Pre-Departure
Are you ready for take-off?
Prior to departure there were lots of things to do and even more things to think about. My husband, a helicopter pilot, had accepted a new job with a Chinese helicopter company that was contracted to the global oil company, ConocoPhillips. He quit his job in Canada in order to accept this new role; flying crew and supplies to the off-shore oil rigs in the South China Sea. At the time, I was a stay at home Mom with our 1 and 3 year old, so there wasn’t anything for me to leave from an occupational perspective. Having had opportunities to travel abroad in my past, I was somewhat prepared for what I was embarking on. : )
Or was I?
Before I was married, I spent ten months as a backpacker travelling the world. Prior to leaving for this journey, I had started dating the man who would become my husband and went to meet him in Africa for one month during this trip. He was flying in Angola on an overseas contract, so through that experience, I had my first exposure to the expat lifestyle. After we got married, having known my husband had previously worked abroad, I knew the possibility existed that we might take an expatriate assignment at some point. In fact, one agreement was “if you go, we go”. This is exactly what we did. However, I quickly learned that travelling somewhere and moving somewhere are two very different things.
“Travelling is a sample platter and moving abroad is a feast.”
The contract was signed and our departure was set for February 2005. Now what? How long will we go for?
In my mind, 1-2 years…..in his mind 3-5 years. We stayed 3.5 years.
Tip: Agree on how long you will go for.
There were so many questions! How much should we take? Where will we live when we get there? What’s it like where we are going? It was a stressful and exciting time. I knew I would miss my family and friends, but I couldn’t wait to go! I felt conflicted.
I started to miss the home we had made even before we left.
Already, I am there and here.
I researched a lot on my own about the destination, but there really wasn’t any assistance or any relocation training from the company.
We decided to change our tax status to non-resident. This meant we needed to sell or rent out our house and townhome, and sell or gift the vehicles we owned. We had to research the schools available for our kids, consider the housing we would have once we got there, think about medical services, transportation, and what to do with personal belongings. The company did provide assistance regarding where we would live because crew arrangements had already been made as part of the contract.
A big part of the decision was the experience gained and the age of our kids. We felt that it was a good time to take the opportunity and make the adventure happen because they were still very young. We went for it!
Throughout this entire transition, it was very stressful. Emotions were running high; I was very excited to go, but it was a lot of work to unravel our life. I started to feel uprooted, a little sad, excited, confused if it was the right thing to do, and overwhelmed with the amount of effort to prepare for leaving. Everything simply seemed to snowball.
We ended up renting out our house full time and rented our townhouse as a vacation rental. We had a vehicle and the jet ski that we gifted to friends to use and take care of until our return. We didn’t have any pets at the time and our personal items were placed into storage.
The whole process took about 6 months from the time the contract was signed until all of a sudden, the day came and we were headed to the airport! I was excited, scared and feeling stunned about everything that had taken place. I felt rushed to get everything in order. It was not easy to pack up an entire life that was already established.
Saying goodbye to family and friends was tough.
Off we went…….