When we arrived to Beijing we started to leave less our room, would sit there both just silent. Time went by and we were thinking about to move to Belgium to meet some friends there and look for a job. But we would not move, even if the 10 days went by and she stayed illegal there.
Then a miracle occurred. People in the Spanish Embassy told me about a delegation of Madrid Complutense University setting up a research center in Beijing. I approached them when they finished a meal with the Embassador and handed over to them my CV. They said they had already arranged to hire somebody else there. But later that evening they sent someone to tell me to go for a breakfast meeting next day. I would be in charge of setting up the research center there, later a director would come, they said. But that never happened and I became the director of the center.
Some nuances came from the guy who lost his job opportunity; he rose a feeling against me in the small Spanish community there he was quite integrated with.
Never mind, my link with China had rooted. We went back to HK for renewing our visas. Now with support of the university we were cooperating with. I got a work permit.
Our first daughter was born there. We named her Meili, she is now called Melina. Chinese authorities did not allow us to register her Chinese as she was not ¿ethnically? Chinese.