In China, there are pocketpickers!” (Excuse the Engrish, my mom is a fob.) As if my pockets weren’t already empty. But as one friend confessed to me yesterday, “You will get slammed [at the company I interviewed for].”
I’m still weighing the punches and perks for two polar opposite careers, in two opposite countries, with vastly different outcomes at the hands of…fate.
Addendum
Applied for a visa—my passport comes back next Friday. (I also need to add pages since I’m out of space for stamps…with 5.5 more years to fill before the expiration date.)
