It is finally the day I fly home. I have one more meeting here in Recipe and will go home. It is a 4D3N work trip that felt long. Is it the place not interesting? not really. Is it that I have so much other things in mind, work related, that I can’t focus? A bit. Is it that my company is not fabulous? that’s it. It makes a huge difference who I travel with. I realized this time that I don’t want to go out for dinner with the team, unlike before when I traveled with another group. Do I worry that this team thinks I am antisocial? I think about it but don’t care too much. I especially dislike the junior member of the team that is stubborn and likes to argue.
I had a call with someone I met in Manila to get his advice about summer camps for Sofia. I would have thought that we share background, thus would have similar views about parenting. We work in the same industry, came from the same city in China, yet we are quite different in how we parent. His daughter is one year older than Sofia and he’s pushing/encouraging her to apply for boarding school in the US (she’s current in international school in Japan). I couldn’t wrap my mind around that. I am counting days left with Sofia with us at home, why would I want to send her to boarding school? Yet, I am very glad to talk to him to realize that the program that was my top choice is not a good choice after all for what we are looking for. I also realize that how we parent tells so much about our value system (no surprise!).
I got an email cancelling my patagonia run retreat in February. I was looking forward to it but also struggled with the planning because the following week will be school break so I wasn’t sure it was the best timing to go alone to Patagonia for a week. So the news came as a relief. Now I have the freedom to plan for February trip with the girls during school break.
Talking about trip planning, I think the big trip next year will be Galapagos. Super excited to start the planning, find the right cruise for us.
Finally, I am planning for the weekend which will involve unpacking, packing again as I’ll leave Sunday evening. And prepare packing for my trip with Lizzy for her swim meet up in Campo Grande. I am looking forward for the solo trip with Lizzy, cheering her up, soak up the swim team mom experience. Oh… I look forward to eat a lot of veggies, which during trips I don’t get to and I can feel my body craves it.
Our New Journey 
It seems like you are traveling more in Brazil than for your last role! 3 nights gets to be a long trip. I am glad you are returning home. It’s tough when you don’t care for some of your travel mates. I tend to go home early when we have team dinners. I prioritize rest and quiet and work trips are so overstimulating for me! I don’t really care what people think but I also have no managerial relationship with anyone so it doesn’t really matter what they think.
It is hard to imagine sending kids to a boarding school. I did ask to go to boarding school when I was in high school but my parents refused. I was mad then but now that I am a parent, I understand!
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Parenting really does show a lot about what we value, I have really noticed that in the past few years of having adult children!
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