We Find our Fortress

November 17 Blog

We were to meet Yen at her condo building on the coast road the next day. After our coffee meeting with the retired folks of the neighborhood Jill began working on her schoolwork and I took a long walk to the English colonial fort on the island with a camera. 

The next day, we stood in awe of the shiny white high-rise where Yen lived. In the parking lot were some very expensive looking collector cars. We told the security guard at the gate we were meeting someone. The security guard at the entrance called Yen and we waited outside. Yen was a tall woman who looked retired but from a life of leisure. She had a proper British accent and the man she came down with went off to fetch a car. Jill thought he was her husband, I figured him to be the driver, I was correct. A minivan appeared and whisked us about 3 blocks to another gated community. This place was was Spanish style stucco with red tiled roofs. The complex was only 5 or 6 stories tall as well. Yen took us to a ground level entry and we found ourselves in a beautiful enormous furnished apartment. Yen and her sister rented it out to families as a vacation space. It hadn’t been occupied for some months because of cancellations due to COVID uncertainties. Jill and I were flabbergasted when Yen open the porch shutters that was fronted by the wraparound pool in the garden courtyard. The place was beyond our dreams of a short term home. When we asked about the internet Yen said there was none and that our make or break deal. Jill needed the internet to work and take her courses. Yen said she would talk to her husband and try to get it installed for us. 

We were prepared to extend our stay in the airbnb for a week if necessary because I would soon need the internet too. I had decided to apply to work for a company I knew of. It was an online tutoring service popular in China. I sent an application was quickly contacted with some instructions to attend a training and prepare a demo lesson and that was pretty much that.  On March 5, I signed a 6 month contract as a contractor with completely flexible hours. It was a great opportunity to earn a little money while we waited for our lives to return to normal. I imagined with school on hold in China the company was going to go crazy with new students. It did mean that we needed fast internet wherever we stayed though.