Our weekend started Friday afternoon as I was so done with work in preparation for a VIP visit this week. I went to pick up Lizzy from her swim practice and caught her jumping. I love seeing her so happy at the water. It was half training half play session as it was the last one.
On Friday I learned something personal about our helper. She has a son of 13 months old, she has been separated from her husband since a year ago. I had no idea. She is now single mom of 3 kids. She told me because she wanted to ask me how long will we be living in Jakarta (aka. If she has a job in the near future). It made me sad to know how vulnerable she is, lack of economic security, and so much responsibilities. Sunday was her birthday so I asked the girls to make a birthday card for her together with some cash. Lizzy did a great job.
Saturday was a super chill day. Lizzy had piano lesson in the morning. I went to dermatologist appt then Sofia had piano theory lessons. We went to get groceries and girls play at home. Super relaxed day. I watched a movie. Lizzy had a crazy hair and made a big fort.
Sunday was a SOCIAL day for me. First I had 3 hrs coffee chat with my good friend K that arrived Saturday evening. It was such a happy chat because after one year of trying to move to a different job he finally got one, a perfect one for him. I was literally jumping and hugging him. It made me so happy that he got this new job, still within the same organization, stationed in Saudi Arabia. The chat went on for so long that I didn’t have time to make lunch for the girls so I asked them to come to the mall. Sofía picked burger
Lizzy had steak and egg.
Then I rested a bit, still in the hype of the news from K, and left to meet another old friend that also arrived the night before, part of the VIP visit.
E and I know each other from the time I was living in DC and covering few countries in Latin America. We went to work trip to Quito and had a blast. We kept in touch over the years when I visited dc. it was so nice to receive her in Jakarta. We had dinner over 3 hrs, sharing updates, gossips, plans, soooo much fun. She’s from Poland, straight shooter like me and super funny.
I went home that night so hype up that I couldn’t sleep until late.
Monday and Tuesday continued to be super social days in addition to work meetings. I really connected with E. Whenever there was no meetings, E sit in my office and we kept talking.
It reminded me how much I miss friendships. By living abroad, away from my social network that I used to have in DC, mostly friends from grad school and work, I was forced to neglect friendship. Having meet with E and K this week made me realize how much I missed it. I believe this will shape my decision when choosing our next destination, in the next 1-2 years. Hopefully I can be closer to friends next time.
Q: If you can choose where to move to, for 3-5 years, what would be your criteria in choosing the location?
Our New Journey 
Coco, it’s so interesting to me that you can be so international – what kind of job do you have that you can move every few years? I used to work for a large multinational corporation and I was always interested to see who would take overseas postings, and where their adventures would take them.
Having time with friends is so wonderful and important!
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I am glad you had so much wonderful friendship time. Time with friends really “fills my cup.” I can see how you had trouble sleeping afterwards as you were probably on a big high from all the great conversations you had that day.
We wouldn’t consider moving anywhere else at this point of our lives. My MIL really relies on my husband and we have such a network of friends here in Minneapolis plus are 3 hours from my parents lake home. As the kids get older, I think we’ll go to their lake home more as the car rides won’t be so terrible! And I would be more willing to take time off and go up to the lake without Phil – again because the car rides should be far easier as the kids get older. I don’t love winters in Minnesota so I wouldn’t want to retire here, but we’ll stay here until our kids are out of HS. Plus the public schools here are quite good so we don’t have to send them to private school which is a nice financial perk. But after they are out of HS I would want to live elsewhere during the winter months because I loathe winter!!! If we didn’t have to consider the cost, I’d pick Santa Barbara but it would be very expensive to have a 2nd home there. So I am not sure where we’d spend the winter months. Phil doesn’t even like to talk about it because he says our decision will likely vary depending on where the kids go to college/settle down.
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You guys do move a lot and I can understand that you miss your friends. It’s harder to form new friendships when you get older and have busy lives.
I sometimes think I’d like to live somewhere else but I don’t think it’s feasible in my job…. and I don’t really know where I would want to move (other than Europe, or maybe New England. I always loved New England.)
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