The world from different perspectives
Yesterday morning, we got on an early morning plane to Vietnam and said goodbye to the life and routine we built in China. And although we can’t wait (seriously CAN. NOT. WAIT.) to be home in Canada, there are some things we’re sure to long for once we’ve left this place. So here’s a list of the top five things we’ll miss about living in China… And the five things we won’t miss at all.
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We’ve been quiet on here preparing for our China departure–only seven days away!–but we wanted to share our experience spending Christmas abroad this year.
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China has shown me another side of the world, a side I had no real knowledge of, and at the same time, it’s shown me other sides of myself that I’ve been neglecting. And if nothing else, the challenges we’ve had here have helped me make some self-improvement discoveries that I’ll take with me when we leave.
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One of the unexpected upsides of living in China has been our ability to consistently live a healthier lifestyle. Between walking to work everyday, the active nature of our jobs, and the wide availability of cheap and delicious fruit and veg, we’ve become much more fit and healthy than we were when we left.
Plus, we’ve added about four or five weekly trips to the gym. But of course, Chinese gyms are not exactly like what we’re used to back home…
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An acting teacher once told me that people stop changing at twenty-five, that after that time your character is pretty much set in stone. When I moved to China to teach at the ripe old age of 27, I realized just how wrong he was.
These are five life lessons that I learned in my time living abroad that I will take with me for the rest of my life:
We finally got to do what we were brought to China to do: TEACH DRAMA! We were commissioned by a primary school in Dalian to produce two shows with a handful of its brightest and most dramatic students and to chose these students, we put them through an audition. China style.
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We couldn’t quite believe our ears when we heard the news that the iconic Canadian cliché had arrived in Dalian. A co-worker had excitedly called it “Team House” and said we must love it because we’re Canadian. We were slow on the uptake but after she showed us a picture we couldn’t help but smile.
A very surprising and unexpected arrival in our small(ish) city but welcome nonetheless. We just had to try it the first opportunity we got!
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Okay, you may think we’re being dramatic here. A ‘how-to’ article about crossing the street? Really!? But after more than a couple close calls trying to make it to the other side of the road, we can confidently say that the traffic here is not a joke. Since we’ve mastered the art of Chinese street-crossing, we’d like to share with you the top tips you didn’t even know you needed for safely navigating the treacherous Chinese roads.
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Fun fact: Dalian is big. And not just population big (6.7 million people), but area big–over 13 000 square kilometers. That’s double the size of New York City. Like all five boroughs. So needless to say when we arrived here without a car, figuring out how to get around became a necessity. And once we did, the whole city opened up to us.
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Fun fact: Dalian is big. And not just population big (6.7 million people), but area big–over 13 000 square kilometers. That’s double the size of New York City. Like all five boroughs. So needless to say when we arrived here without a car, figuring out how to get around became a necessity. And once we did, the whole city opened up to us.
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