Well I've been here for 4 mths and a few days. Couple of weeks back, my wife has some changes in her company and well... we have to leave Paris... to Houston.
Yes, Houston... Texas... USA...
So in a couple of months, by latest Feb 2020, we should be in Houston.
I've a bit of mixed feelings about this.
Paris has been good to me. Free food, convenient. Food is available downstairs almost everyday just 100m away from where I stay. Most living expenses are covered by her company so we don't really need to spend much.
Language has been a small barrier. There's no real issue except when we need to handle stuff like applying for our mobile lines and stuff like that. But after that's been set up, we don't really need to converse in French much.
So I'd say staying in Paris has been comfortable. Of course I'd rather go home to SG. Cos of my other comforts at home, like my own place, friends and family, cheap food, free food, etc.
It's not that Paris is bad, but I like SG. And it's not that SG is perfect, I'm just more familiar with it.
Moving to the US... well, at least everything is in English so that's a plus point.
I will need to get a vehicle, cos everything is so far apart and transportation is not like a city. Houston doesn't have a really efficient public transportation system. We should get a car allowance so... the cost should be defrayed a bit.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to get free food, so I'll just have to go there to see.
What I think about this move to Houston is pretty much... I'm thinking that it's probably/hopefully my last move. Something like primary school, then secondary school, then uni... So I'm thinking when I leave Paris, one of the phases is over and we'll be moving on to the next phase and probably I'll go home sooner.
Now, I don't think Houston will be bad. It will probably be similar to Paris. It should be comfortable. We are a simple couple. We don't need much. As long as we have a place to stay, food to eat, clothes to wear, insurance, transport, we are pretty ok.
So once my operations has been set up, within the first month or so, things should settle down. I hope...
And once again for folks who think "Wow so lucky"...
I'll repeat again, this isn't a holiday, my wife doesn't have so much leave to take vacations all the time and we don't spend so much so it's not like we are out to splurge during our stay in Paris or Houston. Simply put, our stay in Paris hasn't been a 4 month holiday. It's living in Paris for 4 mths. We lived like how we lived in SG. A normal daily routine with some outings/travel. And we will do this in US as well. Mostly her work and a daily routine, and probably some trips around US during our time there.
So yea... next few months, after all the stuff has been confirmed, we'll need to shut down our current place, pack all our stuff again, cancel all our subscription plans, probably move to a hotel for a week after we handover the apartment.
And we haven't even had the opportunity to travel much around Europe yet. Maybe we can squeeze in one last trip but my wife has limited leave opportunities due to her work responsibilities.
Anyway, that's my story for today. Let's see how things work out as her posting becomes clearer and we get more details about the move.
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