I do NOT live in the US. There I've said it. Now if only I believed it. Part of the problem with being an expat (as opposed to immigrating) is the feeling of being neither here nor there. I've lived in China now for over a year and I don't feel like I live here. Point of fact, I don't really have a "home" (unless you count where my parents live). DH constantly gets mad at me when I say I'm going "home" for Christmas, or when are we going "home" for a visit, etc., but I have to say I do not feel that China is home. Yes, DH, Babes, and Honeydog are all here with me, all our crap is here, but it feels temporary. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it's just the mental attitude, as an expat, everything is temporary. I know that we are only going to be in China for two years, and then we'll go somewhere else. I also live outside of the everyday life experiences that your average Chinese person would have. I don't pay local bills, I don't really use local internet (I can use facebook and blogger through a proxy). I don't think of myself as Chinese. I'm not trying to raise my daughter to go through their educational system.
But at the same time I don't live in the US. Every month we spend away I get a little farther from that culture and what's going on now. Some of it I'm very happy about. For instance I am only vaguely aware that there have been some massive panic attacks over plastics. But it is very weird to not have an idea of what's super hot, or what kind of music is on the radio right now, or even what TV show everyone is talking about. I'm not following politics or even major news.
So where does that leave me? Or worse, where does that leave Babes? Will she be one of those kids who claims to be American, but has only visited on holidays? Where will she think of as home? One of the many featureless apartments that we live in overseas with our Drexel heritage furniture (the brand of furniture that is furnished in USGovt housing worldwide)?
I know she's getting more life experiences and a much broader perspective than she could have in the US. And she will be getting a better education (in most cases), but still I wonder if this lifestyle will help or hurt her. Would she be better off with more stability and less perspective?
