Staying in Hong Kong

While we were in Minneapolis, we talked a lot about whether we should even go back to Hong Kong. I wasn’t ready to leave for good. I think it’s too soon. I’m not done yet.

Ryan’s not very happy in Hong Kong. It’s been harder for him to adapt to the culture. Most of him wanted to stay in Minnesota, but all the jobs are in China.

The club in China where Ryan’s band played wants them to come back, for a lot longer this time. Nobody in Minneapolis is very interested. He wants to go because it’s a good opportunity for his band and the money is pretty good. I don’t want him to go because he will be away from Hong Kong for too long. He’ll make a lot of money, but that’s the only good thing about it as far as I can tell. He’s not going back to Disneyland, which means no steady paycheck and no visa to live and work in Hong Kong. Not having a visa won’t matter while he’s not in Hong Kong, but it will make a big difference when he comes back from China. He’ll have to get a job that can provide a visa, and there’s no guarantee that Disneyland will take him back.

I also don’t like the idea of a group of young men living away from their girlfriends in a foreign country. These are not Sunday school types. These are rock musicians who enjoy alcohol and getting into trouble. Spending your nights getting drunk is bad enough, doing it in a country where you don’t speak the language and the police are automatically suspicious of you makes it worse. Some of the guys in his band are into more than just booze, and China doesn’t have the most tolerant drug policy. I want to say they need adult supervision, even though they’re all adults. I would feel a lot better if they had a chaperone.

One thing I don’t have to worry about is Ryan sleeping around. He’s not interested in Chinese women and he’s never been much of a lady’s man. He doesn’t know how to flirt and he’s never asked a girl out on a date in his life. We met as friends and it evolved from there. He never had to put the moves on me. He’s also deathly afraid of catching some disease, so hookers are out of the question.

One of the only ways I could get him to come back to Hong Kong with me was to let him go work in China. It was either that or he stayed in Minneapolis. Then I would have had to choose between staying with him or coming back to Hong Kong by myself. China is a much shorter flight.