An Expat Fact of Life

My gaming crew here in Beijing played our last session of Game of Thrones this past Saturday.

The important word being....LAST because, alas, key members of our group are leaving Beijing.  By the way, I played Lannister (Red) and did pretty well.

Nick (left) and his wife are moving to Finland (her home country) for a year before moving to the United States. Nokia, her former employer, was purchased by Microsoft and then she was laid off. David (right) will be staying in Beijing at least through the middle of next year, but his job with a Swedish government sponsored think tank is being eliminated due to a change in government back in Sweden.

Onions (left) you recognize, Anny (David's girlfriend works for the Austrian Embassy) and Jonathan has already moved to Shanghai.

So this was our last dinner together.  Fiona, who was pictured above in the first photo, is moving to New Zealand for school in November.

And this group of friends is just one set of friends I have here in Beijing.  Just sitting here, I'm making a list of other friends who are leaving in the next six months or have already left (ghosted is more like it). It's really sad to make these connections, but what is actually great is that the kind of people you meet are dynamic people who are willing to live away from their home countries.  And the destinations of their next countries is itself fantastic. My poker and Snow White friend A who moved back to England, newly married to with his Chinese wife.  My Italian friend M moved to South Africa to be with her girlfriend. My actor friend S moved back to the States. My Russian friend M who is taking time off and going scuba diving in the Philippines. My high school buddy M who moved his family back to Seattle. My bridge buddy R and his American fiancee are moving back to England.  Another bridge buddy, E, I found out moved back to Israel.  Expat life feels like an airport.  Everybody is in one place at a certain time....and then poof, we're all off into our next destinations. The highs and lows of living an international life.  One funny thing that happens is....you often meet new friends at the good-bye parties of friends who are leaving.