November 2016 –
Have I shown you my collection of minis? These are a mishmash or purchased minis (owl and large toadstool was a Christmas gift from Ava purchased in Austria) and handmade ones by either me, Annika or Ava. Oh, and the Eiffel Tower was purchased in Paris.
So…as you know we're getting ready for the move back to the USA. The move involves coordinating lots of different companies and activities. Even though we know we have to leave in December (our visa expires mid December) Mark's company still hasn't officially given him a position in the USA. We're WEEKS away from our move! If you're wondering if that's stressful – the answer is a resounding YES. Very.
While I was in Chengdu I was fielding phone calls from the moving company regarding the "antiques inspection". Upon the initial house tour by the movers I was told by the moving company that inspectors would come to our house to do the inspection. And so I was upset when I was told they'd take away my items to do the inspection. What??? Why didn't they give me this information during our initial walk-through? Why was I given false information? Will I ever see them again? Definitely not the sort of phone calls to be on while being away from home and traveling. And honestly, I just felt like a Big-Ball-o-Stress for the last two months prior to the move.
[And the people in the USA who were supposed to be helping us with this move were rarely available when I had questions. Our one "go-to" person was conveniently on vacation when I had a string of questions for her. Nice, huh? Yeah. I didn't enjoy (to put it mildly) the move back to the USA. We were so lucky to have friends that were willing to help out. Like finding a place to live in the USA (the company didn't provide help). And I also found it very upsetting that Mark's company never bothered to do an exit interview or ask us for feedback regarding our moves or regarding our time in China. Doesn't it seem odd that they wouldn't ask for feedback from expats to see if they can make improvements and changes to future expat assignments? Why not use the lessons learned from former expats?]
Anyway, bumpy re-entry aside, I – we – are extremely grateful to all of our friends around the world that helped us during these last few months.
After the fact I can say it all turned out okay – the movers packed up anything that might be considered a Chinese antique and inspectors would check them out, stamp them (red stamp) and we would see them on the day of our move. The Chinese antique inspection is important in order to allow the shipment to leave China. They even took my green cabinet – the one I had custom made to my specifications! Antique?? I think not! LOL. They did NOT take the carved wood panel cabinet that I thought was for sure an antique. Hmmm. I bet we paid too much money for it! HA! And…they packed up most of my Chinese blue and white pottery (but not all of it). As it turns out – I did have ONE antique in the whole lot. I can hardly believe it but it's a blue and white lidded pot that I paid 50RMB for (less than $10!) – and there were about a dozen other pots just like it in the shop.
So I haven't had a chance to look at the pieces they took away to see how they stamped them. I'd heard from former expats that the inspectors had carelessly stamped their pieces. Here's hoping that my furniture, pottery, and stone statues don't have red stamps all over their faces. LOL!